Our woman in Kyiv: The Finchley shulgoer and British ambassador to Ukraine

To the outside world, she’s our woman in Kiev. The British Ambassador to Ukraine is keeping calm and carrying on despite the imminent threat of Russian invasion.

But Melinda Simmons is also a stalwart shulgoer whose “Jewish values permeate her existence” and who has continued to attend Shabbat services in Finchley by Zoom.

And while she is currently facing unimaginable pressure, the ambassador — who can trace her own ancestry to Ukraine — likes to relax when she can in the same way as many another north Londoner: by baking.

With 100,000 Russian troops on the border, Ms Simmons has been in the eye of a geopolitical storm for weeks. Although hope is growing for a deescalation of the crisis, on Tuesday she spoke from Kiev to tell Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re still advising British nationals to leave the country as soon as they can.”

Ms Simmons is a member of the congregation at Finchley Reform Synagogue, where she has played a central role in the religious and community life for more than two decades.

Finchley’s Rabbi Miriam Berger told the JC: “Melinda’s Jewish values permeate her existence every day. There has always been a prophetic calling in the way she strives for justice for all.”

Rabbi Berger says Ms Simmons sometimes attends Friday night services in Finchley via Zoom. “Shabbat evening services are definitely a space for her to take stock and decompress after particularly harrowing weeks at work.

“She always asks people, ‘How was your week?’ Yet a good or bad week for her could be the difference between war and peace.”

Born in London’s East End and brought up in Ilford, Ms Simmons read French and German at Exeter University. She spent a year sponsored by the Foreign Office learning the Ukrainian language before taking up her current posting in 2019.

Her maternal great-parents emigrated in the 19th century from the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine. Rabbi Berger said:

“Melinda knew that she wouldn’t feel comfortable just learning Russian for the post, the predominant language of politics and commerce there. She wanted to make sure she was highly respectful and therefore learnt Ukrainian to degree level as well.”

Ms Simmons’s childhood shul was United Synagogue orthodox, but she later joined Finchley Reform, where she and her husband Stephen celebrated the barmitzvahs of their two sons, both now adults.

Rabbi Berger told the JC: “Years ago, when Melinda was working at the Department for International Development (DFID), she told me that she had made a commitment to herself when her children were young.

"She would only feel comfortable juggling life as a working mum if she knew that every day spent at work she was making a tangible difference to improve the quality of life of other people. It’s a heroic target to set and one she has really lived out.”

Ms Simmons spent the first 10 years of her career in marketing, then worked for a conflict-resolution NGO. That led to DFID in 2003, where her star swiftly rose. She served successively as head of UK aid for southern Africa, based in Pretoria, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, and deputy director, Europe.

She moved to the Foreign Office in 2013, and by 2016 was director of its national security section. She still found time to attend services with her family, give talks and appear on panels in what is a very active community. For years she sang in the choir.
Friends describe her as a “really impressive” chef and baker. “She knows how to appreciate the good things in Jewish life,” one said.

One close friend is Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, recently appointed to a new shul in Bromley. She told the JC: “Melinda is a very unusual mixture, immensely warm, immensely empathetic — but also very determined and focused. She has incredible integrity. In fact, she’s exactly who you’d want from the UK dealing with this crisis in her current post.”

Earlier this week, Ms Simmons appeared on Twitter in a short video delivering a message of calm. She looked, understandably, a little tired. After all, the past weeks have been a whirlwind, both diplomatically and in trying to arrange safe transport out of the country for Britons.

Rabbi Berger said: “Before troops changed the diplomatic focus, she was doing incredible work in Ukraine both in the world of trade and industry and for the role of women in society.

“I so hope she can continue with that long lasting diplomatic role for the betterment of life for Ukrainians for generations to come. She’s not in the post for self-aggrandisement or publicity.

“I’m very proud to have Melinda as part of our community, but also pleased we can create a space for her she uses in exactly the way intended.”