Former Board of Deputies president Henry Grunwald is to chair a new trust set up to support the work of Lord Sacks after he retires as Chief Rabbi in September.

The Covenant & Conversation Trust, named after Lord Sacks’ series of commentaries on the weekly Torah portion, will promote “inspirational leadership”, develop educational material and support interfaith understanding.

Other trustees include Jewish Leadership Council chairman Mick Davis and Lord Kestenbaum, who was the first director of Lord Sacks’s office as Chief Rabbi.

Mr Grunwald said the trust 's mission was “of central importance to the Jewish people: to inspire a new generation of Jewish leaders, to deepen the relationship between Torah and the wisdom of the world, and to do so globally.”

Throughout his career, Rabbi Sacks had “made a remarkable contribution not just to Jewish communities in the UK and abroad, but to wider society as a result of his strong moral voice and his status as one of the world's foremost and respected religious thinkers and leaders.”

Joanna Benarroch, the current director of the Chief Rabbi’s office, and his director of communications Dan Sacker, will leave to run the new trust.

More details of Rabbi Sacks’s new project will be posted on his website www.rabbisacks.org over the next few weeks.