Welcome
to the other “home” page. More an “at home” page,
really, because we thought you might like to have some background about
who is behind Tour Judaica. In fairness, it’s not a matter of self-aggrandisement
- more a case of good business sense. After all, if you have been attracted
to our web site and may be interested in using our services, then you
deserve to know more about us.
I have worked in travel and aviation for nigh on 40 years. If I may be a little humble, I am proud to have started on the ground floor as an office boy for a well-known British tour operator, Sir Henry Lunn Ltd, in London. (Known today as Lunn-Poly, recently part of the Thomson Travel Group and now owned by TUI). In those days Lunn’s were one of the pioneers of inclusive air travel from Great Britain to the sunspots of the Mediterranean. I left their air tours reservations department to move to Canada where I worked in Edmonton, Alberta for Pacific Western Airlines and Canadian Pacific Airlines, and in Toronto for a wholesale tour operator, Travel Plans Tours.
My return to England took me back into aviation and the group which originally owned Sir Henry Lunn Ltd - Eagle Aviation, parent company also of Cunard Eagle and British Eagle International. With them I held airport managerial posts in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast and Perpignan.
It
was during my eight years with Eagle there came a momentous event, Hazel
and I were married!
My aviation career continued with Court Line in Luton, Bedfordshire, followed by Dan-Air London as Base Manager in both Berlin and Aberdeen, Press & Public Relations Officer in their London Head Office and, concluding my seven years with the company, as General Manager of the group’s tour company, Romanic Holidays.
Most recently (until 1999) I worked for seven years as General Manager of NADFAS Tours the arts history tour company owned by the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS).
Which brings me pretty well up-to-date. I have been working for myself as “Management Consultant to the Travel Industry” whilst setting up Tour Judaica.
Now let me introduce you to Hazel, an integral and most important part of the company. Her knowledge and love of history is vital to our research and planning.
Whilst we believe in equality, we have also been a traditional family. So during the formative years of our children’s upbringing Hazel chose the fulltime path of wife and mother. And if you consider we moved as a family on average once every three years, you can imagine her daily toil was no bed of roses. Before we married she was a model and a sales representative for the rainwear fashion company, Weatherall. Our home is in the seaside town of Broadstairs, Kent where Hazel worked for 12 years for a local and popular boutique and gift store, Arrowsmith’s.
Family background - Hazel was born in London, her paternal family coming from the then Czechoslovakia. Her father managed to make his way to England in 1940 but, sadly, none of his family survived. Her maternal family is from England, her mother being born and brought up in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire.
My paternal family came from Warsaw - my father was born in the USA (Baltimore) but he spent his early schooldays in Paris. They made a final move to London in 1913. My maternal family were from Latvia and came to London because of the Tzarist pogroms. Like my mother, who was born in the East End of London, I, too, am a Londoner.
To round off the family, we have a daughter, Rachel, who is a teacher, and a son, Jonathan, who combines a career as a social worker with music and performance.
