Mortimer Epstein
Lithuanian-born British economic writer, editor of the Annual Register and communal leader; managing director of The Jewish Chronicle (1931–36) and its board chairman in 1935
| Mortimer Epstein
| |
|---|---|
| Image |  Mortimer Epstein, from David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (1994) |
| Born | 24 June 1880 Kovno, Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania) |
| Died | 23 June 1946 London |
| Occupation | Economic writer; editor; company manager; communal leader |
| Known for | Editor of the Annual Register and the Statesman's Year-Book; managing director of The Jewish Chronicle (1931–36); "Letters of Benammi" |
| Spouse(s) | Olga Oppenheimer (married 1910) |
Mortimer Epstein (born Mordecai Epstein; 24 June 1880 – 23 June 1946) was a Lithuanian-born British economic writer, editor and communal leader. He edited the Annual Register and the Statesman's Year-Book, wrote the weekly "Letters of Benammi" for The Jewish Chronicle, and was the paper's managing director from December 1931 until he resigned on 10 December 1936 after a power struggle with Leopold Kessler.[1][2][3][4]
Early life and career
Cesarani writes that Epstein was born in Kovno, Lithuania, educated in Manchester and at German universities, attended a Liberal Jewish seminary for a time with the intention of becoming a minister, and then studied economics at the London School of Economics.[1] The Posen Library says he was raised in Manchester in a traditional family, obtained rabbinic ordination in Breslau and completed a doctorate in Heidelberg, and in London worked for both the liberal Jewish Religious Union and the Orthodox United Synagogue.[5] The Enciclopedia Italiana gives his birth date as 24 June 1880 and says that he studied in Manchester, at Breslau with Werner Sombart, in Berlin, London and Heidelberg, taught working men, and during the First World War served in the Foreign Office's wartime commercial information office.[6] The Library of Congress authority record gives his birth place as Kaunas and records the variant names "Benammi" and "Mordecai Epstein".[4]
In 1910, according to Cesarani, he married Olga Oppenheimer and took on the management of her father's telephone manufacturing company.[1] By the age of thirty-four he had written a number of books on economic history and translated Sombart's The Jews and Modern Capitalism.[1][2] The Enciclopedia Italiana lists The Early History of the Levant Company (1908), Aspects of Jewish Life and Thought (1922) and Essays on Jewish Life and Thought (1924); the Library of Congress record adds The Growing Importance of Big Business (1924).[6][4]
Editorial work
Cesarani says Epstein became editor of the Statesman's Year Book in 1919 and in 1921 added the editorship of the Annual Register; the Enciclopedia Italiana instead gives 1911 for his joining the Statesman's Year-Book and says he directed it from 1927, and agrees on 1921 for the Annual Register.[2][6] The Posen Library says he edited the Annual Register for more than two decades; The Spectator said in 1948 that he had edited it "since 1924" and that, after his death, its editorship was given to the Royal Institute of International Affairs.[5][7] At Leopold Greenberg's suggestion, Cesarani says, he began in 1919 a weekly Jewish Chronicle column, "The Letters of Benammi", which ran for sixteen years.[2] The JTA obituary says he contributed to the paper for many years under a pseudonym.[8]
The 1949 centenary volume records a brief earlier link with the Jewish World: after M. J. Landa's editorship in 1909–10, it says, Epstein "was editor for only one week – that of his honeymoon", after which David Spiro took full control.[9]
Managing director of The Jewish Chronicle, 1931–36
Epstein was appointed managing director in December 1931. On the day after Leopold Greenberg's death he told Greenberg's son Ivan Greenberg, who had been deputising for his father, that he would not become editor, and arranged for the post to go to Jack M. Rich, the secretary of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.[1] While he was managing director, Cesarani says, he supervised both the editorial and business sides of the paper.[2]
Struggle for control
Cesarani describes a struggle that began in the summer of 1932, when Jacobus Kann and Kessler looked for a successor to Joseph Cowen on the board. Epstein, reappointed for a second twelve-month term as managing director in October 1932, pressed for a five-year contract for himself and for Rich; Kessler wrote to Kann that Epstein was "able and pushing, but perhaps not quite as trustworthy as our late colleagues" and, later, that "I feel that Dr Epstein requires watching".[10][11] In March 1933 Kessler and Epstein split the 2,194 shares sold by Harry Cowen, making Epstein a large shareholder.[10] Epstein travelled to The Hague in October 1933 to lobby Kann, and in 1934, exploiting differences between Kann and Kessler, obtained a two-year extension of his contract.[10][11]
At a board meeting on 1 June 1935 Kessler lost his temper at the unannounced arrival of Kann and his son Maurits and "vacated the chair in favour of Epstein". When Kessler tried to resume the chairmanship afterwards, Epstein told him that only the board could decide that, and Kann wrote that "the Board has appointed Dr Epstein as its chairman and this cannot be changed unless the Board decides to do so."[12] Kessler regarded Epstein as chiefly a businessman who saw the paper as a profit-making enterprise and wanted to increase the value of his shareholding, while Kessler stressed its public-service function; Cesarani adds that Epstein and Rich were both Weizmann supporters, while Kessler, as a "Herzlian", was critical of Weizmann.[13]
Resignation
At the end of 1935 Michel Oppenheimer announced that he would stand against Kann in the annual election of a director. Cesarani says that on 23 January 1936 David Kessler secured proxies from his brother and sister and, with Oppenheimer, took legal advice on Epstein's right to remain a director; Oppenheimer replaced Kann and Leonard Stein was appointed a director instead of Epstein.[3] The 1949 volume says Stein filled "the remaining vacancy" in 1936 and that Rich left when Epstein "retired from the board in December, 1936".[14] When the board appointed Ivan Greenberg editor in December, Epstein, according to Cesarani, sought Oppenheimer's support in vain and resigned on 10 December 1936, writing that the paper was being run as a "two-family concern" and citing the removal of Kann and the employment of Ruth and David Kessler.[3][13] Cesarani says Rich was dismissed, in Epstein's account, because "he stood up to Mr Kessler's interference in the Editorial Department".[13]
Communal and public roles
The JTA described him in 1946 as an active member of the Board of Deputies and treasurer of the United Synagogue, and "for some time a director" of the Jewish Chronicle.[8] The Posen Library says he served on the board of the Jewish Historical Society of England and the Central Council for Jewish Education.[5]
Death
The Enciclopedia Italiana and the Library of Congress authority record give the date of his death as 23 June 1946.[6][4] The JTA, in a report of 26 June 1946, said he collapsed and died at a reception following the induction of a new rabbi, M. Swift, at a London synagogue, a few minutes after replying to a toast; it gave his age as 66, whereas the dates given by the Enciclopedia Italiana would make him 65.[8]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 142.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 143.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 156.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Epstein, M. (Mortimer), 1880-1946, Library of Congress Name Authority File (n50032529), accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Mortimer Epstein, Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Epstein, Mortimer, Enciclopedia Italiana (Treccani), accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ "Shorter Notices" (review of The Annual Register, ed. Ivison Macadam), The Spectator, 2 July 1948, p. 30 (Spectator Archive), accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Dr. Mortimer Epstein, Jewish Leader, Dies in London at Reception for New Rabbi, Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily Bulletin, 26 June 1946, accessed 11 November 2026.
- ↑ The Jewish Chronicle 1841–1941: A Century of Newspaper History (London, 1949), p. 160.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 153.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 154.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 155.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 157.
- ↑ The Jewish Chronicle 1841–1941: A Century of Newspaper History (London, 1949), p. 169.