New Jewish Leadership Council chair: 'Merger with the Board of Deputies would be a colossal waste of time'

Two years ago on the eve of the pandemic, the question of unification between the Board of Deputies (BoD) and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) was once again being aired in the pages of the JC.

But if there is one thing new JLC chairman Keith Black, 62, is clear about, it is that there will be “absolutely no merger”.

Such a move would be “a colossal waste of time, energy and resource and will have no benefit whatsoever”, he says. “The Board do a great job and we do a completely different job.”

He acknowledges there have been “disagreements” between the two bodies and “some unfortunate situations” in the past. “I think both sides made mistakes and everybody has learned through it.” He promises to “work really hard to make sure we are always as aligned with the Board as we possibly can.”

He enjoys an “excellent relationship” with the Board’s president, Marie van der Zyl, who by virtue of her office is a trustee of the JLC. “I am a great fan. I think the community is incredibly fortunate to have somebody like Marie who works as hard, is as engaged, is as committed to this community as she is. She is a remarkable servant.”

And as a former chairman of Manchester UJIA, he knows well the Board’s chief executive, Michael Wegier, who was previously professional head of UJIA.

Mr Black was elected unopposed for a three-year term with the umbrella body for 37 communal organisations, after Jonathan Goldstein stepped down midway through his second term.

While boasting a long record of communal service, overseeing the Community Security Trust’s (CST) operations in Manchester for many years, he is a comparative newcomer to the JLC, succeeding Gerald Ronson as the CST’s JLC representative in 2018.

But when asked to consider taking on the chairmanship of the council, “I didn’t think it appropriate to decline”.

Over the past few years, the JLC has consolidated its position within the community, thanks to Mr Goldstein’s prominent role in the fight against antisemitism in the Corbyn-led Labour Party and its work through the pandemic.

It raised £1.5 million for a social support fund and as the community went virtual, it helped organisations improve their digital reach.

Mr Black says that while it may be too early to start drawing up plans for a post-Covid community, the JLC is conscious that “building back is critical. We have undoubtedly lost a lot through not being able to come together and those strands of connectivity are very valuable. You can’t run a community on Zoom.”

However, one “remarkable” outcome of the past two years has been the fundraising momentum maintained by charities.

“I suspect the donor base of the community has increased substantially.”

He observes that politically, the post-Corbyn climate is better for the community, with Keir Starmer “reaching out. Not everyone in the party may initially be in tandem with him and that is still a project in hand. We are beyond those dark days, definitely.”

And while the fight against antisemitism must continue, “alarmism is completely inappropriate and unnecessary”.

Mr Black believes Britain is “still the best place for Jews to live outside Israel, certainly in Europe. It’s safe, we are protected by the state.

“And this country isn’t an extreme country; its institutions of decency and its respect for the law and for individuals will hold through. We have got our enemies but that’s always been the case.”

He echoes Mr Goldstein’s warning that the community should avoid being “dragged into a culture war” with the BBC or into conflict with the Muslim community.

“I think the community found its voice very valuably during the Corbyn years. However, having found that voice, I don’t believe that we should bellow it out at every opportunity.
“It’s much more valuable that it’s kept for critical situations and that we only be noisy when we really, really have to be.”

A “natural Conservative”, Mr Black has never been involved in party politics. But his communal engagement started young.

His father Lionel was also a leader of Manchester JIA (as it was before the charity added “U” to its name) and he got to meet some of the “giants” of modern Israel like Abba Eban, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. During an Israel mission with the JIA’s young leadership division, Mili, launched by him and a friend — the hotelier Daniel Levy — he made the acquaintance of “Bougie”, now Israeli President Isaac Herzog. “He’s been a pal for 40 years.”

During his gap year, he spent six months on an ulpan whose owner, Shulamit Katznelson, “took a liking to me. Her brother happened to be the Minister of Justice, Shmuel Tamir, [and] she used to shlep me off to the Knesset.” Even if he couldn’t follow proceedings, it gave Mr Black “a really heightened sense of awareness” of the country. His collection of Zionist memorabilia includes an original invitation to the Declaration of the State in 1948.

An alumnus of one of England’s most famous boarding schools, Rugby, he was barmitzvah in Jackson’s Row Reform synagogue in Manchester, switching allegiance after university to the new Hale Orthodox synagogue. “I was much more attracted to that tradition,” he says.
While his degree had been in law, he’d always wanted to work for his father, who had acquired a small wholesale business selling industrial clothing. This blossomed into the highly successful outdoor clothing company, Regatta.

The trigger for the brand’s creation was the purchase of “a range of cheap waterproof jackets from Taiwan” in 1982. Callers began asking for “some more of those Regatta jackets. We said: ‘What Regatta jackets?’ They said: ‘This jacket has the word regatta and a picture of a boat on it and everybody likes it’.”

Chairman and chief executive, he has run Regatta for more than three decades with his sister Joanne.

In 2010, the Manchester City fan uprooted to London so he and wife Tania’s five daughters could grow up with their cousins. Mr Black is now a regular face at South Hampstead United Synagogue.

Long before the pandemic normalised home-working, he set up office at his house, though he still travels to Manchester weekly. Beyond the Jewish community, he is on the board of the Manchester Arts Festival and chairs Unitas, the youth activity centre he founded in Barnet.
Although his bond with Israel was forged in the 1970s, he acknowledges that Jewish youth today have a “different relationship with Israel than we did, much less sentimental. But the vast majority retains a pro-Israel sympathy,” he says.

He helped establish an Israel Digital Portal for the Union of Jewish Students through UJIA, having recognised a gap in resources.

And as co-chair of the Israel Advocacy Forum, an arena for the various Israel-engaged organisations to meet, he seeks to increase support, which he contends is “highly underfunded”.

“There is no one substantial social media arm in the community which is fighting the BDS movement and we are losing heavily on social media. There is an onslaught of anti-Israel posting,” he says.

A political consultancy is currently advising on messaging.

He also feels more support needs to be given to students on campus, as well as to Jewish children in non-Jewish schools who encountered anti-Israel activity during the last Gaza conflict in May.

As head of an organisation looking to encourage co-operation, Mr Black seems a natural fit with a warm manner and an ability to put others at ease.

The JLC’s primary task, he says, is to serve its affiliates to ensure they are “as effective and efficient as they can be”. Representing the “moderate centre voice of British Jewry”, it will continue to help connect them to central and local government “in an impactful way”.

In particular, he intends to invest time in developing future leaders through the JLC’s training arm, Lead.

“Sometimes we expect leadership of people too early,” he reflects. “But I do believe there comes a time in a lot of people’s lives when they are ready to stand up. I am 62 and I am chairing this now. There’s plenty of time.

“I have absolutely no reason to believe that the next generation will not throw up an equivalent cohort of leaders as long as we enable that to happen.

“We have to encourage, we have to excite — and that’s what I’d like to ensure happens.”