Moonman, ‘select’ MP and Deputy dies at 88
“A POWERHOUSE of Zionism,” was how Jonathan Arkush, Board of Deputies President described the former Labour MP, academic, broadcaster and prominent Israel activist Eric Moonman, who has died, aged 88.
“Eric was a long-standing deputy who served the Board with distinction. He was one of a select group of deputies who were Members of Parliament,” said Mr Arkush.
“He was absolutely dedicated to our community and Israel, as well as to his parliamentary life, and was a hardworking public servant. As I came to know over time, he cared deeply over a vast range of issues and was an eloquent speaker. He became a good friend to me and I feel his loss.”
Mr Moonman, who led both the ZF and Jewish Labour Movement, and chaired Poale Zion (Great Britain) was also honoured by the JLM’S national chair Jeremy Newmark, who said “Eric made an important contribution to UK politics and Jewish Life.”
Former Board president, Lionel Kopelowitz, who had served as one of Moonman’s vice-presidents, described him as a “great and dynamic force and a very loyal and trusted colleague”
While Mr Moonman’s political career was spent in marginal Essex constituencies, he helped Harold Wilson increase his parliamentary majority by winning Billericay in 1966. However, he was defeated at the next electionin 1970.
The Liverpool-born MP returned to the Commons in February 1974, representing the neighbouring seat of Basildon and held it until 1979.
He left Labour in the 1980s to join the SDP, but did not return to Parliament. He chaired the Zionist Federation between 1975 and 1980.
After losing his seat, Mr Moonman served as a Board of Deputies senior vice-president in two stints from 1985 to 1991, and again between 1994 and 1999. He also became a board member of the British-Israel Public Affairs Committee in 1986 and a broadcaster and expert on security and counter terrorism issues. Later in life he returned to the Zionist Federation as its president.
Mr Moonman was educated at Liverpool and Manchester Universities and became a senior research fellow in the Department of Management Science at Manchester University.
He was a councillor on Stepney Borough Council, serving as leader until 1965. After his second electoral defeat in Basildon in 1979, Mr Moonman pursued an academic career, and became Professor of Management at City University.
He married Gillian Mayer in February 2001. They had no children together, but he is survived by her, and by three children from his first marriage to Jane Biran, seven grandchildren, his sister Sylvia Greenbaum in America, and extended family.
He cared deeply over a vast range of issues’