Saul Taylor was elected President on Monday 14 July, 2025 at a meeting of US Council. Here is his address after the result was announced.
Many of you are familiar with the 2021 film ‘Operation Mincemeat’. It tells the story of Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montague, who came up with the idea of dressing up a corpse in British army officer uniform with fake papers showing plans for an invasion of Greece, when the real target was Scicily. This body was deliberately washed ashore in Spain and the Germans were completely fooled. The details of the fake papers made its way to Hitlers office, troops were diverted to Greece and the invasion of Sicily was a success.
Of course, after the war Ewen Montague became President of the United Synagogue.
What most of you might not know, is this is the second film version of this story. The original was a BAFTA winning film called ‘the man who never’ was and was released in 1956.
The film concludes with the real Ewen Montagu placing his OBE on the grave in Spain of the man who never was. I remember my Father recalling that he was watching this on his black and white TV as a child and at that point his Mother said ‘look that’s your Daddy’s boss’.
I am deeply aware of the weight of this office and the quality of leaders who have come before me.
A few thank yous. Firstly to my parents. Thank you for instilling in me a love of this organisation. Dad, I know that one of your biggest regrets is that your Father was not alive to see you elected Vice President in 1999. I know how much tonight means to you.
To my fellow competitors and I had two incredible high quality opponents. This has been a tough and competitive election. I thank you both for the fair and honest debate that we have had throughout.
Marc, I admire anyone who comes here from abroad and wants to contribute to our institutions. You were challenging, passionate and always with a smile, thank you.
Claire, I’ve known you now a long time. This institution will always be grateful for your immense contributions. Your achievements have made the United Synagogue much stronger and diverse. I’m sure this won’t be the last time we work together.
Michael, it has been an honour to serve under you. You are an example of how communal leadership should be done. You have an amazing knack of bringing people with different views together to move things forward. You can be immensely proud of your 8 years and you leave the United Synagogue in a much better place.
I also want to pay tribute to Maxwell and Fleurise who step down tonight. Maxwell, it has only been a pleasure and I hope you are planning a nice long and well deserved trip to Spain. Fleurise, it has been wonderful working with you and now we have Darren I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to connect in the future.
Over the last few months I have been helped by a lot of people. I not going to name you, but I thank you all. I do however want to single out my Unofficial campaign manager Charles Daniels. Charles, I got to know you well in the summer of 2003, when you were Rosh and I was Sgan of a Bnei Akiva camp. I don’t think that when we were sharing a water logged tent, we ever thought we would be standing here tonight. You have been a force of nature and I cannot have done it without you.
I want to thank my wonderful wife Fayga. Fayga is not from this country. When we were going out about 4 years ago, I did mention that I might stand to be President of the United Synagogue. I think you probably thought whats the big deal? You want to be President of your Shul. I thank you for your unwavering support and all those evenings when you were alone when I travelled to different communities…. You’ll be pleased to know…. those will continue.
Finally I want to thank you the Council, for putting your faith in me. It means the world. I commit to representing you, the communities. I’m always available to you and together we will take this organisation forward.
I want to end with the same pledge that I made to you at the end of the hustings: by electing me your President, you have given me the privilege of a life time. I will fight, every single day, both alongside you and for you, to make sure our United Synagogue remains the home for all our families for future generations…. and that work starts right now.
