Keith Black unanimously elected as new Jewish Leadership Council chair

Regatta outdoor clothing company chief executive Keith Black has been elected to succeed Jonathan Goldstein as Jewish Leadership Council chair.

Black was confirmed as new chair following a confirmatory vote by the JLC Council of Membership and trustees at a meeting on Wednesday evening.

Speaking to the JLC Council, the Manchester-born communal leader said:“I am hugely honoured that you have placed your trust in me to chair the Jewish Leadership Council. And I am very conscious of the responsibility that this entails.

“I must pay a huge tribute to my predecessor Jonathan who has been such a wonderful chairman.

“The JLC has a very simple mission; to help you all [JLC members] do your wonderful work.

“We live in a community this is nearly 500 years old and over that time has built a network of organisations and a communal infrastructure in the millenia old tradition of Diaspora Jewry.

“We have built a community that has layered over the fabric of British life our own mini-welfare state.

“We look after our old, our sick, our impoverished and our lonely, we educate our young through a huge network of schools and we look after them beyond school whether at university or on the sports fields or in finding work.

“We have a wealth of diverse religious bodies catering for all sectors of our community, we engage with Israel in a myriad of different ways, we fight antisemitism and protect ourselves, we engage with national institutions and ensure our democratic voice is heard.

“We reach out to the wider world through our commitment to Tikkun Olam and through dozens and dozens and dozens of other charities we ensure that Jewish life in this country is engaged, is rich with content, is vital and alive.

“We must ensure that our charitable sector is invigorated with new leaders, new volunteers, new ideas and of course new donors.

“We must enthuse, encourage, excite and enable – we have a very precious ecosystem of communal support. We at the JLC do not take it for granted and will work with you, our trustees and our professional team to ensure that its future is safe and secure.”

Black had joined the family business in 1981 after taking a law degree at Southampton University. It has gone on to become a global success story.

He moved to North London in 2009. He has been the CST representative on the JLC Council of Members.