Our people

The Lord Levy

Lord Michael Levy has been involved with Jewish Care since its inception and prior to that he was a trustee of the Jewish Welfare Board. He was instrumental in bringing the Jewish Welfare Board and Jewish Blind Society together to form Jewish Care in 1990. He became Chair of Jewish Care in 1992. His commitment has been instrumental in establishing the charity to serve the needs of the Jewish community. Lord Levy has continued to play a pivotal role leading the amalgamation of a number of Jewish charities to form Jewish Care.

A highly successful fundraiser all his life, and has been described as the “Number 1 Fundraiser in the UK”.  Lord Levy has appealed to the generosity of the community to raise the funds needed to build the care homes, community centres and infrastructure of the charity over many years. Lord Levy became President of Jewish Care in 2000. The Board of Trustees and Directorate look to his leadership and dedication to ensure that the organisation continues to adapt to the changing needs of the older Jewish community that we support.

Lord Levy was elevated to the role of Life President of Jewish Care in September 2020.

In 1997, Lord Levy became a life peer. He is Honorary President of UJIA and President of Sense and Sense International, Jewish Lads and Girls Brigade (JLGB), Jewish Free School (JFS), Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School, Mathilda Marks-Kennedy Jewish Primary School and Barnet & Southgate College. Lord Levy was the Chairman of the Academy Sponsor Trust, and was instrumental in creating the Academies Programme in Education from the very beginning on behalf of the Former Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair.

Lord Levy was the Special Envoy for former Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, and his advisor on the Middle East.

Steven Lewis

Steven was first introduced to the organisation by his friend, the late Adam Science, who encouraged him to become involved with communal interests. He attended his first community meeting with Adam and left the meeting as Chairman of the Jewish Blind Society Pentland Business Lunch.

In 1990, Jewish Care was formed from the Jewish Blind Society and Jewish Welfare Board. Six months later, he was asked to Chair Young Jewish Care (YJC) and took his place on the Board of Trustees. As Chair of YJC, Steven established and shaped a successful programme of events and initiatives for young Jewish people. He continues to be passionate about engaging young people with the work of Jewish Care and is dedicated to introducing the organisation to many generous donors.

He has chaired the Patrons’ Committee for many years and is also a member of Jewish Care’s Topland Business Lunch Committee. In 2011, he took on the role of Chairman for nine years. Steven continues to be at the heart of the organisation and has been President of Jewish Care since September 2020.

Dame Gail Ronson DBE

Dame Gail has been involved with the Jewish Welfare Board and Jewish Care since 1983. Her support and dedication have been instrumental in making Jewish Care the successful and vital organisation that it is today. She ran many major fundraising dinners, the first of which celebrated the 125^th anniversary of the Jewish Board of Guardians with Prince Charles and Princess Diana as special guests.

As Trustee of Jewish Care for many years, Dame Gail has chaired the Campaign Dinner Committee and was Deputy President. In 2010, Dame Gail became an Honorary President.

Always ready to do all she can to support the charity, Dame Gail has played a key role in important changes and new developments of our care campuses over the years. With Dame Gail’s continued support and commitment as well as that of The Gerald and Gail Ronson Family Foundation, Jewish Care has been able to ensure that we provide the very best in standards of care to the Jewish community.

Dame Gail received her DBE in the 2004 New Year’s Honours List for services to charitable causes. She is President of the RNIB and an Honorary Trustee of the Royal Opera House.

Stephen Zimmerman

Stephen Zimmerman joined the Board of Trustees in 2001 and was responsible for overseeing Jewish Care’s governance review in 2004. He served as Chairman of Jewish Care from 2006 to 2011, after which he became an Honorary President.

Highly respected, Stephen led Jewish Care to flourish over the years that he was Chairman with his knowledge and understanding of the organisation, the challenges in the social care sector and the changing demographic of the Jewish community.

Stephen is also a member of our Business Breakfast Committee. Jewish Care continues to benefit hugely from his support and passion for the work we do, and the impact we have on people’s lives.

Jonathan Zenios

Jonathan is Chair of the Board of Trustees having been appointed in September 2020.  He re-joined the Board in February 2020 as Chair Elect having been Treasurer between 2009 and 2016.  Jonathan is also a Trustee of the Jewish Leadership Council.

He has a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience in the broader charity sector and Jewish community having previously sat on the boards of Rosetrees Trust, London Jewish Forum and Highgate Synagogue and having volunteered at North London Hospice both in the in-patient unit and providing bereavement support.

Jonathan originally qualified as a chartered accountant, and then spent over two decades in investment banking and fund management.  He recently co-founded a new financial software as service business and also practices as an executive coach and leadership advisor.

He has a wide range of interests outside of business and recently completed an MPhil in Early Modern History at St John’s College, Cambridge 30 years after first studying there as an undergraduate.

Arnold Wagner OBE

Arnold Wagner OBE joined Jewish Care’s Board of Trustees in 2012 and is Chair of the Human Resources Expert Group.

In addition to his involvement with Jewish Care, Arnold chairs the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), a position he has held since 2016, having joined the PPF Board in 2011. He is also the Senior Independent Director at Cifas, who are leaders in fraud prevention.

In his full-time professional career, Arnold was Director of Human Resources at Smiths Group plc and previously held a similar role at Bunzl plc. He has also served as a non-executive director at Renew Holdings plc and at the UK Atomic Energy Authority where he chaired the Remuneration Committee.

Arnold has been active in the Jewish Education sector and was Chair of Governors at JFS between 1993 and 2003. He was awarded an OBE in 2002 for his services to education.

Arnold is married to Sandra. They have four children and four grandchildren.

Gayle Klein

Gayle joined Jewish Care’s Board of Trustees in November 2016 and is the chair of the Friends of Jewish Care Major Donor programme.

Gayle sits on the Campaign Oversight Group, Redbridge Redevelopment Group, Community Services and the Interior Design Oversight Group.

In 2008 Gayle established The Local Angels Committee, of which she continues to Chair, raising money for Jewish Care services in Redbridge.

In 2014 Gayle was nominated by Jewish Care and took part in the senior Jewish leadership programme ‘Gamechangers’ which explores and prepares lay leaders for leadership roles within communal organisations.

Outside of her commitments to Jewish Care Gayle is an active member of The Essex Jewish Community Council and chairs The Property Group for SWESRS Synagogue in Newbury Park.

Michael Brodtman

Michael joined Jewish Care’s Board of Trustees in 2013. He is a Trustee of the Joel Emmanuel Trust and has chaired the Property Expert Group since 2008 , a committee of lay property professionals which advises the charity on all matters relating to its portfolio of care homes and community centres.

Michael is an Executive Director and UK Board member of CBRE, the largest worldwide firm of real estate advisors. Michael is on the Global Valuation Board of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and has been a member of the Policy Committee of the British Property Federation and the Bank of England Commercial Property Forum. He is a Non-Executive Director of Places for People, a housing association and placemaking group which owns and manages some 200,000 homes throughout the UK.

Michael lives in London with wife Naomi and four children. Michael’s family is actively involved with a number of other Jewish community care charities.

Adam Dawson

Adam joined Jewish Care’s Board of Trustees in November 2018 having been a volunteer and fundraiser for Jewish Care over many years.

Adam has been active in a number of Jewish communal organisations including Chair of the Union of Jewish Students and the National Chaplaincy Board; Executive member of the Board of Deputies and Founder and Chair of Governors of Etz Chaim Jewish Primary

Adam is a practising Barrister at 9 Gough Square and a Director of a small boutique law firm, Dawson Crowther. He specialises in Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence cases.

Adam lives in Mill Hill with his wife Debbie and his daughter and two sons.

Harold Gittelmon

Harold joined Jewish Care’s Board of Trustees in November 2018 having previously chaired a strategic review for Jewish Care into the medium-term future of fundraising for the organisation.

Harold also holds not for profit roles with Grief Encounter, Mencap, Camp Simcha and UJIA and also Chairs a variety of businesses including Albany Investments, Neptune Rum and Themove.com.

His previous roles include being CEO Europe for Flemingo, a global duty-free business, and Managing Director of Harding Retail a niche concessionaire operating retail outlets on cruise ships. Prior to those roles Harold enjoyed a career in the Banking and Private Equity industries.

Harold is married with two daughters and holds an MBA from Cass Business School.

Leah Hurst

Leah became a trustee for Jewish Care in 2020 having spent five years on the Independent Living Committee (formerly  JET) the last 2 as chair.

Leah is Head of Legal and Business Affairs at the Royal Opera House. After 15 years working as a  commercial property lawyer, 10 years ago she made the move to work in the voluntary sector. Legal roles at The British Council, Save the Children and The Old Vic followed before she took up her current job.

She has a geography degree from Oxford, a law degree from Cambridge and an MBA from London Business School. She lives in Golders Green, is married with 2 children and is an active member at Belsize Square Synagogue.

Jonathan Rose

Jonathan joined Jewish Care’s board of trustees in 2021. He has been a member of the property expert group for the last five years which advises the charity on property matters.

Jonathan is the Group Managing Director of the Pears Group for the past 13 years. Previously he was Property Director at Asda Property Holdings.

Jonathan is also Deputy Chairman for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice. He lives in London with his wife and three children.

Dr Jonathan Shapiro

Jonathan, who practised medicine for many years, has been involved in senior leadership working alongside organisations throughout the care industry, both in the UK and overseas.

He brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and understanding of healthcare organisations to his new roles at Jewish Care. His experience includes non- executive leadership; consultancy in fields including organisational development and change management, policy development and service evaluations; University academia; and clinical medicine as a GP for many years.

Jonathan was previously the founding Chair of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust. In addition to being the Chair of the training charity Education for Health for over ten years, Jonathan is currently a Trustee and volunteer for the Samaritans in Birmingham, and a Trustee at both St Mary’s Hospice and John Taylor Hospice as they merge to form one of the largest hospice organisations in the UK.

Marcus Sperber

Marcus joined Jewish Care’s board of Trustees in November 2021.

Marcus currently runs his own investment and advisory business, NorthCroft Capital. He acts as a non-executive Director and advisor to a number of  investment managers, pension funds and property companies. His previous roles include spending 17 years at BlackRock where he was Global head of real estate and where he served on their Global Operating committee, Global Human Capital committee and European Executive committee. Marcus is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Marcus is married with two children and has been actively involved in a number of Jewish charities.

Amy Woolf

Amy Woolf joins us as a Trustee in addition to continuing to serve as a committee member on our Residential Care Committee.

Amy is the founder and Director of The Woolf Partnership, a firm focused on Technology, Transformation and Change. Prior to launching The Woolf Partnership, Amy spent many years working within the professional services world, at KPMG. During her tenure she provided a bespoke direct search service to the partner group, worked alongside the UK Board to launch a firmwide social collaboration network, created sustainable inclusion practices and most recently was responsible for the design and content of the highly successful C-Suite Leadership Programme.

A proud advocate for inclusion, Amy has been a member of women’s networks throughout her working life and was instrumental in the development of the City Mental Health Alliance.

Amy has volunteered with Jewish Care since 2011. She has participated in Employee Volunteering schemes and took part in the pilot Lay Leadership Development programme. She has spent time with the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre Consultative Committee and now sits on the Residential Care Committee. In 2015 she launched and now Chairs the Jewish Care Families Programme.

Stephanie Cooper

Stephanie joined Jewish Care’s Board of Trustees in May 2022, having been a member of the Audit and Risk and Quality Assurance Committees of Jewish Care for a number of years.

After qualifying as a solicitor at a large London practice, she subsequently worked in private practice and as a law lecturer, a member of the Parole Board and as a tribunal judge.

Stephanie has a wide experience of voluntary activities, including having been a Non-Executive Director of an NHS Trust, a Governor of an NHS Trust, and a Chair of Governors of a large secondary school. She is currently the Vice Chair of an NHS Research and Ethics Committee, an English Heritage volunteer at Kenwood House, and is a trustee of Langdon, where she chairs the Clinical Governance Committee.

Stephanie holds an LLM in criminology and an MA in Medical Law and Medical Ethics.

Darren Braham

Treasurer & Trustee

Darren Braham joined Jewish Care’s board of Trustees in 2023 having previously been on the Finance Committee since 2021. He is currently an angel investor and non-executive director with a number of fast-growing technology based businesses, where he works with the management teams in the strategic and operational development of the companies.

Darren acquired experience in scaling up businesses as the Co-founder, and until 2018, the Chief Financial Officer of First Utility, the first significant challenger to the Big 6 energy retailers in the UK and prior to that as a director of First Telecom, a challenger operator to the incumbent European telcos.

Darren qualified as a Chartered Accountant in1990.

He is married with three children and lives in North London.