Prince of Wales joins JLGB as Patron for 125th Birthday

JLGB is ringing in the Jewish New Year with some big changes, as the much-loved national youth empowerment organisation celebrates its 125th birthday and looks forward to its bright future with the official announcement that His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has agreed to become their Patron.

Having adapted many times to changing contexts over its long and proud history, JLGB continues to lead the way, and is now building on the runaway success of its virtual programmes which have been supporting children, young people and their families during lockdown for the past 25 weeks. In a whole suite of upgrades, this week also sees the launch of JLGB Fuel, a centralised planning system for adult volunteers and youth leaders which will power the organisation by uniting and amplifying its activities across the UK.

The Lord Levy, President of JLGB said ”We are delighted and honoured to have the recognition and support of His Royal Highness, evermore so during these uncertain times. Positive and meaningful changes, even after an organisation has had great success for over 125 years, are always essential, and have been in the pipeline for some time. These last few difficult months, however, have been a catalyst, where the young people of our community have shown true leadership, helping to create new opportunities that better reflect real-world realities. They deserve nothing but the best for their future, and there is no more significant a way to start a new era than with HRH The Prince of Wales as our new Patron, who cares and helps so much with the youth of our country. We feel confident that he will help us all continue in our mission to grow and develop JLGB for the next generation."

The new unified focus of JLGB will be reflected in the modernising of its local weekly programmes across the UK as they prepare to safely return in October from a 6-month hiatus due to Covid-19, with a new look website and an online system of Reward and Recognition, making it even easier for new members to join. The new, more flexible, and more collaborative model for JLGB will place greater emphasis on youth empowerment in the running of JLGB, in recognition of their vital role in the success of JLGB Virtual which live-streamed on an almost nightly basis during the Covid-19 lockdown and was seen by over 1.8million unique viewers.

Neil Martin OBE, Chief Executive of JLGB said “Our amazing youngsters have shown they are ready to be the leaders of today, for today. They are what our community needs right now, and we want to bring them to the fore. It’s an absolute honour to welcome HRH The Prince of Wales as our Patron, as he has always been a tremendous believer in the power of young people to support and lead their communities for the betterment of British society and a brighter tomorrow. We’re absolutely thrilled that HRH has agreed to be Patron, taking on this position during our historic anniversary year, which of course rightly pays homage to the incredible role JLGB has played over the past 125 years in society, but also shows absolute faith in the future contributions the next generation of young British Jews are yet to make”.

Only last year, at a Jewish community event at Buckingham Palace, The Prince of Wales publicly hailed the contribution to British society made by the wider Jewish Community, and he has long been a supporter of JLGB through both the Youth United Network and the Step Up To Serve #iwill Campaign of which he is also a Patron. JLGB have also famously delivered the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, across the entire spectrum of the Jewish community to thousands of young Jewish people, ever since the award was first created by the Prince’s father in 1956.