The Board is delighted to announce plans to open up a Jewish Scottish Board division.

The new Board of Guardians of Scottish Jews will represent the interests of the nearly 1.4million Jews who live in Scotland and like the London-based British Board will be the only voice to speak on behalf of all Scottish Jews.

In a voting process, 93% of all Scottish Jews agreed that they will allow the Board to represent them.

The annual Jewish tax duty which goes to the Board of £79.40 will now be split 90% going to Scottish Jewish Board and 10% to the national Board. The additional money raised will benefit a number of Scottish based projects including: Kosher Haggis Enterprises, Jewish Kiltmakers, Association of Jewish Bagpipe Players and the Glatt Kosher Wild Salmon Company.

As over 50% of all Scottish Jews live in Dundee, the headquarters of the division will be based in Dundee with additional regional offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Falkirk. A special opening event is planned for August 15 2005 in which local Jewish and international Jewish dignitaries will be taking part including Dame Shirley Greenberg, Warren Mitchell, Barry Cohen and Jacob Goldberg.

“I am pleased to see that after ten years of planning, we now have a dedicated Board of Guardians of Scottish Jews,” said Board president Harry Greenberg. “I am also happy to announce that Sally Jacobs has accepted our invitation to be the president of the Scottish Board.”

The campaign to set up a Scottish Board was first started by politician Malcolm Rifkind who was previously based in Scotland before becoming a London MP for Kensington and Chelsea.

“In 1995 I was approached by a group of Jewish people living in Dundee who felt that a Jewish Board in Scotland was important to them. Since then this issue has been important to me and I felt it was an important subject to raise with the London-based Board,” said Malcolm Rifkind. “It has taken alot of campaigning and work, but we are now there. Well done to everyone involved.”

“Scottish Jews are grateful to the help and support of the Board and Malcolm Rifkind in setting up our Board of Guardians of Scottish Jews, we have lived in Scotland for over 700 years and now with our Board we can better represent the interests and needs of our community,” said Sally Jacobs.

Plans for other regional Boards including Wales and Northern Ireland are being considered following consultation with members of those communities.