New Directions in Anglo-Jewish History

Geoffrey Alderman (Ph.D. University of Oxford, 1969) is the Michael Gross Professor of Politics & Contemporary History at the University of Buckingham and is the acknowledged authority on the history of the Jews in modern Britain. In 2006, Oxford conferred on him with the degree of Doctor of Letters in respect of his work in this field.

• Introduction by Geoffrey Alderman. I. Between Daydream and Nightmare: Fin de Siècle Jewish Journeys and the British Imagination by Hannah Ewence … 1 II. The Jews of Leeds: Immigrant Identity in the Provinces 1800-1920 by James Appell 25. III. “Good Jews and Civilized, Self-Reliant Englishment:” Crafting Anglo-Jewish Education in the 19th Century By Sara Abosch 49. IV. What’s in a Name? The Changing Titles of Norwood, the Jewish Children’s Orphanage by Lawrence Cohen 73. V. “The True Art Makes for the Integration of the Race:” Israel Zangwill and the Varieties of the Jewish Normalization Discourse in Fin de Siècle Britain by Arie M. Dubnov 101. VI. “Some Lesser Known Aspects:” The Anti-Fascist Campaign of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, 1936-40 by Daniel Tilles 135. VII. “The Dark Alien Executive:” Jewish Producers, Émigrés and the British Film Industry in the 1930s by Edward Marshall 163. Notes on Contributors 188. Index 191.

“The essays in this neatly-edited volume provide exciting new insights into Anglo-Jewish history. They represent the second generation of critical scholarship on the subject matter and are united in their innovative and subtle nature. Topics as varied as literature, film and orphanages are explored in essays that range in chronology from the mid-Victorian era through to the eve of the Second World War. They break through barriers of history from above and below, of history and culture, and of Jewish and non-Jewish responses, providing critical perspectives on new and old topics alike. Taken together they represent the coming of age of the study of Anglo-Jewry, a subject matter until recently sadly ignored in British as well as Jewish historiography.”