Ephraim Mirvis

Sir Ephraim Yitzchak Mirvis KBE (born 7 September 1956) is a South African-born British Orthodox rabbi serving as the eleventh Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since his installation on 1 September 2013. Born into a rabbinical family in Johannesburg, he received his rabbinic ordination from Machon Ariel in Jerusalem in 1980 after studying at several yeshivot in Israel and obtaining a BA in Education and Classical Hebrew from the University of South Africa. His early career included serving as rabbi of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation from 1982 to 1984 and as Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1985 to 1992, followed by rabbinical positions at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue (1992–1996) and as senior rabbi of Finchley United Synagogue (1996–2013) in London. In 2023, Mirvis was knighted by King Charles III for his contributions to the Jewish community, interfaith relations, and education, becoming the first Chief Rabbi to receive such an honor in recognition of initiatives like launching the Ma’ayan program for training women in religious roles and hosting the first Iftar by a Chief Rabbi in 2017. He is married to Valerie Mirvis, with four sons and seventeen grandchildren, following the death of their daughter Liora in 2011.

Ephraim Mirvis was born in 1956 in South Africa into a rabbinical family; his father, Rabbi Lionel Mirvis, served as the rabbi of the Claremont and Wynberg Hebrew Congregations in Cape Town, while his grandfather had also held rabbinical positions.

He attended Herzlia High School in Cape Town from 1968 to 1973, where, as a teenager, he organized and led a daily minyan to encourage greater Jewish engagement among students.