MOONMAN, ERIC

MOONMAN, ERIC (1929– ), British politician and communal leader. Moonman was born in Liverpool and left school at 13, when he was apprenticed to a printer. He worked for the   Daily Mirror in Manchester and was involved in local politics in Stepney, London, before becoming the Labour member of Parliament for Billericay (1966–70) and Basildon (1974–79). More recently he was an executive in the radio industry and, despite leaving school at 13, a professor of management at the City University Business School. Moonman was one of the most visible and consistent pro-Israeli politicians in the British Labour Party, serving as chairman (1975–80) and president (2001– ) of the Zionist Federation of Britain. He was vice president (1994–2000) of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and served on many other bodies fighting antisemitism. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)