Gaia Ottman and Jacob Smith are the youngest pair of Limmud Festival chairs in the 46-year history of the UK’s largest annual Jewish cultural and educational gathering.
Gaia, 23, originally from Leeds and now living in London, was involved in JLGB growing up. She has been on the festival team three times, as Shabbat chair, participant care chair and volunteers’ chair. When she is not chairing Limmud, she is a campaign manager at a record label.
Jacob, 26, from London, has previously been on the Limmud team several times, once as volunteers’ chair, and also as accommodation and registration chair, and participant care chair. He also ran the Limmud Microgrant Programme for a couple of years. Jacob was involved in Noam and now attends the Ohel Moed congregation. In his day job, Jacob is a civil servant, working in science and technology policy.
Here, they tell the JC about their decision to take the helm of Limmud Festival.
Why did you want to chair Limmud?
Gaia: Limmud has been the one Jewish space where I’ve felt completely comfortable, and where I’ve found a genuine sense of community. It’s a place that continues to challenge you, inspire you and help you grow long after you become an adult, while giving you a sense of belonging that is increasingly rare and precious.
In my family, we’ve become Limmudniks one by one. What started as something we each found for ourselves has become a core part of our shared values and the way we engage with Jewish life.
Choosing to chair Limmud felt like a natural next step after watching others do it so brilliantly. It’s an opportunity to challenge myself.
Honestly, what a unique and amazing thing to do in life – to spend a year learning, questioning and building something, alongside people who inspire you, in a community that means so much to you.
Jacob: I grew up in Limmud and around people volunteering for Limmud, so it’s always been a part of my life, but it’s also the community that I have found myself wanting to return to time and time again. It’s the place where I feel most optimistic and positive about the future of British Jewry – surrounded by such a range of people, all choosing to spend five days of their year enriching their Jewish lives.
I’ve always been one to get involved in things, and after volunteering for Limmud in various roles, it felt right to step up and chair Festival. I loved the idea of not only contributing to making Festival happen myself, but also to enabling other people to do so by supporting the broader team.
What is your vision for the festival?
Gaia: We want people to have conversations that aren’t happening elsewhere, with people they wouldn’t otherwise meet. We want to recognise our diversity and, in line with Limmud’s values, push forward the communal conversation and try to reach a better place than where we are currently. This is something that we hope will come through in the event design. But for me, the real dream is for participants to take this and run with it – it’s the conversations happening outside of sessions that I’m most excited for.
Jacob: There’s a lot of exciting things thing we’ve been thinking about, building on the success of previous years to create the unique space that is Festival. One of the most important things for us this year is to address division within the Jewish community. It’s clear that the community is increasingly fractured and divided, and this is being instrumentalised for political gain in a way that doesn’t benefit the community. One of Limmud’s values is mutual responsibility – giving back to the Jewish community, as well as gaining from it. So, we want to deal with this division head on – creating space for conversations across difference is a key focus for Festival this year.
How will this year’s Limmud Festival differ from previous years?
Gaia: We’ve already mentioned conversations across difference, which is a theme that will hopefully become clear throughout Festival. One of the ways this will present itself is through the programme, where we’ve tried to introduce some innovations to create more unique experiences and encourage people to attend things they wouldn’t normally. That might mean taking part in our Mrs Elswood lookalike competition, or it might mean embracing our Dine Across Difference initiative – committing to sit down for dinner with someone whose values or perspectives are completely different from your own.
As well as increasing the range of presenters, our programming chairs have introduced “fusion programmes”, trying to mix formats and presenters in ways you wouldn’t expect. We’ve done away with themed tracks in the programme and are hoping that we’ll be able to describe sessions in a way that better matches their range and depth, meaning people will try new things.
Jacob: We’re also really leaning into intergenerational programming. It’s rare to have a space that brings together such a wide range of ages, and we want to make the most of that. We’ll be running sessions that explicitly invite people to join across generational divides, and we’re trying to have presenters move between the main programme and the programmes for families, children and teenagers.
How does it feel to be the youngest-ever chairs? Do you think it enables you to bring a different perspective to the festival?
Gaia: I think often there’s a tendency to treat young people as a separate category: create specific roles for them, have them chairing “young people committees”, putting them in observer roles, rather than actual positions of leadership. But this isn’t something young people want and can be counterproductive to our organisations.
When you’re open to young people of all backgrounds, it’s easy to attract a wide range of perspectives, views and expertise, which can, in turn, push the community forward and create more resilient communal institutions. Also, simply, it’s an honour to chair at this age.
Jacob: More than anything, I think it reflects the fact that young people are desperate to be involved in communal leadership roles. At a time when many communities are struggling to attract young people, we’ve been massively oversubscribed with young people wanting to get involved – whether on the main festival team, other volunteering roles, or the Young Leaders Programme that’s been running over the past few years.
Can you share any challenges of running Limmud Festival?
Gaia: The biggest challenges have been balancing not just our own day jobs and volunteering commitments but supporting the wider team members so they are able sustain the momentum and keep enjoying what they’re doing.
Our team bring a diverse set of experiences and talents, and we need to ensure their strengths complement one another. This can be a challenge, but seeing the team thrive is very rewarding.
And the best bits?
Gaia: There’s something really special about watching something you’ve pictured in your head gradually unfold into reality, but perhaps the best part is working alongside some incredibly talented people, learning from them, and seeing them care about what they are creating just as deeply as you do.
Jacob: My favourite part has been our team. From the first conversations, recruiting them, through to the (many) hours we’ve spent in meetings together, they’ve been enthusiastic, capable and full of incredible ideas. I’ve loved working with everyone and learning from them.
Limmud Festival runs from December 25 to 30. You can book tickets here
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