Geoffrey Alderman is a British historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, especially of the Jewish community in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in the 19th and 20th centuries, and also an academic, political adviser and award-winning journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

.

Life

Geoffrey Alderman studied history at Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...

 from 1962, gaining his B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in 1965 and an M.A.

Master of Arts (Oxbridge)

In the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin, Bachelors of Arts of these universities are admitted to the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university .There is no examination or study required for the degree...

 and D.Phil. in 1969. After short academic contracts at University College London, and the universities of Swansea and Reading he joined Royal Holloway College

Royal Holloway, University of London

Royal Holloway, University of London is a constituent college of the University of London. The college has three faculties, 18 academic departments, and about 8,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from over 130 different countries...

 (University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

) in 1972, lecturing in politics and contemporary history. He was made Professor of Politics and Contemporary History in 1988.

From 1989 to 1994 he held senior administrative posts in the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 and from 1994 to 1999 in Middlesex University

Middlesex University

Middlesex University is a university in north London, England. It is located in the historic county boundaries of Middlesex from which it takes its name. It is one of the post-1992 universities and is a member of Million+ working group...

. From 1999 he has worked in the private educational sector, in the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (Touro College

Touro College

Touro College is a sponsored independent institution of higher and professional education, in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by Dr. Bernard Lander, the College was established primarily to enrich the Jewish heritage, and to serve the larger American community...

) and, from 2002 to 2006, at the American InterContinental University

American InterContinental University

American InterContinental University, commonly called AIU, is an international for-profit university with open admissions owned by Career Education Corporation ....

, London, where he was Academic Dean and Senior Vice-President. On 1 June 2007 Professor Alderman joined the University of Buckingham

University of Buckingham

The University of Buckingham is an independent, non-sectarian, research and teaching university located in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Great Ouse. It was originally founded as Buckingham University College in the 1970s and received its Royal Charter from the...

.

In 1971 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

 and in 1991 a Fellow (now a Life Fellow) of the Royal Society of Arts

Royal Society of Arts

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...

.

In 2006 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters

Doctor of Letters

Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...

 by the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

 for his important work on Anglo-Jewish history.

In 2010 he was appointed a Visiting Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies.

At a ceremony in London on 6 March 2011 Alderman was named as the winner of the Chaim Bermant Prize for Journalism 2011.

Naomi Alderman

Naomi Alderman

Naomi Alderman is a British author and novelist.- Biography :Alderman was educated at South Hampstead High School and Lincoln College, Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She then went on to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia before becoming a novelist...

, Geoffrey Alderman's daughter, was the author of the winning novel of the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers with Disobedience.

Works

Of his dozen or so books, the best-known is Modern British Jewry (second edition, 1998, OUP). He has also written for the New Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

, with special responsibility for post-1800 Jewish entries, and for The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

and The Jewish Chronicle

The Jewish Chronicle

The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.-Publication data and readership figures:...

.

Principal publications

As author:

• The History of Hackney Downs School (London, 1971)
• The Railway Interest (Leicester University. Press, 1973) (Reprinted by Gregg Revivals, 1993)
• British Elections: Myth and Reality (B.T.Batsford, 1978)
• The Jewish Community in British Politics (Oxford University. Press, 1983)
• Pressure Groups and Government in Great Britain (Longman, 1984; 2nd impression 1987)
• Modern Britain 1700-1983: A Domestic History (Croom Helm 1986; reprinted 1987)
• The Federation of Synagogues, 1887-1987 (Federation of Synagogues, 1987)
• London Jewry and London Politics 1889-1986 (Routledge, 1989)
• Britain: A One-Party State? (Christopher Helm, 1989)
• Modern British Jewry (Oxford University Press, 1992; 2nd edn 1998)
• Controversy and Crisis: Studies in the History of the Jews in Modern Britain (Academic Studies Press, 2008)
• The Communal Gadfly (Academic Studies Press, 2009)

as editor:

• Governments, Ethnic Groups and Political Representation (editor and contributor) (European Science Foundation and Dartmouth Publishing, Aldershot, 1993)
• Outsiders and Outcasts: Essays in Honour of William J. Fishman (joint editor with C. Holmes, and contributor) (Duckworth, London, 1993)
• New Directions in Anglo-Jewish History (Academic Studies Press, 2010)

other works:

• The History of the Hendon Synagogue 1928-1978 (London, 1978)
• The Jewish Vote in Great Britain since 1945 (University of Strathclyde Studies in Public Policy No. 72, 1980)
• The Jewish Shops Panel: A Guide for Jewish Market Traders (written with G. Hudes, Scott Markets Ltd., 1981)
• Anglo-Jewry: A Suitable Case For Treatment (privately published, 1990) [Inaugural Lecture delivered 17 Oct. 1989]
• Academic Duty and Communal Obligation: Some Thoughts on the writing of Anglo-Jewish History (Centre for Jewish Studies, University of London, 1994)
• The Holocaust: Why Did Anglo-Jewry Stand Idly By? (Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Touro College, New York, 2001)

Controversies

Alderman's comments in an article published in The Jewish Chronicle

The Jewish Chronicle

The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.-Publication data and readership figures:...

, drew criticism from some civil rights groups as Alderman accused Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 of being founded "in part, on an explicit anti-Jewish discourse.".

In the summer of 2008, following his inaugural professorial lecture at the University of Buckingham

University of Buckingham

The University of Buckingham is an independent, non-sectarian, research and teaching university located in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Great Ouse. It was originally founded as Buckingham University College in the 1970s and received its Royal Charter from the...

, and criticisms of some aspects of UK higher education by the UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, a brief parliamentary inquiry was undertaken into these allegations. At that inquiry (17 July 2008) the chairman of the House of Commons’ Select Committee on Innovation, Universities and Skills accused the Quality Assurance Agency of being "toothless" and declared that the British degree classification system had "descended into farce". Alderman himself gave written http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmdius/memo/170/170memo0902.pdf and oral evidence to a subsequent enquiry of the Select Committee into Students and Universities, whose report (2 August 2009) included an endorsement of Alderman's views.http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmdius.htm.

On October 28, 2011 Professor Alderman wrote an article entitled "Freedom: the right to be unfair.", stating that it was well known that Charedi men are notorious harassers of women, citing a few isolated serious incidents as evidence. This prompted a number of complaints to the Press Complaints Commission

Press Complaints Commission

The Press Complaints Commission is a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC is funded by the annual levy it charges newspapers and magazines...

, alleging that PCC Code of Practice, 1 Accuracy and code 12 Discrimination had been breached by Alderman and the JC

Religion

He describes himself as an unconventional Orthodox Jew. Alderman, writing in the Guardian, objected to the Atheist Bus Campaign

Atheist Bus Campaign

The Atheist Bus Campaign aims to place "peaceful and upbeat" messages about atheism on transport media in Britain, in response to evangelical Christian advertising....

, saying that faith was not a matter of reason, and that his relationship with God was an "intensely personal matter"