View source for Edwin Samuel, 2nd Viscount Samuel

{{Short description|British viscount (1898–1978)}}
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[[File:אדווין סמואל-SamuelPhotos-000kw0b.jpeg|200px|thumbnail|Edwin Samuel, 1945]]
[[File:Hadassa and Edwin Samuel in a family picture with Herbert Samuel.jpg|250px|thumbnail|Hadassa and Edwin Samuel in a family picture with Herbert Samuel]]
[[File:ירושלים - חתונת אדוין סמואל עם יהודית גרזובסקי (גור), לידו - הנציב העליון אבא הרברט סמואל-JNF023883.jpeg|thumb|The wedding of Edwin Samuel & Yehudit Grazovsky/Gur (Hadassa) 1920]]
'''Edwin Herbert Samuel, 2nd Viscount Samuel''' {{Post-nominals|GCB|size=100%}} ({{Langx|he|אדווין הרברט סמואל}}; 11 September 1898 &ndash; 14 November 1978), was a British lord, also active in [[Mandatory Palestine]] and the [[State of Israel]].

The son of Beatrice Franklin and [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Herbert Samuel]] – Palestine's first high commissioner – he was the father of Professor [[David Samuel, 3rd Viscount Samuel|David Samuel]] and [[Dan Samuel, 4th Viscount Samuel|Dan Samuel]].

Samuel was educated at [[Westminster School]] and [[Balliol College]], Oxford.  In the spring of 1917 he joined the Royal Artillery and was posted to the [[Egyptian Expeditionary Force]]. He also served in the [[Jewish Legion]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Isseroff |first=Ami |url=http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Jewish_Legion.htm |title=Zionism and Israel – Encyclopedic Dictionary: Jewish Legion (Hagdud Ha'ivri, Gdud Ha'ivri) Definition |encyclopedia= The Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Zionism and Israel |year=2005 |accessdate=1 September 2011}}</ref> After the [[First World War]] he joined the [[Mandatory Palestine|Mandatory Government in Palestine]],<ref>Edwin Samuel, A Lifetime in Jerusalem, 1970, Jacket blurb, and p. 28</ref> and was the last mandate-era director of the [[Palestine Broadcasting Service]].

As a viscount, he served as a [[Peerage|peer]] in the [[House of Lords]]. One of his significant acts was to have the law that forbade marriage between a woman and her brother-in-law repealed. His explicit intent was to allow a man to fulfil his responsibility under the Judaic Biblical law of [[levirate marriage]], as described in the [[Book of Deuteronomy]], whereby the brother of a man who dies childless must marry the widow.

Lord Samuel was the initiator of the [[Knesset Menorah]] project which eventually led to the huge bronze candelabrum presented by the British parliament to the State of Israel in 1956.

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{{Succession box | title=[[Viscount Samuel]]  | before=[[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Herbert Samuel]]  | after=[[David Samuel, 3rd Viscount Samuel|David Samuel]] | years=1963&ndash;1978}}
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==References==
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==Further reading==
*Edwin Samuel: ''A Lifetime in Jerusalem. The Memoirs of the Second Viscount Samuel'' (Transaction Publishers, 1970).

== External links ==

* [https://catalog.archives.gov.il/catalog/#!/Catalog/0b071706800228c0/Unit/0b07170680022fe1#anchor0b071706800228c0 Edwin Samuel's personal archives] on the [[Israel State Archives]] [[website]]
* [https://catalog.archives.gov.il/en/exhibition/herbert-samuel-and-the-british-mandate-for-palestine-the-formative-years/ Herbert Samuel and the British Mandate for Palestine: The Formative Years] on the [[Israel State Archives]] [[website]]
* {{OL author|OL125989A}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Edwin Samuel, 2nd Viscount}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:British Zionists]]
[[Category:Samuel-Montagu family|Edwin]]
[[Category:People educated at Westminster School, London]]
[[Category:Royal Artillery officers]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Viscounts Samuel|2]]
[[Category:Jewish British politicians]]


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[[Category:Jewish Legion personnel]]