List of British Jewish politicians

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This page is a list of
Jews.
For more on who is considered Jewish, see Who is
a Jew?.

List of British Jewish politicians is a list that includes Jews and people of Jewish
descent who served as politicians in the United Kingdom and its predecessor states or
who were born in the United Kingdom and had notable political careers
abroad.

Contents

1 British MPs

1.1 Pre-1900

1.2 1900-1939

1.3 1940-1973

1.4 1974 -

2 Peers

3 Other

4 References

4.1 Footnotes

5 Bibliography

6 See also

[edit]
British MPs

British Members of Parliament listed chronologically by first election
date (in brackets)

[edit]
Pre-1900

Benjamin
Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1837) [2],
Conservative Prime Minister (family converted to Anglicanism)

Lionel de
Rothschild (1847, admitted 1858) [3], Liberal MP, first practising Jew to be elected an MP

David Salomons (1851,
admitted 1858) Liberal MP, first Jewish Sheriff and Lord Mayor of London,
first Jewish magistrate (JYB 2005 p.203)

Mayer Amschel
de Rothschild [4] (1859) Liberal MP

Sir Francis
Henry Goldsmid (1860) [5], MP for Reading, first Jewish barrister

Frederick
David Goldsmid (1865) [6], MP for Honiton

Sir Julian
Goldsmid (1866) [7], MP for Honiton, Rochester (1870), St. Pancras South
(1894)

Sir George
Jessel (1868) [8], Solicitor
General for England and Wales, later Master of the
Rolls; first Jewish minister

Farrer
Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell, Conservative MP, later Lord Chancellor (1874)
(family converted to Anglicanism) [1]

Henry Drummond
Wolff [9]
(1874)

Arthur Cohen [2],
Liberal MP (1880)

Henry
de Worms, 1st Baron Pirbright [10], Conservative MP 1880

Samuel
Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling (1885)[11], Liberal MP and banker.

Sir Edward Sassoon Bt.,
(1889) Liberal Unionist
Party MP for Hythe (The Times, May 25,
1912)

Sydney
Stern, Baron Wandsworth (1891) MP for Stowmarket JYB 5657 (1896-7) p102

Gustav Wilhelm
Wolff [12] (1892) MP for East Belfast and founder of Harland and Wolff

[edit]
1900-1939

Herbert
Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel (1902) [13], Liberal cabinet minister & leader

Rufus
Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading (1904) [14],
Liberal cabinet minister & Viceroy of India. The only British Jew to be
elevated to a Marquessate.

Alfred
Mond, 1st Baron Melchett (1906) - JYB 1911 p297; Encyclopaedia Judaica
12:241-2

Edwin Samuel
Montagu (1906) [15]

Frank Goldsmith
Conservative M.P. for Stowmarket (1910) JYB 1911
p297

Arthur
Samuel [3],
Conservative M.P. (1918)

Manny Shinwell, Baron
Shinwell (1884-1986) (1922) [16], Labour cabinet minister & Chairman

Leslie
Haden-Guest [4],
Labour MP

Leslie
Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha (1893-1957) (1923) [17], Liberal cabinet minister

Harry
Louis Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan of Churt (1929) Liberal, later Labour MP
[5]

Barnett Janner (1931),
Labour MP [6]

Sydney Silverman
(1935) Labour MP 1935 [7]

Lewis
Silkin, 1st Baron Silkin (1936), Labour cabinet minister: Encyclopaedia
Judaica vol 14 cols 1539-1540; father of John Silkin and Samuel
Silkin

[edit]
1940-1973

John
Diamond, Baron Diamond (1945), Labour cabinet minister and SDP leader in
the House of Lords (The Independent (London); 06/04/04)

Maurice Edelman
(1911-1975) (1945)[8],
Labour MP

Ian
Mikardo (1908-1993) (1945) [18], Labour MP

Phil Piratin (1945) [19] , Communist Party MP

Samuel
Segal (1945), Labour MP and later Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords

Sir Gerald Nabarro (1950)
[9],
Conservative MP

Sir Henry
d'Avigdor-Goldsmid (1955) [10]

Keith Joseph,
Conservative cabinet minister and life peer (1956) (JYB 1988 p192, 227)

Sir Philip Goodhart
(1957)[11],
Conservative MP and minister

Leo
Abse (1958) [20], Labour MP & social reformer

Myer Galpern (1959) [21] Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means

John Silkin (1963), Labour
cabinet minister (JYB 1986 p186, 269)

Edmund Dell (1964) [22], Labour cabinet minister & founding chairman of Channel 4

Reginald Freeson
(1964), Labour minister (JYB 2005 p212, 241-2)

Robert Maxwell (1964),
Labour MP for Buckingham, subsequently proprietor of the Daily Mirror

Samuel Silkin, Labour
cabinet minister and life peer (1964) - JYB 1986 p185, 269-70

Eric Moonman (1966),
Labour MP (JYB 2005 p279)

Robert Adley [12]
(1970), Conservative MP

James
d'Avigdor-Goldsmid [13]
(1970), Conservative MP

Sally
Oppenheim-Barnes (1970), Conservative MP (JYB 2005 p.212, 282-3)

Michael Fidler [14],
Conservative MP

Greville Janner (1970)
[23], Labour MP, now life peer

Sir Anthony Meyer (1970),
Conservative MP, leadership candidate [15]

Sir Clement Freud (1973) [24], Liberal MP

[edit]
1974 -

Leon Brittan, Baron Brittan
of Spennithorne (born 1939) (1974) [25], Conservative cabinet minister, European Commissioner

Nigel Lawson,
Conservative cabinet minister and life peer (1974) - JYB 2005 p212

Millie Miller [16],
Labour MP

Sir Malcolm Rifkind
(1974) [26], Conservative cabinet minister

Joel Barnett, MP, Chief
Secretary of Treasury (1974-1979) and life peer (JYB 2005 p212)

Sir Gerald Kaufman, [27] Labour MP

Alf
Dubs [28], Labour MP and life peer

Helene Hayman, MP / Life Peer
(JYB 2005 p212)

Edwina Currie (1983) [29], Conservative minister

Michael Howard (1983)
[30], Conservative cabinet minister & party leader (2003-2005)

Peter Mandelson (1992)
[31], Labour Party Director of Communications, Labour cabinet
minister & current European
Commissioner for Trade (Jewish father)

Barbara Roche (1992) [32], Labour minister

Margaret Hodge (1994)
[33], Minister of State for Industry and the Regions

John Bercow [17],
Conservative MP

Louise Ellman (1997) [34], Labour
MP

Fabian Hamilton (1997)
[35], Labour MP

Evan Harris (1997) [36], Liberal Democrat MP

Oona
King (1997) [37], Labour MP (1997-2005), second black female MP (Jewish
mother), niece of Miriam Stoppard

Oliver Letwin (1997) [38], Conservative shadow cabinet member, Chairman of the
Policy Review & Chairman of the Conservative Research Department

Ivan
Lewis (1997) [39], Minister of State for Health

David Miliband (2001),
Labour Party policy chief & Secretary of State for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs (Jewish Chronicle,
12/5/2006 p7: "Jewish MP David Miliband")

Lynne Featherstone
(2005), Liberal Democrat MP (Evening Standard (London); 11/04/05; ANDREW
GILLIGAN; p. 16)

Ed
Miliband (2005) [40], Labour MP and chairman of the Treasury's Council of
Economic Advisers. Brother of David Miliband and son
of theorist Ralph Miliband.

Lee
Scott (2005)[18],
Conservative MP

[edit]
Peers

Alma
Birk, Baroness Birk [19],
Labour politician

Anna
Gaitskell, Baroness Gaitskell [20],
Labour politician

Peter
Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith [41], [42], Attorney General

Arnold
Goodman, Baron Goodman [43], solicitor

Lord George
Gordon, politician (converted)[21]

Immanuel
Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits

Michael Levy,
Baron Levy - JYB 2005 p212, 270

Frederick
Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell, [22]
scientist and Government minister

Benjamin
Lloyd Stormont Mancroft, 3rd Baron Mancroft, Conservative hereditary peer

Samuel
Segal (1964), Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords

Beatrice
Serota, Baroness Serota [23],
Labour politician

David
Triesman, Baron Triesman [44], Labour peer and Junior Minister

Lord Leonard
Wolfson (JYB 2005 p212)

Harry Woolf,
Baron Woolf [45], Lord
Chief Justice of England and Wales 2000-2006

[edit]
Other

Hilda Bernstein [46] Anti-apartheid activist

Tony
Cliff [47],
(né Yigael Gluckstein) Palestinian-born Marxist theorist and founder of the Socialist
Workers Party

Gerry Gable [48], communist activist & publisher of Searchlight
magazine

Nicky Gavron [49], Deputy Mayor of London

Sir James Goldsmith,
founder of the Referendum Party

Zac Goldsmith,
environmental activist

Victor Gollancz [50], publisher and political activist

Ted
Grant [51], (né Isaac Blank) South African-born Marxist theorist
and founder of the Militant Tendency

Sidney Hart, Trade
Unionist (Obituary, Jewish Chronicle, 15/04/05, p40)

Chaim Herzog [52], Israel's sixth president, born in Belfast and known as
Vivian Herzog during, and after, his tenure in the British Army

Lou
Kenton, International
Brigade volunteer

Norman John Klugmann [24],
aka James Klugmann,
communist

Eleanor Marx, daughter
and secretary of Karl Marx

"His beloved daughter Eleanor, however, who acted as his secretary,
considered herself Jewish, took interest in her ancestors, and had a warm
appreciation for the Jewish workers in the East End of London." Encyclopaedia
Judaica, art. Marx, Karl Heinrich.

Ralph Miliband
(1924-94) [53] (né Adolphe Miliband) Belgian-Jewish Marxist theorist
and father of David and Ed
Miliband.

Dame Shirley Porter [54], Lord Mayor of Westminster 1991-92

Larry Sanders [55], Green Party politician

His son Jacob is also a Green
Party politician

Sir Julius Vogel [56], Prime Minister of New Zealand

Walter Wolfgang [57], a founder of the Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament

[edit]
References

[edit]
Footnotes

^
Jewish
Encyclopedia

^
Concise Dictionary
of National Biography: "first professing Jew to graduate at Cambridge"

^
Jewish Heraldry "As noted above, Sir Nathaniel Rothschild was
the first Jewish peer in 1885. Later peers include Rufus Isaacs (baron 1914,
viscount 1916, marquis of Reading 1926), Samuel (viscount Bearsted in 1925),
Herbert Samuel (viscount Samuel 1937), Montagu Samuel-Montagu (baron
Swaythling in 1907), Jessel (baron Jessel in 1924), Mond (baron Melchett in
1928), Samuel (baron Mancroft in 1937), Nathan (baron Nathan in 1940), Silkin
(baron Silkin in 1950)." Accessed 28 November 2006.

^
"the first Jewish Labour candidate, Captain Haden-Guest": Jewish Chronicle
March 11 1966, page 8

^
Jewish Heraldry see Arthur Samuel

^
Concise Dictionary
of National Biography: "Jewish leader"

^
Concise Dictionary
of National Biography: "of Jewish parentage"

^
Concise Dictionary
of National Biography: "son of Jews who had emigrated from eastern Europe"

^
Guardian, Saturday October 23, 1999

^
Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography: "Harry, as he was always called, united both in
blood as well as name the vitality, attitudes, and temperaments of two Jewish
banking dynasties"

^
Flade, Ronald. The Lehmans: From Rimpar to the New World: A Family History,
2nd Enlarged Ed., 1999; reviewed by the American Jewish Historical Society. Accessed 14 Nov 2006.

^
Guardian, Saturday October 23, 1999

^
American Jewish Year Book, 1989

^
Obituary, Jewish Chronicle,
September 8, 1989, p.18

^
Spectator, 2/12/1989 p5:
"Sir Anthony ... is a representative of the enlightened haute juiverie"

^
Jewish Chronicle,
October 18, 1974, p.5: List of Jewish MPs

^
The
Spectator Mar 20, 1999; online here [1]

^
Jewish Chronicle,
7 Dec 2006, p.5: "The Jewish Conservative MP for Ilford North"

^
Encyclopaedia
Judaica, art. Politics: "Four women were among the first ten Jews to
be made life peers: Dora Gaitskell, Beatrice Serota, Alma Birk and Beatrice
Plummer"

^
Encyclopaedia
Judaica, art. Politics: "Four women were among the first ten Jews to
be made life peers: Dora Gaitskell, Beatrice Serota, Alma Birk and Beatrice
Plummer"

^
Concise Dictionary
of National Biography: "became a Jew"

^
Jewish
Science and Technology Books, accessed 20 Feb 2007.

^
Encyclopaedia
Judaica, art. Politics: "Four women were among the first ten Jews to
be made life peers: Dora Gaitskell, Beatrice Serota, Alma Birk and Beatrice
Plummer"

^
Concise Dictionary
of National Biography: "son of Jewish parents"

[edit]
Bibliography

JYB = Jewish Year Book
(annual)

"Obituary: Sir Edward Sassoon". The Times, Saturday, May 25, 1912;
pg. 11; Issue 39908; col C.

[edit]
See also

History of
the Jews in England

History of
the Jews in Scotland

History of
the Jews in Ireland

Lists of Jews

List
of Jewish Fellows of the Royal Society

List of British
Jews

List of Britons

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_Jewish_politicians"

Categories: British
Jews | Lists of
British people | Lists of
Jews

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