Terence Prittie, one of Israel’s most distinguished and gifted non-Jewish supporters in Britain, has died here of cancer. Prittie, who was 71, had spent many years as the West German correspondent and diplomatic correspondent of the Guardian newspaper when, 15 years ago, he decided to devote himself full time to presenting Israel’s case to the British media.
A prolific author, whose interests embraced Germany, the Jewish people, his native Ireland and the game of cricket, his many works included biographies of Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol and West German Chancellors Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt.
He was particularly active in trying to combat the Arab boycott and wrote a book on this subject, co-authored with Walter Nelson, entitled “The Economic War Against the Jews.” His loathing of anti-Semitism–which he first observed as a student in Nazi Germany–earned him the respect and affection of the Anglo-Jewish community.
During World War II, Prittie was mentioned in dispatches for bravery from Calais in 1940. In the same year he was captured by the Germans and made six attempts to escape from POW camps.
Born into the Anglo-Irish Protestant nobility, he devoted his energies to the very last to causes distant from his birth. Walter Nelson, another pro-Israeli publicist, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he regarded Prittie as one of the greatest friends Israel has ever had in Britain.
CORRECTION: In the story on page 4 of the May 30 JTA Daily News Bulletin on Conservative boycott of Knesset members, the first sentence of the second paragraph should have read: The action by members of the Rabbinical Assembly, the association of Conservative rabbis, was adopted in response…
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
