What an honour: the Queen’s birthday list
A NEWSREADER, one of Britain’s wealthiest men and a prominent philanthropist are among those recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list.
Natasha Kaplinsky, who has presented news programmes for the BBC, Channel 5 and ITN for 15 years, has been appointed an OBE for her services to Holocaust commemoration.
Over 15 months, Ms Kaplinsky, whose paternal grandparents migrated from Poland to South Africa in 1929, has interviewed 112 Holocaust survivors and concentration camp liberators as part of a commemoration project for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation.
She said: “It’s a huge honour, obviously, but it gives me an opportunity to shine a light on the most extraordinary people who came forward in the testimony project.” She added: “We live in a world now where there’s a lot of conflict, and if we can’t learn from Holocaust survivors, who can we learn from?”
Len Blavatnik, named as Britain’s second-richest person with wealth of £13 billion, has received a knighthood for services to philanthropy.
The Blavatnik Family Foundation has supported a range of cultural and philanthropic institutions, including the British Museum, the Tate Modern, and the Royal Opera House.
Mr Blavatnik also sponsors a Colel Chabad-run food bank and warehouse in Kiryat Malakhi in Israel, which sends monthly shipments of food to 5,000 poor families in 25 Israeli cities.
Trevor Pears, the Hampstead-based businessman who established the Pears Foundation with two of his brothers, has been given a knighthood under the Foreign Office honours list, for his overseas philanthropy.
Mr Pears said: “I feel both humbled and excited to receive this honour.
“Through philanthropy, I have been privileged to meet and work with many exceptional people.”
The Pears Foundation, an independent charitable body “rooted in Jewish values”, works with 250 partner organisations to fund projects including Holocaust education and antisemitism awareness and UK-Israel bilateral relations. It has donated £100 million in the past decade.
Australian Holocaust survivor Frank Lowy, owner and manager of the global shopping-centre company Westfield has been made an OBE for his contribution to the UK economy.
Mark Leibler, national chairman of The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, said the honour was “well -deserved, not only for the reasons noted in the citation, but because of Sir Frank’s wide-ranging contributions to so many worthwhile causes”.
As the third richest man in Australia, Lowy has shared his wealth with a diversity of causes. He is both a benefactor of the Australian Jewish community and a great supporter of Israel. He has a close relationship with Israel as he fought as part of the Hagana in the War of Independence.
Lord Stern of Brentford has been appointed a Companion of Honour for services to economics, international relations and tackling climate change.
The peer is the IG Patel professor of economics and government at the London School of Economics, and chair of the prestigious Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, also at the LSE.
He is also president of the British Academy, the UK’s national body for the humanities and the social sciences.
He said he was “delighted and deeply honoured” to receive the honour.
Dame Stephanie Shirley, a former Kinderstransport refugee, has been appointed a Companion of Honour for services to the IT industry and philanthropy.
Having made a fortune from her technology company, she has given £135 million to charitable initiatives, particularly those related to autism research, after her son Giles died aged 35 from a fit related to the condition. She founded the charity Autistica.
In 2014, Dame Stephanie was recognised with a Jewish Care Women of Distinction lifetime achievement award.
Professor Carolyn Hamilton, the director of research and international programmes at Coram Children’s Legal Centre, has been made a Dame for services to children’s rights and education.
A winner of the Gandhi Peace Prize award, Prof Hamilton has worked extensively at strategic government level and brought a number of seminal cases on children’s right to education to the Supreme Court. She has worked with UN agencies to help protect children in war-zones.
She said: “It has been a great pleasure to pursue a career in such a rewarding field with dedicated colleagues.”
Jonathan Gershuny, professor of economic sociology and senior research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, was appointed a CBE for services to the social sciences and sociology. It was “really exciting” to receive the honour, he said.
His research focuses on work-life balance across the world. In his book, Changing Times: Work and Leisure in Post-Industrial Society, he refers to ancient Jewish leisure practices.
Reflecting on the importance of being Jewish, he said: “Those are the habits that drive you”.
Solicitor Alexandra Marks was made a CBE for public service. She is a Crown Court recorder, a criminal cases review commissioner and chairs a national charity called the Prisoner’s Education Trust.
Richard Benson, the former head of the Community Security Trust (CST) has been made an OBE for services to the Jewish community.
Mr Benson stepped down from the CST after 12 years at the helm, during which the charity received recognition for its work in Britain and abroad.
He is now president of Tell MAMA, the organisation that monitors anti-Muslim Cathy Ashley: made an OBE
hate. He said: “I am proud my work has been honoured in this way, and I will continue to carry out this important work for the benefit of victims.”
Edward Ziff said he was “humbled and excited” to be made an OBE for services to the economy and community in Leeds.
The 57-year-old is the former president of the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board, and remains involved with the communal organisation. For the past two years, he has been chairman of the Leeds Teaching Hospital Charitable Foundation, while heading the Leeds-based property company Town Centre Securities, which was started by his father.
He said: “I am very fortunate to work with some very talented people in all different parts of my life.”
Former barrister Lady Ritblat has been made an OBE for services to art philanthropy.
Jill Ritblat is a patron of the arts and former Turner Prize judge who has been purchasing from couture and ready-towear collections since the 1960s. In 1997 she donated much of this wardrobe to the Victoria and Albert Museum, includ-