by Jason Lever
Posted on Tue, 03 Dec 2013 17:00:38 GMT
Solomon’s election as a Hackney councillor
Meanwhile, within the Labour movement, Solomon Lever pursued a path between the centre ground of Herbert Morrison and Hugh Dalton (nationally) and radical innovation (locally).
At the time of taking up the reins as general secretary of the London Jewish Bakers Union, he would have seen four Jewish Labour MPs returned in the 1935 general election. In 1945, most of the 34 Jewish Labour candidates were elected, whereas all five Jewish Conservative and 16 Jewish Liberal candidates lost (ref: Alderman 1983).
East End constituencies with large Jewish populations, including Bethnal Green and Stepney, returned Labour MPs and in Hackney, Solomon Lever was elected a Labour councillor.
He served on a wide range of committees from 1945 to 1956. He was chairman of the Civil Defence committee and vice-chairman of Public Libraries, and was elected Mayor of Hackney by his peers in 1951/52.
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