Preface Vol 11
<plain_text><page sequence="1">PREFACE. The present volume contains a selection from the papers read to the Society during the Sessions 1924-1927. Some of the remaining papers will be printed in a later volume. Since the publication of Volume X. of the Transactions (1924), the following works have been issued :? " Miscellanies," Part I. (1925); " Jews in the Canary Islands," by Lucien Wolf (1926); and the following " Arthur Davis Memorial Lectures " :? 1924. " Monotheism among Primitive Peoples," by Dr. Paul Radin; 1925. " Napoleon and Palestine," by Philip Guedalla, M.A.; 1926. " Some Mediaeval Hebrew Poesy," by Herbert Loewe, M.A.; 1927. " Some Aspects of the Greek Old Testament," by Dr. St. John Thackeray. It will be seen from the contents of the present volume that none of the periods of Anglo-Jewish history?the pre-Expulsion, the Middle, or the Modern?is being neglected. New recruits to the ranks of the Society's researchers are represented by Miss H. M. Chew, Mr. Bernard Shillman, and Miss Beth Zion Lask. Miss Chew's paper is the fruit of the inspiration of Mr. Hilary Jenkinson, whose Introduction to the " Calendar of Plea Rolls of the Jewish Exchequer," to be published shortly (after the third and last volume of the Calendar), will attempt an estimate of the true nature of the Scaccarium Judaeorum. vii</page><page sequence="2">viii PREFACE. Mr. Shillman's paper increases our knowledge of the history of the Jewish Community in Ireland, while Miss Lask has opened up a new field, the literary history of Anglo-Jewry. The President for the Sessions 1924-26 was Mr. Israel Zangwill; and for 1926-27, Mr. Lucien Wolf. In 1924 Mr. J. M. Eich succeeded the Eev. E. Levine, M.A., as Hon. Secretary. The membership of the Society is now 705, in addition to 8 Honorary and 17 Corresponding Members. The Society has suffered heavy losses by death during the past three years. In 1925 there died Sir Isidore Spielmann, Dr. Israel Abrahams ("I.A."), and Mr. H. S. Q. Henriques, K.C., all Past Presidents, and Mrs. Eedcliffe Salaman, whom her colleagues on the Council of the Society looked forward to seeing in the Presi? dential Chair. Tribute is paid to their work in the memoirs at the end of this volume. In 1926 the Society lost its President, Mr. Israel Zangwill. Ill-health had prevented him from playing the part he would have wished in the Society's activities, and how great a loss it meant may be judged from the Memorial Address by Mr. Lucien Wolf, also printed in this volume. In the same year Sir Adolph Tuck and Mr. J. M. Eigg (editor of the first two volumes of the " Plea Eolls of the Jewish Exchequer and in 1927 Mr. Abraham Abrahams and Mr. S. J. Solomon, E.A., all Members of the Council, passed away. Mr. Abrahams had very much at heart the desirability of bringing up to date the Biblio theca Anglo-Judaica of Mr. Joseph Jacobs and Mr. Lucien Wolf, and had already started the work, which the Society hopes shortly to complete. It may be mentioned here that at the time of his death Dr. Abrahams was editing for the Society (in collaboration with Canon Dr. Stokes) a volume on the Shtaroth in the British Museum. Mr. Herbert Loewe, M. A., has been good enough to take up the uncom? pleted task, and the volume will soon be in the hands of Members.</page><page sequence="3">PREFACE. IX In January 1927 Mr. Lucien Wolf celebrated his seventieth birthday. He had been the Society's first President, in 1893, and he was President at the time of this happy event. The Society gave a dinner in his honour, Sir Herbert Samuel being in the chair. An account of the function is to appear in the volume of Mr. Wolf's essays that the Society is publishing to commemorate the event. By delivering his Presidential Address at Manchester Mr. Wolf followed the precedents set by Mr. Joseph Jacobs (Birmingham, 1897) and Dr. Salaman (Manchester, 1921) of stimulating the interest of the Provinces in the Society's work. Thanks to the enthusiastic co-operation of the Manchester Union of Jewish Literary Societies (and particularly to Mr. Neville Laski, its Chairman, and Mr. A. Moss, its Hon. Secretary), a very successful gathering was held at the Midland Hotel, and over thirty new Members were enrolled. In November 1927 Mr. Gustave Tuck, the Society's Honorary Treasurer for over twenty-one years, also celebrated his seventieth birthday. To his enthusiasm and unflagging zeal the growth of the Society to its present dimensions is due in a very large degree, and his technical abilities in the publisher's craft have been of no small assistance to the Editorial Committee. It was fitting, therefore, that the Society should participate in arranging the banquet given in his honour by the numerous Communal Organisations with which he is associated. In the period under review there have been notable additions to the Society's Library, housed at the Mocatta Library, University College, University of London, and managed by a Joint Com? mittee of the Society and University College. In 1924 Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz presented a collection of 1288 volumes and 222 pamphlets, and in 1925 the Members of the Society contri? buted to a fund for the purchase of the library of the late Dr. Israel Abrahams. The books were divided between the Mocatta</page><page sequence="4">X PREFACE. library and Christ's College, Cambridge, the former receiving the historical portion, amounting to 607 volumes and 2509 pamphlets. A new Catalogue of the Anglo-Judaica in the Library is in course of preparation. The Librarian is now Mr. John Wilks, M.A. (Libra? rian of University College); Mr. Newcombe, the Librarian since the foundation of the Library in 1906, having been called to direct the Central Library for Students. In 1927 University College celebrated the Centenary of its foundation. The Jewish Community was prominently associated with the movement for the establishment of an institution which should not be hedged round with religious tests (as Cambridge and Oxford then were), and has had very close associations with the College ever since. Some reference to this will be found in the lecture delivered in 1926 by Sir Philip Magnus, under the joint auspices of the Society and the College, and since published separately under the title " The Birth of University College?One Hundred Years Ago " (University of London Press, 1926). In connection with the Centenary Celebrations the College started a fund for the provision of new accommodation for certain of its departments, and it is hoped that, as part of the rebuilding scheme, more ample accommodation will be available for the Mocatta Library and Museum. The Museum, particularly, is cramped for space, and there is at present very little room for the display of objects and none for the prints and portraits. Lady Spielmann has informed the Society that it was the late Sir Isidore Spielmann's wish that a number of objects of Jewish artistic interest should be presented to the Society (subject to Lady Spielmann's life interest therein) on condition that adequate accommodation for their display could be provided. In 1926 the Society distributed to Provincial Congregations a Questionnaire on the nature and state of the archives in their possession. A good deal of information was received and is available to students. The opportunity was taken of pointing</page><page sequence="5">PREFACE. xi out that Congregations might deposit their old Minute Books and other records at the Mocatta Library for safe custody. The Bristol Congregation has taken advantage of these facilities and a large quantity of records relating to the history of the Congregation in the nineteenth century is now in the Library. The Society has continued to encourage cognate Societies and movements. Subventions have been made to the Union of Jewish Literary Societies (which has continued to arrange annual Lecture Courses of high standing), the Gesellschaft zur Erforschung J?discher Denkm?ler, and the Mizrach Yiddishen Historischen Archiv (for the publication of the " History of the Pogroms in the Ukraine, 1917-21 "). Donations were given to University College Appeal Fund, the Spinoza Memorial Committee (established in connection with the 250th anniversary of his death, for the preservation of the house in which he lived at The Hague in his latter years), the Surinam Committee (for the preservation of the Ancient Synagogue and Cemeteries in Dutch Guiana?in the seventeenth century an English possession), and to the Fund for the Preservation of St. Paul's Cathedral. At the inauguration of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1925, the Society was represented by the Very Rev. the Chief Rabbi, a Vice-President. He carried with him an address on vellum, of which the following is the text: March 16, 1925. The Council of the Jewish Historical Society of England begs to transmit by the hand of its representative, the Very Reverend the Chief Rabbi, one of its former Presidents, this cordial congratulation to the founders of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem upon its initiation under such distinguished auspices. Through its relation both to historical science and the Mandatory Power of Palestine, our Society is peculiarly inter? ested in this latest phase in the long evolution of Jewish history, and that this phase should take the shape of a University particularly appeals to it</page><page sequence="6">xii preface. as a scientific body. It was through the establishment of a seat of learning that the Jewish people was enabled to survive the tragic loss of its soil, but the loss of its immemorial impulse towards the things of the spirit would be an even greater tragedy, and the Council therefore rejoices that the leaders of the new Jewish life on the ancient soil should have hastened to set up a centre for Hebraic thought and scientific research, and fervently trusts that it will prove a source of blessing and inspiration both for Palestine and the world. Signed on behalf of the Council, Israel Zangwill (President). March 16, 1925, Adar 20, 5686. The following is a list of Meetings of the Society subsequent to those in the list in the Preface to Transactions, Volume X. 1924. April 27. Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture? Dr. Paul Kadin. " Monotheism among Primi? tive Peoples." (Mr. Israel Zangwill in the Chair.) ? Nov. 26. Mr. W. S. Samuel, " A Spy's Report to the Lisbon Inquisition on the Jews in London (Cromwellian Period)." 1925. Jan. 12. Dr. Israel Abrahams: " Some Jewish (New Synagogue) Marriage Documents of a Century Ago in the British Museum." ? Feb. 18. Mr. Herbert Loewe : " Note on a matrix of a Hebrew Amulet found at Darjeeling." Miss H. M. Chew, M.A. : " A Jewish Marriage Aid of 1221." ? Mar. 23. Dr. Cecil Roth: " Strange and Wonderful News from Borton in the County of Kent." A curious broadsheet of 1686. Mr. W. S. Samuel: " Jewish Oratories of Crom? wellian London." ? April 27. Mr. Marcus Lipton, M.A.: " Francis Francia, the Jacobite Jew."</page><page sequence="7">preface. xiii 1925. May 25. Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture? Mr. Philip Guedalla, M.A. : " Napoleon and Palestine." (The Et. Hon. D. Lloyd George, O.M., M.P., in the Chair.) ? July 6. Mr. Bernard Shillman : 44 The Jewish Cemetery at Ballybough in Dublin City." ? Dec. 21. Mr. Lucien Wolf: Memorial Address on the three Past Presidents who had died during the year?Sir Isidore Spielmann, Dr. Israel Abrahams, and Mr. H. S. Q. Henriques, K.C. 1926. April 27. Joint Meeting with University College? Sir Philip Magnus, Bt.: " The Birth of Uni? versity College?One Hundred Years Ago." ? June 8. Dr. Cecil Roth : " The Identity of Gamaliel ben Pedahzur." " Leon of Modena and England." ? June 22. Miss Beth Zion Lask : " Amy Levy." ? July 15. Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture? Mr. Herbert Loewe, M.A. : " Jewish Mediaeval Minstrelsy." (Sir Hugh Allen, M.A., Mus. Doc, Director of the Royal College of Music, in the Chair.) ? Oct. 26. Mr. Lucien Wolf: Memorial Address on Mr, Israel Zangwill. ? Nov. 21. (Manchester.) Mr. Lucien Wolf: " Jews in Elizabethan England." (Dr. Moberley, Vice Chancellor of Manchester University, in the Chair.) 1927. Jan. 10. Mr. M. J. Landa: " Shylock's English An? cestor." ? Mar. 15. Dr. A. Marmorstein : " New Material for the Literary History of the English Jews before the Expulsion." ? April 10. Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture? Dr. H. St. John Thackeray : " Some Aspects of the Greek Old Testament." (Haham Dr. M. Gaster in the Chair.)</page><page sequence="8">xiv preface. 1927. May 16. Dr. Charles Duschinsky: "Samuel Falk, the London Mystic." (Details of his life from the diary of his famulus, Hirsch of Kalisch.) ? July 4. Dr. Cecil Roth: "New Light on the Re? settlement." It is intended to commence at once the systematic collection of copies of portraits of interest for Anglo-Jewish History, and especially of such as have not been engraved or otherwise repro? duced. The Society will be grateful for photographs of such portraits, or information as to where they are to be found. Port? folios of reproductions will be distributed periodically to Members. J. M. Rich, Hon. Secretary. The Mocatta Library and Museum, University of London (University College), Go wer Street, London, W.C. 1. July 1, 1923.</page></plain_text>