Jack M. Rich
British communal official and journalist; secretary of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, editor of The Jewish Chronicle from 1931–32 to 1936, and later secretary of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies
| Jack M. Rich
| |
|---|---|
| Image |  Jack M. Rich, from David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (1994) |
| Born | 1897 Hanley, the Potteries |
| Died | 1987 |
| Occupation | Communal official; newspaper editor |
| Known for | Secretary of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; editor of The Jewish Chronicle (1931/32–1936); secretary of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies |
| Parents | A synagogue secretary |
| Education | Hanley High School; law at the University of Cambridge |
Jack M. Rich (1897 – 1987), usually cited as J. M. Rich, was a British communal official who was secretary of the Board of Deputies of British Jews before becoming editor of The Jewish Chronicle after the death of Leopold Greenberg in November 1931. He edited the paper under the managing director Mortimer Epstein until the end of November or December 1936, when Ivan Greenberg succeeded him. He later became secretary of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.[1][2][3][4]
Early life
Rich was born in Hanley, in the Potteries, the son of a synagogue secretary. He attended Hanley High School and went through university on scholarships. During the First World War he served as an officer in one of the Jewish battalions of the Royal Fusiliers in Palestine; afterwards he studied law at the University of Cambridge, where he was active in student Zionist circles.[2]
Board of Deputies
After graduating Rich joined the staff of the Board of Deputies as an assistant secretary and worked alongside Lucien Wolf. After three years he was promoted to the secretaryship of the Board and succeeded Wolf at the Joint Foreign Committee.[2] The 1949 centenary volume describes him as secretary of both bodies and as having had the benefit of training under Wolf.[3]
The Jewish Chronicle
Appointment
Greenberg died on 15 November 1931. According to Cesarani, Ivan Greenberg, who had deputised for his father during his last illness, expected to succeed him, but Epstein, the paper's managing director, told him on the day after his father's death that he would not become editor; Epstein arranged instead for the position to go to Rich.[1] The 1949 volume says Epstein, whose office as managing director was created for him, "introduced as editor" Rich, who lacked journalistic experience; it gives no date for the appointment.[3] Epstein's own appointment as managing director is dated December 1931 by Cesarani, whose chapter on the period is headed 1932–36.[1]
Editorship
Rich was not a journalist, Cesarani writes, and the leading articles and the weekly opinion column "In the Communal Armchair" were entrusted to Simon Gilbert, who had returned to the paper in 1931.[2] Rich kept close ties with the leadership of the Board of Deputies: Neville Laski, who became its president in 1933, more than once asked him to tailor news to help him professionally or in communal affairs, and in November 1935 asked him not to print news of a trip to the United States.[2] Cesarani describes Rich as remaining a Board of Deputies loyalist, although he and Gilbert acknowledged that communal governance needed overhaul.[5]
Cesarani writes that Rich and Epstein were both keen supporters of Chaim Weizmann, whereas the director Leopold Kessler, a follower of Herzl, criticised Weizmann's direction of the Zionist movement.[6]
Departure, 1936
Kessler warned Rich on 8 May 1936 that his contract was unlikely to be renewed when it expired in November.[7] Cesarani says Rich ceased to be editor at the end of November 1936, and that Epstein resigned from the company a month later; the 1949 volume says he left when Epstein retired from the board in December 1936.[5][4] Epstein resigned on 10 December 1936 and in a letter to the directors argued that Rich was dismissed only because "he stood up to Mr Kessler's interference in the Editorial Department".[7][6] The board appointed Ivan Greenberg editor.[7]
South African Jewish Board of Deputies
Rich became secretary of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. Its report for April 1958 to August 1960 records that in February 1960 he completed twenty-one years of service as Secretary, and says the Board had benefited from the experience he brought from his previous association with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the London Jewish Chronicle.[8]
Death
Rich died in 1987; Cesarani cites an obituary in The Jewish Chronicle of 20 November 1987 (page 43).[9]
Company appointments
The officer registers of the Jewish Chronicle companies held by Companies House list no appointment for Jack M. Rich, who died before the online register's coverage begins (its earliest appointment dates for those companies are given as "before 26 December 1991").
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 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 The Jewish Chronicle 1841–1941: A Century of Newspaper History (London, 1949), p. 168.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Jewish Chronicle 1841–1941: A Century of Newspaper History (London, 1949), p. 169.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 152.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 157.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 156.
- ↑ South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Report, April 1958 to August 1960 (submitted to the Twenty-second Congress, Johannesburg, 1–5 September 1960), p. 58.
- ↑ David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 143, 282.