introduction to jewish immigrants in london, 1880–1939

8132019 Introduction to Jewish Immigrants in London 1880ndash1939

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullintroduction-to-jewish-immigrants-in-london-18801939 113

ndash 1 ndash

INTRODUCTION

Tis book explores the lives o Jewish immigrants to Britain with a particular

ocus on women and children who settled in London As home to the majorityo Britainrsquos Jews London unctioned ofen to the dismay o Jews outside themetropolis as the religious and political centre o Anglo-Jewry In the 1880s

when the pace o Eastern European Jewish immigration quickened immigrantsentered a country with a history o many ewer restrictions than continentalEurope1 Britons unlike continental Europeans tended not lsquoto mobilize pub-lic opinion against Jews as the bearers o modernityrsquo and overall Victoriansexpressed more anti-Catholicism than anti-Semitism2 Te pre-existing Anglo-

Jewish community boasted a comprehensive range o philanthropic servicesmany o which served women and children Cultural interaction and exchangebetween newcomers and natives shaped three generations o Eastern European

Jews Tese actors contributed to a very rapid process o acculturation ndash onethat differed rom virtually every other Western Jewish community3

De1047297nitions o acculturation and assimilation vary or the purposes o thisstudy acculturation is the process o adopting lsquoldquothe culture o another socialgrouprdquorsquo and does not imply ully casting off o onersquos culture o origin Assimila-tion is more extreme and involves shedding attributes o onersquos lsquoldquoormer culturerdquorsquo 4

From early in the twentieth century commentators and historians have used theterm lsquoanglicizationrsquo lsquothe act or process by which persons learn to conorm toEnglish modes or usages in speech in manner in mental attitude and in princi-

plesrsquo to describe Jewish immigrant acculturation5 Tis book suggests how and the extent to which immigrant women and chil-

dren separated rom old world institutions acing a new environment religious

practices culture and worldview absorbed the language behaviour and valueso their new home Te study analyses the ways organizations philanthropyschooling and war eroded but did not eliminate Jewish distinctions and East-ern European culture

Jewish Immigrants in London 1880ndash1939 begins with a brie history o Jewish lie in Britain and an overview o the history and historiography o Brit-ish Jews particularly in the East End between 1880 and 1939 Trough social



2 Jewish Immigrants in London 1880ndash1939

services directed at women and early intervention into the educational and rec-reational lives o children middle- and upper-class Jews attempted ndash not alwayssuccessully ndash to mould a oreign and alien group into respectable and sel-reli-ant Britons ndash values amiliar in Victorian charitable and social discourse

Early Jewish Population in Britain

Te roots o modern British Jewry date rom the mid-seventeenth century whenMenasseh ben Israel o Amsterdam tried to persuade Oliver Cromwell to legal-ize Jewish residence in Britain Although ben Israelrsquos effort ailed it triggered aslow process o largely Sephardic Jewish resettlement in England6 Anglo-Jewry

experienced a twenty-1047297ve-old increase during the eighteenth century7 By themid-eighteenth century roughly two-thirds o Englandrsquos seven to eight thousand

Jews were o Central and secondarily Eastern European descent During theremainder o the century Ashkenazi migration vastly outstripped Sephardi Manyo the newcomers were very poor took up traditional Jewish trades such as ped-dling and gained a negative reputation or their products demeanour and criminalactivity Te migrants also included artisans many o whom created Anglo-Jewryrsquosreligious and social organizations as well as small numbers o wealthy Ashkenazi

Jews who developed highly successul careers in international trade and 1047297nance8 In 1753 Jews won the right to be naturalized by a private Act o Parliament but

party politics objections especially in the City o London and some argue xeno- phobia resulted in repeal o the so-called lsquoJew Billrsquo soon afer its passage9

During the nineteenth century Jews arrived rom Central and Eastern Europeravel rom the Continent was inexpensive those entering aced ew restrictionsand ellow Jews offered charitable assistance Initially most Jews lived in the Cityo London Afer 1820 some began moving north and west and important Jewishcentres developed in provincial towns and cities such as Manchester Liverpooland Leeds A number o prominent amilies emerged as leaders in business and

philanthropic and cultural institutions10 During the last hal o the nineteenthcentury an in1047298uential middle and upper class emerged though the majority o

Jews made their livings as petty traders shopkeepers and manual workers11

Legal Status and Emancipation

By the mid-nineteenth century Jews in Britain and particularly in Londonound ar greater social acceptance than Jews on the Continent While Jewishemancipation in Britain came later than in France the lsquoJewish Questionrsquo wasless public and contested12 Afer Catholic emancipation in 1829 Jews remainedthe sole religious minority acing legal discrimination and a number o Jewishleaders began to promote the end o Jewish disabilities Lack o the ranchisetended to reinorce doubts about Jewsrsquo moral character and emphasized racial



Introduction 3

distinctiveness Some anti-alienists believed Jews would always remain a raceapart rom Britons others tempered this with sympathy noting that many lsquoJew-ish traitsrsquo resulted rom living conditions orced upon Jews13 Few Jews met the1047297nancial quali1047297cations necessary or voting Te small number seeking emanci-

pation tended to be wealthier more acculturated and desired greater politicalin1047298uence14 Frustrated with the quiescent gratitude o individuals willing toaccept social equality but legal inequality promoters o Jewish emancipationcreated various rifs in the Jewish community and challenged a longstanding tra-dition o inconspicuous negotiation by communal representatives such as the

Jewish Board o Deputies ( JBD ounded in 1760 to represent Jews in politicalmatters)15 JBD leaders showed lsquocomparative reserversquo with regard to emanci-

pation not wanting lsquoto outstrip public opinionrsquo which was largely indifferentSome Sephardi Elders on the Board wanted to avoid lsquoa high-pressure campaign[that] smacked o ingratitudersquo16 Historians odd Endelman and Abraham Gilamargue that emancipation was unconditional and emerged rom Englandrsquos liberaltradition17 Others contend that Jews seeking to end legal disabilities acceptedan lsquoemancipation contractrsquo in return or civic equality they agreed to eliminateall national characteristics and to unction solely as a religious community18

Te limited impact o inequality and a lack o interest lsquoin entering governmentservice studying at the ancient universities or gaining admission to the Inns oCourtrsquo arguably reduced the incentive to seek legal equality perhaps retardingthe emancipation process19 Christian supporters o Jewish emancipation sought

to eliminate restrictions in an effort to end Jewish clannishness lsquoanti-social traitsrsquoand lsquounsavoury vocationsrsquo Jewish emancipationists greeted this support withambivalence Many long-time Jewish residents resented that their patriotism wassuspect and denied charges that they constituted a distinct nation or were tem-

porary sojourners waiting or the messianic return to the Holy Land o provetheir commitment ndash and worthiness ndash to England emancipationists undertooklsquopublic efforts to raise the social and occupational level o their ellow-Jews at andnear the base o the Jewish social pyramidrsquo20 Such endeavours re1047298ected genuinecharitable commitment but also reveal concerns over public perceptions o Jews

Te test case or emancipation came in 1847 when the City o Londonelected Lionel de Rothschild to Parliament He could not take his seat in theHouse o Commons because o the oath o abjuration requiring that he swear

lsquoon the true aith o a Christianrsquo In 1858 Rothschild elected or the 1047297fhtime 1047297nally entered Parliament afer a compromise permitted each House todetermine its own oath Te seating o Rothschild the 1047297rst Jewish Member oParliament meant Englandrsquos Jews gained the opportunity at least legally to par-ticipate ully in civic affairs21




Historiography Existing Studies o the Acculturation o Jewish Immigrants to London

Scholarsrsquo approaches to the history o British Jews which have shifed over timetell us much about the community and the changing perceptions o those whohave chronicled that experience Anglo-Jewish history has received scant atten-tion rom British or Jewish historians ofen scholars saw Jews as insigni1047297cantto British history and Britain as marginal to Jewish history 22 While scholarsnow emphasize Britainrsquos multi-cultural dimensions traditionally historiansrarely ocused on immigration and saw lsquothe study o associated minorities [as]belong[ing] on the outside trackrsquo23 Te history o British Jews argues odd

Endelman lsquomarches to its own drummerrsquo Te lack o drama and persecutiontypical o much o European Jewish history meant it did not 1047297t into amiliar

paradigms24 Tese actors have had an important impact on the tone o earlyhistorical work ndash and the evolution o the 1047297eld over the past thirty-1047297ve years

Early Sanitized Accounts o Anglicization

Te hierarchical structure o Britainrsquos Jewish community its religious social wel-are and deence organizations its desire to present a success story as well asthe Anglo-Jewish press contributed to early sanitized accounts o acculturationand re1047298ected the insecurity o Jewish minority status in England Middle-class

Jews and community leaders elt the burden o responsibility very deeply ndash a

sincere commitment to serve the needy and protect the good name o the Jew-ish community Te challenges o anti-Semitism and limited English toleranceor cultural plurality led to internal disagreements within the Jewish com-munity Insecurity generated compensatory actions and ostered a somewhatover-developed sense o gratitude among Jews or English hospitality Accord-ing to Endelman beore the 1970s most lsquoAnglo-Jewish history was whiggishapologetic and triumphalist emphasizing the harmony between Jewishnessand Englishness while minimizing the discordant aspects o the assimilation

processrsquo25 Tus a 1950rsquos history claimed rather optimistically that immigrant Jewish integration was rapid and lsquoortunately the long-established elements andthe immigrants had not become separated groupsrsquo26

During the 1047297rst hal o the nineteenth century Anglo-Jewry received atten-

tion largely rom Christian millennialists who believed that the Resettlement o Jews (1650s) and emancipation would hasten the Second Coming and increaseconversions ndash and rom amateur historians who located the 1047297rst Jewish commu-nities and synagogues27 Articles on cr ypto-Jews and converts 1047297gure prominentlyin the ransactions o the Jewish Historical Society o England rom 1893 throughto the First World War28



Introduction 5

Many early works were sel-congratulatory applauding the successes o angli-cization and the generosity o the Rothschilds stressing that Englandrsquos Jews werelaw-abiding and emphasizing the modernization o lsquobackwardrsquo Jews and Jewish-and Christian-sponsored efforts at social control29 V D Lipman argued thatin Britain immigrant integration exceeded that o other communities By 1914

one could think o the immigrants and their predecessors as a single community one which had maintained its Jewishness while acquiring English loyalties one whichcould sincerely proclaim its united loyalty to England as the 1914ndash1918 war beganndash in the words o the placard outside the offi ce o the Jewish Chronicle lsquoEngland hasbeen all to the Jews Jews will be all they can be to Englandrsquo 30

More Critical Analyses Emerge

Since the 1970s Anglo-Jewish historians have re-evaluated the experiences oBritainrsquos Jews Geoffrey Alderman offered an antidote to the overly optimisticrenditions intending lsquoto tell the story warts and allrsquo31 rained in both Jewish andBritish history recent studies recognize the particularities o Jewish experiencebut analyse them in the context o British history Tis work is part o a broadertrend o interdisciplinary studies that have enriched our understanding o immi-grant acculturation and o Britainrsquos diverse religious and ethnic communities32 New works offer sophisticated reassessments o modernization theory anti-Semitism and Jewish political and economic behaviour Tey have established a

new standard o critical historical analysis and built on studies by Lloyd Gartnerand V D Lipman who laid the oundations o Anglo-Jewish history Gartnerrsquossocial history provides a general analysis o immigrant acculturation and stressesthe modernizing impact o residence in Britain Lipmanrsquos work concentrates oninstitutions and the politics o absorbing newcomers into the community anddownplays rifs caused by the wave o newcomers33

Over the last thirty years scholars have tended to move away rom insti-tutional emphases and have complicated the benevolent image o society andlinear acculturation put orward by their predecessors odd Endelmanrsquos ocuson the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries considers the distinctive eatures oEnglish culture and society and their impact on Anglo-Jewry34 Endelman makestwo particularly important contributions He opens a window on non-elites

contending they are as central to Jewish history as higher status co-religionistsHe has also challenged the lsquotop-downrsquo Germanocentric ocus on the Haskalahthe Jewish Enlightenment to explain patterns o Jewish modernization Ratherthan an ideologically motivated shif as in Germany social and political con-ditions in Britain account or Anglo-Jewryrsquos pattern o modernization35 In hisre-evaluation ony Kushner highlighted the tenacity o anti-Semitism in Brit-ish society and challenged older notions o the relatively innocuous and oreign




nature o British anti-Semitism36 David Cesarani has revised our understand-ing o British policy and internal politics in a number o works 37 His editedcollection o essays ocusing on 1870ndash1945 was an important orum or newscholarship on class culture politics and gender and offers insights into Jew-ish lie in Manchester Leeds and London38 Historians such as Bill Williamssee anglicizing activities as middle-class efforts at social control39 Joe BuckmanrsquosMarxist analysis o the tailoring industry in Leeds an important provincial city

with a tradition o trade unionism emphasizes its distinctiveness His work which challenges claims o limited class consciousness among Jewish workerstends to underestimate the implications o culture and religion or immigrantndashnative relations40

David Feldman is critical o modernization and social control theory whichcast Anglo-Jewryrsquos motivations or its social policy too narrowly and minimizethe complexity o power relations among Britons native-born and immigrant

Jews Feldman also questions the view o assimilation as a retreat rom Jewishidentity and a privatization or movement o Judaism into the home and out othe public sphere He points to the persistence o a minority with undamental-ist belies and sees the decline o religious observance as a matter o lsquoattenuatedopportunitiesrsquo not as the lsquoinevitable consequence o modernityrsquo41 Te morethat British politics encroached on immigrants contends Feldman the morethey participated in politics and the more they asserted their interests as Jewsanglicization was thereore not linear but dynamic42 Feldman draws on exten-

sive Yiddish sources and contextualizes Jewish workersrsquo experiences within theBritish historical and economic context while considering the impact o di-erent notions o the nation and views o Jews as homo economicus As DavidEnglander and Bryan Cheyette have shown racialized constructions o Jews aslsquoprogrammed or pro1047297trsquo and highly individualistic in1047298uenced the response to

Jewish settlement in Britain43

Emphasizing the Acculturation o Women and Children

While a number o studies have analysed the acculturation o immigrants ewhave emphasized the experiences o women and children Te introduction ogender in Jewish studies notes Paula Hyman has lsquochallenged the master nar-rativersquos presumption o the uniormity o the experience o Jews in modernEuropersquo44 Moving the ocus rom men in the public sphere to a wider range oactors ndash to women and children husbands and wives ndash deepens our understand-ing o identity ormation45



Introduction 7

Studies on Schooling Middle-Upper-Class Women Religiosity Work and Home Spheres

Tanks to innovative approaches to British Jewish history scholars are askinga broader range o questions Ros Livshin or example analysed the messageschildren in Manchester received on the streets in school and rom within the

Jewish community Children learned English language and customs mannersneatness and discipline as well as a commitment to Judaism albeit an angli-cized version through educational and social services46 In the 1047297rst book-lengthstudy o the Jewsrsquo Free School ( JFS) Britainrsquos largest Jewish school Gerry Blackassessed the schoolrsquos anglicizing and philanthropic mission JFS provided not

only education but much needed ood and clothing47 In a comparison o nine-teenth-century Jewish and contemporary immigrant education Geoffrey Shortargued that Jewish children succeeded because o teachersrsquo expectations Eng-lish language acquisition positive views o parents a willingness to meet needso observant Jews and attendance at Jewish majority schools which minimizeddaily experiences o anti-Semitism48 Among the histories o youth clubs Shar-man Kadish argues that leaders and activities o the Jewish Ladsrsquo Brigade (JLB)

promoted anglicization through physical 1047297tness49 Tese studies have shifedattention rom areas dominated by men and enhanced our knowledge o British

Jewry by ocusing on the daily lives o children While studies o immigrants tend to dominate the lives o middle-class and

upper-class Jewish women have also received consideration In a comparisono Jewish womenrsquos participation in British and American suffrage and eministmovements Linda Kuzmack argues that Anglo-Jewish eminists created a lsquodis-tinctively Jewishrsquo movement sought equality in secular political as well as inreligious lie and participated more extensively in secular suffrage activities thangenerally acknowledged50 Womenrsquos changing role in religion takes centre stage inEllen Umanksyrsquos work on Lily Montagu a ounder o Liberal Judaism and wardeno the West Central Girlsrsquo Club Umansky examines the ways Montagu in1047298uencedthe philosophical and institutional structure o Liberal Judaism and the key role

women played in the development o Jewish clubs and settlement houses51

Religious lie is also central to Rickie Burmanrsquos work which makes extensiveuse o oral history and highlights the interactions among women who settled

in Manchester Focusing on the different gendered and cultural expectations oEastern European and Anglo-Jewish women Burman ound that immigrationto Britain led to a gradual change in the status granted scholarly activity womenrsquos

work patterns and the signi1047297cance accorded domestic religious observance52 British Jews however tended to identiy social status in the same ways as

other Britons ndash the capacity o a man to support his amily Unlike EasternEurope where Jews had little hope or integration into mainstream society Eng-




land offered acceptance but in a conditional manner Tus middle-class Jewseagerly sought to minimize Jewish distinctiveness and promoted behaviouracceptable in the host society ypically Victorians viewed women as innatelyspiritual ndash rather the opposite o the Jewish view53 In moving closer to the Britishideal lsquowomenrsquos traditional domestic practices acquired a new signi1047297cancersquo What

was once merely daily routine took on special importance and now lsquode1047297ne[d]the Jewish identity o the householdrsquo54 Burman alerts us to the impact o thelocal society in de1047297ning womenrsquos roles

Marks the most proli1047297c o those dealing with Anglo-Jewish womenexplores Jewish prostitution unwed motherhood and in a signi1047297cant mono-graph has analysed Jewish mothering in east London between 1870 and 193955 Using extensive qualitative and quantitative sources she explores the experienceo childbirth child-rearing and the connections between health and ethnicityBritons viewed Jewish mothers as exemplary and credited them with inantmortality rates that were much lower than among other east London poor Tisremarkable record concluded Marks resulted rom a combination o lsquocertainethnic and religious Jewish customs concerning the importance o hygiene dietand breast-eeding as well [as] the types o communal provision available to Jew-ish mothers and their inantsrsquo56

My own work builds on Marksrsquos and extends the study o children beyondinancy to schooling recreation and work and o mothers beyond childbear-ing to child-rearing It shows how mothers navigated poverty and slum living

and took advantage o Jewish voluntary and state-sponsored services to nurturetheir children Tis study also demonstrates that children exposed parents ndash butespecially mothers ndash to English language and mores Attention to the intersec-tion o amily ethnicity and philanthropy exposes the tensions that emerged inthis exchange and brings to light the ways immigrant Jews and their childrenresponded to the challenges and opportunities o lie in London during thethree periods explored in this book

Te Advantages o a Nuanced Approach

Jewish Immigrants in London 1880ndash1939 traces the anglicization o womenand children through communal organizations and education Focusing ongender ethnicity and class it considers a wider range o actors than previous

studies demonstrating the extent to which women and their children movedrom arrival or birth in Britain to becoming Britons Both the passage o timeand changing circumstances meant that immigrants and especially their chil-dren could choose among increasing options or education work and leisureBritons Jewish and Christian orchestrated anglicization through various pro-grammes Ethnic and religious bonds led the Jewish community to provide anessential saety net ndash and directly linked the Jewish poor with their wealthier co-



Introduction 9

religionists Most anglicizers directed their efforts at children or through theirmothers the campaign was comprehensive conscious in nature and achievedrapid results57 I one accepts the growing anxiety at the turn o the centuryabout declining Jewish observance and identity as re1047298ective o reality it mayhave been too successul

In tracing the anglicization o Jewish women and children in the East Endseveral distinguishing eatures emerge among them the higher standard o livingdespite poverty extensive Jewish social services limited domestic violence sub-stantial attention to children and lower mortality rates58 ypically historianshave emphasized the East Endrsquos high levels o poverty and crime drawing exten-sively on the pioneering studies o Charles Booth59 Marc Brodie argues thathistorians have overstated the uniormity o the poverty and that the percentageo those lsquoldquoin povertyrdquorsquo (38 per cent) was only 7 per cent higher than the averagerate or London60 Jewish women seemingly negotiated the pitalls o povertymore successully than others in the working class Many Jewish children livedin more stable homes received better care and were healthier ndash a re1047298ection odifferences in the allocation o income ndash arguably linked to values and prioritiesbut also thanks to extensive Jewish social services

In her study o working-class women and mothers Ellen Ross identi1047297ed themany challenges and coping mechanisms employed by English working-class

women61 While Jewish women drew on many o the same coping mechanismsthe immigrant community bene1047297ted rom buffers against devastating poverty

and was less likely to experience the adverse effects o alcohol use and violence Jewish writer Ralph Finn claims that despite his amilyrsquos poverty and experi-ences o hunger he did not suffer as he did not know he lsquoought to have beensufferingrsquo and assumed that lsquopoverty was a natural hazard o being aliversquo 62 In theearly 1930s however when Finn began teaching in West Ham he learned o argreater depths o poverty Some children o Irish dockers recalled Finn came toschool without shoes Rather than privileging ood or the amily the pattern inmost Jewish amilies income in Dockside amilies belonged to the men manyo whom spent it on beer and gambling63

Communal solidarity while not unique to the Jewish community suggests ways that East End Jews assisted each other Few homes came equipped with gascookers and women spent part o Tursday at the bake house waiting or chal-

lah bread or Sabbath to bake While this made preparations more diffi cult itbrought women together on a regular basis gave them an opportunity to learno one anotherrsquos needs aid each other in troubled times and reinorced neigh-bourhood sharing networks64 In the Rothschild Buildings where cookers weretoo small or the traditional Sabbath cholent a casserole o meat and vegetableschildren erried the dish to local bakers such as Rinkoff rsquos65




While the vast majority o Jewish immigrants were poor diet and accommo-dations varied widely ofen related to the presence o a healthy male wage-earnerKitty Collins described her amily as lsquovery very poorrsquo Teir 1047297rst home was in Jubi-lee Street it had three 1047298ights o stairs two bedrooms a ront room with a pianoand was very cold Yet Collins recalled the 1047298at as clean and comortable withadequate ood For Sabbath they had lsquolovely old-ashioned oodrsquo tsimmes schavchopped liver and cholent and on weekdays items such as eggs onions feikochens and cream cheese Collinsrsquos mother prepared little meat mainly they ate herringkippers some smoked salmon brown bread butter lemon and olives ndash items sheremembers as relatively inexpensive66 Tis variety and quality contrasts starkly

with typical working-class diets67 Bread was the chie component o many dietsenements had limited cooking acilities and uel was very expensive 68

Jewish tradition in1047298uenced immigrants as well as those who offered phi-lanthropy Judaismrsquos emphasis on charity and education the dietary laws thehonoured position o the wie and mother and the limited resort to alcoholaffected expectations and behaviour Caring or the amily had many layers o sig-ni1047297cance Hymie Fagan recalled his mother asking lsquoldquoWhat sort o a housewie

was it hellip who didnrsquot cook a meal or her husband and amilyrdquorsquo69 Such attitudesgive us insight into womenrsquos sense o identity competence and maintenance oculture Because women tended to shape amily lie they were crucial to the suc-cessul adaptation o most immigrants especially children

In Summary What We Stand to LearnBy concentrating on areas o lie more directly concerned with women and chil-dren this book offers a more nuanced picture o Eastern European immigrantacculturation70 Literature on immigration race relations multiculturalism and

political identity helps us compare the orces and responses at play among Jewsand their environment at the turn o the century71 Te ocus on social serviceshighlights the gendered views o Jewish and British providers and philanthro-

pists and underscores aspects o acculturation less consciously considered inother works on Anglo-Jewry

Rich or poor Christian or Jewish women and emale children lived in a world that emphasized male superiority a limited public role marriage andchildbearing Working-class girls received an education that stressed domestictraining rarely continued afer the age o ourteen and generally prepared themor work requiring limited skills Daughters earned much less than their brothersand remained more dependent upon their parents longer than sons72 While girlsand young women could help at home they also represented a 1047297nancial burdenoriginally owing to the requirement o a dowry73 Many parents took out loans to

pay or weddings which could include several meals (a large breakast ollowed



Introduction 11

by pineapple cream and cakes) and a band which generally played Russian and Jewish music Yiddish tunes or someone pretending to be Al Jolson74 Working-class boys received more intensive vocational training messages o sel-relianceand independence ofen stayed in school longer and were more likely to enterapprenticeships Most Jewish women did not expect to work afer marrying orhaving children Teir adult lives centred on home and amily a ull-time occu-

pation in Londonrsquos tenements Jack Stein recalled the harshness o his motherrsquoslie She was lsquomarvellousrsquo and lsquovery orthodoxrsquo she worked and scrubbed 1047298oorsdid all the cooking and buying chickens on just a ew shillings a week75 Victo-rian philanthropists approved o this ideal o womanhood and their charitableendeavours tended to perpetuate a vision o womenrsquos natural position as keeperand protector o the home76

Class ethnicity and religion interacted with gender in very powerul ways inthe Jewish East End Most providers o education and philanthropy ndash upper- andmiddle-class men and women ndash absorbed the ethos o their class ndash to use leisureresponsibly and to help others to help themselves and took seriously traditionso Jewish charity Neither gender nor ethnicity alone explains how immigrant

women and their children stepped out o their insular Jewish world into the largerindigenous culture Religious or secular Jewish culture with its gendered prescrip-tions in1047298uenced immigrants and native-born ndash as well as their interactions

East End Jews lived in working-class neighbourhoods laboured in actoriesand workshops and received many o the same lessons as their Gentile counter-

parts Jewish communal workers responded to Jewish immigrants not only asco-religionists but also as part o the labouring poor and the great unwashedPrior to World War I the Jewish East End was a world unto itsel o the native-born ndash Jew or Christian ndash lsquoa trip beyond the Aldgate Pump was ofen presentedin the guise o an exotic oriental adventurersquo77 Basil Henriques social worker and

warden o the Bernhard Baron Settlement described an lsquoamusingrsquo experience omistaken identity during a walk with Robin Monte1047297ore among newly arrivedlsquo1047297lthy looking Russianrsquo immigrants Henriques or Monte1047297ore had recently pur-chased a sof urry black hat A man approached them asked i they were lookingor the rest o their party and directed them to the immigrants78 Tese newcom-ers who tended to cluster in particular neighbourhoods represented an alien

world or many middle- and upper-class Britons

Patterns o acculturation communal response the differences in experienceo and expectations or women and their children emerge rom a wide range osources79 However one o the great diffi culties o projects such as this is to hearthe voices o immigrant women and children Tis study ofen depends on inor-mation teased rom materials written about and not by immigrants Voluminouscontemporary journal literature examines womenrsquos labour issues anti-alienismand philanthropic endeavours A growing body o secondary literature analyses




and compares immigrants to Britain as well as Jews who settled throughout the world Census data provide inormation on population marriage and residential pattern o Jewish immigrants Local labour and Yiddish-language newspapersexplore issues o importance within the East End Te Jewish Chronicle (here-afer JC ) the voice o Anglo-Jewry reports on religion education health care

philanthropy and the activities o the offi cials o communal organizations Itgenerally presents the viewpoint o English-speaking Jews and helps identiyareas o concern to Englandrsquos established community Te controversies it ol-lows offer hints at diverse and sometimes opposing views

Tis study takes particular advantage o annual reports and extensive archi- val materials to explore the services British Jews established or co-religionistsEspecially useul are the records o Jewish maternal and child welare agencies

youth clubs and settlements and the Jewish Board o Guardians or the Relieo the Jewish Poor (the Board JBG)80 Reactions to the assistance and the pro-

viders suggest the ways immigrants experienced such interactions and offer a picture o the kinds o activities and the types o people with whom immigrant women and children came in contact

Parliamentary papers offer not only offi cial views on issues but include wit-nesses rom diverse backgrounds with varying perspectives Investigations onsweated industries and immigration inorm us about the working lives o Jewish

women Te Royal Commission on Alien Immigration and the Interdepartmen-tal Committee on Physical Deterioration delve into the daily lives o immigrants

their health and criminalityTese rich sources offer a window on the lives o Jewish women and childrenTey suggest generational differences the contrasts between Jewish and Chris-tian working-class homes the importance o gender as well as the experience obeing and response to a minority Jewish women were more likely to be liter-ate than other immigrant women tended to raise ewer children and thereorecould give more attention to each child provide more ood and may well havehad comparatively more leisure time than other immigrant women Te Jew-ish communityrsquos impressive philanthropic network advanced anglicization andmeant that offspring o Jewish immigrants experienced a qualitatively differentchildhood rom many o their class

While Jews ound barriers to complete acceptance in Britain acculturated

Jews gained increasing access to most mainstream cultural educational and political spheres Trough the period o this study Jews remained highly sel-conscious and aware o the limits placed upon them that anxiety certainlyre1047298ected the quali1047297ed acceptance all Jews aced in Britain Te sense o remain-ing an outsider motivated the provision o ar-reaching social and educational

programmes Many Jews elt obligated to efface differences o language occupa-tions mannerisms and backwardness that non-Jews as well as anglicized Jews



Introduction 13

recognized Established Jewry believed such characteristics encouraged doubtsabout separatism and ultimately raised questions about the ability o Jews tobecome English Designed with both conscious and subtle assumptions o appro-

priate roles or women and men Anglo-Jewry sought to mould roughly threegenerations o Jews and their offspring between 1880 and 1939 Anglicizingefforts evolved over time and indicate the changing perceptions o Anglo-Jewry

with regard to immigrants and their children Te aim o this volume is to askand explore questions about what it was like to be a Jewish immigrant woman orchild in Londonrsquos East End in 1880 at the turn o the century and on the eve o

World War II What did acculturation mean to them




services directed at women and early intervention into the educational and rec-reational lives o children middle- and upper-class Jews attempted ndash not alwayssuccessully ndash to mould a oreign and alien group into respectable and sel-reli-ant Britons ndash values amiliar in Victorian charitable and social discourse

Early Jewish Population in Britain

Te roots o modern British Jewry date rom the mid-seventeenth century whenMenasseh ben Israel o Amsterdam tried to persuade Oliver Cromwell to legal-ize Jewish residence in Britain Although ben Israelrsquos effort ailed it triggered aslow process o largely Sephardic Jewish resettlement in England6 Anglo-Jewry

experienced a twenty-1047297ve-old increase during the eighteenth century7 By themid-eighteenth century roughly two-thirds o Englandrsquos seven to eight thousand

Jews were o Central and secondarily Eastern European descent During theremainder o the century Ashkenazi migration vastly outstripped Sephardi Manyo the newcomers were very poor took up traditional Jewish trades such as ped-dling and gained a negative reputation or their products demeanour and criminalactivity Te migrants also included artisans many o whom created Anglo-Jewryrsquosreligious and social organizations as well as small numbers o wealthy Ashkenazi

Jews who developed highly successul careers in international trade and 1047297nance8 In 1753 Jews won the right to be naturalized by a private Act o Parliament but

party politics objections especially in the City o London and some argue xeno- phobia resulted in repeal o the so-called lsquoJew Billrsquo soon afer its passage9

During the nineteenth century Jews arrived rom Central and Eastern Europeravel rom the Continent was inexpensive those entering aced ew restrictionsand ellow Jews offered charitable assistance Initially most Jews lived in the Cityo London Afer 1820 some began moving north and west and important Jewishcentres developed in provincial towns and cities such as Manchester Liverpooland Leeds A number o prominent amilies emerged as leaders in business and

philanthropic and cultural institutions10 During the last hal o the nineteenthcentury an in1047298uential middle and upper class emerged though the majority o

Jews made their livings as petty traders shopkeepers and manual workers11

Legal Status and Emancipation

By the mid-nineteenth century Jews in Britain and particularly in Londonound ar greater social acceptance than Jews on the Continent While Jewishemancipation in Britain came later than in France the lsquoJewish Questionrsquo wasless public and contested12 Afer Catholic emancipation in 1829 Jews remainedthe sole religious minority acing legal discrimination and a number o Jewishleaders began to promote the end o Jewish disabilities Lack o the ranchisetended to reinorce doubts about Jewsrsquo moral character and emphasized racial



Introduction 3


























Introduction 5





















Introduction 7


























Introduction 9






















Introduction 11


























Introduction 13







Introduction 3


























Introduction 5





















Introduction 7


























Introduction 9






















Introduction 11


























Introduction 13





















Introduction 5





















Introduction 7


























Introduction 9






















Introduction 11


























Introduction 13


















Introduction 7


























Introduction 9






















Introduction 11


























Introduction 13


















Introduction 9






















Introduction 11


























Introduction 13



















Introduction 11


























Introduction 13





















Introduction 13





introduction to jewish immigrants in london, 1880–1939

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