Personal Recollections of Dr. Irene Lancaster

I remember being a schoolgirl at the time and our head teacher in Liverpool telling the morning assembly that they should pray for Israel ‘which is about to be destroyed.’

This was my first inkling of how much Israel meant to the world at large and also made me feel proud to be Jewish. I was too young to volunteer for the Six-Day War, but my husband’s older brother and sister did so, as did thousands of others.

So many emigrated to Israel at that time, or shortly after, as well.

After that War, I was no longer just a member of the Jewish community of Britain, but someone who knew that if the chips were down, we had a home that we could call our own.

I have fond memories of that head teacher, who is still alive and living in Liverpool. She was and is a deeply committed member of the Church of England. And maybe that is why I ended up teaching other members of the Church of England, including Bishops, as well as accepting the request from former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, in 2006, asking me to join his Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East.

– Irene Lancaster