Miriam Moses

Miriam Moses (13 November 1884 — 24 June 1965) was a British Liberal politician, philanthropist and social reformer. She served as the first female mayor of Stepney, and the first female Jewish mayor in the United Kingdom.

Early life Moses was on born on Princelet Street in Spitalfields in the East End of London on 13 November 1884 to Jewish parents Mark and Hannah Moses. Her father had been born in Torun, then in Germany, and had come to the United Kingdom in 1863 at the age of eight. In London, Mark Moses became a tailor, local councillor, justice of the peace and member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He would go down to the docks and meet newly arrived Jews and offer them support. Her mother was a charity worker. Miriam Moses studied at Old Castle Street school in Whitechapel.

When Miriam was 16 years old her mother died, and she took over the care of her eight brothers and sisters. She would also support newly arrived Jewish immigrants who turned up at their house in need of help.

In 1921, Moses became a Progressive councillor for Spitalfields East ward in the East End of London, replacing her father upon his death. She held the seat until standing down in 1934, when the ward returned Labour councillors. The Labour Party's failure to take the seat until then has been credited to Moses's personal popularity, which was reflected in her heading the polls in the ward by a substantial majority at every election. One of her colleagues suggested that her social work meant that many Jewish voters associated her more with her community work than her politics.

Moses unsuccessfully sought the Liberal nomination for the 1930 Whitechapel and St Georges by-election. The municipal election of 1931 had resulted in a hung council, with thirty Conservative-aligned Municipal Reform Party councillors, twenty-six Labour councillors and four independents including Moses. With the support of Municipal Reform Councillors, Moses narrowly defeated Labour's J. H. Hall to be elected as the first female Mayor of Stepney, and the first female Jewish mayor in the country. Labour opponents questioned her personal integrity, with some describing her as "Shylock" following her election.

Moses's personal political style has been described as "crusading zeal".

Women's rights Moses was a member of the Jewish League for Women’s Suffrage, campaigned for the municipal provision of contraception for poor mothers, and supported women victims of domestic violence through her work as a magistrate.

During the First World War, Moses served as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment at Bancroft Hospital, now known as Mile End Hospital. In 1923 she successfully petitioned the Mile End Board of Guardians to provide culturally appropriate meals to Jewish patients at the hospital, She also believed delinquent children benefitted from a good beating by their fathers.

In popular culture Miriam Moses appeared on This Is Your Life in 1958.

Death Moses died on 24 June 1965 at Middlesex Hospital. In her obituary in the New Bradian they wrote: "To us in Brady she was very much more than a Warden of a building. She was Brady itself."