Selig Brodetsky (Hebrew: אשר זליג ברודצקי, romanized: Asher Zelig Brodetsky; 10 February 1888 – 18 May 1954)[1] was an English mathematician, a member of the World Zionist Executive, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and the second president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He was awarded a scholarship, which enabled him to attend the Central Foundation Boys' School of London[2] and subsequently, in 1905, Trinity College, Cambridge.

In 1908, he completed his studies with highest honours being Senior Wrangler, to the distress of the conservative press, which was forced to recognise that a son of immigrants surpassed all the local students.

In 1919, he married Manya Berenblum, whose family had recently emigrated from Belgium, where her father had been a diamond merchant in Antwerp.

[3][4][5] During the First World War he was employed as an advisor to the British company developing periscopes for submarines.