Structure of the Board of Deputies

The Board is constituted of Deputies elected by synagogue congregations and communal organisations. In 1835 twenty-two delegates were elected from four synagogues; by the 1980s some five hundred delegates were elected to represent some two hundred and fifty synagogues and a smaller number of secular institutions. By 2000, the number of Deputies was approximately three hundred. Each synagogue or institution elects one or more Deputies, depending on the size of the particular body, and elections take place every three years. The Deputies transact the business of the Board through Divisions and work in conjunction with the Honorary Officers (President, Vice-Presidents and Treasurer) and professional staff. The organisation and administration of the Board of Deputies has been reviewed and overhauled several times. There are no party political divisions at the Board.

Sampson Samuel was appointed the first paid Secretary of the Board in 1837 and he remained in post until his death in 1868. The third Secretary of the Board, Charles Emanuel (who succeeded his own father in the post), was highly active and under him the number of paid staff increased. It was also a period of increasing business for the staff. At the present time, the Board employs the equivalent of approximately 14 full-time staff headed by a Director General.

The Board meets eight times a year to debate matters of current concern and to consider the reports from its various Divisions, which have evolved to meet the changing and increasing demands on the Board’s time. The first Committee to be formed was the Law and Parliamentary Committee in 1854 (subsequently the Law, Parliamentary and General Purposes Committee), to keep a watch over legislation being prepared in Parliament that could have effects on Jewish citizens. The very early work of this Committee included special provision for the Sabbath Day observance and kosher food. The Foreign Affairs Committee was formed in 1878, four years after the retirement of Moses Montefiore, who for so long had stood as the embodiment of Anglo-Jewry abroad. The Committee began life as the Joint Foreign Committee and was set up in conjunction with the Anglo-Jewish Association (formed 1871). A clutch of other committees was created around the turn of the century, Shechita, Aliens, Education and Youth and Press and Information. The Press and Information Committee became the Defence Committee in 1936. The Executive Committee was not set up until comparatively late in 1939, and then only as a wartime expedient.

Post war developments include the Yad Vashem Committee to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. The Community Policy Research Group compiles statistics on the community. In 1982 the Board set up the Central Enquiry Desk (now known as the Jewish Community Information Desk) to provide information on Jewish matters to public telephone enquiries. The Communal Diary is also administered by the Board.

In 1997, after a review of the Board’s structure and organisation by an external management consultant, new arrangements were approved by the Board. All the former elected committees were abolished and replaced by four Divisional Boards which between them cover all aspects of the Board’s work. The four Divisional Boards are Community Issues; Defence and Group Relations; International; and Finance and Organisation. Each is chaired by an Honorary Officer and is composed of a number of elected Deputies, supported by a professional Director. The Divisional Boards in turn establish committees and working groups to deal with particular areas of activity. The Board has also set up a Regional Deputies’ Assembly (formerly Provincial Council) which brings together all the Deputies from communities outside London to discuss matters of shared concern; the Assembly in turn elects a small Regional Council. Each of the Divisional Boards elects a member to sit on the Executive Committee, which also includes the Honorary Officers, the Chairs of the Regional Council and Constitution Committee, the Director General and the Past Presidents of the Board. The Executive Committee is the main decision-making body of the Board.