Harry's obituary in The Guardian, which I feel needs a few corrections:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/may/22/schools.uk
Harry was born in the city centre, in the slums, moving West due to necessity, to extended observant Jewish relatives who lived in one of the, homes fit for heroes council houses, which were sheer luxury in comparison to the slums. His father was a secular Jew/Yorkshireman, had many jobs, I was told he sold ice creams from a dynamo powered pack on back of his bicycle, he was called up during ww2 to serve with the RAF on the homefront, he was a bus conductor with East Yorkshire Motors where he was also union rep, and then was a clerical worker, my aunt said she had no knowledge of their father ever being a shoemaker. His paternal grandad was a UK destination immigrant tailor from Minsk, grandma from Latvia. First part of the following article has good explanation on that generations arrival in Hull: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3vx9q1kqKtzFhmDYcssDsdR/
from-russia-with-love-a-migration-story
Harry's mother, a practicing Christian from Yorkshire,who he told me he had happy memories of her singing to him by the fireplace, her grandfather was David Reynard Robinson:
https://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/mosaic-effects-1343916.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrago,_Hornsea
He joined a Palestine solidarity group, he also supported African campaigners for improved human rights. He was not locked out of key aspects of community life as a result of his political activities, as the obituary seems to infer or could be interpreted to to infer, his grandfather was from Bolsheviks, didn't stop him attending synagogue, his paternal grandparents were buried in Ella Street graveyard https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/Hullcomm/hullSixJewishCemeteries.htm so it can be said, London might boast Karl Marks in Highgate cemetery but Hull has a few too!) Harry and his friends from his synagogue established in the mid 1950s Hull's first Youth Jewish Communist group. During that time he and his friends made a non-violent, peaceful protest at a book by a visiting American Rabbi. They were all initially thrown out, then asked to apologise to the visiting rabbi. Harry refused but he remained in touch with his friends from the Synagogue who he and my family formed lasting bonds with, holidaying with them in France. The Synagogue eventually said Harry did not need to apologise but he had become secular by then. The Synagogue never stopped telling Harry he was always welcome back any time and they told me I and my siblings were always welcome, members from Hull synagogues fully supported Hull stop the war in its establishment and attended meetings offering any support they could. Like our father, we're also all secular but appreciated a wide variety of diverse humans at peace initiatives. Harry was a thoughtful intellectual who tended to avoid labels. He avoided small scale deflective religious and secterian factionalisms and I'm not sure he'd have called himself an anti zionist but he and his immediate family were definitely critical of oppressive policies, dehumanising Palestinian's, supporting the two state solution and full labour, housing, land and all other socio-economic and political human rights and equalities. He actively challenged anti semitism, Islamaphobia and other racisms. Whilst appreciating diversity he was secular, or as one of my siblings humorously noted, he was a devout atheist. Otherwise all the rest of the obituary is pretty accurate within the domains it mentions. It's a shame his pro feminist activities weren't mentioned, so I shall note a few of those:
The Secretary of his Hull Jewish youth Communist group was a young female who he spoke highly of and championed her achievements within the group and community.
He and another male trade unionist were criticised by an Irish trade unionist feminist for not doing enough to promote women's equalities in the work place. He then asked what specifically he could do more and immediately implemented the recommendations in his workplace.
I was told the head of Leo Schultz during his tenure there had been one of the first, secondary school female head teachers in England. Harry and a core group of colleagues supported the head teacher to actively prevent unnecessary criticism from hostile parties and gutter press as her tenure was met with opposition by traditionalists.
Harry and a core of STEM teachers, after a school wide consultation with parents had found parents wanted their daughter's to do as well as their sons and have opportunities to uptake apprenticeships and or go to university too, founded a female only lunchtime STEM club to close the STEM gap which was significant in the 1980s
I was told by the then politics and photography lecturers at Wyke college in the 90s, that Harry had been pivotal in implementing equalities policies and practices in the college from commencing his tenure there at its inception. Most notably they praised the training of all new staff in actively anti discriminatory practice and also the use of flexible department timetabling - enabling staff with parenting or caring responsibilities to work hours to suit their life demands - these were done thoughtfully by lived experience and empathetic consultation with colleagues as well as from his trade union years, all implemented and effectively achieved, long long before the Equality Act 2010 and Equality impact assessment became embedded within Equalities practices.
Many of his students and former students tended to know who I and my siblings were and would approach us to praise Harry for his music (a link to a small sample of his music: https://x.com/gurevitchesque/status/1480245362258501637?s=20 ), egalitarian approach and his way of empowering the lads to work with their fellow female students as a united team ensuring rights respecting relations while praise from the female students tended to revolve around his approach to upholding their birthright of being respected as equal members of socio-economic and political life.
As a father and a member of the community some may remember the time a peculiar but fabulous Frenchman called Claude opened a bookshop on Newland Ave. Harry was in the bookshop the instant it opened and it met with his approval, he spent so much time in there Claude installed a settee, regularly declaring he'd installed it for Harry. On occasions Harry returned home with a feminist book for me and if I said, "Oh that's great we're actually covering that at Uni at the moment," he'd say, "yes I thought you'd like it, that's why I got it for you," but if I said, "Oh no that's an awful book, I'm not into that sort of feminism," he'd say, "No, I didn't think you'd like it, it was all Claude's idea, he thought you'd like it.". If I popped into the booksshop and asked Claude if he'd recommended the book Claude would look at me sideways and ask, "Did you like it?" Or, "How do you rate it, as a bookseller it's good for me to know what young feminists think nowadays..." And if I said, "It's a great book..." Claude would say, "Yes I thought you'd like it, that's why I put it aside for your dad," if I said, "Oh it's awful, I don't rate that type of feminism," he'd say, "Well it was all your dad's idea, he thought you'd like it."
Claude, and Harry on the installed settee, could also be found having humorously childish but equally intellectual debates on topics like, which was more progressive the French Revolution or the Russian revolution, much to the delight of browsers, it was like an intellectual Monty python with hues of French and Russian cinematography.
As a member of the community he would not tolerate racist, sexist, derogatory language or maltreatment of anyone, had the discernment to respond firmly with logic and reason when required as well as being able to lighten the load with absurd intellectual humour when appropriate and was highly regarded because of it, driving inclusive, safe community wellbeing of all.
Anna
15/10/2026
