Benjamin Ellis

Dr. Benjamin Ellis MBE (Sidney Sussex, 1996) is a busy man.

Benjamin is a founding Trustee of KeshetUK, working towards a world where no one is forced to choose between their Jewish and LGBT+ identity, where he worked closely with UK Chief Rabbi Mirvis to publish a groundbreaking Guide for Orthodox Jewish Schools on the Wellbeing of LGBT+ Pupils.

Passionate about creating community, he runs a Friday Night Dinner club for LGBT+ people, in North-West London and Manchester. He has lectured and published internationally on Jewish LGBT+ topics, and recently officiated at a wedding for two orthodox Jewish women in London.

In his synagogue, Benjamin leads services, preaches and teaches Jewish studies. He volunteers on the faculty of the Senior Faith in Leadership Programme developing leadership in, and facilitating meaningful encounters between, Jewish, Muslim and Christian lay and clerical leaders.

Alongside working as a consultant rheumatologist and Clinical Director for Outpatient Transformation at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Benjamin has held national roles in Government, patient charities, clinical guideline development with NICE, and is an honorary member of both the British Pain Society and the Faculty of Public Health. Benjamin has appeared on national radio and television, raising awareness and understanding about arthritis and chronic pain.

In an interview for the Sidney Sussex website, Benjamin commented:

“I was at Sidney from ’96 to ’99. What can I say? I’d grown up a strictly Orthodox Jew in Leeds, and had studied for two years in an Orthodox Jewish seminary near Jerusalem. It was a culture shock!

…

As for being a young gay man... the closet door was firmly shut at that point. My plan was to keep going, find a way to be straight enough to marry a woman. Someone in our year was an out gay man with a boyfriend. This seemed astonishing but also wonderful to me; remember this was years before civil partnerships. There was a LesBiGay society at Sidney, but I was terrified to go. I thought if I outed myself, my life would be ruined in my Orthodox Jewish community.”