Britain’s Zionist Federation has a new chairman, and for the first time he comes from the Chareidi world.
Rabbi Yonasan Guttentag of Manchester was elected to lead the organization, replacing Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner of the Reform and Progressive movements. The change caps a quick turnaround at one of Britain’s oldest Zionist groups, where power has moved from Reform leadership to Orthodox and Chareidi members.
It started at last Sunday’s general assembly, when all 15 candidates for the board were approved. Eight of the seats went to a joint slate of Eretz HaKodesh, a movement that works to bring Chareidi Jews into Zionist institutions, and Shas Olami UK. Likud UK took four seats, and Herut took one. Meretz and the Reform-Progressive Artzeinu movement got one seat each. The new board then chose Guttentag as chairman.
The road to this moment began in 2021. Rabbi Pesach Lerner, the American founder of Eretz HaKodesh, asked Guttentag to open a British branch. Before saying yes, Guttentag went to Rabbi Avrohom Gurwicz, head of the Gateshead Yeshiva, for guidance. Gurwicz sent him to Israel to get the view of the generation’s leading rabbis. In May 2021, at the Bnei Brak home of the late Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the question of Chareidi involvement in the World Zionist Organization was put to Rav Kanievsky directly. He gave it his blessing.
Guttentag, a former rabbi of Manchester’s Whitefield community, helped found the movement’s British branch. He also has deep roots in Zionist history. His great-grandfather was Nathan Birnbaum, the man who coined the word “Zionism” in 1890. Birnbaum later broke with the movement and became a leading voice in the Orthodox world, which makes his great-grandson’s new role something of a full-circle moment.
Guttentag said he was honored by the board’s trust and wants every member group and every board member to have a real part in the federation’s work.
