Rabbi Herschel Gluck is a Board Member of the Next Century Foundation and our Senior Advisor on Middle East Peace Process issues. He was given an OBE by HM the Queen for services to Muslim-Jewish dialogue. He is a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement known for its extensive outreach and educational initiatives. Founded in 18th-century Belarus, its philosophy emphasizes the study of Jewish mysticism and a deep commitment to welcoming and engaging with others.
On Wednesday 15 July 2026, MPs, community representatives, and interfaith practitioners gathered in the House of Commons for the screening of a documentary that showcases the decades of work in dialogue, mediation, and community cohesion undertaken by Rabbi Herschel Gluck OBE.
How to Get On With Everybody is an intimate portrait of Rabbi Gluck’s life, following him in his Shomrim role, including navigating a rise in antisemitic incidents following October 7 2023, and exploring his friendships within the local Muslim community. The documentary offers a clear and intimate portrayal of Rabbi Gluck’s philosophy and practice, highlighting initiatives aimed at reducing tension and fostering cooperation between religious and cultural groups. Themes of empathy, patience, and principled engagement are referenced in the film as essential tools for navigating complex communal dynamics.
Apsana Begum MP, who hosted the event, underscored the importance of community-driven efforts that prioritise listening, mutual respect and constructive engagement, describing Gluck’s work as a continuing model for addressing division at a time when polarisation remains a challenge across many communities. A discussion followed the screening, in which attendees reflected on the practical relevance of his methods to today’s social climate – in particular, the value of sustained interfaith collaboration and of creating spaces where difficult conversations can take place constructively.
How to Get On With Everybody premiered on 25 May 2025 at the Rio Cinema in Dalston, as part of the Hackney History Festival. Built on interviews and archival material, it is billed as a portrait of “one of life’s true optimists”. The directors have said that they wanted to spotlight Rabbi Gluck because “he’s always shining a light on everybody else”, and to dispel stereotypes about the Stamford Hill Orthodox community.
On Rabbi Herschel Gluck OBE
Rabbi Gluck comes from Stamford Hill’s Haredi Jewish community; his parents were Holocaust survivors who fled Austria, and he has credited his upbringing as having shaped his lifelong focus on dialogue. Since 2015 he has served as president of Shomrim, the area’s volunteer Jewish neighbourhood watch group – an organisation whose remit has grown well beyond its own community: most of the calls it now responds to come from outside the Jewish community it was originally set up to serve. In 2000 he founded and became chairman of the Muslim-Jewish Forum, believed to be the first organisation of its kind, which works on issues of shared concern and mediates tension between the two communities. He also chairs the Arab-Jewish Forum of Great Britain. In 2013 he was awarded an OBE for his services to interfaith understanding.
Rabbi Gluck is also a senior member of the Next Century Foundation, where the same approach he has spent decades refining in Stamford Hill has extended into international mediation, including work in Sudan, the former Yugoslavia and Kashmir. In 2019 he became the first rabbi to lecture at a Pakistani university, during a visit to Lahore.
Rabbi Gluck’s decades of peacebuilding work are a microcosm of NCF’s own mission, emphasising that the path to peace must be built at every level of society, from individual communities to the international stage.
