Meet the Limmud co-chairs leading 2025’s educational ‘winter camp for adults’
Sarah Rose and Jake Berger take on the mantle of a 'proud British export' and the hottest communal ticket this festive season
The UK’s annual Jewish winter festival anticipates nearly two thousand participants under the stewardship of 2025 co-chairs Sarah Rose, 33 and Jake Berger, 30, who have set their sights on showcasing the full diversity of British Jewish life.
Led by a 30-strong volunteer force and professional staff, the six-day celebration of Jewish learning and culture takes place 26 –31 December at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole.
Participants tailor their own schedule and curate a unique festival experience, selecting from hundreds of programming sessions showcasing renowned educators, global thought-leaders, and performers as well as an engaging and uplifting cross-communal Shabbat.
Rose is originally from Stanmore, has a background in HR and operations and is now Brighton-based for her full-time job as head of people and governance at BNJC, Brighton’s Jewish Community Hub. Her first Limmud was in 2022.
Berger, based in London for his job as a civil servant, is originally from Manchester and fine-tuned his community experience with stints with the Helsinki and UAE Jewish communities, as well as the Board of Deputies.
An experienced Limmud volunteer, having previously been programming co-chair and on the organisation’s executive committee, he tells Jewish News that his first experience of Limmud was at university in 2017, when “lots of friends told me that I’d love this place that the Jews go to over Christmas.”
He describes the festival as having “something quite magnetic about it” and coming away thinking “this is my tribe and has the potential to be the best of the UK Jewish community.”
Limmud, to him, is “a winter camp for adults, a playground of all different types of Jewish content that you can dip your toe into; whether you’re really into hard Jewish text learning or you’re someone who’s a seeker and wanting to try something new, listen to new types of Jewish music, or experience Jewish comedy, or learn about different types of Jewish communities around the world.”
Rose and Berger agree that Limmud provides immersive opportunities unique to the UK Jewish community, and are excited to officially confirm the first of three main speakers; former US special envoy for monitoring and combatting antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt, with her “incredible expertise and experience of handling antisemitism at the highest levels of international policy making”; South African comedian Nick Rabinowitz, and Yiscah Smith, a “fantastic” Jewish educator from the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.
More announcements, Jewish News is assured, will follow in due course.
This year’s co-chairs vision is of celebrating Limmud as a UK-made festival and the richness and diversity of British Jewry, whilst bringing together those international voices “who really add something and contribute to global Jewish conversations”.
Rose, part of the festival steering team as Shabbat co-chair in 2024, says Limmud “is a place where Judaism, in all its forms, can be celebrated. It’s where you can come and be your full Jewish self.”
Berger says it “very much feels like a Jewish British institution, something that’s made in the UK but has also become a proud Jewish export. It really has that international feel, whilst maintaining that diversity and richness and celebration of the UK Jewish community.”
Of “everyone’s favourite Jewish festival of the year” and at “a challenging time for the community”, the duo hope Limmud “will provide a fun, vibrant and dynamic event that will serve as a tonic to polarisation, bringing diverse voices together to celebrate Jewishness in the UK and beyond.”
They say that “team culture is is really important to us, as is it being a very supportive, collaborative environment for everybody involved.”
Ultimately, what Limmud really offers “is something for everyone, and an opportunity to meet people in a range of different ways, from a range of different from backgrounds.”
As for the programming, with hundreds of sessions across a myriad of subjects available, Berger says: “There’s always that moment when you open the programme for the first time, when it’s released in early December, and the dreaded task of picking what you’re going to go to.
“And the goal, as someone who’s creating the festival, is always to make those decisions as hard as possible for participants! Our programming chairs and and their sub team are hard at work ensuring that there’s something for everyone. And that’s the beauty of Limmud.”
Of working together across the winter festival, Berger says: “We just have fun. We’ve managed to build a great team and always enjoy getting together with them.”
Anticipating the lack of sleep and thousands of steps to be walked around the hotel to and from sessions, their practical advice is “comfy shoes” (Sarah) and plentiful vitamin supplement “Berocca” (Jake).
Of passing the baton on to the next co-chairs, Rose adds: “I can see people on our immediate steering team who are future leaders, and I hope their experience this year develops them towards that.”
- Click here for the Limmud Festival 2025 booking link.
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