I’ve had a lifelong interest in history since my undergraduate days. I pursued my passion for it at Oxford and loved it. After that, I became a lawyer and trained at Slaughter and May. I practised for the best part of 40 years, specialising in corporate transactional legal work, including a mix of mergers and acquisitions. This work has always been very intense, so I knew I was going to have to do something different when I was in my 60s.

During my transition from law, I enrolled in a part-time master’s degree in historical research at Birkbeck, University of London. This course equipped me with the skills necessary for historical writing. Upon completion, I connected with Professor Shirli Gilbert, an expert in Jewish history at UCL, who kindly agreed to mentor me in writing a book. Through our discussions, the idea of crafting a book on various aspects of modern Jewish history, with a loose theme based on my family’s experiences in Lithuania, emerged. Using my family’s experiences as a framework for selecting the topics to write about added a personal touch and depth to the book.

When writing the history of “The Jews of Lithuania”, my goal was not only to learn about my own history but also to share that knowledge with many others. I hope the book will appeal to a wider audience beyond the Jewish community, as it touches on fundamental aspects of modern history such as migration, World War, and the Holocaust.

The fate of the Jewish people in Lithuania was different from that in other parts of Europe during the Holocaust. There were no gas chambers; instead, people were shot and placed in mass graves. Surprisingly, it was the Lithuanians themselves who carried out the shootings. There are around 240 of these mass execution sites across Lithuania, many of which are unmarked today. The cover of my book features a picture of an old cemetery in a small town in northern Lithuania where many of my family members are buried. I chose this picture because, at first glance, it appears to be a pleasant scene. However, upon closer inspection, you can see that there are only a few gravestones in the foreground and background, while the middle part of the picture is devoid of gravestones. This is because, after the war, local Lithuanians took the gravestones and used them as building materials. In a way, this serves as a metaphor for the Jewish experience in Lithuania.

My great-grandfather was born and brought up in Northern Lithuania, but in the early 1890s, he migrated from there to Southern Ireland. The rest of my wider family who stayed in Lithuania perished. This served as an outline to explore questions such as: Why were there many Jewish people living in Lithuania in the late 19th century? What was their life like at that time? Why was it becoming more difficult? Why did people feel the need to emigrate? How did they decide where to go and how to get there? What happened to those who stayed behind in Lithuania?

For me, this book is part of my legacy. When you get to this stage of life, one of the things that you think about is what am I going to bequeath to my family when I’m not here, and I like the idea that I have created something of meaning to pass down to my children and grandchildren.

The “Jews of Lithuania” is available to purchase here.

Circle Square Member Q&A

What 3 words best describe you? Inquisitive, persistent, and according to my wife, kind.

If you could offer your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be? Be resilient.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement? My family, and I do regard having written this book as one of my achievements.

Which person (dead or alive) would you most like to invite to dinner? Michel de Montaigne, who originated the essay format. I find that I have often gone back to his essays, and I would be delighted to meet him.

How has age strengthened your advantage? I have come to realise the things that really matter from the things that don’t.

What inspired you to join Circle Square? I attended a book event and enjoyed meeting many of the members who I found curious and interesting.