Marie Sarah van der Zyl OBE (née Kaye; born November 1965) is the 48th president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. When she was elected in May 2018,^[1] she was only the second female president in the 258-year history of the organisation.^[2] She was re-elected in May 2021.^[3]

She was born in the London Borough of Redbridge, the daughter of Barry Kaye, who was in tailoring, and his wife Szusanne, a beautician, and grew up in South Woodford, London, where she attended the local comprehensive school.^[2] She took a law degree at Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moores University).^[4]

She qualified as a solicitor in 1991,^[5] specialising in employment law,^[6]. In 2001 she joined Davenport Lyons^[7] where, in 2012, she defended Stringfellows nightclub in Stringfellow Restaurants Ltd v Quashie by asserting that the claimant, a lap dancer, was self-employed.^[8] After Davenport Lyons went into administration in 2014 its practice was taken over by Gordon Dadds ^[9] where she became a partner, and subsequently a partner at Ince Gordon Dadds after Gordon Dadds took over Ince & Co's practice in 2018.^[10] In 2023, when Ince Gordon Dadds itself went into administration,^[11] and its purchaser subsequently closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority,^[12] she joined Keystone Law as a partner.^[13]

Van der Zyl was initially a Deputy for the Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade.^[14] She took office as President on 1 June 2018, succeeding Jonathan Arkush, who did not seek re-election.^[1][15] She is the second ever woman and fourth lawyer in a row to hold the role.^[16]

Her visits to her grandparents gave her, she says, "a great passion for Israel"^[2] and she believes that the Board exists "to promote a sympathetic understanding of Israel."^[6] She has pledged to "defend Israel’s legitimacy and its centrality to Jewish identity".^[17] She is a self-described "fighter" and takes as a compliment the comparison that "the only difference between me and a Rottweiler is that a Rottweiler eventually lets go".^[18]

In 2018, The Jerusalem Post ranked her as the 40th most influential Jew of that year.^[19]

Van der Zyl was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to faith and integration.^[20]

Van der Zyl is an associate member of Mill Hill United Synagogue and has been a member of the management board of West London Synagogue.^[17] She is a trustee of the Jewish Leadership Council.^[21]

Marie van der Zyl lives in Mill Hill, London.^[14] She has two daughters with her first husband, Darell van der Zyl,^[2] son of voice actress Nikki van der Zyl, whose father was Rabbi Werner van der Zyl. In September 2022 she married Adrian Cohen, a banking and finance lawyer, at West London Synagogue.^[22]