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Miscellanies: Sources in Israel for the Study of Anglo-Jewish History - An Interim Report

Stuart Cohen

<plain_text><page sequence="1">Sources in Israel for the Study of Anglo-Jewish History - An Interim Report STUART COHEN Anglo-Jewish history is a topic of marginal interest in Israeli academic life. The subject is neither comprehensively taught at Israeli universities nor intensively researched by Israeli students, although local interest in Anglo-Iudaica can sometimes be discerned. One heartening indication is the progress of the Israel branch of the jhse which was founded in Jerusalem in 1978 on the initiative of Professor Lloyd Gartner; another is the comparative popu? larity of occasional symposia and exhibitions on Anglo-Jewish themes at Bet Hatefuzot ('The Museum of the Diaspora' on the campus of Tel-Aviv University). Nevertheless, most Israeli scholars tend to regard the history of Anglo-Jewry as a topic of secondary importance. This attitude cannot be attributed solely to an understandable desire to direct academic concern towards the larger Jewish communities of Europe and the United States. Considerations of a more opaque nature also seem to come into play. In some quarters, for instance, there appears to exist a feeling that little of substan? tive interest can be learnt from a study of Anglo Jewish history; the community, after all, has invar? iably been situated on the cultural as much as on the geographical periphery of Jewish life, rarely contributing much of significance to the intellec? tual or social development of the Jewish people as a whole.1 Elsewhere, neglect of Anglo-Jewry has been excused on the grounds that priority must be accorded to those communities which were vir? tually wiped out by the Holocaust. Hence the justification for establishing specialized Institutes for the study of German, Dutch or Polish Jewry which, unlike Anglo-Jewry, now possess only the slimmest of 'home bases' on which to rely for the reconstruction of their pasts. It is the purpose of the present article to indicate that Israeli institutions nevertheless can, and do, make substantial contributions to our knowledge of the development of Jewish communal life in Great Britain. Most critically is this so at the level of primary documentary materials for the late 19th and 20th centuries. In this area, the quantity of archival sources presently located in Israel is large, and its quality is high. Not only do Israeli libraries and institutions contain a large number of pub? lished works and papers of relevance to Anglo-Jew? ish history, but they also possess a sizeable propor? tion of the manuscript sources to which historians of the community must necessarily refer. This circumstance prompts two suggestions. One is that a study of many aspects of recent Anglo-Jewish history in Israel is viable; the second - and more important - is that in some areas of research a visit to Israeli institutions is vital. My primary interest has been to indicate the extent and type of manuscript sources in Israel appertaining to Anglo-Jewish history, although the picture would be unbalanced without due regard to the availability of other categories of written mater? ials which constitute important bases from which any historical study must proceed. The second consideration concerns the aims of the present paper. In its present form, it is designed to constitute no more than an introductory guide to the mater? ials available in Israel. It does not purport to present a comprehensive catalogue of such materials. It is hoped, however, that the body of the paper, together with its footnotes, will provide some indication of the provenance, accessibility and possible significance of the sources which have hitherto been found and consulted.2 I. Published Materials For a country of its size and population, Israel possesses a large number of libraries.3 Although the public library system is neither as well organized nor as well funded as that in Britain, the country contains a high proportion of university libraries and of institutional collections of a specialist nature, most of which are open to the public. Not one of 129</page><page sequence="2">130 Stuart Cohen these libraries specializes in Anglo-Jewry, but several of them do contain respectable collections of works on the subject and some possess books and pamphlets which are not easily accessible else? where. For present purposes, library holdings of printed materials relating to Anglo-Jewish history have been divided into three categories, (i) Works of reference, (ii) specialist published works, (iii) news? papers and periodicals. (i) Works of reference All university libraries in Israel possess copies of what are justifiably considered to be the standard works of reference for all students of Anglo-Jewish history. The bibliographies successively compiled by Jacobs, Wolf, Cecil Roth and Ruth Lehmann are conveniently available, as is, in most cases, a complete series of the Jewish Year Book.4 Indeed, at the Jewish National University Library (jnul), situ? ated on the Givat-Ram campus of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, these and related items are conveniently located together in the bibliographical reference room located near the main card indices on the ground floor.5 Complete runs of the annual reports of such bodies as the Board of Deputies, the Board of Guardians and the English Zionist Fede? ration are a little more difficult to come by; they are scattered amongst the stacks of the libraries at Tel-Aviv University, the Central Zionist Archives (Jerusalem) and the jnul. Of even greater value for the research student are the catalogues of Jewish archival materials pos? sessed and/or compiled by the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (cahjp; situated in the basement of the Sprinzak building of the Hebrew University at Givat-Ram, Jerusalem). This institution, with substantial archival holdings of its own, also obtains and sometimes commissions indices of collections elsewhere, references to which are to be found in its occasional Newsletter. It must be stated that the cahjp's catalogues are neither comprehensive nor entirely up to date. Neverthe? less, they do constitute a valuable directory to many of the collections open to inspection both in Israel and abroad. For that reason, they must be cited as a preliminary port of call. Thus, under the rubric 'r' (Register) can be found lists of the holdings of some of the most important repositories in Britain;6 the United States;7 and France. The latter register deserves particular mention, since it contains one of the very few available copies of the (unpublished) index to the archives of the Alliance Israelite Univer? selle with whose representatives and officials several Anglo-Jewish personalities and institutions conducted a regular correspondence until as recently as the 1960s. Thus, the list provides references to exchanges between the Alliance and Frederic Mocatta (ib 53); Chief Rabbi Hertz (ib 13); Samuel Montagu (ib 56); Claude Montefiore (ib 58); members of the Rothschild family (ij 6); and such institutions as the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Russo-Jewish Committee (m 7). Microfilm copies of some (but not all) of these holdings have also been deposited at the cahjp itself, further increasing the value of a visit to the institution. Finally, under this rubric, reference must also be made to the Responsa Project of the Institute for Information Retrieval and Computational Linguis? tics at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan. Launched in 1967, the project plans to place on computer tapes as large a body as possible of the published responsa issued by leading rabbinical authorities from the 1 ith century until modern times, and thus to provide an almost immediately retrievable sur? vey of rabbinical opinion on almost any topic of halakhic interest. The importance of responsa literature as a source for social and intellectual as well as purely legal history has long been recog? nized, and the Bar-Ilan project (which has hitherto stored some 170 collections of responsa) promises to facilitate all such enquiries. A pilot request (entered in the spring of 1980) that the computer retrieve all available responsa emanating from the British Isles or referring to the Anglo-Jewish com? munity, resulted in references to over 250 indivi? dual responsa from over 70 sources, dating from the 12th century (Rabbi Avraham ben David of Posquieres [Rabad], c. 1125-98) to the 1970s (Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, the present Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel). A preliminary survey of the material provided suggests two possible lines of further enquiry. One is the extent of contact between rabbinical authorities in Britain and the Continent; the second is a study of the sorts of issues upon which the rabbis were asked to express an opinion by Jews and Jewesses living in the British Isles.8</page><page sequence="3">Israeli Sources for Study of Anglo-Jewish History 131 (ii) Specialist published works Neither the jnul nor any other library in Israel publishes a catalogue of its printed holdings, so there is no substitute for a visit to the card indices of individual repositories. Unfortunately, the experi? ence can often prove frustrating. In part, this can be attributed to the tendency of university libraries in Israel to spread their holdings among specialist (faculty or department) libraries; more generally, it is due to the inadequacies of the Dewey Decimal Classification system for matters of Jewish interest.9 Consequently, idiosyncratic classification systems abound. At the Central Zionist Archives (cza), for instance, books are classified according to the name of the country to which they refer (Britaniya, in this case, providing an inadequate summary of the materials available); alternatively - and equally unhelpfully - they are numbered according to the date of their receipt; at Bar-Ilan University, the relevant reference is '047'; and at the jnul (in Dewey style) 933.5 (42) for England and 933.5 (415) for Ireland. Confronted with such a maze of symbols and numbers, it is a good rule to consult the librarian at the enquiries desk (who will generally be found to speak English adequately) before embarking on this labyrinthine course. The search, however, is likely to prove reward? ing, obviously in the case of the jnul, whose collection of Judaica is recognized to be among the best in the world. In the case of Anglo-Jewish history, the library possesses both a sound collec? tion of what may be termed 'basic books', as well as an interesting mixture of more ephemeral works. More comprehensive is the collection of addresses, responsa, talmudic novellae, essays and halakhic treatises written by rabbis of East European origin, who either settled in Britain at the turn of the present century or spent some time in the British Isles (often in tiny immigrant communities) on their way to the United States.10 These are often very rare works, many of them printed privately and without due regard to the Copyright Act, and hence difficult to obtain in so concentrated a form else? where. For a historian of Anglo-Jewry two aspects of such works-many are little more than slim pamphlets while others are heavy treatises - are of particular interest. One is their subject matter, which can help to round out our knowledge of the intellectual climate pervading certain (and usually submerged) quarters of Anglo-Jewish life. It is particularly interesting to compare works written by immigrant rabbis with the treatment accorded to parallel subjects in comparable English-language works (of which the jnul possesses an equally representative collection) written by and for a much more acculturated section of the com? munity.11 Equally instructive, secondly, are the occasional - and often incidental - glimpses which many of the immigrant works provide of the personal histories and fortunes of their authors. In the apparent absence of private papers relating to most rabbis of this type, the introductions to and approbations of their works constitute virtually unique sources for a study of the vicissitudes of their personal and professional lives. Among the issues on which such works throw some light are the manner and motives of an individual author's passage to Great Britain, and the extent of his continuing relationship with colleagues in his country of origin.12 (iii) Newspapers and periodicals The history of the growth and development of the Anglo-Jewish press still awaits comprehensive aca? demic treatment. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Roth, Fraenkel, and Prager we do, fortunately, possess handlists of many of the English, Yiddish and Hebrew-language newspapers printed and published in Great Britain.13 Analytical studies of press content and circulation are, however, still inadequate.14 The Jewish Chronicle, which, for all its notorious biases, is generally recognized to be an indispensable source for many aspects of Victorian and modern Anglo-Jewry, is readily available in Israel. Similarly accessible, in their original form, are the Voice of Jacob (the jc's predecessor); the Jewish World (its one-time competitor, until both papers were acquired by Leopold Greenberg in 1907); the Jewish Guardian (launched in 1919 with the express purpose of 'dislodging the lewish Chronicle from its auracular position'15); Ha Yehoodi (the Hebrew-language weekly run on a shoestring by I. Suvalsky between 1895 and 1913); and-at Tel-Aviv University - Ha-Me'orer (the Hebrew literary journal edited in London by Yosef Chaim Brenner between 1909 and 1910), and the Jewish Review (launched in 1910 by Norman Bentwich and Joseph Hochman with the purpose of</page><page sequence="4">132 Stuart Cohen 'filling the gap left by the transfer of the jqr to the United States'16). But the material on open shelves represents only the tip of the iceberg. Lists of holdings of the jnul, the cza, and Beit Lessin (in Tel-Aviv), which houses the Archives and Museum of the Labour Movement in Israel, reveal over 30 further titles in Yiddish, some 20 in Hebrew and almost 70 in English. Clearly not all of these are of equal value and quality, but the jnul possesses a representative run of such important Yiddish newspapers as Die Zeit (x2? pv 5 72); AbendNaiess (20 pa 3174) and Unserer Tribune (launched by Ze'ev Jabotinsky in London in 1916; x2? pv 3326); as well as a high proportion of the more noteworthy provincial lewish news? papers. No less significant (and in many cases more interesting) are collections of lesser-known publica? tions which testify to the occasional richness of Anglo-Iewish intellectual life and the wide range of communal concerns. Within this category fall the various journals issued under different titles by the Inter-University Jewish Association (Jewish Acad? emy; Agora, etc; jnul pb 38i 7); Hazofeh Leveit Yisrael (an orthodox Hebrew journal; of which the jnul has the first two numbers, issued in 1887; r 51 a 522); and such contrasting publications as the Jewish Outlook (published in 1946 by the anti-Zionist Jewish Fellowship; cza number 4848) and the Jewish Struggle (simultaneously published by Ang? lo-Jewish supporters of the Etzel; cza 4751). But in some cases, the holdings of original prints are incomplete;17 in others the card indices are mis? leading. A large number of the ventures listed were chronically under-financed, so their lives were irregular and short, and the paper on which they were printed of such poor quality that surviving sheets are rapidly decaying.18 Yet a third category of publications (not necessarily exclusive of the previous two) appealed to so restricted or local an audience that they contain little (beyond gossip) which cannot be gleaned from other sources.19 Nevertheless, the holdings remain both impres? sive and valuable, and undoubtedly provide an adequate base for systematic and comprehensive research. This is thanks to the efforts which have been made to supplement the gaps in Israeli holdings by obtaining microfilm copies of news? papers held elsewhere. The jnul has been particu? larly energetic, with the assistance of the Abe Cahan Fund in New York, in acquiring copies of both a large number of obscure items and complete sets of such seminal newspapers as Der Arbeiter Freund.20 Secondly, note must be taken of various private archives which contain substantial bodies of newspaper cuttings. Special mention must be made of the Morris Myer Archive at Bet Hatefuzot Library at Tel-Aviv University; of the Josef Leftwich Archive at the cza (which contains a particularly interesting collection of cuttings relating to the Yiddish theatre, series A330); and of the Ivan Greenberg Archive at the Jabotinsky Institute (ji, in Tel-Aviv, which contains a complete run of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency bulletins, box 2). Perhaps most important of all is the obvious - but critical - fact that none of the Israeli libraries mentioned limit themselves exclusively to collections of Anglo-Jewish press interest. Other communities are, if anything, even more fully represented. The most important advantage of this situation is that it permits comparative studies of press attitudes in a large variety of Jewish centres towards issues which were of international Jewish concern. It is probably no exaggeration to claim that the newspaper facilities existing in Israel for a comparative study ofthat nature cannot be rivalled elsewhere.21 II. Primary Manuscript Sources In Israel, the dividing line between 'archives' and 'libraries' can often be blurred. Most large libraries (especially when attached to universities) tend to possess an archival division, and all archives possess a select library of secondary and reference works. Since the distinction between the two categories of holdings is clearly a significant one, it has here been maintained. Henceforth, attention will be concentrated on those repositories which specialize in the collection and preservation of manuscript sources, of both an institutional and personal nature. Archives everywhere are fascinating institu? tions: not only do they contain unique, original materials; they also tend, particularly when small, to possess distinctive characteristics and histories of their own. The provenance of an archival collec? tion - the way the sources came to be preserved and</page><page sequence="5">Israeli Sources for Study of Anglo-Jewish History 133 deposited - reveals much about the character of both the archivist and the manuscripts placed in his charge. The manner in which the various deposits are stored and catalogued is also instructive, and provides further indices of the nature of the mater? ial, its origins, and the particularities of its custo? dians. Remarks of this nature seem to be particu? larly pertinent to a discussion of Israeli archives, many of which are highly specialized institutions, established in order to preserve the records of specific (and usually very narrow) aspects of Jewish or Israeli life. Each tends to exaggerate the signifi? cance of the figures in its own particular foreground and to obscure-even obliterate - those in the background with which the general Jewish his? torian might be concerned. This impression is conveyed by a brief list of the names and functions of some of the archives which have been consulted for the purpose of the present paper.22 The Archives and Museum of the Labour Move? ment ('Beit Lessin', Tel-Aviv), for instance, was founded in 1932 with the aim of assembling materials and exhibits connected with the history of the Zionist-Socialist Labour Movement in Palestine and the Diaspora. The Histadrut Archive (situated in the basement of the Histadrut's Headquarters in Tel-Aviv) preserves the records of the Israel General Federation of Trade Unions; the purpose of the Weizmann Archives (situated at Rehovot) is to assemble materials relating to the life and activities of the first President of the State of Israel; that of the Jabotinsky Institute (situated on the first floor of the Headquarters of the Herut Party in Tel-Aviv) is to preserve documents of relevance to the history of the Zionist Revisionist Movement and its member? ship; that of the Haganah Archives (at Bet Golomb in Tel-Aviv) to collect and collate materials necess? ary for the publication of a history of the Haganah;23 and that of the Israel State Archives (situated on the ground floor of the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem) to preserve and catalogue materials relevant to the foundation and history of the State of Israel. Even the Central Zionist Archives, which is a far larger institution than any of these, is concerned only with the assembly of materials relevant to the history of the Zionist movement in its most recent manifestation.24 Only three repositories in Israel appear to possess wider briefs. One is the Library of Bet Hatefuzot (which is new and still rather small); the second is the manuscript division of the jnul (situated on the second floor of the main library building on the Hebrew University Campus); the third is the cahjp, which was granted the status of a national institu? tion in 1968, and whose terms of reference empower its trustees to collect and preserve mater? ials relating to Jewish settlement in every country throughout all periods. Appearances are, however, deceptive. For the student of Anglo-Jewish history, conventional dis? tinctions between 'broadly-based' and 'narrow' archives are not at all helpful. Paradoxically, those archives with specific terms of reference contain more material of relevance to the subject than do those with ostensibly wider interests. Thus the cahjp, although an indispensable source for the history of many other Jewish communities, pos? sesses a very limited amount of archival material of direct relevance to Anglo-Jewry. Its only holdings of private papers, for instance, are those of Lucien Wolf and Cecil Roth - neither of which collection is complete-and such incidental items as the ori? ginal record of a grant of armorial ensigns to the merchant family of Salvada by the College of Arms in 1745. Otherwise, its holdings in the sphere of Anglo-Judaica consist of microfilm copies of docu? ments in other institutional or private hands.25 Of course, its vast collection of archives of other communities can, if thoroughly searched, provide highly interesting insights into Anglo-Jewish affairs.26 The use to which such sources can be put is severely limited, however, for they do not consti? tute a unified body of Anglo-Jewish material, so can only profitably be employed as supplementary material, after the researcher has clearly defined the parameters of his enquiry. Simply to work through all the communal pinkasim available at the cahjp in search of documents of relevance to Anglo-Jewry is to impose intolerable burdens on the resources of the researcher and to tax severely the admirable patience and kindness of the archivist and his efficient staff. In addition, it is precisely those archives which initially appear to possess the more limited terms of reference which have been found to contain some of the richest veins of Anglo-Jewish material. These repositories do suffer from technical limitations. Some of the smaller archives do not possess the</page><page sequence="6">134 Stuart Cohen facilities for preserving all of the material in their possession; others have not yet managed to cata? logue and index their holdings.27 Furthermore, there is the question of periodization. The over? whelming majority of documents of Anglo-Jewish interest in Israel are no older than the late Victorian era, and most are still more recent. Within those boundaries, however, the archives do merit the brief and deliberately narrative scan which will be attempted here. For the purposes of the present paper, archival materials of Anglo-Jewish interest in Israel have been divided into three main areas: (i) Political (ii) Institutional (iii) Social and personal. Other themes (intellectual, religious, etc.) can also be pursued; however, initial research does suggest that the three areas here covered are the most prominent. (i) Political Popular and academic interest in the history of relations between Great Britain and the Palestinian Yishuv during the mandate period has always been considerable in Israel. Consequently, the subject has for many years been accorded substantial archival concern. With the recent opening of most of the official British documents for the period of the mandate, and the virtually simultaneous appli? cation of a 'Thirty Years Rule' in Israel, work on the period 1920-48 has attained something of the status of a national growth industry. As such, it has produced some ancillary benefits.28 The affairs of Anglo-Jewry do not constitute the primary focus of these enquiries, but because the community was so closely concerned (officially and unofficially) with the style and substance of the British administ? ration in Palestine, its social and political historians can benefit considerably from the labours of their colleagues whose interests are more strictly diplo? matic. One obvious example concerns evidence on the activities of various pressure groups within Anglo Jewry, whose members sought to influence the pace and direction of official British policy on matters of international Jewish concern. The British Govern? ment's reactions to these efforts can, of course, best be studied in the British sources.29 But the process of communal planning for such deputations, as well as the internal Anglo-Jewish debate to which they occasionally gave rise, can only be studied in internal Jewish sources, of which a large proportion are to be found in Israeli archives. i. The Zionist lobby in its various manifestations is particularly well represented in Israel, thanks to a number of crucial collections of private papers of persons who were most active in promoting and forming a Zionist 'caucus' in communal affairs. Herzl, Sokolow, Weizmann, Jabotinsky, and Ben Gurion, all interested themselves at one stage or another in the affairs of the Anglo-Jewish com? munity, which they each attempted to employ as a lever on British Government policy. Their efforts were not of equal intensity: Sokolow, for instance, was primarily concerned with matters of 'high policy' (cementing the diplomatic contacts which he was adept at forming); Ben Gurion, who never stayed in Britain for any length of time, with the internal politics of the Palestinian Yishuv and the World Zionist Organization. Hence, although the archives of both men contain some interesting, and occasionally sharp memoranda on the state of Anglo-Jewry, the amount of unique communal material which they contain is relatively sparse.30 The same is true of the Ze'ev Jabotinsky Archive at the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel-Aviv, although Jabo? tinsky' s efforts to arouse official and public support for the formation of a Jewish Legion during the First World War did result in spasmodic bursts of correspondence with some immigrant Jewish groupings in London and the provinces. His surviv? ing letters for 1915-17, therefore, contain some otherwise rare reports on the atmosphere pervad? ing the East End and similarly composed areas of Anglo-Jewish settlement during a crucial period of their development.31 But with the end of the war, Jabotinsky's interests moved elsewhere. Anglo Jewry played virtually no part at all in his sub? sequent battles inside and outside the Zionist movement, and hence is hardly referred to in his late papers. The Herzl and Weizmann archives fall into a different category - albeit for different reasons. Although Herzl's occasional visits to Britain were</page><page sequence="7">Israeli Sources for Study of Anglo-Jewish History 135 short, his attempts to gain the ear of the British Government (the 'archimedean point' of many of his plans) through the medium of the local Jewish community were continuous and insistent. Each of these efforts, most of which were abrasive and unsuccessful, can be followed in the Herzl mss at the cza (call number h and hn), where a large residue of his writings and correspondence has been carefully collected and meticulously catalogued. As so often, the letters received by the protagonist are no less significant than those which he addressed to others. It is from Simeon Singer, for instance, that we learn of the 'inexpressible difficulties' which Herzl's very first supporters in Britain experienced in attempting to 'give Zionism the prominence it deserved'; and from David Nutt (whose publishing house brought out the first English edition of The Jewish State in 1896) that sales of the book were disappointingly low: 'the regular Jewish booksellers simply refuse to have anything to do with it.'32 Similarly, Leopold Greenberg reported on the impression which Herzl's appearance before the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration created on the 'upper Jews'. At a later stage, it was Nathan Lord Rothschild who gave some indication of the carefully circumscribed extent to which New Court was prepared to use its political and financial clout in order to further the British Government's interest in a qualified scheme of Jewish settlement in East Africa.33 Weizmann's subsequent efforts to pull similar strings were both more persistent and far more successful. They are also more fully documented. A vast collection of Weizmann's sprawling correspon? dence has been deposited at the Weizmann Archives (wa) at Rehovot, where the papers have also been carefully indexed and catalogued. For? tunately, a substantial proportion of this material has now been published in the 23 volumes of The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann. Series A. Letters (Jerusalem, Oxford and London 1969-80). But that project does not publish letters received by Weizmann during his long and eventful career, many of which are far more informative than those which he himself wrote. Since so many of Weiz? mann's personal friends and colleagues lived in Britain, the historian of Anglo-Jewry would be particularly advised to delve beyond the published correspondence. Much of the manuscript archive consists of letters from members of the Anglo-Jew ish community, which are specifically concerned with the nuts and bolts of local attempts to create and consolidate an effective Anglo-Jewish political lobby on Zionism's behalf. Weizmann's most regular correspondents, how? ever, were not representative of the community at large. The letters mirror the man and his social milieu, and the vast majority of Anglo-Jewish material is therefore from and about the higher segments of communal society, leaving large areas of immigrant life virtually unrepresented. Never? theless, on political matters the imbalance in the Weizmann correspondence is less damaging, basi? cally because of the frequently noted longevity of the traditional structure of communal leadership. Notwithstanding the significance of the inter-war institutional 'revolution' in Anglo-Jewry, which resulted in the transfer of much communal power to middle-class groups of predominantly immigrant parentage, for much of Weizmann's life the direc? tion of Jewish political activity in Britain remained largely confined to the 'Cousinhood' and its associ? ates. That, therefore, was the circle which Weiz? mann had assiduously to cultivate. The archives provide a detailed, albeit refractory, chronicle of the manner in which he did so. Fully documented are his pre-1914 contacts with the Magnus family; his wartime cooperation with the Rothschilds; and his inter-war efforts to attach such figures as Sir Robert Waley Cohen to an 'Economic Advisory Council' on Zionist affairs.34 2. Not the least of the advantages of working within large yet precisely defined collections such as personal archives, is that they provide the research student with various and often unexpected leads which he might profitably pursue elsewhere. The personal letter can often provide a useful and introductory key to the more awkwardly classified institutional records in the same field. The wa might serve as a convenient illustration of this sort of advantage for topics of Anglo-Jewish political concern. It is, for instance, by pursuing leads hinted at in Weizmann's correspondence with Lavy Bakstansky and Selig Brodetsky during the 1940s, that the present writer has been able to save considerable time when subsequently approaching two of the larger relevant series in the cza.S25; the</page><page sequence="8">136 Stuart Cohen records of the Political Committee of the Zionist Organization and fi 3, the files of the English Zionist Federation. Among the topics on which supplemen? tary material was obtained are: Anglo-Jewish reac? tions to the anti-Zionist memorandum sent to the Government by the Anglo-Jewish Association in 1944;3 5 communal estimates of the implications of Labour's electoral victory in 1945 on the direction of Britain's Palestine policy;36 and communal views on Ernest Bevin's allegedly anti-Semitic remarks in 1946.37 3 This method would clearly be inappropriate when dealing with more secret political activity, with which such public figures as Weizmann chose not to be concerned - or about which they were some? times deliberately not kept fully informed. Within this category fall what might be termed clandestine military Zionist activities, which were in some quarters considered to be an essential complement to the overt diplomatic work in which the Jewish Agency and its representatives were usually engaged.38 Two preliminary remarks are necess? ary: firstly, 'underground' Jewish activities in Bri? tain cannot be considered to constitute more than a very minor episode in the history of Anglo-Jewry, or even, for that matter, of the wider struggle against the British authorities in Palestine.39 Secondly, this is a very obscure topic about which very few documents at all seem to have survived (probably because most of their recipients were sufficiently discreet as to destroy them). Yet the existing evidence, much of which is circumstantial, does deserve some mention. The three principal sources in Israel for a study of this area are the cza (and in particular the S. Landman mss; series A226); the archives of the New Zionist Organization at the Jabotinsky Institute; and the Haganah Archives. Of these, the latter appears to be by far the most informative. Landman's references to quasi-subversive activities in Anglo Jewry are confined to marginal, and very late, attempts to establish 'cells' of Etzel supporters in Great Britain;40 those of the nzo to occasional, but often extremely protracted and abortive negotia? tions for the acquisition of vessels for the transpor? tation of 'illegal' Jewish immigrants and arms to Palestine.41 The Haganah Archives, on the other hand, indicate the existence of a more continuous story, including references to meetings in 1937 between Haganah emissaries and such Anglo-Jew? ish Zionist sympathizers as Marks, Sieff, Simon and Sacher (caustically code-named 'the fathers of socialism'), who were induced to establish a secret fund for the purchase of arms;42 to the establish? ment (by a group of Palestinian students in London in 1938) of a 'Jewish Youth and Volunteer Organi? zation' of Haganah supporters among Anglo-Jew? ish adolescents, who held occasional field exercises in Epping Forest and at Hatricham in Kent;43 to the work of a group of clandestine radio operators in Hampstead and Belsize Park, who received coded messages from Palestine during the War (and were more often disturbed by the Blitz than by the occasional visits from the cid);44 and - most crypti? cally of all-to the acquisition of some heavy armaments and even aeroplanes in Britain, on the eve of the War of Israeli Independence in 1948.45 (ii) Institutional History 1. The history and policies of a number of Anglo-Jew? ish institutions can be examined in archives housed in Israel. Matters of Zionist interest tend to predomi? nate. Indeed, each of the institutions whose records are preserved substantially in Israel was specifically concerned with one aspect or another of Zionist progress. Most obviously is this so in the cases of the Chovevei Zion Association of Great Britain and Ireland (founded in 1890 and disbanded in 1902; whose complete archive is in the cza, series a2); its successor, the English Zionist Federation (founded in 1898; cza series F13); and two of the latter's competitors, the Jewish Territorial Organization (founded by Israel Zangwill in 1904; cza, Series A3 6) and the British section of the New Zionist Organization (founded by Jabotinsky in 1934; ji; series G4 and g20). Differences between these four sets of records may be noted. Those of the Chovevei Zion Associ? ation and the New Zionist Organization, both of which are relatively small collections, are in by far the better condition. Their files are well preserved and catalogued, and hence relatively easy to work with. Each collection contains minute books, bud? gets, correspondence and circulars, in fact all of the paraphernalia which attests to reasonably efficient</page><page sequence="9">Israeli Sources for Study of Anglo-Jewish History 137 office management. This considerably facilitates the accurate reconstruction of the origins - and dec? line-of both institutions.46 The records of the English Zionist Federation and of the Jewish Terri? torial Organization present a very different picture. The state of their files is often poor, and the organization a shambles. One reason (certainly as far as the ezf is concerned) is that the early records of the institution simply do not seem to have survived the ravages of time in a concentrated form.47 Another, however, is that neither body was ever sufficiently businesslike to maintain adequate records of all its activities. The English Zionist Federation, at least for the first two decades of its existence, was a communal byword for internal dissension and personal vendetta. The Jewish Terri? torial Organization, throughout, was far too depen? dent on the personal whims, fancies and graces of Israel Zangwill.48 Both sets of records have to be employed with considerable care and - far more than in the case of the Chovevei Zion and the New Zionist Organiza? tion - must be supplemented by material drawn from other sources. For the Jewish Territorial Organization, recourse can be had to the private papers of Israel Zangwill (of which the cza has an enormous collection, series a 120, consisting of 98 boxes - although not one of them has been catalo? gued); and of Lucien Wolf (cza series a 7 7/3, which is in a slightly better condition). The English Zionist Federation was even more fortunate in the number of its activists whose papers have survived. For the period before 1914, reference can be made to the private papers of Percy Baker (cza; series A57, especially file 1); I. Cohen (cza; series A213, especially file i6(i)); Herbert Bentwich (cza; series aioo); Jacob de Haas (cza; A224, much of which consists of xerox copies of the larger archive at the Zionist Archives in New York); Moses Gaster (xerox copies of whose material of Zionist interest in the Mocatta Library have been deposited at the cza; A203) and Murray Rosenberg (cza; ai 50), as well those of Herzl, Wolffsohn (especially the latter's correspondence with Leopold Greenberg in cza; W77 and 78) and Weizmann. The ezf's activities after 1914 are often reported in the private papers of Brodetsky (cza; A82); Lucien Harris (cza; A341); Simon Marks (cza; A247); Harry Sacher (cza; A289) and (again) Weizmann. 2. It is arguable that there is little which is surprising in the extent to which archives in Israel can contribute towards a history of Anglo-Jewish insti? tutions to some degree associated with Zionist aspirations. Less anticipated is the amount of evidence which suggests that it is not only commu? nal institutions of a professedly Zionist complexion whose histories can profitably be traced in Israel. Materials relating to non-Zionist, and even anti Zionist bodies are also to be found in some abun? dance. Two factors would appear to be primarily respon? sible for this state of affairs. The first is the conscientiousness of individual archivists, who in several cases seem deliberately to have exceeded the formal terms of reference of their repositories in the interests of preserving whatever historical material happened to come their way.49 The second factor is more directly attributable to the personalities of many of those members of the Anglo-Jewish com? munity whose archives have been preserved in Israel. For many of these, Zionism undoubtedly constituted a matter of prime concern; but in very few cases was it their sole communal interest. Most also played an active part in a variety of other political, philanthropic, cultural, social and syna gogual organizations. References to the activities of such groups are scattered throughout the private collections, many of which also contain miscel? laneous agenda, protocols and reports, some of which were distributed to a limited audience and must therefore be exceedingly rare. When consi? dered as individual items (which is the manner in which they usually turn up in the archives), these appear to be of relatively minor intrinsic signifi? cance; but when viewed as a collective entity, they bear impressive witness to the breadth and range of communal activity. The archives seem to lend themselves to a distinction between three classes of communal institutions: first, those which were large, well established, and possessed a lengthy record of achievement; second, those which were founded in order to deal with specific crises in Jewish affairs; and finally, a subsidiary cluster of supplementary bodies (perhaps best defined as occasional institu? tional connections), which were either more ephe? meral or more restricted in their appeal. Even those</page><page sequence="10">138 Stuart Cohen materials in Israel which clearly belong to the latter class contain evidence which might be hard to come by elsewhere. Within this category fall papers relating to the Association for Promoting Free Lectures to Jewish Working Men (18 76-8; in the H. Bentwich mss, cza; series Aioo/24); to the Associ? ation of Jewish Literary Societies (in the Zangwill mss, cza; series ai 20/5 3); to the National Union for Jewish Rights (which had some initial success in the East End during the anti-conscription phase of the First World War; Zangwill mss, cza; series ai 20/60) and to the activities of the Inter-Univer? sity Jewish Federation during the Second World War.50 Mention might also be made of those archives which contain materials of relevance to the fortunes of the Jewish Historical Society of England. References to it for the years prior to 1914 are sparse (and principally limited to the Zangwill mss); but those for later periods are more plentiful and can be found in the papers of Norman Bentwich (cza; series A25 5/22); Philip Guedella (cza; ai 59/4 and 159/6; the latter contains a particularly telling letter to Guedella from the Hon. Sec. of the jhse, Arthur Barnett - dated 30 March 1939 - in which the latter complains that he is unable to supply a visitor with a complete set of Transactions 'as even the Society itself does not possess one') and those of Oskar Rabinowicz.51 More substantive, and less incidental, is the evidence in Israeli archives concerning the founda? tion and activities of the intermediate class of institutions - those formed in order to deal with specific moments of crisis in the life of the com? munity or of Jewry at large. A number of such ad hoc bodies were established prior to 1914, especially when communal activists wished to react to such events as the Kishinev outrage of 1903 and the Beilis Trial of 1913. Others-which performed services of a more substantial nature - sprouted during the 1930s, when a number of refugee aid committees attempted to alleviate the hardships suffered by the victims of Nazi persecution.52 Local communal crises were, fortunately, occasioned by tribulations which were mild in comparison to the sufferings of European Jewry. But they too gener? ated communal bodies hardly less intensely. One such crisis occurred in 1917, when the publication of the Balfour Declaration caused a communal furor over the definition of Anglo-Jewry's delicately hyphenated national identity, and prompted the organization of anti-Zionist members of Anglo Jewry in the League of British Jews.53 Another was occasioned by events in Palestine during the mid-1940s, when radical elements, in both the Zionist and anti-Zionist camps again vied for communal attention and approval. The year 1944, for example, witnessed the foundation of the Jewish State Party (whose Central Committee was located at 214 Bishopsgate, London ec2, and concerning whose activities some evidence has survived in the files of the English Zionist Federation; cza series Fi 3/446). It was in the same year that considerable progress was made towards the establishment of The Jewish Fellowship, which attempted to bring together elements in the community who were intellectually, morally and emotionally opposed to precisely the sort of doctrines which the Jewish State party was determined to implement.54 The subsequent tussle between these two poles of Anglo-Jewish intellectual opinion can be followed in the private papers of S. Landman (especially cza; series A226) and J. Leftwich (cza; A330/19). The latter also contain some highly interesting material on the debate which took place within the Jewish Fellowship on the attainment of a desirable 'mix' of orthodox and non-orthodox members, in order that the organization should 'not contain a superfluity of Liberal and Reform members in its lists'.55 3 A large proportion of information concerning anti Zionist groups within the community might emanate from professedly Zionist sources pre? served in Israel. Elementary political sense perhaps prompted senior Zionists to compile dossiers on the activities and plans of their adversaries within the community; the latter (as Weizmann conspi? cuously failed to appreciate as late as 1916) possessed far too much prestige to be either con? veniently ignored or summarily dismissed.56 Such considerations cannot, however, altogether account for the interest which (as the sources available in Israel again indicate) Anglo-Jewish Zionists similarly evinced in many other communal groups and institutions, the bulk of whose member? ship was more non-Zionist than anti-Zionist in character and composition. In this case, the archives would appear faithfully to reflect a more</page><page sequence="11">Israeli Sources for Study of Anglo-Jewish History 139 subtle aspect of communal life: the extent to which the politics of Zionism were deliberately interwoven with those of the community in its entirety. This is a subject upon which I have attempted to enlarge elsewhere.57 Zionists always considered it essential to involve themselves as deeply as possible in the affairs of Anglo-Jewry's senior representative institutions. This was particularly the case during the early, embryonic stage of Zionism. Only by participating to the full in a number of communal bodies could the founders of the English Zionist Federation hope to make their influence felt throughout Anglo-Jewry; only thus, furthermore, could they hope to implement the policy of commu? nal 'conquest' which Herzl (as early as 1898) had proclaimed to be an integral feature of Zionist strategy throughout the Jewish world.58 As Zang will once put it: the bastions of anti-Zionism (by which he meant the Board of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association prior to the First World War) could not be effectively stormed from without. The members of their executives were too firmly entrenched to be affected by any rival institutions which the Zionists might establish. Instead they had to be sapped from within. This called for a programme of electoral management and displace? ment, which would ultimately ensure the presence of a preponderating majority of Zionist sympath? izers on the leading councils of the major Anglo Jewish bodies.59 The evolution and implementation ofthat policy exerted a telling influence on the form of Anglo Jewish institutional development during the first half of the 20th century. No account of institutional procedures and processes during the period would be complete without an adequate acknowledge? ment of the part played by the tactics of infiltration which the Zionists employed in order to attain the stamp of communal approval. For such an account, moreover, the archives preserved in Israel must be considered an essential source. From the first, Herzl and Wolffsohn received regular (and usually exag? gerated) reports on the progress of their English lieutenants, some of whom claimed to be delibera? tely donating small contributions to the leading Anglo-Jewish charities 'as a means to the end of mixing with the better classes'.60 By the end of the First World War, these early - and usually abor? tive - measures had clearly been supplemented by efforts which were both more cohesive and better planned. Specifically, the Zionists set out to 'take over' the Board of Deputies. It was in 1918, for instance, that Harry Sacher 'earnestly' urged Simon Marks to carry through and organise all Zionist forces on the Board of Deputies ... We must form a Zionist party with Whips and endeavour to fill every vacancy with Zionists.. .. We must have a central organisation for that. .. and we should keep an account of the names of every member of the Board who is in sympathy and who is summoned to a special meeting.61 This policy seems to have reached its apogee in 1939, when Selig Brodetsky was proposed as a 'Zionist' candidate for the Presidency of the Board. Lavy Bakstansky (who, incidentally, emerges from the archives as a tactician as adroit as he could be abrasive) staged an electoral campaign which led him - as he said of himself - to 'take off my coat and my gloves too'.62 Such episodes reveal as much about the pattern of Anglo-Jewry's institutional history in its entirety as they do about Zionism's communal progress in particular. This is primarily because the Zionists, notwithstanding their own bombastic claims to the contrary, until very recently constituted a minority party within Anglo-Jewry; they could not have advanced as far and as fast as they did without the tacit support of other groupings, who possessed a wider base of communal support. That explains why the Zionists did not restrict themselves to the tactic of merely generating managerial tensions among the executives of the community's senior bodies. More often, they sought to exploit a wide range of exogenous tendencies which were in any case modifying the tenor of communal life and, therefore, necessitating alterations in the structure of communal government which had been estab? lished during the Victorian era. Immigrant dissatis? faction with the mores of the entrenched accultur ated community (especially in matters religious); provincial rebellions against metropolitan supre? macy (as indicated by the mushroom growth of 'regional provincial councils' during and after the First World War); 'middle-class' disdain for the Cousinhood's qualifications for leadership (as in? stanced by the foundation of the B'nei B'rith in 1909)63 - all were expressions of underlying ten</page><page sequence="12">140 Stuart Cohen sions which cut across specifically Zionist axes of alignment; and yet all were regarded as grist to the Zionist mill of communal turbulence. Therein lies the wider significance of this particular story, and therein, too, lies the interest of those archives in Israel which can contribute towards an under? standing of its development. In this respect, the documents available clearly exceed the boundaries of specifically Zionist con? cern. Tucked away in the private papers already mentioned are valuable notes on the structure, composition, character and wider concerns of those communal bodies which the Zionists aspired to 'capture', and intriguing asides relating to the strengths and weaknesses of the various other factions within Anglo-Jewry who competed for the same institutional prizes. Some of the relevant documents consist of internal memoranda;64 many others are either impressionistic summaries of meetings or deft pen-portraits of those who partici? pated in them. Private communications of this sort are hardly likely to have found their way into the official minute books and correspondence files of the institutions concerned, so they constitute what might be unique insights into the rough-and-tum? ble of communal politics 'behind the scenes'. One example is provided by an early exchange between Joseph Cowen and Israel Zangwill on the character of debates at the Anglo-Jewish Association;65 another by Nahum Sokolow's later collections of material on the B'nei B'rith;66 yet a third by Leopold Greenberg's memorandum to Weizmann on the character and prerogatives of the Board of Depu? ties.67 A preliminary survey suggests that the quantity and quality of such items markedly declined during the 1920s and early 1930s (a singular exception being Philip Guedella's explanation of his resigna? tion from the Press Committee of the Board of Deputies in 1935; cza, A159/5). But the situation again improves towards the late 1930s and 1940s. The manoeuvrings which accompanied Bro detsky's nomination to the presidency of the Board of Deputies in 1939 might again serve as an example. Various archives in Israel indicate that the nomination produced a far wider range of communal pressures and counter-pressures than is generally recognized. Particularly revealing is one letter written by Anthony de Rothschild to Weiz mann on the eve of the election, which deserves to be quoted at some length (not least because original evidence of Rothschild views on Anglo-Jewish institutional politics is otherwise exceedingly rare): Dear Dr. Weizmann, Although I am in no way closely associated with the Board of Deputies and have so far as possible kept out of any discussions concerning the appointment of the officers there, we hear at New Court from time to time various suggestions and rumors. It had been understood that on the whole Colonel Nathan was the most suitable successor to Laski in view of his position and the fact that he is generally known in official circles, and probably, therefore, he would have access to the right quarter whenever there were any special problems to be considered. It is quite obvious that nobody is likely to be the ideal person in everybody's eyes to fill such a position and I do not for a moment imagine that even Colonel Nathan would claim this for himself, but there seem to be a good many arguments in favour of his being chosen. I have now been told, with what accuracy I do not know, that it is proposed that Professor Brodetsky, should be put up for election with support from your friends at Great Russell Street. I have always understood that Professor Brodetsky is a great mathematician, and I am sure that he has many other admirable qualities. I have seen something of him at Woburn House and, although on occasions we differed in our views, our relations have always been most amicable and that is why - without appearing in any way to reflect upon his merit -1 am writing this line to you to ask you whether you are satisfied that he will have sufficient time at his disposal adequately to carry out such duties as fall to the lot of the President of the Board of Deputies, and, further, whether he is generally suited to take up that kind of work. Has he got sufficient knowledge and experience of the different aspects of communal life in this country or has he not rather concentrated his abilities in other directions? I think that you will agree with me that it would be a pity both for the Community and for Professor Brodetsky himself if he were to take up a position not suited to his abilities.68 (iii) Social and personal The close connections between Institutional' and 'social' histories are clear and well-established. As is often pointed out, the fate of individual institutions (especially when they are voluntary) is necessarily a function of the interests and mores of the society upon which they depend for support.69 That is one reason why many of the surviving documents which chronicle the development of particular institutions in Anglo-Jewry are essentially sociolo</page><page sequence="13">Israeli Sources for Study of Anglo-Jewish History 141 gical in character. The interest of institutional health (quite apart from the need to perform a declared public function) has required that execu? tive officers attune their corporate behaviour to the priorities - and pockets - of their active and poten? tial memberships. Hence the continuous need to discover (and record) how the most numerous and/or most powerful circles in the community were thinking and behaving; and the need to keep a close watch on the direction of demographic and economic changes affecting the course of British social and political history. To neglect such con? siderations was to run the risks of enforced dissolu? tion (the fate of the Chovevei Zion Association in 1902), ineffectiveness (the fate of such immigrant groupings as the National Union for Jewish Rights soon after the First World War), or atrophy (the plight of the Anglo-Jewish Association for a large portion of its history). The present section of this article will attempt to indicate the degree to which archives in Israel can contribute towards historical knowledge, firstly and more importantly, of some of the more notable sociological trends within the community, and secondly of the impact of minor influences, many of which were local and some of which were personal, on the behaviour of a few of the protagonists who helped to shape the course of communal history during the 20th century. 1. It is again significant that so many of the private and institutional records relative to the history of Anglo-Jewish interest in Zionism have been pre? served in Israel. This is because the English Zionist Federation (and its successor, the Zionist Federation of Great Britain) must now be numbered amongst the most successful of all Anglo-Jewish institutions. Even when due account is taken of the panegyric tone of pioneering enthusiasm which infuses Paul Goodman's house history (The English Zionist Fede? ration, 1 #99-1949 (London 1949)), the conclu? sions of his study appear even more valid now than they were when he wrote his work. The Zionist Federation of today clearly exerts a substantial influence on a variety of crucial aspects of Anglo Jewish life. It has largely overcome the communal opposition which threatened to stifle the ezf at birth and which dogged its progress thereafter; it has also managed to suppress (although not to uproot) the menace of highly publicized internecine dissensions which have on several occasions threatened to tear the body apart.70 From being the 'hare-brained delusion of a few mad fanatics' at the turn of the century, Zionism in Britain has now become a mass movement with a large civil service.71 Much of this success must be attributed to factors over which the local branch of the movement possessed no influence, and for which it could therefore take neither credit nor responsibility. Within this category come the diplomatic triumphs of the period prior to 1948 (San Remo in 1920 and Lake Success in 1947, in particular), and the string of economic and military ventures which have punctuated the history of the State of Israel there? after. All have provided an impetus to Zionist activity; moreover, each has supplied the Zionist movement with much of the publicity upon which it thrives. In addition to these, a study of the records reveals that there have also often been sound internal reasons for the pace of Zionist progress in Britain. They indicate that throughout the 20th century Zionist officials and representatives of various ranks and in various regions paid deliberate and careful attention to specifically local develop? ments and interests. They attempted to cultivate communal support, rather than simply wait for the community to come to them. Materials relating to attitudinal and managerial changes in the Jewish press nicely illustrate the type of study which might accordingly benefit from archival sources in Israel. The subject is clearly an important one: the press has always been consi? dered a primary instrument of propaganda as well as a monitor of the communal mood, and the history of Zionist relationships with the Anglo-Jew? ish press merits particular attention, especially since the failure of the ezf to establish a viable and popular newspaper of its own was at a very early stage recognized to be one of the movement's striking deficiencies.72 Successive attempts to launch journals in either English or Yiddish all floundered on the rocks of financial stringencies and editorial deficiencies. The string of Zionist journals which were produced were chronically short-lived and invariably unattractive. None could hope to challenge the prestige and popularity of the Jewish Chronicle, whose initial editorial opposition</page><page sequence="14">142 Stuart Cohen to political Zionism has been extensively studied.73 This situation, although undoubtedly painful to Zionist leaders in Britain, was not entirely disas? trous. Indeed, it was precisely their failure to establish a popular journal of their own which led them to 'infiltrate' the English-language news? papers of the established community. It was by so doing that they contributed to alterations in editor? ial policy which substantially affected the climate of communal opinion in its entirety. This particular aspect of communal history obviously merits a full study, and can, therefore, only be briefly outlined here. What is clear, how? ever, is that the references to Anglo-Jewish editorial policy which have survived in archives in Israel constitute invaluable sources for a reconstruction of several stages of the story. Particularly is this so since very few official records of Anglo-Jewish newspapers seem to have survived at all, those of the Jewish Chronicle having been destroyed during the Blitz. Hence the value, for instance, of Jacob de Haas's early reports on his attempts to introduce specifically Zionist news into the columns of the Jewish World (on whose editorial staff he was employed until 1901); and the importance of the correspondence (to be found in the Central Zionist Archives) relating to Leopold Greenberg's acqui? sition of the Jewish Chronicle in 190 7.74 This was undoubtedly a propaganda coup, which did much to expand the Zionists' audience. (As Bertram Benas appreciated: 'but for the attitude of the "jc" we would have had the greatest difficulty in carrying with us the mass of "English" ball'battim - who never see the "Zionist Review", never see "Pales? tine", never see a Yiddish paper, never attend a lecture or discussion, and if it were not for the "Chronicle" would have for their ideas depended on assimilationist preachers.'75) But whether or not Greenberg's influence over the Chronicle was an unadultered gain must remain an open question. The records indicate that, from the first, Greenberg himself was intent on running the newspaper as a commercial venture, not an act of Zionist charity. He therefore avowedly pursued what he termed 'an even-handed policy', which in practice meant that he could air his own disagreements with official Zionist leadership.76 His son Ivan-who was a leading supporter of the Revisionist movement in Britain - aroused even more opposition. The archives are silent on the precise circumstances surrounding his eventual dismissal from the Chroni? cle, but sufficient hints have survived in the I. Greenberg mss (ji; series P26 5) to indicate that more was at stake than a personal squabble. The princi? pal, and repeated, charge was that Ivan Greenberg had lost touch with the main currents of Anglo Jewish feeling, and was therefore causing more damage than good to the causes which the majority of the community had at heart.77 2. An entirely different level of historical analysis is suggested by the surviving records of Zionist attempts to muster communal support from smaller groups of individuals in Anglo-Jewry. In this con? text, it is the variety of Zionist targets within the community which is historically significant. Sus? tained Zionist efforts to engender waves of sym? pathy with their cause occasioned the collection of information concerning a wide range of social strata and congregational connections. It is because the surviving archives in Israel contain so many of the communal reports which were conse? quently compiled for Zionist use that they can be considered essential raw material for the social historian of the community. They might serve, it is here suggested, not merely as a chronicle of the progress of a specific movement, but also as a reflection of the structure and behaviour of the society within which that movement operated. Some of the materials consist of little more than membership rolls, receipts for sales of shekalim, salary expenses and the like. These must be approached with considerable caution: some statis? tics are missing; others are scattered in an annoy ingly haphazard way throughout institutional and private archives; in yet a third category - especially membership rolls of individual Chovevei Zion and Zionist societies - they are notoriously untrust? worthy. Even so, however, they remain records of rare value for an enquiry into such fields as demographic movements within the community or an analysis of its changing patterns of income and expenditure. As such, they merit comparison and collation with similar materials to be found in London in the archives of such institutions as the Jewish Board of Guardians and the United Syna? gogue.78</page><page sequence="15">Israeli Sources for Study of Anglo-Jewish History 143 To take some examples: reports from various 'tents' of the Chovevei Zion Association provide a clear indication of the relative strengths and weak? nesses of specific centres of Jewish life throughout the country at the turn of the century, and clearly reflect the impact of immigrant groups on the structure and mores of the indigenous community. Similar reports from branches of the ezf (especially where they relate to the inter-war period), might similarly open avenues into the trend towards suburban settlement among Jewish communities in London and the provinces, as well as the dramatic rise in importance of the provincial communities in Jewish life as a whole.79 Financial data might serve an additional pur? pose. The 'credit' side of successive Zionist budgets clearly reflect, for example, the relative weight which might be given to the food, clothing and diamond industries in studies of Anglo-Jewish life before, during and after the Second World War. Zionist accounts of expenditure similarly provide indications of the community's spending power, and of the amounts it was prepared to devote to the maintenance of its expanding 'civil service'.80 Furthermore, such statistics also illustrate the effects on communal philanthropy of inflation during the two world wars and of the national economic crises in 1931 and the late 1940s. As Ivan Greenberg then reported: 'The jpa is meeting terrific obstacles [and] is not very well or cleverly run .. . They are full of smart Yiddischer tricks, and these things brought in the money when the fighting was going on and there was tons of Black Market money under the beds. But things are changing now. Gradually, as sheer brutal necessity is compelling the government to lift controls and quotas, the opportunities for smart guys to "make it easy" are diminishing, and so jpa collection is getting more difficult.'81 As the above quotation perhaps indicates, the statistical data available can often be supplemented by a variety of more impressionistic reports. These are particularly common in the private papers of those members of the community who were most closely concerned with the mobilization of commu? nal opinion and who, therefore, took a particularly close interest in changing communal circum? stances. Archives of prominent Zionists contain frequent appraisals of the senior members of the older and wealthier families in Anglo-Jewry; they also contain occasional assessments of the leanings and wealth of more recent entrants into compar? able income brackets.82 The less fortunate sectors of the community were not entirely ignored. The East End of London, together with similar immigrant quarters in several provincial cities, provided much of the numerical buoyancy of which Zionists were so proud. They also constituted the vibrant centres of cultural and social activities to which the Zionists attached considerable importance. Reports on the latter abound, therefore, and from them much can be learned about such varied subjects as the gradual acculturalization of the immigrants; their social behaviour; and the growth of political con? sciousness and responsibility.83 3 Finally, reference must be made to the items which some historians classify as 'nuggets' (and others 'red herrings'): parenthetical and often extraneous observations about men and affairs which can provide glimpses of the private faces behind many public masks. It is in the nature of vignettes ofthat type to be singular and sporadic, and hence hardly amenable to generic analysis. No 'guide' to such materials can be considered entirely trustworthy. They have always to be cross-checked against other references, to which they can rarely supply more than occasional adjuncts. Nevertheless, it would be inappropriate to omit all mention of them, for at their best they can convey something of the flavour of the Anglo-Jewish communal milieu; and even at their worst, their discovery adds some fun to the process of historical discovery and thus provides a bonus to the researcher who braves the aridities of manuscript sources. Materials of this genre in Israeli archives range from reports on the absence of a morning minyan during the intermediate days of the Passover festival at Hampstead synagogue during the late 1890s;84 to a report on the burdens and pleasures of a pastoral visit to the provinces by Chief Rabbi Hertz in 193 7;85 and a personal account of some of the clerical in-fighting which preceded Israel Bro die's appointment to the Chief Rabbinate in 1948.86 The ink is occasionally mixed with acid; and the student must be prepared for differences in tone. Some of the comments are more vindictive</page><page sequence="16">IAA Stuart Cohen than generous and leave a frankly disagreeable taste. Within this category fall the strictures on the intellectual calibre of some Zionist leaders in Britain,87 as well as occasional criticisms on the baneful influence of the wives of others.88 In many cases, however, the records can be more sympathe? tic - and more valuable. The Israel Cohen mss in the cza (series A213) provide a case in point. Most of this archive consists of rather desultory letters to and from Cohen concerning his public and literary life; to these have been appended a substantial collection of some? what dreary drafts of books and articles. But these materials are preceded by Cohen's far lighter diaries, which cover his experiences as a prisoner of war in Germany during the First World War, and what seems to be a complete set of early letters from his father and brother in Manchester. Over 200 of the latter have survived, and appear to be particu? larly worthy of attention. Most were written at weekly intervals during the last years of the 19th century, when Israel Cohen was a young student at Jews' College. On the initiative of Cohen senior some of the letters were written in Hebrew (hence the survival of draft replies, over the composition of which Cohen junior evidently took some trouble), but most are in colloquial English. Taken together, they provide a fascinating - and perhaps uni? que - record of Mancunian Jewish gossip, family affairs and, not least, parental aspirations and conjectures. Thus: We are pleased to see that you are aware that all this entails a great burden on us, but our award [sic] will be not when you pay us back the money that we are expending on your behalf, but when you will achieve the object of going to Jews College, that you will grow up a religious and observant Jew, that you will make yourself a name in the community, that you should be one of the leading lights, and be respected by everybody. You know quite well that the principal reason in sending you to Jews College was because we saw you were of studious habits and because we saw that you were not capable of business pursuits. We will be glad to know how you manage with your fares and whether you have taken a contract or whether you have a weekly ticket.89 To conclude: the argument presented here is essen? tially minimalist. No claim is made that archives in Israel can furnish materials for a comprehensive study of every aspect of Anglo-Jewry throughout every phase of the community's history. Neverthe? less, the conventional neglect of such sources as do exist is to be regretted. For some areas of recent communal history the material available in Israel would appear to be indispensable; in other areas it can furnish interesting and enlightening supple? mentary evidence, some of which is unique. For both reasons, the materials available in Israel are worthy of note. NOTES 1 The permanent exhibition at Bet Hatefuzot reflects this attitude. Anglo-Jewry is not represented in the displays of Jewish institutions and thinkers; references to some of its unique personalities (Sir Moses Montefiore) and products (the Jewish Chronicle) are exceedingly rare. 2 The present paper is only the first stage in what is hoped to be a fuller study of the subject. It is unnecessary to stress that corrections and suggestions would be most gratefully received and acknowledged, most particularly in the case of persons who know of papers, etc., in private hands. The debts which I have already incurred in the course of my enquiries are enormous. Particular thanks are due to the staffs of all the institutions mentioned in the text for their unfailing help and courtesy, and to Dr A. Newman, who first suggested that I pursue the subject. 3 Israel, Ministry of Education, List of Public Libraries in Israel (Hebrew; Jerusalem, June 1979), lists 374 main public libraries, and over 150 additional branch libraries. 4 A valuable source, although not always a reliable one. See remarks by N. Grizzard in 'Provincial Jewry in Victorian England', A. Newman (ed.), Trans. JHSE XXV (1977) p.225. 5 Items of a similar nature-but far more rare-must be ordered from the stacks. One example is Asher Myers' Jewish Directory for 1874, containing a complete list of metropolitan and provincial synagogues, Jewish schools, associations, etc. (jnul call number, 65B428). 6 E.g. catalogues of the Anglo-Jewish Archives, at the Mocatta Library, London, prepared by the Historical Manuscripts Commis? sion and, in the outstanding case of Gaster mss, the Guide prepared by Mrs T. Levi in 1973; of the archives of the Board of Deputies (prepared by Miss R. Routledge, 1976); of the Jewish Colonization Association; commissioned by the cahjp (R17/7); of the Chief Rabbi's Office, 1851-1920 (ri 7/2; see Newsletter 3 (1973) p.3); of manuscripts of Jewish Interest in the Lambeth Palace Library (see Newsletter 7 (1978) p.v); and of some materials relating to 18th-century Anglo-Jewish traders in the pro; the latter have been intensively used by G. Yogev, Diamonds and Coral. Anglo-Dutch Jews and 18th-century Trade (Leicester University Press 1978). 7 E.g. catalogues prepared by the American Jewish Archives, at the Hebrew Union College - Institute for Religion, Cincinnati (2 Vols, 1968), and the David Mowschowitz Collection, at the yivo Institute for Jewish Research in New York (for another index of which see: Z. Sajkowski in Yivo Bletter 43 (1966) pp.283-96). 8 Jewesses, since, by a statistical count, the vexed problem of the agunah seems to have been one of the most pressing issues, especially at the turn of the 20th century. On this subject, L. P. Gartner, The Jewish Immigrant in England 1870-1914 (2nd edn, London 1973) pp. 168-70. On the subject in general, S. B. Freehof, The Responsa Literature (Philadelphia 1955). 9 For an interesting attempt to provide a new guide, D. H. and D. J. Elazar, A Classification System for Libraries ofjudaica (2nd edn, Ramat-Gan 1978).</page><page sequence="17">Israeli Sources for Study of Anglo-Jewish History 145 i o For a convenient list of such rabbis, B. Homa, Orthodoxy in Anglo-Jewry, 1880-1940 (London 1969). 11 Compare, e.g., the remarks on the virtues of British patriotism in S. I. Hillman, Sefer Or Hayashar (London 1910) pp. 74-5 and I. Herzog, Imrei Yoel (London 1921) pp.206-7; with H. Adler, Anglo-Jewish Memories and other Sermons (London 1904) pp. 106-16 and G. J. Emanuel, The Mission of Israel (Birmingham 1897) PP.i-7 12 E.g. the introductions to I. C. Daiches, Derashot Mehariah (London 1920), S. Rabinowitz, Litkufot Hayamim (London 1917), and Y. Rabinowitz, Sefer Hilkhot Erez Israel (London 1900). The private papers of Rabbi I. Herzog were originally deposited at Hechal Shlomo in Jerusalem, but they have not been catalogued, and are apparently soon to be moved to the Israel State Archives. 13 B. (C.) Roth, 'The Jewish Press in London: A bibliographical essay.' Kiryat Sefer 14 (Hebrew; Jerusalem 1933); J. Fraenkel, The Jewish Press in Great Britain, 1823-1963 (for the World Jewish Congress, London, June-July 1963); L. Prager, 'A Bibliography of Yiddish Periodicals in Great Britain (1867-1967)', Studies in Bibliography and Booklore 9 (1969). 14 E.g. J. Fraenkel, 'The Jewish Chronicle and the Launching of Political Zionism', Herzl Year Book 2 (1959), E. Oren, 'Yiddish Journalism in the London East-End, 1883-1887'; Hatzionut 2 (Hebrew; Tel-Aviv 19 71) pp.4 7-6 3; and M. Naor, 'From Our Correspondent in Jerusalem and Petah Tiqva-Jehoshua Stampfer writes for the Jewish Chronicle', Cathedra (Hebrew; Oct. 1978) pp. 70-94. 151 March 1918, L. Wolf to S. Asher, Lucien Wolf mss, Mowschowitch Collection (yivo, New York) no. 1701. 16 As reported in 2 Dec. 1909 N. Bentwich to S. Hirsch, Hirsch mss (Mocatta Library, London), aj 28/29. 17 Most glaringly in the case of Der Yiddisher Express, of which both the cza and the jnul possess only scattered numbers. 18 One such example is provided by the state of Der Vorker (London 1893; jnul x2? pv 749). 19 One example, again taken at random, is provided by the North West London Jewish Mirror (1936; cza 1292). 20 An index (listing 1534 items) of the holdings accumulated by the Abe Cahan Fund has been edited by M. I. Bernstein (New York 1965). The jnul lists its copies of these holdings in the first card catalogue of its Yiddish section. For an example of the uses to which the Arbeiter Freund can profitably be put by the historian see W. J. Fishman, East End Jewish Radicals, 1875-1914 (London 1975) 21 One of my seminar students, for instance, recently handed me an outstanding paper on 'Diaspora Jewish attitudes towards the explosion at the King David Hotel in July 1946.' During his work, he was able to consult over 60 Jewish newspapers from 12 countries, without having to spend more than a couple of hours on a single trip to an individual archive. 22 For an introduction to the field in its entirety see P. A. Alsberg (ed.), Guide to the Archives in Israel (Jerusalem 1973), which lists the location and fields of interest of 21 repositories. 23 Published as Sefer Toldot Ha-Haganah (Hebrew: Tel-Aviv I97I-5) 24 As per the Resolutions adopted at the 24th Zionist Congress, Jerusalem, 1956. 25 E.g. the Accounts Concerning the Estates of Israel Levi Solomon, 1788-1791, at the pro, (cahj microfilm hm 4152); the minute books of the Mahamad (1678-1803) and the Elders (i733_I8o8) of the Sephardi Congregation at Bevis Marks (hm 2/990); and materials relating to the Machzike Hadath syna? gogue, copies of which were sent by Mr B. Homa (see CAHJP Newsletter 4 (1974) p. 5). 26 As is shown by a minor spate of correspondence between officials of the Great Synagogue in London and those of the Berlin Jewish Community during the summer of 1814, when the former were seeking a cantor. The letter from London, written in accordance with the standard conventions of medieval poetic Hebrew, was penned by the shammash of the Great Synagogue and signed, in English, by the warden. It set out the circumstances which had constrained the Great Synagogue to seek so far afield; the qualifications which the prospective candidate was expected to possess (a replica of the standards set in the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Ta'anit, folio i8a-b); his duties; and his salary (?150 per annum, exclusive of honoraria). The officials of the Berlin community, who corresponded among themselves in Yiddish and German, ultimately recommended a gentleman from Salzburg. cahjp, file pi 7/524. 27 Only a skeleton outline of holdings of the cza and the ji has been published in, respectively, The Central Zionist Archives (Jerusalem 1970), and Archives and Documentary Collections in the Jabotinsky Institute (Hebrew; P. Gani (ed.), 2nd edn, Tel-Aviv 1979). 28 Two teams of research students, one based in Israel, the other in the uk, in 1976 set to work to compile a directory of archival records relating to Britain and Palestine. The results of the British efforts are to be found in P. Jones (ed.), Britain and Palestine 1914-1948. Archival Sources for the History of the British Mandate (Oxford 1979); the Israeli team, directed by Dr Devorah Barzilai Yagar, hopes to complete its study shortly. 29 Some have already been put to excellent use in B. Wasser stein's Britain and the Jews of Europe, 193 9-1945 (Oxford 1979), and N. Katzburg 'The Hungarian Jewish Situation during the Late 1930's: Attitudes and Reactions.' Bar-Han Annual, 14: Studies in Judaica and the Humanities (1977) PP 73-99- Foreign Office comments on various Anglo-Jewish deputations are to be found in fo 371/40188 (on the aja's controversial memorandum on Palestine of 1944); fo 371/52503 (on a communication from the Jewish Fellowship in 1946) and fo 371/80885 (on the Board of Deputies in 1947). The Israel State Archives have obtained copies of a large number of the Foreign and Colonial Office records deposited at the pro. See M. Plotkin (ed.), Copies of Documents Relating to Erez Israel in the PRO (2 vols so far; Jerusalem 1976-7). 30 The Sokolow Archive is in the cza (a 18); the even larger Ben Gurion Archive in the institute (administered by Beer-Sheva University) established in Ben Gurion's memory at Kibbutz Sedeh Boker in the Negev. The Sokolow Archive contains some corre? spondence with members of the Rothschild family in 1917 (a 18/36) and some memoranda on the affairs of the B'nei B'rith in England (see below p. 140). 31 Particularly instructive in this context is the correspon? dence between Jabotinsky and Harry First in Jabotinsky mss, files pa 1-2-3, and 4. A useful index and summary of Jabotinsky's early letters has been printed in Igrot Ze'ev Jabotinsky: Reshimah u-mafteah 1 (Hebrew; Tel-Aviv 1972). For a discussion of the episode referred to above see: D. Yisraeli, 'The Struggle for Zionist Military Involvement in the First World War', Bar-Ilan Studies in History 1 (Ramat-Gan 1978) pp.197-213. 32 2 June 1896, Singer to Herzl, Herzl mss (cza), hVIII 739/8 and 30 June 1898, Nutt to Sylvie D'Avigdor-Goldsmid (who first translated Der Judenstaat into English) hVIII 618. On the entire subject see: V. H. Hein, 'The British Followers of Theodor Herzl; English Zionist Leaders, 1896-1904', (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Georgia State University 1978). 3 3 The Herzl-Greenberg correspondence for this period in hVIII 291; for Rothschild's views on East Africa, his letter of 1 August 1903 in hVIII 708. 34 E.g., 23 June 1915, H. Sacher to N. Bentwich, wa, file 183; cf S. Schama, Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel (London 1978) pp. 190-209, which contains no references to the wa; and A. Freisal, Zionist Policy After the Balfour Declaration, 1917-1922 (Hebrew; Tel-Aviv 1977) pp. 180-6, which does. On communal developments in general: V. D. Lipman, Social History of the Jews in</page><page sequence="18">146 Stuart Cohen England (London 1956) chaps 3 and 4; and I. Finestein, 'The New Community', in V. D. Lipman (ed.), Three Centuries of Anglo-Jewish History (London 1961) pp. 10 7-20. 35 F13/417. 36 F13/566. 37 F13/606. 3 8 On which there is now a vast literature: see the bibliographi? cal guide in H. Sacher, A History of Israel (Jerusalem 1976) pp. 846-61. 39 See the conclusion of E. Tavin, The Second Front. The Etzel in Europe, 1946-1948 (Hebrew; Tel-Aviv 1973). 40 A226/42. 41 One of many such negotiations described in 26 June 1939, S. Catsell &amp; Co., Ltd. (Ship brokers) to the Presidency of the nzo, concerning the ss 'Vesla', built 1916, Norwegian flag. Files of the nzo, (j 1), Series G4/ai2. 42 E.g. 22 April 1937, David ha-Kohen to Eliyahu Golomb; Yehuda Arzi mss, file 121/4; 17 Jan. 1937, Eliyahu Golomb to Yehuda Arzi; Ibid; file 121/6. 43 Yisrael Giladi evidence, file no. 3012; and Shaul Avigur evidence, file 2984. 44 Tamar Eshel (Shoham) evidence, file 4554; and Gavriel Rachmani evidence, file 4548. 45 22 Feb. 1948, Ben-Gurion to Locker; files of the Haganah High Command, nos. 73/32; 73/45; and 73/105. 46 E. Orren, Chibbat-Zion be-Britaniya, 1878-1898 (Hebrew; Tel-Aviv 19 71), a reworking of an ma thesis originally submitted to Tel-Aviv University, shows how this might be done in the case of the Chovevei Zion Association. Supplementary material on the Chovevei Zion Assn can be gleaned from its journal Palestina (of which the cza possess a full series, ref. 22085) and the S. Hirsch mss at the Mocatta Library in London. Correspondence and some official papers relative to the internal affairs of the New Zionist Organization in Britain can be found in the private papers of A. Abrahams (ji, series p2), Ivan Greenberg (ji, series P265), S. Landman (ji, series P247) and Oskar Rabinowicz (cza, series A87). 47 One exception being the ezf's papers for 1909-10 at the Mocatta Library, ref. Aj/133. 48 According to one entry in the diary of the secretary of the jto, 'Many people will have nothing to do with it because i.z. is its head.' Dated 22 Feb. 1906, Miss Philips' Diary (Mocatta Library, London), Aj/9. 49 One example (by no means unique) is the Zangwill archive at the cza, which would also appear to be a primary source for the study of 20th-century English literature. Literary materials (drafts of Zangwill's plays and novels, his extensive correspondence with some of the leading figures in the Anglo-American literary world, etc.) make up the bulk of the material in the 98 large boxes at the cza. For an example of the use to which such material might be put, see, B. Winehouse, 'Israel Zangwill's Children of the Ghetto: A Literary History of the First Anglo-Jewish Bestseller', Studies in Short Fiction 10(3), Summer 1973. The portion of the Herbert Samuel mss deposited at the Israel State Archives has been selected for its relevance to Samuel's tenure as Britain's High Commissioner for Palestine, but a considerable proportion of the correspondence also concerns public affairs (and in particular the Liberal Party) in Great Britain. 50 E.g., letters from Israel Finestein (in his capacity as Hon. Sec. of the iujf) to L. Bakstansky; Bakstansky mss, cza; series f 13/59. 51 Rabinowicz, a prolific writer, was also an industrious correspondent. His archives are particularly large and have also been comprehensively indexed. They contain particularly lengthy and intriguing descriptions of the difficulties which arose in 1953-4, when the jhse decided to publish Redcliffe Salaman's Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture for 1953 'Whither Lucien Wolf's Anglo-Jewish Community?', cza A87/297. 52 Some references to aid activities during the 1930s in H. Sacher mss (cza, series A289/64); far more in the records of the executive committee of the Histadrut in Tel-Aviv. Boxes 99 and 227 of this archive contain correspondence with the Jewish Regional Council for the Boycott of German Goods and Services; and with various aid groups concerning the absorption of 5000 children in Britain in December 1938; box 368 includes some material presented by the Poalei Zion Jewish Socialist Labour Party to the 39th Annual Conference of the Labour Party in 1940 on refugee matters; the minutes and protocols of the Secretariat of the Histadrut executive include some correspondence with the Council for Jewish Refugees and the Council of British Relief Organizations (cobro). Much of the Israeli material relating to Anglo-Jewry and the Holocaust (including material in the Yad Vashem Archives in Jerusalem) has been indexed in J. Robinson and Y. Bauer (eds), Guide to Unpublished Materials of the Holocaust Period (5 vols, Jerusalem 1970-6). British archives have been used intensively by M. Simpolinsky, 'The Anglo-Jewish Leadership, The British Government and the Holocaust' (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, 2 vols, Bar-Ilan University 1978). 53 On which some information in L. Wolf mss; a 7 7/3; Weizmann Archives (especially for 1917-18); and the League's own journal Jewish Opinion (cza, 5534). 5 4 A collection of pamphlets issued by the Jewish Fellowship in H. Sacher mss, cza, A289/134. 55 The precise nature of the position occupied by Joseph Leftwich, who was for a time secretary of the Fellowship, is difficult to ascertain. (One principal reason being the highly disorganized state of the Leftwich mss at the cza, who have only recently acquired the archive and have not yet had it catalogued.) Initial research indicates that he was decidedly more sympathetic towards Zionism than most of the Fellowship's membership, and also particularly concerned that Orthodox elements in the com? munity determine its policy. 'If we take possession, the Fellowship will be what we want it to be', he wrote to Ivan Greenberg, 22 June 1944,1. Greenberg mss, ji Box 2. 56 17 October 1916, Weizmann to I. Sieff, Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann 7 (Jerusalem 1971) no. 284. 5 7 'The Conquest of a Community? The Zionists and the Board of Deputies in 1917', Jewish Journal of Sociology 19(2) (Dec. 1977) pp. 15 7-84. 58 'The prestige of the community, the means at its dispo? sal.. . must not be used to oppose the will of our people.... I think I voice the sentiments of all in proposing to make the conquest of the Jewish communities one of our immediate aims.' Speech delivered August 1898, Stenographisches Protokoll der Verhan? dlungen des IL Zionisten Congresses (Vienna 1898) p. 5. 59 See my article: 'The Tactics of Revolt: The English Zionist Federation and Anglo-Jewry, 1895-1904', The Journal of Jewish Studies XXLX(2) (Autumn 1978) pp. 169-85. 60 3 May 1903, L. Loewe to Herzl, Herzl mss, cza, hVIII 527. 61 12 April 1918, H. Sacher mss, cza, Z4/120. 628 Dec. 1939, Bakstansky to Brodetsky, Bakstansky mss, cza, fi3/169 and Brodetsky mss, cza, cza, A82/9/L 63 On which see W. M. Schwab, B'nei Brith, The First Lodge of England. A Record of Fifty Years (London 1968) p. 16. 64 E.g., reports of meetings of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Board of Deputies during the 1930s and 1940s in I. Cohen mss, cza, a2 i 3/7/22; or reports compiled for the New Zionist Organiza? tion on the Board of Deputies' plan for post-war reconstruction (dated 1942 and 1943) in S. Landman mss, ji, Box 2 and I; Greenberg mss, ji, Box i . 65 Dated 1901. Zangwill mss, cza, a120/37. 66 cza, series A18/36. 67 14 June 1917, when Weizmann was contemplating becom? ing a deputy himself, wa. 68 1 Dec. 1939, ibid. 69 For a review of the theoretical literature see: C. Smith and A.</page><page sequence="19">Israeli Sources for Study of Anglo-Jewish History 147 Freedman, Voluntary Associations (Harvard 1972) and D. Dills, 'Voluntary Associations: Sociological Aspects', International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences 16 (New York 1968) p. 36 7-8. 70 For material relative to one of the more recent storms, 'the Kimche affair' of 1966, see J. Segull mss, cza, series A32 7/22 and files of the ezf, cza, fi 3/622 and 627 I?III. 71 Long ago noted in M. Freedman (ed.), A Minority in Britain (London 1955), and J. Gould and S. Esh (eds), Jewish Life in Modern Britain (London 1964). 72 E.g., 23 Jan. 1906, Greenberg to Wolffsohn, Wolffsohn mss, cza, W79O). 73 Fraenkel, 'The JC and the Launching of Political Zionism', op. cit. See also 27 April 1897, Asher Myers to Herzl, Herzl mss, cza, hVIII 315/38. 74 Ibid. hVIII 513; z2/581-2. 75 2 March 1919, Benas to Weizmann, files of the London office of the Zionist Organization, cza, series Z4/108/5. 76 E.g., 10 Sep. 1908, L. Greenberg to B. Richards (one of the jc's New York correspondents) in B. Richards mss (Jewish Theological Seminary, New York). 77 E.g., letters to Greenberg from Michael Oppenheimer (direc? tor of the je), I40ct. 1944; and from Leonard Stein, 20 Jan. 1945, in I. Greenberg mss, box 3. Information on editorial policy in other newspapers has been located in cza, series F13/389 and the M. My er mss at Bet Hatefuzot Library. 78 Both of which have been employed, respectively, by V. Lipman, A Century of Social Service, 185 9-195 9: The History of the Jewish Board of Guardians (London 1959), and A Newman, The United Synagogue, 1870-1970 (London 1977). 79 cza, series a2 and fi3, respectively, contain individual files on most branches of the Chovevei Zion Association and English Zionist Federation. Letters referring to the Manchester branch of the New Zionist Organization in A. Abrahams mss (ji, series p2), box 1. 80 E.g., F13/135, concerning salaries of employees of the Keren Hayesod for 1943/4. 81 26 March 1949, letter to H. Hurwitz (South Africa), I. Greenberg mss (ji, series P265), box 2. 82 The latter are particularly common in the wa. Something of their flavour is conveyed by a letter to Weizmann from Bak stansky, dated 28 Feb. 1939, in preparation for a Zionist dinner at the Savoy. 'You will notice that Dudley Joel is coming, and this may give you an opportunity of winning over a very wealthy Anglo-Jew .. . who could give a very substantial sum of money. Indeed, if you come I should put you next to him, so that you can have a go at him during dinner.' 83 E.g., 4 Jan. 1916, S.Moses (Stoke Newington) to Jabotinsky, Jabotinsky mss, ji, series 2-1 4/3. 84 21 April 1897, Norman to Herbert Bentwich, 'Yesterday and this morning I have been to synagogue but neither time have we had a minyan (yesterday there were eight and today 9) Mr. [Rev.] A. A. Green has been rather unwell and has not been there, so we could not have Keriyat-ha-Torah [Hebrew in original].' The letter was written while Herbert Bentwich was on a 'Pilgrimage' to Palestine, H. Bentwich mss, cza, a 100/5 7. On this episode see N and M. Bentwich, Herbert Bentwich, The Pilgrim Father (Jerusalem 1940) pp. 115-30. 85 J. H. Hertz mss, cza, A354/6. 86 8 Nov. 1943, Louis Rabinowitz to I. Greenberg, I. Greenberg mss, ji series P265, box 3. 87 A topic on which Israel Abrahams often held forth; e.g., 18 June 1901, Abrahams to Zangwill. Zangwill mss, cza, Ai2o/53a. Abrahams, himself, however, was not above criticism. T have never seen such a piece of inflated arrogance and ignorance. He plays now the scholar of the Kehillah. God help you all.' 26 Jan. 1903, S. Schechter to H. Bentwich, H. Bentwich mss, cza, aioo/6o. 88 Thus: 'Zangwill, I am afraid, is "verloren" as far as the movement is concerned. If you want to know the cause look at ist Kings chap. 11 verses 3 and 4. In Solomon's case it took 700, in Zangwill's one has been enough.' 22 March 1905, L. Greenberg to Wolffsohn, WolfTsohn mss, cza, W78. Or, 'Vera stokes up Chaim's vanity and his passion and is in my opinion an unmitigated nuisance.' 21 August 1917, H. Sacher to L. Simon, wa, file 235. 89 5 Jan. 1896 M. Cohen to I. Cohen, I. Cohen mss, cza, A213/1. Morris Cohen's notepaper describes him as a 'Watch Manufacturer and Jeweller. Dealer in all kinds of Pianos and Harmonicums.' His address: 141, Stock Street, Cheetham Hill Road. Israel Cohen was at the time in lodgings at 30, Great Alie Street, Aldgate.</page></plain_text>

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