A stalwart of Merseyside Jewish Welfare, Linda Huglin, who has died aged 69, co-launched the Women’s United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA) in Liverpool with Adrienne Harris, in the face of controversy because some feared it might siphon off support for the Women’s international Zionist Organisation (WIZO) in Merseyside.
A devoted community worker, Linda became joint chair of Young WIZO in Liverpool with her sister, Esther. She grew up in Liverpool, the daughter of Barbara née Levy and Louis Rosenblatt. She was educated at New Heys Comprehensive School in Liverpool and at Oxford Brookes University, later working in advertising and in the family furniture business, ELS, which had an advertising budget of several million pounds. She was a strong willed, feisty individual who spoke her mind.
Linda was also extremely intelligent and held the highest moral values. Growing up in Liverpool in the 60s she followed The Beatles and the Mersey Beat culture. As she lived near some of the Fab Four, she would recall knocking on Paul McCartney’s door, having a chat and then telling him she had to go home and wash her hair for Shabbat.
Linda was a fierce, strong leader and a voice for numerous good causes. As well as her personal investment in them, she also contributed generously financially. She followed in her mother’s footsteps regarding charity work and hospitality. Her strong belief, that creating the first Women’s UJIA Division, far from siphoning away support for WIZO in Merseyside, would enhance both movements, proved to be true.
She was a former chair of the Liverpool branches of WIZO and the Liverpool Community Security Trust, (CST) having attended vigorous training courses. She was an early pioneer of the 35s Group for the release of Soviet Jewry and visited refuseniks — including Vladmir Shlepak, who became a close friend — promising one day she would welcome him to Liverpool and walk on the beach in Israel — both promises were achieved.
Linda went on numerous trips and missions to Israel (often with the UJIA) and was utterly dedicated to Zionism. On one trip she attended an Ethiopian bar/bat mitzvah ceremony and was introduced to a boy with considerable physical impairment. Without being asked, she immediately ensured his future education and medical needs were taken care of.
A typical incident was when she hosted former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at a UJIA dinner. He had just negotiated the peace agreement in the Vietnam War and turned around to me, her husband, and said: “your wife is a most formidable woman!”
She participated in the first ‘one-to-one’ trek in the Sinai Desert and was given the honour of reciting the Shema on that mountain for the group (coincidently, she passed away on the anniversary of that event). She believed in the generosity of the heart, and, blessed with a large house, she enured it was always open for visitors and Jewish and Israeli causes, including housing disabled soldiers, Jewish Book Club and a regular Monday Chabad learning session. She read widely, and had a great thirst for knowledge.
We met thanks to her other great love, Liverpool FC, and we regularly saw each other outside the players’ entrance. She joined a JNF group which I chaired. Her thirst for travel was all consuming, as was her independent spirit. Her adventures, sometimes solo, included 20 visits to India, and trips to Ladakh, Vietnam and Myanmar. She went camping in the Ante Mountains in Morocco and a great highlight was gorilla trekking in Zaire, where she sat less than three metres away from the giant silverbacks and their families.
In August, 1997 she contracted a non-specific neurological illness, but being wheelchair bound made her more determined to travel and five years ago visited Bhutan, one of the most mountainous regions in the world. She went to the Tahir Desert and navigated the Mekong River from Thailand to Laos.
For many years she relied on help for her physical needs and truly hated this situation. However, her spirit for life was undiminished but whilst her body became trapped, her brain remained free. It is with mixed emotions that this trapped bird is now set free. She touched and inspired so many but is remembered with great love and affection.
She is survived by me, Victor, her husband, sons Joshua, Sam and David, daughters-in-law Marcy and Maya, brother Paul Rosenblatt, sister Esther Isaacs, sister-in-law Cheryl, grandchildren Zac and Hugo and extended family and friends.
VICTOR HUGLIN
Linda Huglin: born April 5, 1951. Died August 4, 2020
