Leslie Naftalin

Dr Leslie Naftalin (Born: November 24, 1912; Died: November 10, 2011.)

An obituary in the Herald states:

Dr Leslie Naftalin, who has died aged 98, worked for 41 years as a general practitioner in many of the more deprived areas of Glasgow. He was born in the city to a Jewish immigrant family of Lithuanian origin, the 12th of 13 children, several of whom became doctors.

He graduated as a dentist in 1937 and obtained his medical qualification the following year. He started general practice in Birmingham, but after service in the Royal Army Medical Corps in West Africa and in the UK during the Second World War, when he achieved the rank of Captain, he returned to Glasgow in 1946 to build his practice. He originally started work in Townhead but with inner city development moved his practice to Provanmill and Balornock and remained there – initially single-handed and latterly in partnership – until he retired at the age of 75. He was an enthusiast and great advocate for the NHS and saw its advent as a means to provide quality health care to the more deprived sections of the community. His experience of fascism in the 1930s, and the poverty of the Gorbals, where he was born and spent his early years, added to his working life experiences and embedded in him socialist principles which he retained all his life.

Zionism was an important element of Jewish life in the years following the First World War. He was born a few years before the Balfour Declaration in 1917, and the horrors of the Holocaust in the 1930s and 1940s made the establishment of the State of Israel a momentous event in his life. He collaborated with his brother Dr Sidney Naftalin and sculptor Benno Schotz in the establishment of the Glasgow Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was the society's honorary president at the time of his death.

He was a committed member of the Glasgow Jewish community and a regular attender of services at Garnethill Synagogue. He served many years on the Synagogue Council and was honorary president of the synagogue at his death. He encouraged the hosting of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre in Garnethill Synagogue and served as its honorary treasurer for many years. He leaves his wife Beulah (née Behrman) to whom he was married for 72 years, four children, his sister Beatrice, 12 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren.

See also

• Suzanne Michal Dover nee Naftalin - daughter.
• Beulah Naftalin - Wife
• Naftalin family