In memoriam: Lionel Kochan, 1922-2005

Dr Lionel Kochan, who died on 25 September 2005, served as President of this Society in 1980-2.

Chimen Abramsky once said that to be a Jewish historian one needs to know German, Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish and probably Polish. I suspect that very few of us would be accepted under that definition as proper Jewish historians ? probably Chimen himself might be one of those who could pass that test – but certainly Lionel Kochan would have joined them.

Another requirement for such an historian is to understand not only the culture or cultures to which he belongs, but the nature of those cultures. It is not sufficient to be Jewish; he must be learned in his Judaism and its roots. He must equally know and understand the society in which he is living as well as that which he is studying. There is a saying we all know, that ‘it

Written by

Aubrey Newman

Published in

Volume 41

2007

Other articles within the volume

• In memoriam: Lionel Kochan, 1922-2005
• Kindertransport: Tylers Green Hostel for young Jewish refugees
• Mac Goldsmith
• Addendum III: Lieutenant Marcus Bloom: a Jewish hero of the SOE
• Addendum II: More than just a few: Jewish pilots and aircrew in the Battle of Britain
• Addendum I
• Captain Isidore Newman, SOE
• A Jewish contribution to British psychiatry: Edward Mapother, Aubrey Lewis and their Jewish and refugee colleagues at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry, 1933-66
• Hagedud Ha-Sini: The Jewish Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, 1932—42
• Jewish missionary activity in Portugal between the Wars
• Izak Goller (1891—1939): Zionist poet, playwright and preacher
• Two Hebrew grammars and the Enlightenment
• England expects…: British Jews under the white ensign from HMS Victory to the loss of HMS Hood in 1941
• John Braham — from meshorrer to tenor
• An eighteenth-century Sephardi lady: her relations and her property
• The Mahamad as an Arbitration Court
• The Domus Conversorum: the personal interest of Henry III
• Preface