Presenters

Every year Limmud Conference is enriched by the cream of the Jewish world. Many of our presenters are leaders in their field – scholars, artists, musicians, writers politicians, activists, teachers, journalists. Many simply love their subject. They all have something engaging to say, insights to offer and Jewish treasures to give you to take home.

There are sessions to delight and engage, whether you want to study Torah, meet writers, argue with politicians or stay up into the small hours in the company of some of the best performers in the Jewish world. See a selection of our confrmed presenters below or read the full programme.

Hephzibah Anderson
Hephzibah is a journalist for The Observer and New Statesman and author of recently released Chastened: No More Sex in the City

Michael J. Broyde
Professor of law and the academic director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University, and dayan of the Beth Din of America

Michelle Citrin
Michelle is a Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and YouTube sensation

Sergio DellaPergola
Sergio is Professor of Demographics at Hebrew University and the world’s foremost authority on Jewish populations

Hagai Elad
Hagai is the executive director of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, the leading human rights organisation in the country

Louise Ellman
Louise is a Labour MP and vice chair of Labour Friends of Israel

Konstanty Gebert
Konstanty is a renowned journalist and Poland’s top Jewish intellectual, founder and former editor of Midrasz magazine

Yehuda Henkin
Major posek and author of four volumes of reponsa

Richard Joel
Richard is the President of Yeshiva University, New York, an internationally renowned teacher and expert on Jewish education

Jack Kagan
Jack escaped a concentration camp to serve with the Jewish resistance fighters in the Second World War. He fought together with the Bielski brothers, whose story is portrayed in the recent film Defiance.

Judy Klitsner
Judy is a senior faculty member at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where she teaches courses in bible and biblical exegesis, and author of Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other (The Jewish Publication Society, 2009).

Daniel Levy
Daniel is the director of the New America Foundation's Middle East Task Force and was a member of Israel's delegation at peace talks with the Palestinians.

Ofek Meir
Ofek is rabbi of the Leo Baeck centre in Haifa and principal of its Elementary School 

Michael Melchior
Michael is a prominent social and environmental activist, former minister and Member of Knesset and Chief Rabbi of Norway 

Kobi Oz
Kobi is former lead singer of Israeli band Teapacks who performed at Eurovision in 2007. He will be appearing with his new band, Mizmorei Nevuchim

Denise Phillips
Denise  is a professional chef, cookery teacher, and has authored four acclaimed books on Jewish cooking. http://www.jewishcookery.com

David Saperstein
David is director of the Reform Action Centre, New York, sits on President Obama’s Council on Faith Based and Neighbourhood partnerships and has been named most influential Rabbi in the USA by Newsweek

Chaim Seidler-Feller
Chaim is the director of Hillel at the University of California, Los Angeles and a lecturer in Talmud and kabbalah at the American Jewish University.

Plus...

Caryn Aviv – author of New Jews: The end of the Jewish Diaspora
Gershon Baskin – founder of the Israel-Palestine Centre for Research and Information
Aliza Bellman-Inbal – Pears Fellow of International Development, Tel Aviv University
Rex Bloomstein – film-maker and director of An Independent Mind
Ruthie Blum – former features editor of the Jerusalem Post
Shoshana Boyd-Gelfand – Chief Executive of the Movement for Reform Judaism
Darshan – New York Jewish hip-hop artists
Gerard Edery – Sephardic musician and folklorist
Jonathan Fine – expert on terrorism and strategic studies at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya
Daniel Goldfarb – director of Conservative Yeshiva, Jerusalem
Robbie Gringrass – actor, performer and international theatre artist
Eve Grubin  – author of Morning Prayer (The Sheep Meadow Press), a book of poems
Mayer Hillman – environmental activist and Senior Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute
Simon Jacobson – kabbalah expert and head of the Meaningful Life Center
Bernard Kops - poet and playwright
Joshua Kulp – editor of the Schechter Haggadah
Tomasz Kuncewicz – Director the Auschwitz Jewish Center, Poland
Naomi Less – Jewish rock singer and Storah-teller
Amy-Jill Levine – scholar of New Testament studies
Joel Levy – Rabbi of Kol Nefesh Masorti synagogue, Edgware
Mary Midgley – philosopher and Britain’s ‘foremost scourge of scientific pretension’ (The Guardian)
Fiyaz Mughal – interfaith adviser to the Liberal Democrats
Danny Rich – Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism
Marc Saperstein - principal of Leo Baeck College
Leonard Saxe – social anthropologist, Brandeis University
Bambi Sheleg – Editor of Eretz Acheret magazine, Israel
Sharon Shenhav – international women’s rights lawyer
Raphael Sylvester – who needs no introduction
Shalva Weil – anthropologist of Indian and Ethiopian Jewry
Jonathan Wittenberg – senior rabbi of the Masorti movement
Oren Yakobovich – Director of B’Tselem’s video project
Efraim Zuroff – Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre
Raphael Zarum – Chief Executive of the London School of Jewish Studies 

And many, many more...