Speakers

Rabbi Alex Goldberg is the Dean Emeritus and leads the Religious Life and Belief Centre at the University of Surrey. He is also a Convenor of the City of London Corporation’s Faith in the City programme and serves as the global focal point for faith communities in the UN’s Faith for Rights initiative. 

As the only rabbi in a lead and principal chaplaincy role in Europe, he heads a team of 33 chaplains from eight diverse faith and belief backgrounds. 

A barrister and a rabbi, he has dedicated his career to fostering community relations and advancing human rights across intergovernmental, governmental, and grassroots levels. He was recently inducted as the Ravay Ir (Rabbi) of Guildford.

This academic year, he has been a lead course tutor at the University of Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education, teaching the UN’s Faith for Rights framework.

A regular contributor to BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought, Rabbi Goldberg frequently appears on television, radio, and in print media. He advises the UK Religious Media Centre, sits on the commissioning committee of CTVC, and provides internal rabbinic support to the BBC.

For over a decade, he chaired the English Football Association’s Faith Network. In 2012, he served as an Olympic and Paralympic Chaplain, with his contributions recognized by the Olympic Peace Truce Centre.

Beyond his chaplaincy work, he has played a pivotal role in shaping faith and human rights discourse. He founded the human rights group René Cassin, was the founding chair of Faiths Forum for London and the Mayor of London’s Faith Conference, and led delegations to the UN Human Rights Council for over a decade. His advocacy successfully influenced international law on group access to justice.

Lecture: A Comparative Legal Analysis of Clergy-Lay Relations: Jewish Rabbinical Authority Versus the Legal Framework Governing Other Abrahamic Traditions in Common Law Countries