| John Mendelson | |
| Constituency Mp: | Penistone |
| Parliament: | United Kingdom |
| Term Start: | 11 June 1959 |
| Term End: | 20 May 1978 |
| Predecessor: | Henry McGhee |
| Successor: | Allen McKay |
| Birth Name: | John Jakob Mendelson |
| Birth Date: | 6 July 1917 |
| Birth Place: | Płock, Poland |
| Death Place: | London, England |
| Party: | Labour |
| Profession: | Academic |
| Alma Mater: | London School of Economics |
| Branch: | British Army |
| Rank: | Captain |
| Serviceyears: | 1939–1945 |
| Battles: | World War II |
John Jakob Mendelson (6 July 1917 - 20 May 1978) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Penistone from 1959 until his death.
John Jakob Mendelson was born on 6 July 1917 in Płock, Poland, to a Jewish family, of which he was the only one who survived the Holocaust.[1] [2] [3] He was educated in Berlin, and came to Britain to attend the London School of Economics.[4] He served in the British Army as a captain during World War II, from 1939 to 1945.[1] [3] In 1949, he became a lecturer in political science at the University of Sheffield,[3] and was vice-president of Sheffield Trades and Labour Council.
Mendelson was elected MP for Penistone, South Yorkshire at a 1959 by-election, and served on the Public Accounts Committee. He was left-wing and a member of the Tribune Group. However, he clashed with some leftists on certain issues, such as the Soviet Union, which he voiced criticism of.[3] Conversely, others accused him of being too sympathetic to the Soviet Union.[5]
Mendelson was instrumental in persuading Harold Wilson to contest the Labour Party leadership in 1963, as a candidate of the left.[3] He also introduced Tony Benn to the radical history of the Diggers and the Levellers, on which Benn drew from the 1970s onwards.[6] In the 1970s, he opposed the Wilson government's wage freeze policies.[7]
On foreign policy, Mendelson joined with Richard Crossman in 1959, in fervently opposing any efforts to give West Germany nuclear weapons.[3] He was a member of the Labour Friends of Israel.[1] Mendelson was also a staunch critic of American involvement in the Vietnam War and felt that the Wilson government should have been more vocally opposed to US foreign policy.[3] [5] In 1973, Mendelson became a member of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe.[1]
Mendelson died from a heart attack in London on 20 May 1978, at the age of 60.[1] [2] [5] His successor at the subsequent by-election was Allen McKay.