Alexander Goldberg

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Alexander Goldberg was born in Guildford in 1974. Alex is the Chairperson of CCJO René Cassin [1] human rights group, Community Issues Director at the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Chaplain to the University of Surrey.

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[edit] CCJO René Cassin

In his role as Chairperson of CCJO René Cassin [2] he negotiated the first-ever reference to group / collective rights in a United Nations instrument (The Basic Principles on Rights to Victims)[3]. The principles were adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 2005.

In June 2006, he was one of the first NGO representatives to address the inaugural session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN webcast).

He has spoken at the United Nations on religious and racial discrimination as well as calling for the UN to take action on the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan [4].

[edit] Early Career

He was called to the Bar in 2001 and was the first Executive Co-ordinator of the Bar Council's think tank, the Bar and Policy Research Group before moving onto the Commission for Racial Equality. It is widely assumed that he was involved directly in negotiations over the Behzti affair in Birmingham where there were negotiations between the police, Sikh community and Birmingham Rep Theatre following tensions over the controversial play [5].

Alex Goldberg supported the introduction of legislation that would widen the scope of the law that outlawed incitement to hatred. In 2004, the Hindu and Muslim communities were not included in existing legislation that combated racial hatred whilst Sikhs and Jews were covered by the exiting law. He advised a group of Parliamentarians to support the introduction of a new law [6].

Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings he set up an Observatory at the CRE[1] to monitor community tensions. Within a few months of this he was seconded to the Metropolitan Police.

[edit] Board of Deputies of British Jews

In July 2006, it was announced that he had become the Community Issues Director at the Board of Deputies of British Jews [7] In this role he campaigned publicly against amendments to the Education and Inspection Bill 2006 by Lord Baker and the Government that would have seen the state imposition of mandatory quotas on voluntary aided faith schools. The Government withdrew their amendment after strong opposition from the Catholic and Jewish communities [8].

[edit] International Council of Christian and Jews

Alex Goldberg first came onto the international scene as the YLS President of the International Council of Christians and Jews. He was the first President to open the movement up to Muslims. He worked in bringing Jews, Christians and Muslims together from all over the Middle East and proposed the first-ever Erasmus-style scheme to the Government of Jordan in 1999. This concept was put on hold due to mounting tensions in the region. In South America, he arranged an interfaith commemoration which saw for the first-time in the continent's history the reciting from the Quran by an imam in a synagogue.

[edit] Chaplain

In recent years he has been appointed as Chaplain to the University of Surrey where he initiated the first Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration in Surrey. He has been part of the team that is building a £5million Multifaith Centre at the University of Surrey. This will be the first building in Britain to have a Synagogue, Mosque and Chapel built separately under one roof.

[edit] Other

He has widely written on human rights and interfaith issues and is a national advisor to the Center for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism, a founding member of the Three Faiths Forum and a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Group Relations Committee.

[edit] External links

[edit] Websites

[edit] Webcasts

[edit] References

  1. ^ 'The Aftermath - Community Relations', The Interfaith Update: Issue 28, IFN, Summer 2005
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