The intrepid communal activist Dr Lionel Kopelowitz led the Board of Deputies as its President from 1985-1991. At the same time, during the years of Soviet oppression, he was President of the National Council for Soviet Jewry, while also pursuing a successful career as a GP and a key member of the British Medical Association.
He was as noted for his political acumen as for his depth of Hebrew knowledge and grasp of the practices of Jewish services in English Orthodox congregations. For this he was acknowledged by Dayan Binstock in the introduction to the Koren edition of the Yom Kippur Mahzor.
“He had an amazing memory for facts and people,” said Vivian Wineman, President of the Board from 2009 to 2015. “When Raphael Langham was writing the history of the Board he interviewed Lionel who could recall not only the results of resolutions passed decades before but also the number of votes cast for and against. Similarly with Deputies, Lionel remembered them all and managed to give each one the impression that he or she was of special interest to him.”
Describing his “boundless self-confidence, totally uninhibited by any sense of shyness,” Wineman added: 
“When visiting a shul or community he would ask to be given Maftir or a chance to speak and frequently got it.” Such opportunities enabled Lionel to achieve the rare distinction of having sung every haftarah there is. He would have been very happy to know that St. John’s Wood Synagogue, where he was a regular attender, is now embarking on a project to record all the haftarot in his name.”
Wineman went on to describe the doctor’s “enormous respect and affection for the Board” and his regular attendance at Plenaries in his later years, even standing for positions on committees. “He would refer to deputies sometimes by their constituency — ‘the deputy for Mill Hill’, for instance — as though they were actually parliamentarians. As was apparent on his death, this affection was reciprocated, particularly at the Board meeting on the following day at which numerous spontaneous tributes were paid. 
Former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks described Lionel as “one of the finest and longest-serving Anglo-Jewish lay leaders of our  time”, while  Marie van der Zyl, the current Board President, said he was a “forceful figure with strong views. His passionate commitment to the Jewish people was evident until his sad passing.”
Jacob Lionel Kopelowitz was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on December 9, 1926, the elder of the two sons of Moses Kopelowitz, a physician, who hailed from Shaki — one of the oldest settlements in Lithuania _ and Mabel née Garstein. He was educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge where he read medicine, completing his practical training at University College Hospital, London.
Following national service in the Royal Air Force (1952-53), and after qualifying as a doctor, he entered general practice in Newcastle in 1953, taking over his father’s surgery. He also developed an early interest in issues surrounding the national regulation and status of GPs, joining the British Medical Association and eventually becoming chairman of its General Practitioner Committee. He served on the BMA’s Council, as well as on the General Medical Council.  
Allied to his interest in medical and communal issues, Lionel was an enthusiastic supporter of matters closer to home. From 1973 to 1976 he served as first President of the United Hebrew Congregation of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, becoming one of its representatives on the Board,  which gave him the opportunity to voice the needs of the provinces. His encyclopaedic knowledge of the family histories of members of his local community in Newcastle and elsewhere was legendary.
He married Sylvia Waksman on July 29, 1980. Apart from his love of family and enduring involvement in the Jewish and wider community, his great passions were Jewish learning and world history. He would rarely take a foreign trip without visiting nearby sites of historical importance. 
Lionel was a great believer in tradition, keenly emphasising Anglo-Jewish virtues of formality and patriotism. At the same time his energy and devotion were never in doubt. That energy drove him to hold a legion of communal positions. These included presiding over the European Jewish Congress from 1988 to 1991, plus membership of the Jewish Claims Conference and the Friends of Hebrew University Executive Committee. He also sat on the Council of the United Synagogue and was Vice-President of the the Council of Christians and Jews.  He was delighted to have received an MBE in 2015 for his services to interfaith relations, just as he had been honoured to have been presented with the Officer’s Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1993 for his work on Jewish-German relations. 
Dr Kopelowitz remained in general practice in Newcastle until he retired at the age of 60 in 1987. He moved to London with Sylvia to be with their family and to make it easier to carry out his duties at the Board and the BMA (where the Board now meets). He continued to work part-time as a doctor in London for a number of years. Until his admission to hospital shortly before he died, Kopelowitz regularly attended numerous weekly shiurim and lectures – he never lost his thirst for knowledge. 
He died in London aged 92 and is survived by Sylvia and her children, Sir David and Jennifer Waksman, and grandsons Alex, Matthew and Jake, all of whom enjoyed a deep and special relationship with him. 
His brother Michael Garston, OBE, pre-deceased him in 2017.

Dr Lionel Kopelowitz: born December 9, 1926. Died July 27, 2019