Programme
Presenter Highlights
These are just some of the presenters we have lined up for this year's Conference...
Abraham Levy - Rabbi and spiritual head of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London
Amy Jill Levine - describes herself as a "Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt," Jewish Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University
Avrum Burg - former Speaker of the Knesset, has sparked controversy with his views on the future of Israel as a Jewish state
Bradley Burston - writer, columnist and blogger on Ha'aretz and
Brian Klug - senior research fellow in philosophy at St Benet's Hall, Oxford, associate editor of Patterns of Prejudice and a founder of Independent Jewish Voices.
Chaim Weiner - Rabbi in the Masorti Movement in the UK, Israel and Europe, and Director of the European Masorti Bet Din.
Craig Taubman - American Jewish singer / songwriter, best known for his extremely popular musical Friday night services.
Daniel Landes - Director and Rosh HaYeshiva of the Pardes Institute, lecturer and author on Jewish inclusiveness, social ethics, theology and Jewish law.
Daniel Boyarin - Professor of Talmudic Culture in the Departments of Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley
David Lazar - Limmud regular, Masorti Rabbi, and activist on issues such as interfaith relations and Judaism and homosexuality
DJ Handler - founder and director of Shemspeed, Modular Moods, an independent record label, and the Sephardic Music Festival, as well as a multicultural maestro, described as ‘one of New York's hottest Jewish musicians'.
Ebn Leader - Rabbi and Director of the Bet Midrash at the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College in Newton, and co-editor of ‘God in All Moments: Mystical & Practical Wisdom from Hasidic Masters'
Efraim Zuroff - Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Israeli Office
Elkan Levy - Chair of the committee for the new Sacks' Prayer Book, director of the Office of Small Communities and past president of the United Synagogue.
Emunah - UK Jewish hip hop reggae drum ‘n' bass dance fusion performance collective
Fiyaz Mughal - founder of Muslims against Anti-Semitism.
Gideon Shimoni - Professor Emeritus of Israel-Diaspora Relations at Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Guy Wilkinson - the Archbishop of Canterbury's Secretary for Interfaith Relations.
Henry Grunwald - President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
Israel Elia - Rabbi at Lauderdale Road Synagogue, London
Israel Harel -founding chairman of the Institute for Zionist Strategies (IZS), weekly columnist for Ha'aretz newspaper, founder of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and first editor of the Israeli monthly journal Nekuda.
Jay Geller - Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Culture at Vanderbilt Divinity School, whose field is the relationship between Judaism and modernist thought and literature.
Jeremy Hulsh - founder of Israeli record label, Oleh records
Joel Grishaver - Limmud veteran writer, teacher, cartoonist and storyteller
Joel Zeff - Rabbi and Head of the Yeshiva Hamivtar
Jonathon Magonet - Rabbi, Professor and former Principal of Leo Baeck College; publications include The Explorer's Guide to Judaism and Talking to the Other: Jewish Interfaith Dialogue with Christians and Muslims
Judith Abrams - Rabbi and director of Maqom, a school for Adult Talmud Study,
Judith Hauptman - Professor of Talmud and Rabbinic Culture at The Jewish Theological Seminary.
Judith Plaskow - Feminist theologian and a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College.
Julia Neuberger - Liberal Democrat Peer and Liberal rabbi, recently appointed Chair of the Volunteer Commission
Lawrence Goldman - Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Louise Ellman - MP for Liverpool-Riverside.
Louis Kaplan - Director of Institute of Communication and Culture at the University of Toronto at Mississauga and on the faculty of UT's collaborative PhD program in Jewish Studies; author of numerous books, articles & short films
Matthue Roth - performance poet and author of 'Never Mind the Goldbergs'
Maureen Kendler - Head of Educational Programme at LSJS, has been instrumental in Limmud's Chavruta and a perennial favourite at Conference
Melissa Shiff - internationally renowned conceptual artist
Michael Whine - a director of the Community Security Trust, director of Defence and Group Relations at the Board of Deputies and consultant on anti-Semitism and security for the European Jewish Congress.
Michael Wegier - Limmud favourite and former Director of Jewish Renewal at UJIA, Director of Melitz, Institution of Jewish Zionist Education.
Nephesh Theatre - Israeli theatre company presenting their new one-man production based on the Bashevis Singer story, ‘Gimpel the Fool'
Neshama Carlebach - soulful singer and storyteller, both of her own songs and of material in the tradition of her late father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
Peter Geffen - founder of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York and a veteran of the Civil Rights movement and associate of Martin Luther King
Pshutei Ha'am - New Israeli band featuring Gilad Vital and Roy Levi - founders of well-known Israeli band Shtei Hanevua, the Fools of Prophecy, playing Shtei songs and with their own dance music project
Rachel Levmore - First woman member of the 'Agunot Unit' in the Directorate of Israeli Courts. Specialist in Iggun and Get Refusal.
Raphael Zarum - Chief Executive and Senior Lecturer at London School of Jewish Studies, and creator of the Torah l'Am Crash Course.
Ramon Tasat - chazan, scholar and performer of Sephardi music and President of Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music.
Raz Hartman - Rabbi and teacher, as well as a singer, writer and performer of music inspired by Chasidic melodies.
Rex Bloomstein - a leading British Jewish film producer, whose latest film is ‘KZ' about tourists, guides and locals in Mathausen.
Ruth Deech - crossbench peer and first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, who was has also been Principal of St. Anne's College, Oxford, Chairman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and a Governor of the BBC.
Ruth Gruber - humanitarian, author, journalist and former U.S. government official who has dedicated her life to rescuing Jews from oppression and famously chronicled the drama of the Exodus' battle to bring WWII refugees into Palestine
Ruth Messinger - President of American Jewish World Service, an international development agency, currently leading the campaign about Darfur, and a leading light in the world of Jewish Social action.
Ruth Yaron - Former senior diplomat in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and ex-chief instructor in Israel's National Defence College.
Shalva Weil - Anthropologist and Senior Researcher at the Hebrew University, whose specialist field is the Jews of India, Ethiopia, and similar minority Jewish groups
Sharonah Fredrick - academic and expert on Judeo-Spanish history and philosophy
Shira Kline - musician, educator and performer, and purveyor of outrageously hip Jewish music for kids.
Shlomo Riskin - internationally renowned educator, speaker and author, who is one of the leading voices of today's Modern Orthodox world.
Stephen Rosenberg - architect and archaeologist, who has lectured on archaeology in London and at the Albright Institute and Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
Steve Greenberg - Senior Teaching Fellow at CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, author of a groundbreaking book on homosexuality and Jewish tradition.
Tony Lerman - Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
Tsvi Bisk - social researcher, strategy planning consultant and Director of the Center for Strategic Futurist Thinking
Tzvi Marx - Director of the Folkertsma Institute for Talmud in Holland and lectures on disability in Judaism
Yael Bar-Lev - Mandel Institute faculty member, and involved in Israeli children's television, especially Rehav Sum-sum (Sesame Street), the Hop! Channel and co-director of the project for the Development of Vision in Jewish Education.
Yaffa Epstein - Talmud scholar and Professor of Rabbinics, prayer & contemporary Halachah, and Director of Overseas Education at the Pardes Institute.
Yehoshua Engelman - Rabbi and Director of Yakar Tel Aviv and at Siach Yitzhak Yeshiva, psychotherapist and composer
Yehuda Katz and Reva L'sheva - Israeli Carlebach rock band, guaranteed to have everyone up and dancing
Yonatan Mirvis - the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's foremost academic specialist in adult education and International Director of Hebrew University's Florence Melton Adult Mini-School.
Y-Love - up and coming New York Hasidic rap artist, who raps in a mixture of English, Yiddish, Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic.
Please note that presenter availability is sometimes affected by circumstances beyond our control, so although the above are confirmed (as at 7 December), we cannot absolutely guarantee their attendance at Conference.