Miriam Moses

Miriam Moses OBE JP (13 November 1884 — 24 June 1965) was a British Liberal politician, philanthropist and social reformer. She served as the first female mayor of Stepney, and the first female Jewish mayor in the United Kingdom.

Miriam Moses

OBE JP
Moses's blue plaque
Mayor of Stepney
In office
1931–1932
Personal details
Born(1884-11-13)13 November 1884
Spitalfields, London
Died24 June 1965(1965-06-24) (aged 80)
Fitzrovia, London
NationalityBritish
Political partyLiberal Party

Personal life

Moses was born in the East End of London on 13 November 1884 to Mark and Hannah Moses.[1][2] Her father had been born in Torun, then in Germany, and had come to the United Kingdom in 1863 at the age of eight. In London, Mark Moses became a tailor, local councillor, justice of the peace and member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Her mother was a charity worker. Miriam Moses studied at Old Castle Street school in Whitechapel.

She appeared on This Is Your Life in 1958.[3] Moses died on 24 June 1965 at Middlesex Hospital.[4]

Political career

Moses stood for election under the label of the Progressive Party, which was a party for local elections in London based around the Liberal Party with initial support from the Labour Party. By the time Moses contested elections, Labour was competing against the Progressives, and in 1925 the label was retired across the city and she stood as an independent candidate. She was chair of the Whitechapel Liberal Association for many years.[5]

In 1921, Moses became a Progressive councillor for Spitalfields East ward in the East End of London, replacing her father upon his death. She held the seat until standing down in 1934, when the ward returned Labour councillors. The Labour Party's failure to take the seat until then has been credited to Moses's personal popularity, which was reflected in her heading the polls in the ward by a substantial majority at every election.[6] One of her colleagues suggested that her social work meant that many Jewish voters associated her more with her community work than her politics.[5][7]

Moses unsuccessfully sought the Liberal nomination for the 1930 Whitechapel and St Georges by-election.[8] The municipal election of 1931 had resulted in a hung council, with thirty Conservative-aligned Municipal Reform Party councillors, twenty-six Labour councillors and four independents including Moses. With the support of Municipal Reform Councillors, Moses narrowly defeated Labour's J. H. Hall to be elected as the first female Mayor of Stepney, and the first female Jewish mayor in the country.[2][9][10] Labour opponents questioned her personal integrity, with some describing her as "Shylock" following her election.[5]

Moses's personal political style has been described as "crusading zeal".[11] She supported the municipal provision of contraception for poor mothers, and in 1933 proposed a Jewish charitable solution for funding a housing programme.[5][7] She opposed giving exceptions to Sunday trading laws for Jewish traders.[5] She supported Henrietta Adler in condemning anti-immigrant housing policies of the Municipal Reform Party in 1932.[12]

Social work

Moses was school manager for two local schools, and served on committees for local charities and the board of guardians, which was responsible for implementing the Poor Law.[6] In 1922, she became the first female justice of the peace in Whitechapel.[6] With Elsie Cohen, she co-founded the Brady Girls' Club in 1925, as a parallel to the older Brady Boys' Club, which was one of the first Jewish boys' clubs in the country.[5][13][14]

During the First World War, Moses served as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment.[1] She was chief air raid officer for her neighbourhood throughout the Second World War, during which time she established a hostel for girls made homeless by bombing.[1] In 1945, she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her bravery in the latter role.[1]

Religion

An observant Orthodox Jew, Moses served on the Board of Deputies representing New Synagogue on Stamford Hill—the first woman representing any constituent of the United Synagogue.[5][6] In this role, she pushed for women's voting rights for the executive of the United Synagogue, succeeding in 1954.[6] She was a founder member of the League of Jewish Women, later serving as president.[1] She also served on the executives of the Jewish Board of Guardians and the Association of Jewish Youth.[1] She was a member of the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage.[15]

References
  1. "Moses, Miriam (1884–1965), local politician | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-70162. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. "Women Of Worth | United Synagogue". www.theus.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  3. "Miriam Moses". www.bigredbook.info. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
  4. "Miriam Moses". London Remembers. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  5. Smith, Elaine Rosa (1990). East End Jews in Politics, 1918-1939: A Study in Class and Ethnicity (PDF). University of Leicester. pp. 58–59, 83, 232–233, 274, 334.
  6. Rubinstein, W. D.; Jolles, Michael.; Rubinstein, Hilary L., eds. (2011). The Palgrave dictionary of Anglo-Jewish history. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230304666. OCLC 793104984.
  7. Lara Marks (1996). Metropolitan Maternity: Maternal and Infant Welfare Services in Early Twentieth Century London. Rodopi. pp. 73, 81. ISBN 90-5183-901-4.
  8. Elsie Janner (1984). Barnett Janner: a personal portrait. Robson Books. ISBN 978-0-86051-271-4.
  9. Winston, Cathy (16 February 2018). "Telling the stories of London's women". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  10. Anne Summers (21 December 2016). Christian and Jewish Women in Britain, 1880-1940: Living with Difference. Springer. pp. 81–. ISBN 978-3-319-42150-6.
  11. Geoffrey Alderman (1989). London Jewry and London Politics, 1889-1986. CUP Archive. pp. 160–. ISBN 978-0-415-02204-0.
  12. Geoffrey Alderman (1989). London Jewry and London Politics, 1889-1986. CUP Archive. pp. 160–. ISBN 978-0-415-02204-0.
  13. Samantha L. Bird (12 October 2010). Stepney: Profile of a London Borough from the Outbreak of the First World War to the Festival of Britain, 1914-1951. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-4438-2612-9.
  14. CASS, The East End Archive at The. "Brady Club". www.eastendarchive.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  15. "What Would London's Forgotten Feminist Heroines Make of Fashion Week?". Vogue. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
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