That headline probably made you wonder, didn’t it? The UK’s Jewish Chronicle has the scoop on the woman who kept Britain’s Jewish community safe for the last 25 years. Until her recent retirement, Carol Laster was head of the Community Security Trust, the organization tasked with providing security for Jewish communities in England. She kept her profession a secret from even her closest friends and this is the first time she’s been photographed by a newspaper. Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of UK, and Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks celebrated her career with her as did members of the Scotland Yard and constables from all over England. From the JC:
When the community faced the gravest of threats, security experts from around the world picked up the phone to her. On countless occasions she was dragged away from Shabbat dinners to take a call from Scotland Yard, only to return to the table half an hour later unable to utter a word about what she had been told.
“My friends and family just got used to it. You’re at a dinner party and you can’t come back to normal life and talk to people. There were life and death decisions to make,” she said.
The article is chock full of good details of her heroism and her activities including working with Israel’s Mossad and the US’s Secret Service. She described being a woman in this position as a surprising advantage. In her words: “The testosterone flying round some of those rooms! I would walk in and everyone would calm down. Being different was an advantage. I could break down barriers.”
The life in shadows did take a toll: “It was my life. I don’t think I’m free yet to do something else. I need to rediscover who I am.”
Read the full article here.
The words of this author reflect his/her own opinions and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Orthodox Union.