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Dear members of the JHSE,
I write to introduce the JHSE's next President, Professor Gavin Schaffer. Gavin has been selected by the Board of Trustees, and I am delighted to tell you more about him.
Gavin is himself a member of JHSE's Board of Trustees, and is an experienced leader in academia and in public history. He received his PhD from the University of Southampton, was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Birmingham, and more recently moved to Manchester Metropolitan University, as a Professor of Modern British History. His new book, An Unorthodox History: British Jews since 1945, is already garnering the greatest praise for its rigour, readability, and for the way it situates British Jews within British history and alongside other groups that make up that complex whole. Gavin has great ideas for the JHSE's future, for addressing the issues that the Board has been discussing in recent months. I am personally delighted that he has agreed to serve.
You may wish to write to him with congratulations at g.schaffer@mmu.ac.uk.
Five years ago, I became your President and managed to schedule one event in person, a wonderful lecture by Professor Ira Katznelson of Columbia University, before all our lives change so dramatically with the spread of Covid-19. The Board of Trustees - by now real friends - was then a fairly new group of volunteers, a mix of experts from academia, accountancy, compliance, communications, community relations, and economics. So we rolled up our sleeves and worked hard together to make the JHSE an open and welcoming space online, where serious history was shared and presented in an accessible manner. I know we did not always succeed, but we got better as time passed.
We endeavoured to offer assistance to members and branches as they confronted the work of Zoom, we established new branches and supported old ones, we revised our legal/charitable status, we established a monthly newsletter, developed collaborations, and created a forum for early career researchers: our New Generation Group.
In all this work the Trustees collaborated in a friendly and willing manner. I shall not name them all here, but they know how well we worked together. I should mention just a few. Our Chair, Caroline Maurice, has always been supportive and clear-sighted; David Jacobs has been generous with his time and expertise even after he stepped down from the Board; I cannot imagine any President leading the JHSE without his support. And throughout, two angels assisted and enabled our activities: Jemima Jarman and Sharon Sales.
Above all, it has been a distinct honour to be your President, to hear from you, our members, with your thanks, suggestions, and occasionally with criticism. I like to think that as the world was buffeted by disease, war, and schism, our Society has always been a place where members felt seen and respected, where they were informed and edified. And so, no doubt, it will continue as Gavin Schaffer takes over.
Wishing the Society well and looking forward to contributing as a member of the Board of Trustees.
Your President, Miri
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