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Marie van der Zyl
Marie Sarah van der Zyl OBE (née Kaye; born November 1965) is an English lawyer who was president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 2018 to 2024. When she was first elected in May 2018, she was only the second female president in the 258-year history of the organisation.
She was born in the London Borough of Redbridge, the daughter of Barry Kaye, who was in tailoring, and his wife Szusanne, a beautician, and grew up in South Woodford, London, where she attended the local comprehensive school. She took a law degree at Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moores University).
She qualified as a solicitor in 1991, specialising in employment law. In 2001 she joined Davenport Lyons where, in 2012, she defended Stringfellows nightclub in Stringfellow Restaurants Ltd v Quashie by asserting that the claimant, a lap dancer, was self-employed. In 2019 she acted for 27 art and history experts at the National Gallery who had not been given any paid holiday, sick pay, pension or maternity pay despite paying taxes through the payroll. The case, which they won, was reported to be one of the first in the UK public sector about workers' rights.
After Davenport Lyons went into administration in 2014 its practice was taken over by Gordon Dadds where she became a partner, and subsequently a partner at Ince Gordon Dadds after Gordon Dadds took over Ince & Co's practice in 2018. In 2023, Ince Gordon Dadds itself went into administration, and she joined Keystone Law as a partner in June 2023.
Van der Zyl was initially a deputy for the Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade. She took office as President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews on 1 June 2018, succeeding Jonathan Arkush, who did not seek re-election. She was the second ever woman and the fourth lawyer in a row to hold the role. She was re-elected in May 2021 and stood down in 2024 at the end of her second term of office.
Her visits to her grandparents gave her, she says, "a great passion for Israel" and she has sought "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 December 2019, the Board of Deputies invited all general election candidates to sign up to ten commitments in the Board's Jewish manifesto. Commenting on the support that had been received, van der Zyl said: "In an increasingly bitter political climate, it is encouraging to see that politicians of all parties can come together to support British Jews." A month later, as candidates came forward to contest the vacancy for Labour Party leader, she said that antisemitism "became a matter of great anxiety for the UK's Jews" during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.
During her Board of Deputies presidency she met Pope Francis to improve Jewish-Catholic relations and worked with Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who spoke at a historic landmark event in Bevis Marks Synagogue in 2023. She held a number of interfaith seders and worked with other minorities in defending religious practice and in highlighting the plight of the Uyghurs.
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Marie van der Zyl
Marie Sarah van der Zyl OBE (née Kaye; born November 1965) is an English lawyer who was president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 2018 to 2024. When she was first elected in May 2018, she was only the second female president in the 258-year history of the organisation.
She was born in the London Borough of Redbridge, the daughter of Barry Kaye, who was in tailoring, and his wife Szusanne, a beautician, and grew up in South Woodford, London, where she attended the local comprehensive school. She took a law degree at Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moores University).
She qualified as a solicitor in 1991, specialising in employment law. In 2001 she joined Davenport Lyons where, in 2012, she defended Stringfellows nightclub in Stringfellow Restaurants Ltd v Quashie by asserting that the claimant, a lap dancer, was self-employed. In 2019 she acted for 27 art and history experts at the National Gallery who had not been given any paid holiday, sick pay, pension or maternity pay despite paying taxes through the payroll. The case, which they won, was reported to be one of the first in the UK public sector about workers' rights.
After Davenport Lyons went into administration in 2014 its practice was taken over by Gordon Dadds where she became a partner, and subsequently a partner at Ince Gordon Dadds after Gordon Dadds took over Ince & Co's practice in 2018. In 2023, Ince Gordon Dadds itself went into administration, and she joined Keystone Law as a partner in June 2023.
Van der Zyl was initially a deputy for the Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade. She took office as President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews on 1 June 2018, succeeding Jonathan Arkush, who did not seek re-election. She was the second ever woman and the fourth lawyer in a row to hold the role. She was re-elected in May 2021 and stood down in 2024 at the end of her second term of office.
Her visits to her grandparents gave her, she says, "a great passion for Israel" and she has sought "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 December 2019, the Board of Deputies invited all general election candidates to sign up to ten commitments in the Board's Jewish manifesto. Commenting on the support that had been received, van der Zyl said: "In an increasingly bitter political climate, it is encouraging to see that politicians of all parties can come together to support British Jews." A month later, as candidates came forward to contest the vacancy for Labour Party leader, she said that antisemitism "became a matter of great anxiety for the UK's Jews" during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.
During her Board of Deputies presidency she met Pope Francis to improve Jewish-Catholic relations and worked with Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who spoke at a historic landmark event in Bevis Marks Synagogue in 2023. She held a number of interfaith seders and worked with other minorities in defending religious practice and in highlighting the plight of the Uyghurs.