Browne, Joffe vie to lead Board of Deputies

For the first time in many years, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) presidency will be a contest at this month’s AGM, with Garry Browne and Greg Joffe having both put their hands up for the role.

The pair are vying to succeed David Ossip, whose four-year presidency concludes at the AGM on Thursday, August 20. The remaining office bearers, including vice presidents Liam O’Callaghan and Natalie Rubinstein, secretary Jeremy Levy and treasurer Shelley Sacks, have been declared elected unopposed.

Speaking to The AJN, both candidates framed the election as a pivotal moment for the community amid the Royal Commission and the continuing fallout from the Bondi Beach attack.

“We are in some ways at war, and I’ve spent my career building a lot of skills that actually are quite useful at this point of time,” Joffe said, such as grappling with complex environments, working across multiple stakeholders and moving quickly to implement.

“I’m at the point in my career where I can afford to step down and actually contribute to the community,” he added.

Joffe was at the operational centre of the community’s response to the December attack. Having joined the board in 2025, he stepped in as CEO Michele Goldman’s chief of staff in the December crisis, working to stand up mental health services including a 24/7 phone line and triage process. He was later appointed chair of the recovery task force, overseeing areas such as mental health and managing funds for the families of those killed and severely injured.

Looking to the future, Joffe wants to move the JBD “out of intense crisis to much more stable, longer-term implementation”, broadening political engagement and deepening multicultural relationships beyond senior leaders.

He also plans to re-energise the JBD’s plenums as topic-led problem-solving forums with constituent organisations. He also wants to dramatically broaden individual membership and public understanding of the board’s role.

“We are in a very important point in our history as Jews in NSW, and I’ll be seeking to work with the organisations and individuals across the community to try and collaboratively maximise our impact going forward,” he said.

Browne, meanwhile, pitched himself as a unifier who would position the board as a “thought leader” on social cohesion. Citing decades of experience across corporate, government and community relations, he said his leadership was “all about service” and would be built on “listening first before acting”.

“If I look at my career in the community space, it’s it’s always been very much a service and servant approach when it comes to leadership. It’s all about wanting to improve what we have today,” he said. “I’ve lived in the last 50 years what I would call the golden years, and why can’t our next generation be in a position where they can enjoy the same type of community and Australia that we enjoyed?”

He argued the board needed to speak to the broader Australian community about “what social cohesion means for a stronger community, but also a stronger country”, and revealed he had been talking to “the highest levels of leadership in this country” about a social cohesion roundtable.

Within the community, he wants to bridge denominational divides. “I’m about trying to bring people together to unite rather than create areas of division. To me, that’s the only way you’re going to see a solid future for us and for the Jewish community,” he said.

Browne said a key priority — and one of his “KPIs” if elected — would be bringing through younger leaders. “We’ve got to encourage more young people and more young leaders to understand how they can step up and get involved,” he said. “The measure of a good leader and a good president is to show what happens after they leave, not while they’re here.”

Both candidates also paid tribute to Ossip and Goldman.

The AGM will be an in-person event and will also feature Daily Telegraph editor Ben English as guest speaker. Register here to attend.