Barnett Janner, Baron Janner

Barnett Janner (1970)

Barnett Janner, Baron Janner (born June 20, 1892 ; died May 4, 1982 ) was a Lithuanian-born British politician who became Member of Parliament (MP) as a member of the Liberals and later joined Labor , for which he continued to hold a seat in parliament .

Early years

Janner was born in the Kaunas district of today's Lithuania as the son of Joseph and Gertrude Janner. When he was 9 months old, the Orthodox Jewish family moved to Barry , Glamorgan , Wales , where the father opened a furniture store. He attended the local school and then received a scholarship to the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in Cardiff . He was u. a. Student Union President and Editor of the College Magazine. He graduated in 1914 with a BA in English and Mathematics. After that he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War . Since he had already studied law before the war , he was admitted as a solicitor in 1919 and opened a law firm in Cardiff.

Liberal politician

Janner entered the political arena in 1921 when he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Comrades of the Great War for Cardiff City Council . He joined the Liberal Party three years later , but again missed a seat on the city council. In 1926 he was elected to the Board of Deputies of British Jews and then to the executive branch of the English Zionist Federation .

In 1927 he married Elsie Sybill Cohen, daughter of a furniture dealer. In the British general election in 1929 he was a Liberal candidate in Cardiff Central constituency, but was not elected. At the end of 1929 he moved to Hendon in north London. He took a job in his father-in-law's company, including a. as their legal advisor.

In 1930 Harry Gosling , then MP for Whitechapel and St. Georges in London's East End, died . Janner was selected to run for the by- election. The area had a large Jewish population, who campaigned against government policies regarding Palestine . However, he was narrowly beaten. In the 1931 general election he ran there again, this time with success. In the 1935 general election , Janner was again called up as a liberal and anti-fascist candidate, but he was one of many liberals who lost their seat back to the Labor Party .

Labor policy

Within a year of losing his Liberal mandate, Janner joined the Labor Party and quickly became a potential candidate for the Leicester West constituency, which was narrowly held by the Labor secessionist National Labor . Because of the Second World War, there was no election here for 10 years.

Janner did not return to Parliament until the 1945 election as a Labor MP for Leicester West.

Since the constituency was overturned in the 1950 elections, he now ran in the constituency of Leicester North-West and was re-elected. He retained this MP until the 1970 elections when he retired from the House of Commons and his son Greville took the seat. In June 1970, as Baron Janner , of the City of Leicester, he was made a Life Peer .

He held a variety of important positions in the Jewish community, including the presidency of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1955–1964.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Lord Janner Tireless champion of Jewish causes . In: The Times , May 6, 1982, p. 14. 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Bernard Wasserstein: Janner, Barnett, Baron Janner (1892–1982) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press . 2004. Retrieved September 6, 2013.

literature

• Elsie Janner, Barnett Janner: A Personal Portrait (London, 1984)