Rose Hacker, born 1906, daughter of a Polish Jewish father and London Jewish mother, worked as a junior in her father's tailoring business in London's east end and eventually became his designer and went to Paris fashion shows. A radical socialist in the 1930s, she travelled to the Soviet Union on the same boat as Beatrice and Sidney Webb. She joined the Co-operative Correspondence Magazine for Women during the '30s, became a Marriage Guidance Counsellor in the '50s. She was the MGC's first broadcaster, and wrote books on teenage sexuality. In the '70s she was an elected member of the Greater London Council. She is now President of the Progressive League, and also spends time sculpting and dancing.
"A Church of England friend invited me to help train Anglican clergy. "What, me," I said, "a renegade Jew?" Yes, he said, you must help them to unlearn what they've learnt at college, all that preaching and teaching. Get them to learn to listen. So we invented role play. Like the children, they needed education in relationships. You know Martin Buber? I-and-Thou. Relationship. You can call that God. I-and-It is exploitation, sin. I-and-Thou is God."
"Life is good, I'm healthy, my mind's clear. I'm not afraid of death. It's part of the order of nature. I'm ready to die. I don't believe in a 'God out there', or an after-life. I sometimes wish I did, it'd be a comfort, but I don't."