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Who's Who in SCoJeC |
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Office-bearers |
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Chair: Hilary Rifkind
Hilary is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of
Management of Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation, and is the first woman to lead the Synagogue.
She was born and educated in
Newcastle upon Tyne and came
to Edinburgh in 1968 after her
marriage to Arnold Rifkind, an
optometrist. She has spent most
of her professional life teaching
Mathematics at George Watson’s
College and has always been
involved in communal work,
ranging from Maccabi leadership
in her teens, to Jewish Students,
then WIZO, the Communal Centre Committee,
Edinburgh Hillel Committee, the Ladies Guild, of
which she has been Chairman for many years, and,
since her retirement, convenor of the Shul Events
Committee. Hilary and Arnold have two sons and four
grandchildren who live in America. |
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Vice-Chair: Gillian Raab
Gillian is chairman of Sukkat Shalom, the Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community, with which she has been involved since it was founded seven years ago. Before that was the organiser of the Edinburgh group of the Glasgow New Synagogue (now Glasgow Reform Synagogue). She lives in Edinburgh with husband Charles. After a first degree in physics from Edinburgh University she went on to complete a maste'rs degree and a doctorate in statistics. She has spent most of her professional life as a medical statistician and is professor emeritus of Applied Statistics from Edinburgh Napier University. Since retiring from Edinburgh Napier she works part-time for St Andrews University on the Scottish Longitudinal Study, a study that investigates social and demographic trends in Scotland. The rest of her activities include voluntary work, including that for Sukkat Shalom, cycling, running, gardening and looking after her granddaughter.
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Hon Secretary: Nicola Livingston
Nicola studied Psychology and Social Economics, followed by a Diploma in Community Education.
She has worked with Strathclyde Region Council and Glasgow City Council Social Work Departments, both in direct service provision and Commissioning and Contract Management of new services for people with disabilities. For the last six years she has worked for the Glasgow Homelessness Partnership on a ground-breaking programme which saw the decommissioning of the large homeless hostels in Glasgow and the development of an extensive range of more appropriate housing and support services. Her particular area of work has involved services for young adults with complex needs. She has been involved with Cosgrove Care in both professional and voluntary capacities for fifteen years, and is currently a member of the Board of Management and chairs the Professional Advisory Group.
She has had a long involvement with Jewish Student Chaplaincy, and is currently Chair of the Northern Region Board. |
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Hon Treasurer: Neil Livingstone
Neil brings over fifteen years experience of financial management to SCoJeC. Neil has a degree in Economics and Social Studies from Manchester University. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, having trained in the London office of the international firm KPMG. After moving from private practice to sit on the other side of the fence in commerce, he has held a number of roles as finance director across an array of sectors from consultancy to property investment companies. Most recently Neil was Group Finance Director of an interernational electronics company based in Silicon Valley in California. A native of Glasgow, Neil has recently returned to Scotland with his wife and young son after living in the USA for the past four years. |
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Community representatives |
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Edinburgh: Edward Green
Edward is the current Chairman of the Board of Management of Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation, having come to Edinburgh sixteen years ago following four years living in New York where he was President of Asprey. Born and bred in London to an English father and a Glasgow-born mother, Edward has been in the jewellery and fine arts business since his early twenties, and ran Garrard the Crown Jewellers, and Mappin and Webb before taking the post in America. Edward, who read his degree at Strathclyde University, is married to Maryla, and they have one son, Freddie, still at school in Edinburgh. He served for many years on the Executive of the Nightingale Home for Aged Jews in South London.
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Glasgow: Edward Isaacs
Edward is currently the President of Glasgow Jewish Representative Council. He was born in Glasgow and educated at the University of Glasgow. He is a partner in a Glasgow Legal Firm and specialises in Commercial Property.
He has been involved in communal work in Glasgow for over 30 years, principally as a member of the Executive and Committee of Queen’s Park Hebrew Congregation having held the posts of Hon Secretary and Vice Chairman prior to its closure a few years ago. He has previously held the posts of Hon Secretary and Vice President of Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, and is currently a delegate to the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He is married to Agnes, daughter of the late Reverend Solly Szirmai and Mrs Eva Szirmai. They have three sons two of whom are living in London, and the third studying at University. |
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Small communities: Sharon Levy
Sharon describes himself as a non-religious person who continues the old tradition of the 'wandering Jew'. Originally from Jerusalem, Sharon came to St Andrews for a limited period and ended up staying in the North East of Fife to build a home with his wife, Susan, and bring up three wonderful children. The experience of assimilating to a new society, and being for the first time in his life part of a minority ethnic group, shaped his adult identity and brought him – in a strange way – closer to his Jewish roots. Stepping down from his position as Chair of Dundee Hebrew Congregation, Sharon is now focusing on articulating the needs and lobbying on behalf of small Jewish communities across Scotland.
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Staff |
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Director: Ephraim Borowski
As Convener of the Standing Committee of Scottish Jewry at the time of Devolution, Ephraim was responsible for its metamorphosis into SCoJeC - a democratic representative organisation empowered to speak for the entire Jewish Community of Scotland. At Glasgow University, he was head of Philosophy, a member of the Court, and President of the AUT. He is joint author of the Collins Dictionary of Mathematics, and has been a Consultant to the SQA, a Governor of Hutchesons' Educational Trust, President of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow, Chairman of Giffnock Synagogue, Secretary and Vice-President of Glasgow Jewish Representative Council. He is currently Chair of the Regional Deputies Assembly of the Board of Deputies, Chair of BEMIS, and an appointee to the General Teaching Council. Ephraim was awarded an MBE in the 2008 New Year Honours for services on behalf of the Jewish Community in Scotland. |
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Research and Publications Officer: Leah Granat
Leah joined SCoJeC in 2003 on a one-year temporary contract and still hasn't left! She enjoys playing the flute, recorders, and piano, has a degree in music, and is particularly interested in the music of the troubadours and trouvères. She worked with the National Childbirth Trust and later with the Breastfeeding Network for 22 years, and was a member of the (pre-Devolution) Scottish Office Breastfeeding Strategy Group. She has also worked as freelance trainer in counselling skills and group dynamics for the NHS and other organisations. She has four children, and six grandchildren. |
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Project Worker: Fiona Frank
Fiona was born in Preston but her father was born in the Gorbals in Glasgow so she has good Scottish heritage! She has a BA in European Studies from the University of Bath, an M.Ed from the University of Sheffield, and has just finished a PhD at the University of Strathclyde which involved looking at transmission of Jewish identity through five generations of one extended Scottish Jewish family. She worked for many years at Lancaster University in the areas of adult literacy, adult learning,
and learning for older people. She is part of an ecological cohousing project, plays Klezmer, Irish, and European
music on concertina and melodeon, and is involved in the promotion of the art of her aunt, the late Glasgow artist Hannah Frank.
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Council Members
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Aberdeen representative:
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Ehud Reiter
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Argyll and Highlands representative:
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Frank House
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Edinburgh representatives:
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Edward Green
Gillian Raab
Hilary Rifkind
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Glasgow representatives:
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Daniel Clapham
Paul Edlin
Edward Isaacs
Stephen Kliner
Philip Mendelsohn
Paul Morron
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Tayside and Fifie representative:
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Bill Shackman
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Co-optees:
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Micheline Brannan
Simon Dover
Sharon Levy
Neil Livingstone
Judith Sischy
Paul Spicker
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Ex Officio (Student Chaplaincy):
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Nicola Livingston
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Consultants:
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Kenneth Collins
John Cosgrove
Gerald Gordon
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Click here for information about previous SCoJeC Chairs
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