Limmud is a British-Jewish educational charity which, in the UK, produces a large annual winter festival and several other regional events throughout the year on the theme of Jewish learning. Limmud is not affiliated to any strand of Judaism, stating "We have no part to play in the debates between/across denominations" in its mission statement. Limmud markets itself as open to "anyone interested in Jewish learning". The Limmud event in the UK has inspired a worldwide movement of Limmud groups, so the name 'Limmud' now refers both to the UK charity and the worldwide network (Limmud itself only operates in the UK). Its motto is "wherever you find yourself, Limmud will take you one step further on your Jewish journey."
Limmud () was originally a conference for "educators", basing itself on CAJE, the Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education of North America. Taking CAJE's volunteer ethos, not paying presenters and not using people's titles, Limmud has grown to be a large international movement. During the 1990s there was the significant change as Limmud reinvented itself as a community gathering, giving rise to a significant increase in the number of attendees and leading it to be described as "British Jewry's greatest export". The Limmud model has now spread to many other countries.
A distinctive feature of Limmud is that the events are organised by volunteers, who also take part as equals in what is now called the Limmud Festival (held in the UK). Limmud Festival's largest group of volunteers are in their 20s and 30s. Around half of the UK "Forty under 40" (a community-wide initiative to identify the future leaders of British Jewry, published by Jewish News) have volunteered for Limmud and a former Chair of Limmud, Elliott Goldstein, topped the list.
History
Limmud held its first conference in 1980 for 80 people organised by Alastair Falk, Michael May, Jonathan Benjamin and Clive Lawton, inspired by a visit to the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) in North America. Its aim was to build bridges between professional and nonprofessional educators and between those of differing religious commitments. The next year participation had doubled and all aspects of Jewish learning were covered.
By 1996 the main Limmud conference had expanded and moved to Oxford with attendance of over 1,000, 250 sessions and 140 speakers, becoming the largest Jewish conference in Europe. During this period the organisation also held smaller one day events in Glasgow and Leeds.
In 1999 the first non-UK Limmud was held in Sydney, Australia.
2006 saw Limmud appoint its first full-time Executive Director, Raymond Simonson. Prior to this Limmud had been run by part-time directors.
The late 2000s saw Limmud participation in the UK grow dramatically. In 2007 Limmud held their conference at Warwick University, with 2,000 participants and 600 at Limmud Fest, a smaller summer festival. With numbers more than doubling in 2008 to 7,000 for their UK events. International conferences were now held in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Hungary, Atlanta, Buenos Aires, Bulgaria, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Poland, Stockholm, Ukraine, Germany, Turkey, Toronto, New York and France.
Limmud Conference moved to Birmingham for Conference 2015, with a record 2,800 participants. New Limmud groups include Arizona, Mar del Plata, Australia, Tel Aviv, Chile and Essen.
In 2017 Limmud Conference became Limmud Festival. Limmud set up affiliates in North America and Israel. Limmud estimates there are 40,000 participants annually in a Limmud worldwide, run by 4,000 volunteers. In 2017 Limmud was also awarded the Jerusalem Unity Prize for contribution to Jewish life, presented by Israeli President Rivlin.
In 2018 and 2019, formal legal entities were set up to co-ordinate and support Limmud teams in North America and Israel. A structural review in 2020 recommended the creation of a new global entity to represent Limmud groups around the world.
Organisation
Limmud is a company and a charity. It is run by a board of directors and trustees, all of whom are volunteers. Initially, there was no difference between Limmud the organisation and Limmud Conference, the annual event, so the chairs of the Conference/Festival team were the chairs of the organisation. In 1990, a chair for the organisation who was separate from the Conference chairs was appointed for the first time. In 2006, Limmud International was created, as a separate unit within Limmud to manage relationships with other Limmud groups around the world. Limmud International was absorbed back into Limmud at the end of 2016.