Jo Wagerman was the first woman head of JFS and the first woman president of the Board of Deputies. Her passing this week is sad news for us all but particularly for women for whom she was a role model.
By the time I became the second senior vice president of the Board (Jo was the first), things had moved on but the patriarchal ethos only really started to crumble in the past few years.
When, for example, a male colleague asked me when we were setting up a men’s group, I had to point out that it already existed!
Jo stood up for women. She told me about the challenge she faced at JFS where some men tried to block her appointment as head teacher, a role she held from 1985-93. She deftly and quickly accepted, announced the appointment and Rachel Fink, the current headteacher and a pupil there at the time, tells me the school cheered the news.
Jo had a difficult upbringing with an abusive mother and little food in the house. She studied secretly and her academic success was exceptional. Jo was awarded her OBE for services to education and she was rightly proud that this was at the recommendation of former pupils.
Lira Winston, of the Partnership for Jewish Schools told me Jo had very clear values much needed in leadership and a strong commitment for her pupils to attain high standards
Whilst brought up largely secular, Jo chose a traditional Orthodox lifestyle with her husband Peter. She recognised that Jewish society and religious practice were, what she called, “patriarchal” in an interview in 2000, but did not challenge norms in the religious space.
Being elected President of the Board was a game changer. It took 15 years for the second woman, Marie Van der Zyl, to be elected, just this year.
Jo was Vice President of the World Jewish Congress and deeply involved with the European Jewish Congress. Flo Kaufman, former Board vice president, told me how Jo travelled with her to Morocco in 2000 at the invitation of King Mohamed — ever building bridges.
After Jo’s retirement, her work never ceased. In 2016, she was appointed a patient governor at UCLH. She wrote movingly, “I believe large organisations must take particular care to preserve their humanity, and never forget they are there to serve a vulnerable group of people.”
Jo was always ready, as Nicky Goldman of Lead noted, to support younger women and to offer encouragement.
Deborah Nathan, the current co-chair of AJWO, which represents Jewish women, was inspired by Jo to step up both professionally and communally.
Most significant for me, however, was Jo’s recognition that differences, both within our community and beyond, must be challenged. In her 2000 Telegraph interview she commented: “We do have to work together, to understand that differences — religious, social or political — are truly held, but you have to get along with people. You can’t live in the 20th century and not recognise that others think God is on their side too.”
May we listen and learn.
Laura Marks is a consultant and former senior vice president of the Board of Deputies
