Michel Oppenheimer
British businessman and trustee of the Greenberg interest in The Jewish Chronicle; director from 1936 and chairman of its board during and after the Second World War until about 1958
| Michel Oppenheimer
| |
|---|---|
| Image |  Michel Oppenheimer, from David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (1994) |
| Born | 1884 |
| Died | 1980 |
| Occupation | Businessman; company director |
| Known for | Director (1936–) and chairman of the board of The Jewish Chronicle; trustee of the Greenberg shareholding |
Michel Oppenheimer (1884 – 1980) was a British businessman who was a director of the company that owned The Jewish Chronicle from 1936 and chairman of its board through the Second World War and the years after it. David Cesarani identifies him as Leopold Greenberg's brother-in-law and "the trustee of the Greenberg interest" in the paper.[1][2]
Family
Cesarani and the 1949 centenary volume both describe Oppenheimer as a brother-in-law of Greenberg.[1][3] Greenberg's second wife was Florence, née Oppenheimer, who wrote the paper's cookery column and had been decorated for service as a nurse at Gallipoli.[4] Cesarani says Oppenheimer was related by marriage to Greenberg's son Ivan Greenberg, the editor, and felt a sense of responsibility for him.[5] Cesarani's list of illustrations gives his dates as 1884–1980.[6]
Joining the board, 1935–36
In June 1935, after a row at a board meeting in which Leopold Kessler gave up the chair to Mortimer Epstein, Oppenheimer was, Cesarani says, "called in to mediate between Kann and Kessler".[1] At the end of 1935 he announced that he would stand against Jacobus Kann in the annual election of a director, despite protests from Kann's friends among the shareholders. On 23 January 1936, with David Kessler, he took legal advice on Epstein's right to remain a director; Kann was replaced by Oppenheimer and Leonard Stein was appointed a director in Epstein's place.[2] The 1949 volume says that Kann "yielded his place as director to his son Maurits, and Michel Oppenheimer, a brother-in-law of L. J. Greenberg, joined the board".[3] Epstein resigned in December 1936 after unsuccessfully seeking Oppenheimer's support.[2]
Chairman of the board
Cesarani writes that during the Second World War the overall direction of the paper was in the hands of Oppenheimer, "the chairman of the Board of Directors", with Stein, Alex Gumb and Neville Laski; he adds that "more than once Michel Oppenheimer used his own capital to keep it going".[7] In October 1944 Oppenheimer, as chairman, spoke to Ivan Greenberg about the paper's coverage of Palestine and followed up with a letter urging that the paper should not hint that the Government was to blame for unrest, warning that "at this juncture ... the slightest false move may do irreparable harm".[8] Cesarani also says that the paper's wartime finances were "so precarious that it was only saved by guarantees of support from Michel Oppenheimer".[9]
Dismissal of Ivan Greenberg, 1946
On 24 May 1946 Oppenheimer took the chair at a special board meeting at the paper's offices in Chancery Lane at which the directors told Ivan Greenberg they were dissatisfied with the paper's editorial policy; he met Greenberg again in June to press for a change of emphasis, while Stein took a harder line. Cesarani says Oppenheimer and Gumb were "not convinced" that the editor's breaches were so grave and, when the board reconvened on 2 July 1946, he "refused to support the dismissal of the editor to whom he was related by marriage", but Stein and Kessler outvoted him; Oppenheimer then tendered his resignation and put it in abeyance only after Stein and Kessler "pleaded with him to reconsider".[10][5][11]
After 1946
After Gumb's resignation, Cesarani says, only Oppenheimer, "chairman of the Board", David Kessler (managing director) and Stein remained on the board.[12] Oppenheimer retired from the chairmanship when William Frankel was made editor (1958) and was replaced by David Kessler, who purchased his shareholding.[13]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 155.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 156.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Jewish Chronicle 1841–1941: A Century of Newspaper History (London, 1949), p. 169.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 138.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 190.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), list of illustrations and plates between pp. 146 and 147 (captions to plates 4 and 11).
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 169.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 187.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 196.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 189.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 191.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 198.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 211.