JEWISH BOOK WEEK: Story of Rachel Beer, the unlikely national newspaper editor
Published: 16 February, 2012
by DAN CARRIER
At a time when women were not allowed to vote and anti-Semitism across Europe had been brought into focus by the Dreyfus affair, Rachel Beer was in a unique position.
A Jewish woman at the helm of a national newspaper, Beer’s frank editorial in the pages of the Sunday Times gave her the chance to write a tub-thumping piece on the issues that mattered most to her: justice, an end to persecution, the fair treatment of minorities.
The trial of Alfred Dreyfus – a French Jewish army officer who had been framed as a traitor – “exposed the volcanic forces that seethe and boil just below the thin crust of international convention and politeness”. Beer scathingly described “the anti-Semitic rabble of Paris ... in full cry against his coreligionists not because they are disloyal, but because they are Jews”.
It is just one example in the life of a trailblazer, an extraordinary woman who came to edit two of the UK’s biggest Sunday titles – 80 years before another woman would take the lead at a national publication.
Beer was the editor of both The Observer and the Sunday Times in the late-Victorian period, an incredible role considering women were not entitled to vote until after the First World War.
She is now the subject of a biography by Eilat Negev and Yehuda Koren, who will be speaking about her life and times at Jewish Book Week on Sunday.
Beer and her husband Frederick inherited The Observer from his father, and then later bought the Sunday Times.
The couple were rich, fashionable and socially successful: both came from Jewish families who had, despite anti-Semitism, managed to entrench themselves in London society.
Having married the owner, Rachel found herself able to exercise her influence on the stance of The Observer – not always to everyone’s satisfaction.
“Fleet Street gossip had it that the proprietor’s wife was poking her nose into her husband’s business,” the book states on Rachel’s interest in the paper. “And it was true that Rachel was brimming with ideas, most of them stemming from her desire for social change.”
Eventually the issue of her being involved in the day-to-day running of a newspaper was solved when the Sunday Times was put up for sale and the Beer family bought it. She would later return to edit The Observer, too.
It was a role that posed significant practical problems. As a woman, Beer was barred from the press gallery in the Houses of Parliament and did not have access to the corridors of power, namely the Gentlemen’s Clubs in the West End where politicians would rub shoulders with industrialists.
Yet her influence on the Sunday Times became apparent once she took over: it switched from being staunchly conservative to treading a more independent line.
Beer was not only unafraid of getting her hands mucky in the daily intrigue of national politics, but used her position to trumpet campaigns she loved. She backed the Public Amusements Bill, which she saw as a means to reduce crime and improve behaviour by offering free education classes and entertainment for the lower orders. She was also a willing figurehead for various women’s causes.
While the battle for equality continues, Beer’s life shows that, for the lucky few, gender bias in Victorian Britain was not insurmountable.
Jewish Book Week event: Lady of Fleet Street: Eilat Negev and Yehuda Koren. Chaired by Vanessa Thorpe, arts correspondent of The Observer. Sunday February 19, 6.30pm. Hall Two, Kings Place, York Way, N1. £9.50, 020 7520 1490, www.kingsplace.co.uk
• Eilat Negev and Yehuda Koren’s book First Lady Fleet Street: the Life, Fortune and Tragedy of Rachel Beer (JR Books, £20)