Imperiale Palace Hotel

Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet

Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet arrived in the UK in 1991. Having previously served as assistant principle of Oholei Torah Boys School in New York, he assumed the position as Minister of the Richmond Synagogue in Southwest London for two years, while also teaching Advanced Jewish Studies at the Jews Free School. In 1993, at the age of 28, he was offered the position as Rabbi of the Mill Hill Synagogue. His vibrancy and dynamism has resulted in a continuous growth of membership, now in excess of 1800 members.

He has a Masters Degree in Jewish Studies from University College London. He authors numerous articles for newspapers, magazines and journals, and lectures. He served as Diary Rabbi to the Guardian Newspaper and also writes for the Jewish Chronicle as well as a very popular weekly column in the Jewish News. He has featured in The London Times as well as Time Magazine International. Rabbi Schochet can often be seen on television including BBC as a regular panelist for The Big Questions as well as CNN.

In 2018 Rabbi Schochet served on the Chief Rabbi’s Cabinet with the portfolio of “family” and as chairman of the Rabbinical Council in the UK. He is currently the longest serving Rabbi in the United Synagogue. He was named by the Jewish Telegraph as one of the ten most influential Rabbis in the United Kingdom. The Jewish Chronicle recently described him as “one of the most outspoken Rabbis in the world”.

He is married with five children and grandchildren.

Rabbi Adam and Sharon Mintz

Rabbi Adam Mintz is the rabbi of Kehilat Rayim Ahuvim, a Modern Orthodox community he founded on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and also the Director of 929 English, a web-based project that promotes the daily study of a chapter of Tanakh. In addition, Rabbi Mintz is the founder of Project Ruth which educates for and performs Orthodox conversions for people around the world. Rabbi Mintz received his PhD from New York University in Modern Jewish History and has taught as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at City College, New York. He is the author of Building Communities: A History of the Eruv in America (Boston, 2023) and has edited several volumes of essays on Jewish thought and religion.

Sharon Liberman Mintz, the Senior Consultant of Judaica at Sotheby’s since 1995, has been involved in the sale of the most celebrated Judaica libraries offered at auction during the last half century, most notably the Montefiore Endowment, and the Valmadonna Trust Library. In 2023, Ms. Mintz  was responsible for the sale of Codex Sassoon: the earliest most complete Hebrew Bible and the most expensive book ever sold at auction. In addition, Ms. Mintz serves as the Curator of Jewish Art at the Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary – a position she has held since 1987. In the last three decades, she has curated over 50 exhibitions of rare Hebrew books and manuscripts, both at the JTS Library as well as at other international institutions and published numerous books on Jewish art.