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,[1] she was only the second female president in the 258-year history of the organisation.[2]
Early life and career[edit]
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.[2] She took a law degree at Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moores University).[3]
She qualified as a solicitor in 1991,[4] specialising in employment law.[5] In 2001 she joined Davenport Lyons[6] where, in 2012, she defended Stringfellows nightclub in Stringfellow Restaurants Ltd v Quashie by asserting that the claimant, a lap dancer, was self-employed.[7]
After Davenport Lyons went into administration in 2014 its practice was taken over by Gordon Dadds[8] where she became a partner, and subsequently a partner at Ince Gordon Dadds after Gordon Dadds took over Ince & Co's practice in 2018.[9] In 2023, when Ince Gordon Dadds itself went into administration,[10] and its purchaser subsequently was closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority,[11] she joined Keystone Law as a partner.[12]
Board of Deputies of British Jews[edit]
Van der Zyl was initially a deputy for the Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade.[13] She took office as President on 1 June 2018, succeeding Jonathan Arkush, who did not seek re-election.[1][14] She was the second ever woman and fourth lawyer in a row to hold the role.[15] She was re-elected in May 2021[16] 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"[2] and she believes that the Board exists "to promote a sympathetic understanding of Israel."[5] She has pledged to "defend Israel’s legitimacy and its centrality to Jewish identity".[17] 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".[18]
In 2018, The Jerusalem Post ranked her as the 40th most influential Jew of that year.[19]
in the 2023 New Year Honours she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to faith and integration.[20]
Other roles[edit]
Van der Zyl is a long-standing member of West London Synagogue, where she has been a member of the management board, and is also an associate member of Mill Hill United Synagogue.[17] She is a trustee of the Jewish Leadership Council.[21]
Personal life[edit]
Marie van der Zyl lives in Mill Hill, London.[13] She has two daughters with her first husband, Darell van der Zyl,[2] son of voice actress Nikki van der Zyl, whose father was Rabbi Werner van der Zyl. In September 2022 she married Adrian Cohen, a banking and finance lawyer, at West London Synagogue.[22]
She joined the Labour Party in June 2024, after stepping down from her Board of Deputies role.[23]