Leeds And Its Jewish Community

The definitive history of the third-largest Jewish community in the UK, which analyses the factors which contributed to its growth and success and explores the disproportionate influence the community had on the modern history of Leeds.

The exploring and defining of identities and societal cultures is a tenuous task at best. With that in mind, this book explores the development of the Jewish community of Leeds, England, and investigates the sense of community developed by its members. The Jewish community of Leeds offers itself as a valuable tool in assessing identity change, both real and perceived. Their varied experiences are not the sole focus of the book, as it also explores their retention of common Judaism and what became of a rich culture when confronted by alien ideas and attitudes. The period spanning the 1880s through to World War I was an era that brought thousands of Jews to Leeds, where most settled in the area known as the Leylands. In exploring their experiences in education, work, uniformed movements, worship and during the war, this book reveals a side of Jewishness in Leeds not fully understood. It develops and extends existing histories of the Leeds Jewish community. Hosting the nation’s third largest Jewish population, the city stands out in many ways, particularly with regards to the paucity of published research on this community. The existing literature reflects divisions. Ernest Krausz, Anne Kershen, Joseph Buckman, Laura Vaughn, Rosalind O’Brien and Ernest Sterne have all approached various different elements of Leeds Jewry. There is a lack of a focused yet broad picture of this key era in which the community fully blossomed. Most of the limited work on Leeds highlights and focuses on specific areas such as tailoring, disharmony or how the community contrasted to Manchester. What is needed is an effort to bring these issues and others together to better discern Britishness and Jewishness as seen by the people of Leeds (both Jew and Gentile). In discerning the unique nature of Leeds Jewry, this book provides a greater understanding of the relationships between majority and minority communities, and the impact of external and internal pressures on their interpretation of culture, belonging and acceptance.

The book provides a comprehensive history of the third-largest Jewish community in Britain and fills an acknowledged gap in both Jewish and urban historiography. Bringing together the latest research and building on earlier local studies, the book provides an analysis of the special features which shaped the community in Leeds. Organised in three sections, Context, Chronology and Contours, the book demonstrates how Jews have influenced the city and how the city has influenced the community. A small community was transformed by the late Victorian influx of poor migrants from the Russian Empire and within two generations had become successfully integrated into the city's social and economic structure. More than a dozen authors contribute to this definitive history and the editor provides both an introductory and concluding overview which brings the story up to the present day. The book will be of interest to both historians and general readers.

Ever since the children of penniless immigrants caught the train from Whitechapel to White Hart Lane--to be greeted with the refrain: 'Does Your Rabbi Know You're Here?'--this forgotten tribe have helped to shape the Beautiful Game. In telling the fascinating lives of these largely unsung trailblazers, Clavane uncovers a hidden history of Jewish involvement in English football. From Louis Bookman, the first Jew to play in England's top division, to the pugnacious winger Mark Lazarus, whose last-gasp goal won the 1967 League Cup for QPR, to shady figures like One-Armed Lou, a ticket tout who never told the story of his missing limb the same way twice, through to the businessmen who helped form the breakaway Premier League, and in the process changed the English game for ever.