‘I take that weight on my shoulders’: US’ new president on women, whisky and backing Israel

The first green shoots of a key manifesto project, to establish a hub for young professionals, should be visible soon. He is “delighted” at the recent arrival of the Rosenblatts as Hampstead United’s rabbinic couple – “You will be seeing a big difference in that community.”

West Hampstead is “where I see the greatest opportunity to engage the next generation… We have to get better at servicing those young people. And we will be investing in making sure that we are engaging effectively.”

The challenge is that “what attracts younger people changes very quickly”. Friday night dinners may remain a trusted draw but “we have to be pushing the boundary with new innovative ideas”, he says.

“I used to go to the singles Jewish capital of the world, which is New York. Within New York there is the singles Jewish area – the Upper West side. The Upper West side communities of the Jewish Centre, the OZ [Ohab Zedek), Chabad, Young Israel of the West Side, are focused on single people. All their programming is angled towards that.”

Though obviously London cannot replicate that scale, “there is a lot we can learn from New York on how young professionals are engaged in Jewish life. That’s the kind of vision we see for West Hampstead.”

While Hampstead’s grade II-listed synagogue is “beautiful – I marvel every time I walk in”, the US needs to develop a local resource that goes “far beyond” a shul building. Newer synagogue buildings such as South Hampstead have been designed as community centres, he points out.

He has pledged that at least two capital projects will be “significantly advanced” by the end of his four-year term. “We as the United Synagogue are the guardians of key communal infrastructure and if we are going to grow and inspire the next generation, our core communities need to be in facilities that are fit for the 21s century,” he says.

Which communities are on the investment shortlist he is not ready to reveal. But a report prepared by US trustee Dan Turner, who led the Brondesbury Park Synagogue rebuild, is due shortly.

Taylor’s previous eight years as a US trustee was more than enough apprenticeship for the role and few presidents could match his US pedigree. The 44 years of of his grandfather, the Reverend M H (Morris Harold) Taylor, at Dorris Hill Synagogue remains a record of service in a single congregation for a US minister. His father Stuart is a former US vice-president and interim chief executive. Brother Sam was rabbi of Western Marble Arch Synagogue before taking the pulpit at one of Toronto’s biggest congregations, Shaarei Shomayim.

Not to mention another brother, Rabbi Simon, and sister Sarah, who work at one of the USA’s key Jewish religious organisations, the Orthodox Union. When Saul and his wife Fayga, an American rabbi’s daughter, recently celebrated the birth of their first child, they named her Myrella after his grandmother, another distinguished communal figure, Judge Myrella Cohen.

“I had in me from a very young age a love of the United Synagogue and a deep appreciation of what this incredible charity does and can do for Anglo-Jewry,” he says. “Charity” is the operative word.

He has taken a lead from US chief executive Jo Grose in emphasising it at every opportunity. For while members pay their synagogue dues, “the charity” needs to raise additional funds to support its work – which it has done, for example, for its Chesed department.

“Pre-Covid we did not give out any food parcels centrally to members. During Covid we started giving out because of the need we identified. This became a big expense. It escalated because there was so much communal need and sadly there is more communal need. We now fundraise for that once a year. And it is highly successful and brings in another £500,000 to £600,000 that beforehand we didn’t have.”

But the US recorded a deficit in 2024, of £1.8 million, and would have done so the previous year had it not been for the windfall from an asset sale. The rise in national insurance – “a kick in the teeth” for charities – has further ramped up costs, by around £570,000 last year and more than £600,000 expected this year.

The trustees are committed to ensuring stability by 2027/8. If they have to make cuts, he says, they will but “not at this stage”.

Trustees are also busy working on the implementation of another manifesto pledge, to strengthen the US’s relationship with Israel. A recent online briefing for members featuring Bar-Ilan University Professor Jonathan Rynhold was the first sign of an enhanced education programme.

“The United Synagogue is the place today where Anglo-Jewry can come, and is the safe space where people can come and show their Zionism and I am absolutely proud of that,” he says.

According to a recent survey of members, 95 per cent identified as Zionist and more than two-thirds wanted the US to be “vocal” about their views on Israel. While a substantial minority professed unequivocal support, the majority were more nuanced in not always supporting the Israeli government’s position.

For Taylor, it is “important that we are always publicly supportive of the State of Israel… We have to provide the space internally for people to debate what is going on in Israel, that’s fine. As the United Synagogue, we have to project the support of Israel to the outside world.”

He adds: “If we were to start projecting opinions that were nuanced, that would not go down well with elements of our membership. So it is not something that I will be looking to do anytime soon.”

While he believes he has “raised the voice of the United Synagogue” since coming into office, he stresses: “We are not the body that should speak on everything.”

Despite growing diversity within the community, he champions the recognition of the Chief Rabbi – whose office the US supports to the tune of £700,000 a year – as British Jewry’s premier religious spokesman.

“A stronger office of the Chief Rabbi benefits the entire community,” he says. “A religious figurehead who sits in the middle – and that is where the United Synagogue is – who is able to advocate for issues with authority and weight on our behalf at the highest levels of government and other organisations in this country gives us huge benefit.”

While rumours have been circulating that Rabbi Mirvis, who turns 70 in September, will announce his retirement at the end of the year, the US president is at pains to quash them. “As far as I know, the Chief Rabbi is not going anytime soon nor is there an announcement pending,” he says.

His trustee team will be “pushing” for “more female leadership positions in our communities on the religious side… and that’s going to be a big factor going forward,” he says. But the new beit midrash for women led by Rebbetzin Lauren Levin shows how far the United Synagogue has come.

“We all live within living memory of time when women could not be chairs of shuls or United Synagogue trustees. Now you can even have a female president of the United Synagogue. It is right to acknowledge the huge strides that have happened over time.”

While the prospect of the US welcoming women rabbis is not on the cards any time soon, he highlights increasing recognition of the impact of rebbetzins, citing as examples Jacqueline Feldman at Bushey, who also chairs the Rebbetzins’ Representatives of the United Synagogue, or Dr Hadassah Fromson at Golders Green.

But do not expect him to rock the boat by pressing, for instance, for the inclusion of partnership minyan (where women can read the Torah). “Our poskim [halachic adjudicators] and quite frankly our rabbinate are very clear, partnership minyan is outside the boundaries of Orthodox Judaism and therefore the United Synagogue,” he says.

While there may be financial challenges, he nevertheless believes he is “the luckiest president because I inherited a strong United Synagogue” led by an “exceptional” chief executive.

With 56 constituent synagogues, seven affiliated or associate synagogues and 36,700 member households, it remains one of the community’s central institutions. It is not membership numbers but the level of engagement, he believes, that will be the yardstick for success.

“At the end of my term I’d like to be able to say that the United Synagogue of today is engaging more people than it did when I started office,” he says.