In Memoriam Dorothy Stone (1908-1995)

<plain_text><page sequence="1">In Memoriam Dorothy Stone (i908-1995) Dorothy Stone served as Honorary Treasurer of the Jewish Historical Society from 1962 to 1982 and as President for two sessions from 1982 to 1984. Her first presidential paper, on Sir Hirsch Lauterpacht, was printed in volume XXVIII of Transactions. Her second address, on her fellow-Mancunian, Louis Golding, consisted of personal reminiscences. Her husband, Hyman, was a generous bene? factor to the Society - the volume of essays entitled Three Centuries of Anglo-Jewry, which was published in 1961, records at least some of that generosity - and served for several years as Honorary Treasurer before Dorothy succeeded him. The law was in Dorothy Stone's blood. She inherited an appreciation of Jewish law from her grandfather, Rabbi Sandelson of Newcastle, and, although she never claimed close familiarity with it, she knew enough about this discipline, as I know from the many conversations we had on the subject, to be able to discuss percept? ively comparisons between the halakhah and British law. In the latter she excelled, taking her law degree at Manchester University, and over many years serving with distinction on bodies concerned with legal reform. Hyman and Dorothy's brothers were lawyers, and her sons also belong to the noble profession. Yet Dorothy's passion for justice, her keen interest in Jewish history, her love of music, her wide reading of books ancient and modern, her Northern frankness wedded to consideration for the feelings of others, all gave the lie, if such were needed, to what used to be the conventional picture of the lawyer dry as dust. xiv</page><page sequence="2">Preface Like the biblical heroine Deborah, whose Hebrew name she bore, Dorothy was a leader of men. The statement in the Book of Judges that Deborah fudged Israel' is interpreted variously in the Jewish tradition. Medieval feminists before their time in France understood the biblical passage to mean that Deborah was actually a judge, with the conclusion that there is no objection in Jewish law to a woman occupying this position. Others of a more male chauvinistic cast of mind declared that a woman can never act as a judge in Jewish law. On this view Deborah was not really a 'judge' but, like the other shofetim of the Book of Judges, only a leader of her people (a pretty big 'only'). In Dorothy's interpretation, Deborah was both, as she herself was both; and like her biblical namesake, Doro? thy was blessed with an indomitable spirit. All who knew her were lost in admira? tion of the way, after an accident in which she lost a foot, she rallied to enjoy her life and pursue its duties with her customary zest and total lack of fuss. The memory of this courageous, learned and gracious lady will live on in the minds and hearts of all those privileged to have enjoyed her friendship. Louis Jacobs XV</page></plain_text>