Josef Lobenstein ("Holy Joe"), who has died in his 88th year, was a charming but also controversial and divisive figure in British Jewry, loved and loathed in equal measure by the Hackney charedim among whom he lived, by the wider community of Jewish communities in the UK, and by the Conservative party with which he identified and of which he was a paid-up member for most of his adult life.

Within the world of the black hats Joe was an anachronism. As a "yecker" - his family fled from Germany to England in 1939 – his leadership of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations was an anachronism – a throwback to the days, long gone, when the Union was dominated by non-chassidic charedim who would have no truck with gartels, streimels or freks, to say nothing of white silk stockings and peyes. Joe wore immaculately tailored three-piece suits and gaudy, expensive-looking striped ties. He was also clean-shaven (unlike his father). True, in the "three weeks" proceeding the fast of the Ninth of Av he would allow his stubble to grow, and refused to shave it off even when carrying out his mayoral duties. But when he received his MBE from the Queen (1980), he was untroubled about shaking her bare hand, for which he claimed – probably correctly – that he had obtained rabbinical sanction. Joe, who ran an electrical wholesale business, was an important figure in the complex ethnic politics of the borough of Hackney. Although originally a Liberal member of Stoke Newington council he switched to the Tories, and in 1978 won, in a heavily strictly-Orthodox ward, the only Conservative seat in Labour-controlled Hackney. His influence was pivotal to the astonishing revival of Toryism in the borough, of which he was elected mayor four times in consecutive years (1997-2000). Although not the first practising Orthodox mayor of Hackney (that honour belonged to Arthur Super, 1975-76), he was the first to come from within the black-hat brigade: it was he who pointed out to Conservative Central Office that their revival in such an unpromising locality as Hackney was not only possible, but could be solidly built on Charedi foundations - which it was.

But Joe's thoroughly unmodern politics sat uneasily even within the world of Thatcherite Toryism. He was a totally unapologetic misogynist. On several infamous occasions he used his column in the Jewish Tribune to fulminate against "the goyishe concept of women's equality" which, he explained "does not fit into the Jewish dictionary". His castigation of "modern orthodoxy" for facilitating the appointment of women even as synagogue committee members was a recurrent theme of the column. He exulted in pouring contempt upon the proposal that women should be appointed to the committee established by the United Synagogue to choose a successor to Lord Sacks as its chief rabbi.

Joe was not interested in Jewish unity, only in maintaining his brand of orthodoxy as the benchmark against which all other orthodoxies would be measured. He played a central part in the UOHC's walk-out from the Board of Deputies (1971) after it had voted to give a minimal consultative status to the religious leaders of non-Orthodox congregations. He used his influence within the Conservative party and Hackney to ensure the UOHC's voice was heard irrespective of its then peripheral position within British Jewry. The United Synagogue he viewed as a wayward child, to be watched and disciplined as necessary. A Zionist Joe was not. But while highly critical of secularism and Sabbath-breaking within the Jewish state he would have no truck with Neturei Karta, and publicly denounced its British leader, Manchester-based Aaron Cohen.

Within my private archive there are several letters from Joe, who read my JC column religiously. Usually we did not agree. But when we did he took the trouble to write and say so. Towards me he was punctilious in maintaining a yekish courtesy, but one always had to be on one's guard. At our last meeting, at his home, he proudly explained that as mayor of Hackney he had never worn the robes of office because of the Orthodox prohibition against wearing garments made of wool and linen. I then announced, casually, that of course I too observed this rule, and pointed to the shaatnes label in my jacket.

He was not interested in trying to maintain any unity

As he paid me the compliment of a toast he poured us two glasses of excellent Scotch.