Edinburgh Friends of Israel
Edinburgh Friends of Israel is the name of an organisation used by a number of Zionist activists in Edinburgh. Its first iteration was between 1971 and 1996. It appears to have depended on regular subventionms from the Zionist regime and when these were withdrawn the group closed.
The most recent iteration was as part of a wave of Scottish Friends of Israel groups initiated around 2014/5 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Ministry of Strategic Affairs (part of the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine).
Timeline
First iteration
Data on the formation of the Facebook group for Edinburgh Friends of Israel.
- 1971 - A meeting was held in Edinburgh last week to consider the formation of a local branch of the Anglo-Israel Friendship League. Mr John Levy gave an account of the purpose and work of the league and it was decided that a branch be established to be called the Edinburgh Friends of Israel.[1]
- 1973 - President The Earl of Balfour. Hon Sec. Mrs I. Eivan 4 Afton Terr.[2]
- 1981 - President The Earl of Balfour. Hon Sec. Mrs I. Eivan 4 Afton Terr.[3]
- 1983 - President The Earl of Balfour. Hon Sec. Mrs I. Eivan 4 Afton Terr. T.:031-332 4386.[4]
- 1993 - President The Earl of Balfour. Hon Sec. Mrs I. Eivan 4 Afton Terr. T.:031-332 4386.[5]
- 1987 (March) - "In March 1987 I had the good fortune to participate in a study tour of Israel organized and conducted by that wonderful couple, John and Irene Eivan, of the Edinburgh Friends of Israel. This was the first of a series of lucky chances which culminated in my aliyah in October of that same year, 1987. My plan was to stay in a Tel Aviv hotel for two weeks after the Friends had returned to Edinburgh, and try to find a suitable flat. But before the end of the tour, in fact on the last evening, at the farewell party sponsored by the Zionist Organization in the Windmill Hotel in Jerusalem, my second lucky chance occurred. I was introduced to and warmly welcomed by Uzi and Daniella Shilon. Uzi is a well known lawyer. His family has been settled in Israel for four generations. He and his charming wife speak excellent English with a faintly familiar accent which they acquired during two years spent in Glasgow, where Uzi worked in the Jewish Agency as a "shaliach", or middle-man between Scotland and Israel (the literal translation would be, I suppose, "emissary"). They had made the journey from Ramat-Gan to Jerusalem on purpose to meet some of their Scottish friends at the Windmill Hotel party, and they were destined to become my best friends in Israel. [6]
- 1997 - President The Earl of Balfour. Hon Sec. Mrs I. Eivan 4 Afton Terr. T.:031-552 2860.[7]
- 2000 - No listing in the Jewish Year Book.
Second iteration
- 2015 - Creation of Facebook group
Notes
- ↑ Jewish Chronicle, 24 December 1971, p. 5.
- ↑ The Jewish Year Book, 1973, p. 119.
- ↑ The Jewish Year Book, 1981, p. 127.
- ↑ The Jewish Year Book, 1983, p. 124.
- ↑ The Jewish Year Book, 1993, p. 157.
- ↑ Eva Erdelyi After nearly half a century in Edinburgh Aliyah at 75 plus, Edinburgh Star, No. 5. March 1990
- ↑ The Jewish Year Book, 1997, p. 131.