For Openers

er.

A New Iron Lady For British Jews?

T

London/JTA
he first woman elected leader of the umbrella
organization that represents most British Jews
plans to reach out to young, unaffiliated Jews.
The failure to attract young people is "not just
a problem in the Jewish community," said Jo Wagerman.
"Young people are either abandoning their culture or
becoming fundamentalists" in
Christian, Muslim and Sikh
communities as well as among
Jews, she said.
On Sunday, the Board of
Deputies of British Jews elected
Wagerman the first woman pres-
ident in its 240-year history.
A former senior vice president
of the board, Wagerman was
unopposed for a three-year term.
Wagerman emphasized that
she wanted to be president of an
inclusive organization. Members Jo Wagerman
of the fervently Orthodox com-
munity are not represented on
the board, nor are Jews who are not affiliated with a syna-
gogue. According to some estimates, those two groups
make up nearly 40 percent of British Jewry.
A recent study by the Institute for Jewish Policy
Research, a British think tank, called for the creation of a
more representative, more inclusive structure to represent
Britain's 283,000 Jews.
Many saw that report as an implicit critique of the
board. "We are the most representative thing we've got,"
Wagerman said in defense of the board. "The only groups
not represented are those which do not wish to be, or are
oligarchic rather than democratic."
Wagerrnan- said she planned to preside over an organiza-
tion that was able to overcome rivalries and differences.
"We are not homogenous. We are always going to be differ-
ent," she said of Britain's Jews. "That should not prevent us
from working together."
Wagerman stressed the importance of Britain's various
Jewish organizations working together. "In the past,
organizations have been a little bit territorial." She said,
"If we don't stop that, we're not going to survive as a
community."

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