Halpern, Jack, 1927-1973

Jack Halpern was born in 1927 in Berlin. Because of the Nazi persecution of the Jews, his parents emigrated to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was educated. His interest in the problems of developing countries was stimulated by two and a half years spent in Israel, where his was a member of a Kibbutz, and later joined the technical staff of a company bringing water to the Negev Desert. Returning to South Africa he became a journalist and married. After editing technical and industrial journals he became Editor and Publications Officer of the South African Institute of Race Relations. In 1960 he was appointed editor of the Central African Examiner in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, and became the Central African correspondent of the Observer , the New Statesman , Dagens Nyheter , and Politiken . In September 1963 with the Rhodesia Front in power, he and his wife were arbitrarily expelled from the disintegrating Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland by the Prime Minister, Sir Roy Welensky. After arriving in Britain Halpern served as Secretary-General of Amnesty International, 1964-1965, and, writing under his nom-de-plume of James Fairbairn, as Africa Correspondent of the New Statesman . He died on 11 May 1973.