Nigel Allon

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Howard Nigel Allon is a Glasgow optician and Zionist activist. He was chairman of the Glasgow Zionist Organisation and later vice-chairman, then chairman, of the Giffnock & Newlands Synagogue. In 1981, according to an account by his son Gregory Allon, the Israeli embassy asked him and his wife Maxine Allon to take medicines to refuseniks in Leningrad and Moscow.[1]

Family

Howard Nigel Allon married Maxine Annabell Mail in 1968 in Glasgow.[2] He was 39 in June 1984.[3] Their children are Gregory Marc (born 1970), Timothy John (born 1972), Olga Gabrielle (born 1976) and Ivor Robin Allon (born 8 March 1990).[4][5]

Ethel Allon (died 2003, aged 89, mother's maiden name Robinson) is named as a grandmother in the 1990 notice.[5][6] Isadore Allon (also indexed as Ivor Allon; died 1987, aged 76, mother's maiden name Aaron) is probably Nigel Allon's father.[7] See Allon family (Glasgow).

Maxine was a member of the 35s in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[1] Gregory Allon was UJS regional chair at Glasgow University in 1991, later UJS Israel officer and a candidate for UJS national secretary, and FZY education officer in 1993.[8][9][10][11]

Glasgow Zionist Organisation

Allon compered a Glasgow Zionist Organisation event in May 1981.[12] In March 1983, writing from 43 Queen Square, he stated that the GZO had left the Zionist Federation.[13] He was reported as chairman of the GZO in May 1985.[14] In October 1988 he appeared on a GZO panel with Mark Goldberg, Henry Tankel and Max Gold.[15] In December 1991 the Jewish Chronicle reported him as chairman of the GZO and a member of the Peace Now executive, in an article by Joseph Benjamin, "Zionists divide on debate demand".[16]

British Friends of the Israel War Disabled

In June 1984 Allon was co-chairman of the Glasgow branch of the British Friends of the Israeli War Disabled. The Jewish Chronicle reported that he had hosted an Israeli soldier five years earlier, and that he was then hosting Shmuel, a war veteran from Haifa.[3]

Giffnock and Newlands Synagogue

He was vice-chairman of the Giffnock & Newlands Synagogue in 2011 and chairman from 2011 to 2013.[17][18][19][20]

1981 journey to Leningrad and Moscow

Greg Allon wrote in 2025 that in 1981 a man from the Israeli embassy telephoned his parents from a phone box and asked them to travel incognito to Russia with medicines and other items for refuseniks, and that they agreed. According to that account they used a cover story of a holiday in New York, flew to Leningrad in mid-winter and went on to Moscow, and took medicines, goods that could be used as currency, a camera and coffee. They met refuseniks, including a man the blog calls Misha and, at a Jewish lesson, Grigory Wasserman. They were asked to take out a document signed by a number of Jews "setting out the challenges of their lives as refuseniks in Soviet Russia", intended for a human rights congress. Nigel Allon first carried the document; after delays at Moscow Airport, Maxine Allon took it. They later handed it to "the Israeli embassy guy", who, the blog says, called them "Fools and angels" and passed the document on.[1]

The blog attributes the request to the Israeli embassy. It does not name Nativ.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Greg Allon, "My Parents, the Cold War Couriers", 15 March 2025.
  2. ↑ ScotlandsPeople, statutory marriage index, ALLON, Howard Nigel, MAIL, Maxine Annabell, 1968, 644/2/320, Glasgow.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Jewish Chronicle, 1 June 1984, p.4.
  4. ↑ ScotlandsPeople, statutory birth index, ALLON, Gregory Marc, 1970, 644/5/31; ALLON, Timothy John, 1972, 650/95; ALLON, Olga Gabrielle, 1976, 650/259; ALLON, Ivor Robin, 1990, 650/108.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Jewish Chronicle, 16 March 1990, p.22, birth notice: ALLON (Aaron), Maxine (née Mail) and Nigel, a son, Ivor Robin, 8 March 1990, "brother for Gregory, Timothy and Olga", "grandchild for Ethel Allon and Harold Mail".
  6. ↑ ScotlandsPeople, statutory death index, ALLON, Ethel, 89, ROBINSON, 2003, 650/484, Eastwood and Mearns.
  7. ↑ ScotlandsPeople, statutory death index, ALLON, Isadore (also indexed Ivor), 76, AARON, 1987, 650/76, Eastwood and Mearns.
  8. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 18 January 1991, p.26.
  9. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 6 December 1991, p.14.
  10. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 27 December 1991, p.14.
  11. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 22 January 1993, p.14.
  12. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 15 May 1981, p.12.
  13. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 18 March 1983, p.20.
  14. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 3 May 1985, p.11.
  15. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 28 October 1988, p.13.
  16. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 27 December 1991, Joseph Benjamin, "Zionists divide on debate demand".
  17. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 18 February 2011.
  18. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 13 January 2012.
  19. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 17 May 2013.
  20. ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 13 December 2013, p.16.
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