{{short description|20th-century British Labour politician}} {{Use British English|date=November 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Maurice Orbach | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|MP}} | image = | alt = | office = Member of Parliament <br /> for Stockport South | predecessor = Harold Steward | successor = Tom McNally | term_start = 15 October 1964 | term_end = 7 April 1979 | office2 = Member of Parliament <br /> for Willesden East | predecessor2 = Samuel Hammersley | successor2 = Trevor Skeet | term_start2 = 5 July 1945 | term_end2 = 18 September 1959 | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1902|7|13}} | birth_place = Cardiff, Wales | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1979|4|24|1902|7|13}} | death_place = | spouse = {{marriage|Ruth Hubsch|1935}} | party = Labour | relations = | children = 2, including Susie | alma_mater = Columbia University | occupation = | profession = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Maurice Orbach''' (13 July 1902 – 24 April 1979) was a British Labour Party politician,<ref name="obitJTA">{{cite news |date=27 April 1979 |title=Maurice Orbach Dead at 76 |url=https://www.jta.org/1979/04/27/archive/maurice-orbach-dead-at-76 |access-date=29 August 2016 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency}}</ref> who at different times was the Member of Parliament for the Willesden East and Stockport South constituencies.<ref name="UKParliament">{{cite web |title=Maurice Orbach |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-maurice-orbach/index.html |access-date=26 April 2022 |website=British Parliament}}</ref>
==Background== Born to a Jewish family, Orbach was educated at technical college in Wales and as an extramural student at New York University.
==Career==
===Public service=== Orbach was a lifelong member of Poale Zion (Great Britain).<ref name="palgrave">{{cite book |title=The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |date=2011 |access-date=29 August 2016 |page=734 |isbn=9781403939104 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJc8afOZV0QC&pg=PA734}}</ref>
He was general secretary of the Jewish Trades Advisory Council ("a committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, aimed at countering anti-Semitism in business life" during World War II) from 1940 and remained its secretary until his death.<ref name="obitJTA"/><ref>{{cite web |title=The Trades Advisory Council – countering antisemitism and fascism in 20th-century Britain {{!}} UCL UCL Special Collections |url=https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-collections/2022/02/03/the-trades-advisory-council-countering-antisemitism-and-fascism-in-20th-century-britain/ |access-date=2022-09-15 |website=blogs.ucl.ac.uk}}</ref>
He was chairman of Central Middlesex Group hospital management committee.
He was active in the World Jewish Congress (WJC). In 1954, on behalf of both the WJC and Winston Churchill, he went to Cairo to help save the lives of Jews sentenced to death as part of the Lavon Affair.<ref name="palgrave"/> Later, he said that Egypt's President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, had agreed to spare their lives but then reneged to balance their deaths with members of Muslim Brotherhood.<ref name="obitJTA"/>
===Political service===
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.<ref> {{cite news | title = New L.C.C. Labour's Increased Majority. Full Results | work = The Times | date = 6 March 1937 | page = 7}}</ref><ref name="alderman"> {{cite book |last = Alderman | first = Jeffrey | title = London Jewry and London politics, 1889-1986 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nZc9AAAAIAAJ | date = 1989 | publisher = Routledge | place = London | isbn = 978-0-415-02204-0 | page = 101}}</ref>
Orbach was elected Member of Parliament for Willesden East in 1945, serving until his defeat in 1959, and for Stockport South from 1964 until Parliament dissolved for the 1979 general election; he died two weeks later, nine days before polling day. His successor was Thomas McNally.<ref name=UKParliament/>
==Personal life and death==
In 1935, Orbach married Ruth Hubsch, an American, who later taught English to refugees from Nazi Germany.<ref name=obitJTA /><ref> {{cite news | title = Yank Wives Fit Into Britain's Politics | publisher = Chicago Tribune | url = http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1976/09/14/page/30/article/yank-wives-fit-into-britains-politics | date = 16 September 1976 | accessdate = 29 August 2016}}</ref> She served as chairman of Pioneer Women (later renamed British Na'amat). She died in 1983.<ref name=palgrave />
Maurice Orbach died age 76 on 24 April 1979.<ref name=obitJTA/><ref name=UKParliament/>
Daughter Susie is a psychotherapist, writer and co-founder of The Women's Therapy Centre in London.<ref>{{cite web|title=Susie Orbach profile|publisher=Macmillan Publishing|url=http://us.macmillan.com/author/susieorbach|accessdate=17 October 2010}}</ref> Son Laurence taught history at Columbia University, New York, before founding Quarto Publishing in London in 1976 and served as chairman and CEO of The Quarto Group, Inc.<ref>{{cite web|title=Board|publisher=Quarto Group|url=http://www.quarto-ir.co.uk/content/company/board.asp|accessdate=17 October 2010}}</ref>
==Legacy==
At his death in 1979, the ''Jewish Telegraphic Agency'' called him a "prominent leader of Anglo Jewry" and stated "a stalwart Zionist, he was a founder of the Labour Friends of Israel."<ref name=obitJTA />
In 2010 ''The Guardian'' referred to him as "a self-proclaimed Labour Zionist who had conspicuously failed to support Israel during the Suez Crisis."<ref>{{cite news|last=Alderman|first=Geoffrey|title=The Jewish vote really does count|publisher=Guardian Newspaper|date=19 April 2010|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/19/jewish-vote-really-does-count|accessdate=17 October 2010}}</ref>#
== Collections == Orbach collected much of the material found in the [https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=TAC Trades Advisory Council Archive], deposited at University College London.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=UCL Special Collections |title=Trades Advisory Council Archive |url=https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=TAC |access-date=2024-01-09 |website=UCL Archives Catalogue}}</ref> The archive contains papers relating to the activities of the Council and additional material relating to concerns the organisation responded to, particularly antisemitic and antifacist literature.<ref name=":0" />
==Work== ;Books * ''Austria, 1946'' (1946)<ref> {{cite book | first1=Maurice | last1=Orbach |author-link1=Maurice Orbach |first2=S.W. |last2=Jeger |title=Austria, 1946 |publisher=St Botolph Publishing Co. |date=1946}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=TAC Trades Advisory Council Archive] at University College London * {{NPG name}} *''Times Guide to the House of Commons October 1974'' *{{Rayment-hc|external links=y|date=March 2012}} * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-maurice-orbach | Maurice Orbach }} * [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6490525 National Archives]: Letter of 13 Feb 1957 from Maurice Orbach MP, enclosing telegrams from constituents urging UK government to oppose sanctions against Israel * [https://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?pid=18676&pop=1#n4 They Speak for You]: 417 speeches by Maurice Orbach (1945-1979) * [http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/maurice-orbach-and-harry-knight-general-secretary-of-the-news-photo/3247288 Getty Images]: Photo of Maurice Orbach in 1952 * [http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mps-nicholas-winterton-and-maurice-orbach-lead-a-deputation-news-photo/3247291 Getty Images]: Photo of Maurice Orbach in 1972 * [http://palestineposterproject.org/poster/nationalist-worker-be-ready-to-show-your-strength Palestine Poster Project]: "Nationalist Worker! Be Ready To Show Your Strength" by Maurice Orbach (1937)
{{S-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Willesden East | years = 1945–1959 | before = Samuel Hammersley | after = Trevor Skeet }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Stockport South | years = 1964–1979 | before = Harold Macdonald Steward | after = Tom McNally }} {{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orbach, Maurice}} Category:1902 births Category:1979 deaths Category:British Zionists Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1945–1950 Category:UK MPs 1950–1951 Category:UK MPs 1951–1955 Category:UK MPs 1955–1959 Category:UK MPs 1964–1966 Category:UK MPs 1966–1970 Category:UK MPs 1970–1974 Category:UK MPs 1974 Category:UK MPs 1974–1979 Category:Members of London County Council Category:Jewish British politicians