This is an important publication, providing a snapshot of Jews around the world. It was written just before the end of the war, with an introduction dated June 1st 1945, when it was thought that only four million Jews had been murdered.
He attended Kiev University, but was expelled in 1908 for political activism. In 1913 he became the General Secretary of Poale Zion in Russia, During the First World War he was prominent in the Jewish War Relief Organisation, and then in 1918, he became one of three general secretaries of the All Ukrainian Central Council of Trade Unions.
He moved to London in 1923 to work for the Central Union of Consumer Cooperatives, and then became the director of the Moscow Narodny Bank.
He joined the Fabian Society, serving on its executive in the 1940s, and writing books on co-operative banking and insurance. He was also a Zionist activist, becoming a founder of the World Jewish Congress in 1936, and chairing its European executive from 1948. He also served on the Board of Deputies of British Jews, founding with Maurice Orbach its Trades Advisory Council, (the publisher of this book) and was a leading figure in negotiating West Germany’s restitution payments to Israel.
Noah Barou was an author of a number of economic and financial works including several on Soviet banking and economic, on the Soviet Union in general and on the cooperative movement and the trade union movement. He died in 1955, and the World Jewish Congress’ British section (now dissolved) instituted an annual lecture in his memory.
Jewish Miscellanies 