Open University Foundation

Gala Celebrations

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

Jonathan Sacks has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since September 1991, the sixth incumbent since the role was formalised in 1845. Prior to taking up his current post, Rabbi Sacks was Principal of Jews' College, as well as rabbi of the Golders Green and Marble Arch synagogues.

Educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he obtained first class honours in Philosophy, Jonathan Sacks pursued postgraduate studies at New College, Oxford, and King’s College London, gaining his PH. D in 1981 and rabbinic ordination from Jews' College and Yeshiva Etz Chaim. The Chief Rabbi has been a visiting professor at several universities in Britain, the United States and Israel, and is currently Visiting Professor of Theology at Kings’ College London. He holds many honorary degrees, including a Doctor of Divinity conferred to mark his first ten years in office, by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

At the time of his installation, the Chief Rabbi launched a ‘Decade of Jewish Renewal’. This led to a series of innovative communal projects including Jewish Continuity, a national foundation for Jewish educational programmes and outreach; the Association of Jewish Business Ethics; the Chief Rabbinate Awards for Excellence; the Chief Rabbinate Bursaries, and Community Development, a national scheme to enhance Jewish community life. The Chief Rabbi began his second decade of office with a call to ‘Jewish Responsibility’ and a renewed commitment to the ethical dimension of Judaism.

The Chief Rabbi received the Jerusalem Prize 1995 for his contribution to diaspora Jewish life, and was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 2005. He was made a Life Peer and took his seat in the House of Lords on 27th October 2009, where he sits on the cross benches as Baron Sacks of Aldgate in the City of London.

The Chief Rabbi is a frequent contributor to radio, television and the national press. He regularly delivers BBC RADIO 4’s Thought for the Day, writes a monthly CREDO column for THE TIMES and broadcasts an annual Rosh Hashanah message on BBC 2. In 1990 he was invited by the BBC Board of Governors to deliver the annual Reith Lectures which were then published as The Persistence of Faith. The Dignity of Difference was awarded the 2004 Grawemeyer Prize for Religion, and A Letter in the Scroll a National Jewish Book Award 2000.

Born in 1948 in London, he has been married to Elaine since 1970. They have three children, Joshua, Dina and Gila and four grandchildren.

Ronnie Heyman

Along with her late husband, Samuel J. Heyman, Ronnie pioneered numerous philanthropic endeavors. A primary focus of the Heyman family has been promoting service in the federal government. In 2001 the Heymans founded the Partnership for Public Service in Washington. They also established an innovative program at Harvard Law School designed to encourage students to enter the federal government upon graduation. This initiative was later replicated at Yale Law School and Seton Hall School of Law.

Promoters of excellence in higher education, the Heymans initiated numerous projects at Yeshiva University, Duke University, Yale University, Yale Law School and Harvard Law School. Ronnie’s extensive list of communal service includes leadership roles at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Barnard College, Harvard Law School and the Israel Museum.

President Clinton appointed Ronnie to the National Endowment for the Arts, 1996-2001. Ronnie’s distinguished contribution to the arts was also recognized with the coveted award from the Foundation for Jewish Culture in 2001.

David Sitt

David is the founder of the Sephardic Food Fund, an organization which distributes funds to sustain the Sephardic community in metropolitan New York. In the eight years since its establishment, the Sephardic Food Fund has distributed more than $10,000,000.

For over 25 years, David has been involved in entrepreneurial ventures. Among his successful endeavors are more than 50 real estate projects. Technology companies in which he been involved have been taken public and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Current undertakings include food and beverage companies and breeding thoroughbred racing horses.

David is a licensed EMT in New Jersey and holds a black belt in martial arts. He and his wife Marjorie live in Brooklyn with their five children.