Greville Janner

Greville Janner, Lord Janner of Braunstone, (11 July 1928 – 19 December 2015) was a Labour peer and a leading British Zionist. He was on a leave of absence from the House of Lords since 13 October 2014.

From 1970 to 1997 Janner was the Labour MP for Leicester North West and then Leicester West.

Janner's website notes that: He joined the army at 18, serving as the youngest War Crimes Investigator in the British Army of the Rhine and worked at weekends with survivors in the Bergen Belsen Displaced Persons camp.

Janner has campaigned against the AUT boycott on Israel.

Early life

Janner was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) parents, the son of Barnett Janner and Elsie Sybil, née Cohen. Janner and Ruth, his sister (later Lady Morris of Kenwood), were evacuated to Canada at the age of 11, because their parents anticipated a Nazi invasion of Britain. While in Canada, living with family friends, he attended Bishop's College School, Lennoxville, Quebec. Janner returned to Britain in 1942 and attended St Paul's School, London.

At the age of 18, he served in occupied Germany working for the War Crimes Investigation Unit of the British Army of the Rhine for 18 months. Janner investigated cases of British airmen who were shot at Stalag Luft III, the prisoner of war camp. At weekends, he worked with Holocaust survivors at Bergen-Belsen. The army unit was closed in 1948 to Janner's dismay.

Later, Janner read Law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society, in 1952, and chairman of the university Labour Club. He became the international secretary of the National Association of Labour Students and president of Trinity Hall Athletic Club. Janner was able to attend Harvard Law School through both the Fulbright and Smith-Mundt Act awards.

After training, via a Harmsworth Scholarship at Middle Temple, he became a barrister in 1954 and was appointed a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1971.

House of Commons

Having unsuccessfully fought Wimbledon in the 1955 General Election, Janner represented Leicester North West from the 1970 general election until February 1974, succeeding his father, Sir Barnett Janner, a former Chairman of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain. His father announced his retirement from the Commons two days before candidate nominations closed in 1970, and his son was quickly chosen in his place. Posters imploring electors to "Vote Janner" had already been printed, and thus did not need to be scrapped.

The younger Janner retained the reformed |Leicester West from 1974 until his retirement at the 1997 general election. Janner chaired the Select Committee on Employment from 1994 to 1996. He lost this position because Conservative members of the committee acted against him. A potential conflict of interest existed as he was an advisor to firms the committee might investigate. He was succeeded in Leicester West by Patricia Hewitt.

House of Lords

Janner was created a life peer as Baron Janner of Braunstone, of Leicester in the County of Leicestershire in 1997. He was President and an Officer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Anti-Semitism. Janner was associated with the Labour Friends of Israel and in 2002 backed Stephen Byers to be chairman.

In 2006, Janner was struck by Lord Bramall, a former head of the Armed Forces, during a heated row over the Middle East. In the incident, which occurred during the 2006 Lebanon War, the two men had disagreed in the House of Lords chamber after Bramall had made comments Janner considered too critical of Israel. Janner was hit in one of the rooms close to the chamber. Janner later sought the advice of fellow peers about how and whether to make a formal complaint against Lord Bramall, before deciding to accept an apology.

Janner continued to attend the House of Lords until December 2013. He was on leave of absence from the House of Lords from 13 October 2014.

JC Power 100

In 2008, The Jewish Chronicle declared 'the top spots' on their second annual list of those who 'wield the greatest influence on British Jewry'. Janner is listed at number 20. The criteria for being listed is described as 'those with a vision for Jewish life in this country and who did their utmost to bring it about using either money; persuasion; religion; culture; political or social leadership; or simply inspiring through word and deed'. In order for someone to be listed in the top 20, it was generally necessary to demonstrate influence in more than one of the spheres.

The article describes how...

'The Labour peer’s high standing in the inaugural Power 100 partly signified his role as an “incubator” of communal talent by giving starting jobs to leaders of the future. That influence may be waning as the indefatigable Cardiff-born political operator approaches 80. He represented Leicester constituencies in the Commons from 1970-97 before moving to the Lords. A modernising Board of Deputies president in the 1980s, he remains an impassioned voice on restitution and other Shoah issues as chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust. He speaks nine languages and is a member of the Magic Circle and the International Brotherhood of Magicians'.

Others included in the list were Lord Levy (number 9), Ron Prosor (number 10), Daniel Finkelstein (number 11), John Mann (number 17), Jonathan Freedland (number 18), Julia Neuberger (number 19), Trevor Chinn (number 14), Prime Minister Gordon Brown (number 29) & Poju Zabludowicz (number 30).

Sexual offences

In April 2015 it was decided by the CPS that Janner would not be charged with child sexual abuse offences because his dementia meant he was not fit to take part in court proceedings. The charges were from events in the 1970s and 80s and in 1991 Janner told Parliament he was innocent. During the investigation more than twenty alleged victims were interviewed and police files on the case were studied for nine months. The verdict was reached as director of public prosecution Alison Saunders felt Janner's condition meant there is no current or future risk of offending.

Family

• Barnett Janner - father
• Lord Janner's younger daughter is Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, who was appointed Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism in 2011. She is married to a brother of the Israeli writer Amos Oz.

Affiliations

• United Kingdom-United Arab Emirates All-Party Parliamentary Group, member
• Parliamentary Committee for the release of Soviet Jewry, founded in 1971
• Board of Deputies of British Jews, Director 1979 to 1985
• Inter Parliamentary Council Against Anti-semitism, 1982 - present
• Commonwealth Jewish Council, Founder and president 1982 - present
• British Israel Parliamentary Group, Vice-Chairman
• World Jewish Congress, Vice-President 1991-2009
• Founder and President of the Inter Parliamentary Council Against Antisemitism (1985- ).
• He is Chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust and of the Lord Forte Charitable Trust.
• Member of both the Magic Circle and the International Brotherhood of Magicians'.
• All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia chairman from November 2010 - January 2011: he quit after he and party vice-chairman Kris Hopkins failed to persuade colleagues to sack a body called iEngage as the group’s secretariat at the group's first meeting in November 2010.
• Israel, Britain and the Commonwealth Association, Honorary Member
• In parliament, and outside, he was involved in campaigning for the War Crimes Act 1991, lobbying the Thatcher government to allow legislation to bring those responsible for Nazi atrocities (and now resident in Britain) to justice.
• vice-president of the Jewish Leadership Council until 2015.
• President of the National Council for Soviet Jewry (1979–85) and the Commonwealth Jewish Council.
• In 1988 he co-founded the Holocaust Educational Trust with Merlyn Rees, a body which successfully persuaded the British government to add teaching about the Holocaust to the National Curriculum in 1988. Janner stood down from the role in 2012. The Lord Janner Scholarship provides funding for ten schools to take part in the Trust's educational programmes each year.

• Co-founder (along with Prince Hassan of Jordan) of the Coexistence Trust.

Notes

|