No ordinary tradesmen: the Green family in 

19th-century Whitechapel* 

ALEXJACOB 

The Jewish Chronicle of 14 July 1899 reported the death of Solomon Abraham
Green (1830-99) of 46 Mile End Road, affectionately known in the Jewish East
End of London as 'Sholey'. He was a fishmonger1 and for some years also the
keeper of the Freemasons' Arms, a beer-house in Goulston Street, Whitechapel;2
in this he was following in the footsteps of an older brother, Judah Green (1819-
88) who was licensee of the Blue Anchor Tavern at the corner of Middlesex
Street and Aldgate High Street for thirty-six years (1852-88).3

In an obituary notice of Sholey Green, the Revd J. F. Stern (1865-1934),
minister (1887-1927) of the East London Synagogue, wrote in the formal, con-
descending manner of the period: 'The late Mr. Green, though an ordinary East
End tradesman, was quite a public character, and was widely known throughout
the East End for his zeal in any public cause or private case in which he was
interested .... If his father was unable to provide him with what is termed a
liberal education, he certainly set before him an example by which he could see
that the untutored and unlettered man need not be excluded from the charitable
workers of the community if only he is possessed of the heart and will to be of
service.' Although written of one individual, these words are equally true of others
of his family and his generation who, despite modest circumstances, devoted
time, energy and thought to improving the lot of their fellows.

Sholey's grandfather, Ephraim Gruen (d. 1821),4 was an immigrant who
reached London from Amsterdam in about 1792, accompanied by his wife and
two sons, the one aged seven or eight and the other under two.5 According to a
tradition in the family they travelled on a Dutch herring-boat. On arrival Ephraim
adopted the surname by which his descendants are still known.

Nearly a century and a half after their resettlement in England the vast majority
of the Jews of London were still living in the Whitechapel area, and it was there,
in 1793, that Sholey's father, Abraham Green (1793-1852), was born. With few
exceptions the family continued to live in East London throughout the 19th cen-
tury. At the time of the 1851 census there were, within 350 yards of the Great
Synagogue, at least nine households comprising forty-seven of Ephraim's des-
cendants and their spouses.

*        Paper presented to the Society on 19 May 1994.

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Ephraim's eldest son, Levi Ephraim Green (i 784-1858), became a tailor and
later described himself also as a piece-goods broker and dealer in trimmings.6 In
July 1805, at the age of 21, he married Amelia (1779-1854), daughter of Aaron
Hyams, whose family is said to have been associated with the Great Synagogue
for several generations, and they had four sons and four daughters. Levi played
a prominent part in the grandiloquently-styled 'Institution for the Relief of the
Distressed Sick of the Jewish Persuasion' (Meshanat Lecholim) which was founded
in 1824.7 It was supported by voluntary subscriptions of 1d a week or 4s 4d a
year and grants were made by the Visiting Committee after consideration of a
doctor's certificate.8 For many years Levi was its Treasurer and one of the three
Trustees, the others being Zadok Aaron Jessel (1793-1864), father of the future
Master of the Rolls, and David Salomons (1797-1873) later to become the first
Jewish Lord Mayor of London. In 1835 Levi was one of the signatories to a
manifesto calling for a Jewish hospital. Five years later Salomons persuaded his
colleagues to agree to a scheme by which the London Hospital in Whitechapel
Road set aside four of its wards for the exclusive use of Jewish patients, providing
the necessary amenities including a separate kitchen. As Treasurer, Levi was
present at the meeting in April 1842 which set up a trust fund with a capital of
£1800, the interest on which was to be paid half-yearly to the hospital. In order
to supervise arrangements there, a Visitation Committee was formed of which
Levi became a member.

Levi Green's eight children all attended the Jews' Free School.9 Its buildings
in Bell Lane were consecrated and formally opened in 1820 by Chief Rabbi
Solomon Herschell (1761-1842),10 who took particular interest in it and in its
most promising students, among whom were two of Levi's sons. Long before
his Barmitzvah, Michael Levy Green (1811-76), the second son, was receiving
instruction from the Chief Rabbi in reading from the Scroll of the Law,11 and in
1839 Dr Herschell appointed him Minister and Secretary at Exeter, which at that
time boasted a thriving congregation of some 120 souls.12 The result was far from
happy. The congregation objected to some of the letters written by him in his
official capacity and he was instructed that in future these were to be written only
at meetings of the committee and to be posted in the presence of one of its
members. In 1840, wishing to marry and to supplement his income of £64 a year,
he opened a clothier's shop in the city. To this, not surprisingly, the congregation
also objected and gave him three months to choose between the shop and the
synagogue. His reply, which was duly entered in the congregation's minute-book,
read: 'I have no intention of giving up my shop'.13 He remained in Exeter to mind
the shop, and in July 1841 married Rosetta Davis, the daughter of a local jewel-
ler.14 Within four years he had returned to London where he opened a wholesale
clothier's business at 10 Houndsditch, living on the premises with his family. The
venture proved highly successful. At a time when most of his circle were living in
rented accommodation, he was able after ten years of trading to buy the property.15

164 

No ordinary tradesmen: the Green family in 19th-century Whitechapel 

Finding, as die father of fifteen, that he needed more accommodation, he moved
into the house previously occupied by his brother, the Revd A. L. Green, in the
more fashionable Bloomsbury area;16 and on his death in 1876 he left an estate
in the region of £17,000 which, according to the Government's Central Statistical
Office, is equivalent to over £700,000 at 1992 values.17

After Michael's departure the Houndsditch premises were occupied for some
years by his sister Leah (1816-1912) and her husband - who was also her cousin -
Asher Green (1826-91), who represented the clothing firm as a commercial trav-
eller. Their only son, Aaron Asher Green (1860-1933), who was born while they
were living there, is still remembered as Minister of Hampstead Synagogue from
1892 until 1930.

Levi Green's youngest son, Aaron Levy Green (1821-83), was another of
Solomon Herschell's protégés.18 An infant prodigy who had been allowed to con-
duct a service in the Great Synagogue at the age of thirteen, he was three months
short of his seventeenth birthday when he arrived at Bristol in May 1838 as
Minister of the local congregation. Relations with his congregation were more
cordial than his brother's were to be, although his suggestion that a sermon should
be a regular feature of the Sabbath morning service was not at first approved.
Between the two brothers a special affinity existed and Michael urged Aaron to
press his case. The result was a compromise. A weekly sermon was preached -
at the afternoon service.19 On the matter of salary the Bristol congregation proved
more sympathetic (or perhaps they were more affluent) than that of Exeter. When
at the age of twenty-two Aaron Green was about to marry, he applied for an
increase in salary and was granted a rise from £1 7s 6d to £1 10s per week.20 A.
L. Green's subsequent career in London has been described elsewhere; both as
Minister of the Central Synagogue and as a prolific correspondent to the Jewish
Chronicle under the name 'Nemo', he played an important part in influencing
public opinion during a formative period in the community's development.

Ephraim Green (1809-74), Levi Green's eldest son, served the community in
a very different capacity. In about 1835 he opened a shop at 33 Petticoat Lane,
and under the name of L. Green & Co. traded as a cheese factor and grocer.21
Ten years later, in Vallentine's Almanac for 1846, the company thanked 'a discern-
ing public for the patronage so liberally awarded them', and gave an assurance
that goods for Passover would be supplied at the same prices as during the rest
of the year. In 1840 there occurs the first mention of an oven for baking matzoth22
at the premises which were now officially known as 33 Middlesex Street. The
bakery soon became Ephraim's main business interest and a well-known institu-
tion in the district. In the Jewish World of 5 February 1874 (two months before
Ephraim's death) there appeared a two-column report headed 'Green's Motso
Factory'. (Is it, one wonders, no more than a coincidence that Ephraim's son,
Solomon [1853-1923] was on the staff of the Jewish World?) By that time the
factory was producing over a ton of matzoth a week and was employing twenty

165 

Alex Jacob 

bakers who worked from 4 am to 6 pm, with a break of two hours for meals. For
this they were paid the relatively high wages of 14s a day (equivalent to £170 a
week at current values);23 but this was only for slightly over half the year, as the
factory was closed from Passover until immediately after New Year. The article
refers to a machine used in the factory to knead dough, and adds that although
in Continental countries other processes were also performed mechanically, the
Chief Rabbi refused to sanction them in England for fear of causing unemploy-
ment. The correspondent had a poor opinion of the bakers whom he considered
improvident, as despite their high wages they made no effort to save during the
working months and often asked their employer for loans of as much as £100
during the close season. The reporter wrote that he 'could assure Dr. Adler mat
the motso workers are scarcely worthy of his consideration . . . there can be no
doubt that were machinery introduced, the bakers would find some means of
obtaining a livelihood ... tell me the Jew who would not?'

While Ephraim was concerned with me matzo factory, his uncle, Abraham Green,
was also supplying food to the community. In 1884, over thirty years after Abraham's
death, Charles Dickens jnr (1837-96), the eldest son of die novelist, thought it suf-
ficientiy noteworthy to record in his Dictionary of London that 'the poorer Jews of
London eat Spanish olives and Dutch cucumbers pickled in salt and water as food
radier man as a relish'.24 Abraham catered for this taste as a street seller of cucum-
bers, no doubt making use of his Dutch connections for his supplies.

The great cholera epidemic which ravaged the East End of London in 1830
created an urgent need for additional accommodation for Jewish orphans. A com-
mittee of fourteen residents of the district was set up and Abraham proved to be
one of its most enthusiastic and energetic members.25 Abraham had a reputation
for generosity and impulsiveness,26 and his son relates27 how one day his father
'left home contrary to his usual custom, with an empty dish, and instead of his
usual merry talk ... substituted a tale of woe, deserving pity and help. Upon that
day his collection was £20.' Until sufficient funds had been collected, his efforts
continued. On his daily rounds, anyone buying a 'ha'porth' of cucumbers was
asked to contribute as much again to me cause, and we learn from another source
that 'they lost little by the bargain as they were sure to get the better and larger
slice for their money'.25 Efforts such as these, together with support from me
Chief Rabbi,28 resulted in the opening of the Jews' Orphan Asylum (to which
Queen Adelaide gave her patronage) in St Mark Street, Goodman's Fields, in
1831. The Asylum moved to nearby Tenter Street in 1846, and in 1876 merged
with me Orphans' section of the Jewish Hospital (founded in 1807) to form the
Norwood Jewish Orphanage.29

Abraham was prominent in other charitable organizations. He was the first
President of the Widows' Home in Duke Street (founded in 1843), and his
other interests included the Widows' Pension Fund (5:832), the Lying-in Charity
(founded in 1845 t0 supply bread, meat, coals and groceries to poor married

166 

No ordinary tradesmen: the Green family in 19th-century Whitechapel 

Ashkenazi females during their confinement) and the Hand-In-Hand Asylum
founded in 1840 to accommodate 'aged and decayed tradesmen of respectable
character'.30 Until he moved out of the district, Michael Green regularly con-
ducted services at the Asylum's premises in Wellclose Square;31 here too the
youthful A. A. Green, with the precocity so characteristic of his family, is said to
have read the Haphtarah at the age of eight. Even before his own Barmitzvah, he
was teaching other boys their portions.32

In 1838 Abraham's fourteen-year-old son, Lewis Abraham Green (1824-44),
left the Jews' Free School with a strong urge to travel. His parents made consider-
able sacrifices to pay his fare to Philadelphia where he received a warm welcome
from the local Jewish community.33 Funds were found to enable him to continue
his studies, and for a time he served as Secretary of Mikveh Israel, the city's
oldest congregation.34 Although in North America, like in England, the first Jewish
settlers had been Sephardim, by the time congregations were being formally estab-
lished - from about 1740 onwards - there was a majority of Ashkenazim in the
colonies. Nevertheless the Sephardi ceremonial tradition was adopted throughout
the region, even in towns like Philadelphia which had an entirely Ashkenazi mem-
bership.35 It is, therefore, not surprising that in 1844, despite his Ashkenazi ori-
gins, Lewis should have been appointed headmaster of the Sephardi Free School
in Jamaica (Beth Limmud), and three months later Minister of the Montego Bay
Congregation - another Sephardi institution. Sadly his career proved very short,
for in November of the same year, while still under twenty-one and after only
five months on the island, he died of yellow fever.33

Abraham's son Solomon, or Sholey as he was more generally known, inherited
both his father's commitment to communal service and his impulsive nature; in
the younger man's case this resulted in periodic outbursts against those who
disagreed with him. On more than one occasion the Jewish Chronicle wrote that
it could print only a small portion of Sholey's remarks because of personal refer-
ences which it found 'neither necessary nor amusing'.36 Sholey's outstanding
interest was the establishment of a Jewish workhouse. At this period, parish work-
houses operated a régime euphemistically styled 'Less Eligibility', which sought
to discourage pauperism by harsh and depressing conditions; particularly demor-
alizing was the segregation of the sexes, with the resultant break-up of family
life.37 Jewish inmates suffered the additional hardships of an unaccustomed envir-
onment and well-nigh insuperable obstacles to religious observance. In 1869
David Salomons, as Member of Parliament for Greenwich, succeeded in
obtaining Parliamentary authority for Jews to be congregated in particular work-
houses thus facilitating the provision of special facilities.38 This met with opposi-
tion, however, from those parishes where the institutions were to be located, as
they were anxious that paupers from outside their borders should not become a
charge on their rates. A deputation to the President of the Poor Law Board,
seeking authority for parishes to contribute towards the upkeep of paupers trans-

167 

Alex Jacob 

ferred from their districts, received a sympathetic hearing but, it appears, little
else.39

Early in 1871 Sholey launched his campaign for the formation of a Jewish
workhouse.40 Stressing that it was intended not for the able-bodied but for the
sick and disabled, he drew attention to the number of Jews in public workhouses
who would be left to the without a fellow-Jew being present. (Later in the year,
during a visit to Manchester, he found from the records of the city's workhouses
that eight such cases had occurred during the previous two years.)41 On Thursday
4 April 1871 the Jewish Workhouse opened at 123 Wentworth Street, with accom-
modation for twenty and, initially housing fourteen inmates of whom twelve were
from Whitechapel and the neighbouring districts of Homerton and Bow, and one
each from Windsor and Sheerness.42 In the nine preceding weeks Sholey had
gained the support of 1400 contributors, and in the following six of a further 500,
all, in the words of his obituarist, 'belonging to the poorer classes of the East
End'. The first day of Passover fell two days after the opening, and during that
week the workhouse attracted 3000 visitors. One of these was Benjamin Artom
(1835-79), the Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation, who was
much impressed, and through whom a donation of £10 was received from Elias
Sassoon (1819-80).43

During four successive weeks, in April and May, lists of contributions to the
Workhouse appeared in the Jewish Chronicle.44 Sassoon's was the largest, and only
two others exceeded one guinea; indeed, of the 101 contributions listed 78 were
under £1 and the many hundreds not individually listed were under 5s. Other
charities at the same period published lists of their supporters, from which one
may ascertain that the Jews' Infant School reported 153 donations, and the West
Metropolitan Jewish Schools 243, each, in marked contrast to the Workhouse,
receiving only 10 amounts under £1. The lack of support from the wealthier
sections of the community was due to the controversy then raging between them
and men like Sholey. The view of what is now commonly referred to as the
Establishment was that separate residential institutions for Jews had become
unnecessary; the Board of Guardians Annual Report for 1870 asserted that 'the
general course of legislation in this country has been for some time to eliminate
from the regulation of social questions anything giving a preponderance to one
religious class ... [so that] to found separate workhouses or separate hospitals
... seems an unnecessary and unjustified step'.45

Sholey was particularly incensed when, in one of his 'Nemo' letters to the
Jewish Chronicle, his cousin the Revd A. L. Green questioned the need for a
Jewish workhouse.46 At a public meeting two weeks after the letter appeared
Sholey argued the need for the Workhouse and claimed to know (as no doubt he
and many of his audience did) the identity of that preacher 'who appears now in
a different character, [that] of an anonymous writer styling himself "Nemo".'47
(This was one of the occasions when the Jewish Chronicle refused to report his

168 

No ordinary tradesmen: the Green family in 19th-century Whitechapel 

words in full.) Faced with such opposition the Workhouse survived for only three
years. The Jewish Directory for 1874 shows its annual expenditure as £592 and
income (provided by 1400 subscribers) as £560.48 In that year it was reconstituted
as the Jewish Home, and in new premises at Stepney Green it operated as a
residential home for the aged. Twenty years later the Hand-In-Hand Asylum
and the Widows' Home (in both of which Sholey's father had been prominent)
amalgamated with the Jewish Home to form the Home for Aged Jews. Sholey
remained Chairman of the House Committee and continued his close personal
concern for the welfare of the residents until his death.49

Another of Sholey's particular interests was the friendly-society movement. For
social and economic reasons Jews did not normally join the ordinary societies,
but in 1820 a Jewish Court of the Ancient Order of Foresters was formed, and
by 1853 there were reckoned to be twenty societies with 2000 members. By the
end of the century there were 176 societies in London alone, with 22,000 mem-
bers and annual subscriptions totalling £38,500. One of the main objects of the
societies was to make grants to members during their week of confined mourn-
ing.50 Sholey is said to have reached high office in the movement and to have
been responsible for forming several courts, including one in Amsterdam where
his family had originated.

Ephraim Green's daughter Sarah (1800-85), who ran a provision store from
her home at 23 Stoney Lane,51 was married to another well-known East End
personality. Isaac Vallentine (1793-1868) had been born in Belgium - then under
Austrian rule - and brought to London as an infant when his father, Rabbi Nathan
Isaac Vallentine of Breslau, was appointed to the Hambro Synagogue. Isaac Val-
lentine had an eventful youth.52 He was apprenticed to a watchmaker on the Isle
of Sheppey who became insane; pressganged into the Royal Navy and released
through the efforts of the Jews of Canterbury;53 knocked to the ground and
concussed for failing, during a visit to Belgium, to kneel while the Host was being
carried in procession through the streets; and involved in the bizarre smuggling
of a coffin hidden in a piano-case, containing the body of a Mrs Joseph, an
English Jewess who had died during a visit to Brussels, and for whom it was feared
that a Jewish burial might not otherwise have been possible. When eventually he
decided to make London his permanent home, he opened a printing works in
Duke Street and became the founder of the Jewish Chronicle and of the Almanac
bearing his name, which first appeared in 1837 and continued annually for over
a century.

Isaac is said to have served on the governing bodies of eighteen charities and
to have been the co-founder of five literary and scientific institutions. In 1868,
shortly after his death, the Jewish Chronicle published a lengthy memoir by his
nephew, Samuel Vallentine, claiming him as the founder of virtually every Jewish
charity then in existence. The correspondence columns in subsequent weeks
contained a succession of letters praising his many virtues yet disputing the

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Alex Jacob 

nephew's many claims. If not an innovator, he was certainly deeply committed to
many communal causes. It is on record that he was the first Hebrew teacher
(unpaid) at Sussex Hall, the short-lived (1844-59) adult educational institution
for Jewish working men.54

During the last fifteen years of his life (1868-83) the Revd A. L. Green contrib-
uted, as 'Nemo', over 150 letters, many running to 5000 words, to the Jewish
Chronicle. At times he indulged in academic speculation, on one occasion dis-
cussing the relative ages of the sons of Noah,55 and on another references to
lightning conductors in the Talmud.56 But for the most part he dealt with contem-
porary issues, the activities of the London Jewish charities being a recurrent
theme. In 1859, when the Board of Guardians was founded, it was reckoned that
half the Jewish population of London was in receipt of charity.57 The individual
sums distributed were enough to alleviate acute distress; but apart from the very
successful promotion of apprenticeship by the Free School and the Orphanages,58
little was done to tackle the causes of poverty or to improve living conditions.
The system, Green complained, 'kept some on the verge of starvation, enervated
others and pauperised the many',59 so that London rivalled Amsterdam as a 'man-
ufactory of schnorrers'.60 For this state of affairs he blamed the indiscriminate
giving of alms with little or no investigation, the multiplicity of small charities
competing with each other for funds and duplicating grants to applicants, and the
lack of occupational training. It was because he was determined that the Board
of Guardians should deal with these problems that he gave it such enthusiastic
support. In its early days he was responsible for the formation of two of its
important committees; and as the result of a sermon at the Central Synagogue
suggesting that 'some of the young Jewish gentlemen living in the West End'
should regularly visit the Jewish poor in the East End, the Board appointed a
sub-committee which, after consultation with him, recommended the establish-
ment of a Visiting Committee.61 Its members' experience formed the basis of
the system developed by the Board for assessing the needs of its clients. The
reports of the visitors also brought greater awareness of housing conditions in the
East End and resulted in very effective steps to improve sanitation. In this sphere
the Board was far ahead of the general community.62 The other committee which
owed its existence to a suggestion of Green's was the Work Committee (later the
Industrial Committee) with its strong emphasis on training and apprenticeship.63
Although twenty years after the Board's formation he was still expressing impa-
tience at the slow pace of amalgamation,64 many mergers had already taken place
and many more were to follow by the end of the century. Had it not been for the
rationalization of the community's welfare system, it is difficult to see how it could
have coped with the mass immigration of the 1880s and onwards. It was no doubt
inevitable that a more sophisticated system would come; but it is impossible not
to regret the passing of a simpler age when men of modest circumstances, often
immigrants or the sons of immigrants, were guided in the main by compassion
and sympathy.

170 

Ephraim Green (formerly Gruen) 

Fig. 1. Pedigree of the Green family

Alex Jacob 

Acknowledgements 

I am very greatly indebted to Mr George Rigal for copies of entries in the records
of Sun Insurance deposited by the company in the Library of the London
Guildhall. I am also most grateful to Mr Peter Lobbenberg for information from
the papers of his wife's grandfather, Mark L. Green (1889-1980) son of Solomon
Green (1853-1923).

No ordinary tradesmen: the Green family in 19th-century Whitechapel