Britain’s first Jewish Culture Month launched

The Board of Deputies today announced the launch of a new British Jewish Culture Month.

While the idea has been discussed for some months, Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg confirmed at today’s plenary meeting that the dates of the inaugural festival will be from May 16 to June 14, 2026, which corresponds to the Hebrew month of Sivan.

The month aims to highlight a range of Jewish cultural contributions to the UK, including comedy, food, music and literature.

It will also give a platform to key Jewish cultural institutions, encourage wider British cultural organisations, public bodies and schools to celebrate the contribution of British Jews and to support local Jewish centres, including synagogues, schools, and charities, in opening their doors to other groups.

Speaking at today’s Board of Deputies Plenary Meeting, Rosenberg said: “This will be a major change for the UK Jewish community, a strategic rebrand, which proclaims: ‘Less oy and more joy’. 

I have long felt that it cannot be right that the only public commemoration of Jewish life is Holocaust Memorial Day, and the only compulsory education about Jews is Holocaust education. Of course, both of these are crucially important, but we do not want the British public to know only of Jewish death, and Jewish pain. We want them to know about Jewish life and Jewish joy”.

A Board of Deputies’ spokesperson said: “Jewish Culture Month will provide a focus on all that’s best in our country’s Jewish culture.

“At a time when the Jewish community has been suffering from record levels of antisemitism, British Jewish Culture Month will accentuate the positive experiences of Jews in this country and the positive contribution British Jews have made to our nation’s society, economy and culture.

“We want Jews and our friends and neighbours of different faiths and beliefs to experience all the light, creativity and laughter of Jewish life in the UK.”