Marie Sarah van der Zylis the 48th president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. When she was elected in May 2018, she was only the second female president in the 258-year history of the organisation. She was re-elected in May 2021.
Board of Deputies of British Jews
Van der Zyl was initially a Deputy for the Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade. She took office as President on 1 June 2018, succeeding Jonathan Arkush, who did not seek re-election. She is the second ever woman and fourth lawyer in a row to hold the role.
Her visits to her grandparents gave her, she says, "a great passion for Israel" and she believes that the Board exists "to promote a sympathetic understanding of Israel." She has pledged to "defend Israel’s legitimacy and its centrality to Jewish identity". She is a self-described "fighter" and takes as a compliment the comparison that "the only difference between me and a Rottweiler is that a Rottweiler eventually lets go".
In 2018, The Jerusalem Post ranked her as the 40th most influential Jew of that year.
Van der Zyl was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to faith and integration.
