[5] Mirvis led High Holy Days services at Muizenberg Shul in the Western Cape, where his father served as the congregation's rabbi.

[year needed][4] In 2017, Mirvis was criticized for his role in the Israeli far-right March of Flags, where participants often chant "Death to Arabs".

Jeremy Newmark, chief executive of the secular Jewish Leadership Council in the UK, called the appointment “immensely popular.”[11] Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, the senior rabbi of the Movement for Reform Judaism in Great Britain, said: "I welcome the appointment of Mirvis as another powerful voice for British Jewry.

In 1986 he lobbied successfully against the request of a Dutch Nazi war criminal, Pieter Menten, to reside in Ireland.

Mirvis has led campaigns to improve the quality of life, safety and security in and around synagogues in the United Kingdom and London in particular.

In 2012, he appointed Lauren Levin as Britain's first Orthodox female halakhic adviser, at Finchley Shul in London.

[20] Mirvis also upholds the normative Orthodox Jewish positions that female rabbis and same-sex marriages are not permitted.

[citation needed] It upheld the traditional prohibitions against the act of homosexuality but was nevertheless considered controversial by some Haredi and Hasidic Orthodox groups,[22] in part because it made clear that the Torah still demands "sensitivity to the feelings of everyone, including LGBT+ people", and that there should be a zero-tolerance approach to either homophobic or transphobic bullying or disregard for their wellbeing.

They may even be struggling with a loss of emunah (faith, trust in God) and the fear of losing their place of acceptance and belonging in the Jewish community.

"[23] In late November 2019, Mirvis made an unprecedented intervention[26] in British politics by stating in The Times that the Labour Party candidate Jeremy Corbyn was unfit for high office.

While allowing that "Convention dictates that the Chief Rabbi stays well away from party politics – and rightly so", he added that the forthcoming elections constituted an exception, since "the very soul of our nation is at stake".

[26] Arguing that Corbyn's statements that the issues have been dealt with were a "mendacious fiction", he suggested that voters go to the polls to make a "conscience vote".

A Labour spokeswoman replied that "Jeremy Corbyn is a lifelong campaigner against anti-Semitism and has made absolutely clear it has no place in our party and society and that no one who engages in it does so in his name.

"[26] Mirvis also condemned Corbyn's successor as Labour leader, Keir Starmer, when his government announced a partial limitation on arms sales to Israel in September 2024: "This announcement feeds the falsehood that Israel is in breach of International Humanitarian Law, when in fact it is going to extraordinary lengths to uphold it.

This new department of the Office of the Chief Rabbi provides guidance and seed funding to Jewish communities, in order to promote the most creative and dynamic programming ideas.

The campaign encourages all Jews, regardless of religious affiliation or level of observance to engage better with Shabbat and reaches tens of thousands of people across the country.

[31][32] Mirvis received the Jerusalem Prize for Education in the Diaspora in 1990, on behalf of the Stratford Jewish Schools, from the President of Israel, Chaim Herzog.

[34][35] Mirvis was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to the Jewish community, interfaith relations and education.