Simon Kalman, who has died of cancer aged 62, combined a passion for airline timetables with a concern for quality kosher food that helped extend the boundaries of Jewish travel. He challenged tiresome bureaucracy and championed campaigns to improve community safety and convenience near his home and synagogue, Munk’s in Golders Green.
The first son of Rachele and the late Raymond and Kalman, Simon was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s and Queen Elizabeth’s. He helped design equipment and procedures enabling quality kosher food to be served on international aircraft. Simon led the first trail-blazing tour to China in the 1980s that offered freshly-prepared kosher food with Lady Amelie Jakobovits as the celebrity guest. When Jewish billionaires wanted truckloads of matzot shipped into the former Soviet Union, they called Simon, as did the IDF when they needed someone discreet and reliable to organise their senior officers’ tours of European battlegrounds.
He was on first name terms with caretakers, customs officers, border guards and many of the diplomatic protection group officers guarding London’s most sensitive installations. Somehow, his tour groups always managed to get rare tickets for the midnight ceremony at the Tower of London. He was one of the few non-officials permitted into Downing Street on Christmas Day, bringing his annual delivery of cream cakes for the officers on duty.
He was still a schoolboy when he started organising garden fetes, sponsored walks and Guinness charity world record attempts. He was 16 when he dreamed up the idea of a charity It’s a Knockout competition for synagogue children’s services that became regular fixtures at Hendon’s Copthall Stadium.
He organised charitable events for Kindertransport survivors, including a reunion attended by Prince Charles. When the Israeli children’s cancer charity Zichron Menachem flew 100 young patients to London, with their medical teams and drugs, Simon arranged for their direct transport and passport clearance from the plane. Weeks before he died he was in Prague checking logistics for a Kinderstransport reunion.
“Simon was my mate,”one senior Orthodox Dayan told us during the shiva. “When I wanted an independent opinion, free of politics or communal nonsense, I called him.”
Businesses failing to respect customers’ statutory rights would encounter this passionate, self-taught advocate of consumer law on their private line who would secure handsome compensation and a fulsome letter of apology.
His often successful battles with Barnet Council and transport companies earned their grudging respect. He caused several National Express lines to be re-routed after proving their drivers made an unauthorised, dangerous short-cut. He became a legend at Munk’s Synagogue after he successfully lobbied the council to delay parking restrictions until 9 am, enabling worshippers at morning prayers to avoid a ticket. When a Tesco supermarket opened in the Golders Green Road, Barnet planners called Simon in for a consultation and agreed to restrict the loading bay times to avoid traffic clashing with the early-morning bagel runs.
Beneath his blunt exterior lay a heart of gold, a proven willingness to be there for everyone. He faced his death with inspiring courage and dignity.
Simon is survived by our mother, Rachele, his wife Jaqui, née Franco, children Ilana and Eitan, sons EY and Aryeh Zvi from his first marriage to the late Ruth Koppelman, and brothers Jonathan and Matthew.
JONATHAN AND MATTHEW KALMAN
Simon Philip Kalman, born June 30, 1956. Died London, January 22, 2019.
