Maurice Orbach

Maurice Orbach (13 July 1902 – 24 April 1979) was a British Labour Party politician.

Life

Born to a Jewish family, Orbach was educated at technical college in Wales and as an extramural student at New York University. He was general secretary of the Trades Advisory Council from 1940, and chairman of Central Middlesex Group hospital management committee.

Orbach contested Huntingdonshire in the 1931 election and Willesden East in 1935 and in a 1938 by-election. In 1937 he was elected to the London County Council, representing St Pancras South West.^[1][2]

He was elected Member of Parliament for Willesden East in 1945, serving until his defeat in 1959, and for Stockport South from 1964 until his death just before the 1979 general election. His successor was Thomas McNally.

In 2010 The Guardian referred to him as "a self-proclaimed Labour Zionist who had conspicuously failed to support Israel during the Suez crisis."^[3]

Children

His daughter Susie is a psychotherapist and writer, and co-founder of The Women's Therapy Centre in London.^[4] His son Laurence Orbach taught history at Columbia University, New York, before founding Quarto Publishing in London in 1976. He is a former chairman and CEO of The Quarto Group, Inc.^[5]

References

1. "New L.C.C. Labour's Increased Majority. Full Results". The Times. 6 March 1937. p. 7.
2. Alderman, Jeffrey (1989). London Jewry and London politics, 1889-1986. London, UK: Routledge. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-415-02204-0.
3. Alderman, Geoffrey (19 April 2010). "The Jewish vote really does count". Guardian Newspaper. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
4. "Susie Orbach profile". Macmillan Publishing. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
5. "Board". Quarto Group. Retrieved 17 October 2010.

External links

• Times Guide to the House of Commons October 1974
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Maurice Orbach