Preface Vol 16

<plain_text><page sequence="1">Preface The last volume of Transactions was issued to members of the Society shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War and roughly covered the period of that war. During the six years that have since passed the Society has been endeavouring to make good the ravages it suffered during that war and to recover the position it occupied previous to the year 1939. The regular meetings of the Society, which never altogether ceased, although they were less frequent and some? what peripatetic, have been resumed and have for some years been held regularly in London at monthly intervals from the beginning of the winter until midsummer. The Gustave Tuck Theatre in University College (the regular meeting room of the Society) which was destroyed in an air raid in 1940 has not yet been restored, but accommodation has generously been placed at the disposal of the Society by the Authorities of the Western Synagogue (also a victim of the War) and later by those of University College, London, and by the West London Synagogue. Office accom? modation was also placed at the disposal of the Society by the Western Synagogue and subsequently by the West London Synagogue. Wkh the Society's library and the related Mocatta Library there was greater difficulty. The contents of these libraries were almost entirely destroyed in the air raid in which the Gustave Tuck Theatre and Gallery were demolished together with a large part of University College Library. Steps were at once taken to replace, as far as was possible, the books that were destroyed and with the help of generous friends this end has to some extent been achieved. It has, however, hitherto been impossible to find accommodation in which the books could be made available to readers and for this the Society must apparently await the rebuilding of University College Library in which, as previously, accommodation will be provided for the Society's books. The plans for this rebuilding have been approved and, if expectations are realized, the new library will be available in the not very distant future. In the meanwhile the re? constituted library has been catalogued. A handsome book-plate has at the same time been designed by Mr. Frederick W. Spurgin as a gift to the Society. The contents of the Museum fortunately escaped destruction. But it was found impossible to make these beautiful and interesting exhibits accessible to visitors, except that early in 1951 they were lent to the Glasgow Jewish Arts Festival for exhibition in that city. On their return to London they had, however, to be placed again in storage, but they were included in the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition which was held in connection with the Festival of Britain in July of that year. In the course of the period covered by this preface the Society suffered several serious losses. Two of its vice-presidents and former presidents, the Very Rev. Dr. J. H. Hertz, C.H., Chief Rabbi, and Elkan N. Adler, and a former honorary secretary and member of the Council, at the time of his death, Dr. Mortimer Epstein, died. Other members of the Council whose valued services were lost by a similar cause were the Rev. Morris Rosenbaum, Joseph N. Nabarro, Paul Goodman, Donald Cohen, and Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson, Bart., the outstanding authority on Anglo-Jewish genealogy. Ernest L. Franklin, the first treasurer and last survivor of the original Council of the Society, also died in 1950 in his ninety-first year. He had of course long retired from office in the Society. The death of Elkan N. Adler brought to an end the long connection of his firm, Messrs. Adler and Perowne, with the Society as their honorary legal advisers. Their place was taken by Mr. Joseph N. vii</page><page sequence="2">viii PREFACE Nabarro and his firm, Messrs. J. N. Nabarro and Sons. Following upon Mr. Nabarro's much regretted death a few months later the firm continued to act as the Society's Honorary Legal Advisers and its senior partner, Mr. Felix Nabarro, was co-opted a member of the Council. Mr. Albert M. Hyamson was elected President for a second term in July, 1946. He was succeeded a year later by the Right Hon. Lord Justice Cohen, who also served for two terms and was in turn succeeded by the Rev. James Parkes, M.A., D.Phil., who held office until July, 1951, when Mr. Bertram B. Benas, B.A., Ll.B., was elected President. Mr. Hyamson, Lord Justice Cohen, and Dr. Parkes were elected Vice-Presidents on their respective retirements from the presidency, as were also the Very Rev. the Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Israel Brodie, and the Very Rev. The Haham, Dr. Solomon Gaon. Mr. G. P. Gooch, C.H., D.Litt., F.B.A., and Dr. D. R. Pye, C.B., F.R.S., Provost of University College, London, were elected Honorary Members, and Mr. Lee M. Friedman, President of the American Jewish Historical Society, a corresponding member. The Laws of the Society were subjected to a thorough revision in 1946 and the revised version is printed at the end of this volume. The co-operation between the Society and the Trustees of the Arthur Davis Memorial Lectures, which had subsisted for a number of years after the foundation of the Lecture in 1917, but had ceased when the delivery of the Lectures was tem? porarily suspended, was revived in 1946 and made even closer. The Lectures are now delivered under the joint auspices of the Society and the Trustees ; and to enable the co-operation to work as smoothly as possible the President and Honorary Secretary of the Society, for the time being, are ex-officio Arthur Davis Trustees. The first of the revived series of Lectures was delivered by Rabbi Leo Baeck, Ph.D., D.D. (formerly President of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland), on " Changes in Jewish Outlook in December, 1946. A second lecture was delivered by Mr. Cecil Roth, M.A., D.Phil, (a Vice-President and former President of the Society), on " The Record of European Jewry " in January, 1950. Another revival was that of the award of the Asher Myers and Gustave Tuck Essay Prizes of ?10 each which had lapsed during the war. These prizes were awarded in 1947 to Miss Sonia Senslive and Mr. M. Aberbach. A second award of these prizes was made in 1949 when the successful competitors were Mr. E. Toeman and Mr. P. Adelman. On this occasion a similar prize, in memory of Sir Elly Kadoorie, for an essay on a subject of Jewish historical interest was awarded to Mr. B. M. Birnberg, this last being made available by the Anglo-Jewish Association, the Trustees of the Prize fund. Greater difficulty was, however, met with in the attempts to award the prize of ?100 placed at the disposal of the Society by a member of its Council. The prize is to be awarded for an essay of about 50,000 words on some subject of Jewish historical interest. A number of essays were received but none was considered suitable for the award of the prize. The Conference convened by the Society in April, 1943, to consider the prac? ticability of safeguarding and restoring to the owners or their representatives books, archives, and other objects of cultural, historical, or artistic value, formerly the property of continental victims of Nazi excesses, developed into the Committee on Restoration of Continental Jewish Museums, Libraries, and Archives, of which Mr. Cecil Roth, the chairman of the earlier body, is also the Chairman, This</page><page sequence="3">PREFACE ix Committee has been active during the period under review in co-operation with the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction of New York. A very large number of objects were recovered. By agreement between the two organizations those objects whose owners could not be traced were distributed among appropriate Jewish institutions on the Continent, in the United States of America, Israel, this country, and elsewhere. One hundred and fifteen cases containing about twenty thousand volumes, seven cases of silver ceremonial objects, and thirty si/re torah were allotted to England and were distributed among the Wiener Library, the Society for Jewish Studies, Jews5 College, the Jewish Historical Society, and a number of synagogues and yeshibot. These books and other objects were, however, not gifts. They are placed on trust and if the original owners or their representatives ever come forward their property will be restored to them. One of the results of the War was the laying waste of a large built-up area in the City of London including the site of the original Jewish cemetery which (later known as the Jews' Garden), was opened shortly after the first Jewish Settlement in England in the reign of William I, and closed on the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290. Advantage was taken of the opportunity by the Roman and Medieval London Excavation Council, under the direction of Mr. W. F. Grimes, M.A., F.S.A., the Director of the London Museum, to conduct excavations in the area, and Mr. Grimes and the Council readily accepted the suggestion of the Society that trial excavations should be undertaken on the site of the Cemetery. A small fund to which members and others who were interested contributed, was raised and exploratory excavations were undertaken. A number of graves were found, but the bodies had been removed from them at some unknown date. Neither the fund nor the opportunities have been exhausted and further investigations are projected. The excavations aroused sufficient interest for the British Broadcasting Corporation to devote a " talk " to the work in July, 1949. Another undertaking in which the Society co-operated was in the formation of a Jewish Book Council whose purpose is to encourage the revival and establishment of Jewish libraries by synagogues and other institutions and to advise in the selection of Jewish books by municipal and other non-Jewish public libraries. As a preliminary to the formation of the Council a conference of Anglo Jewish institutions interested in cultural matters was convened by the Society and presided over by the President, Lord Justice Cohen. The provisional Committee appointed at that conference was presided over by one of the Vice-Presidents whom the Jewish Historical Society had appointed as its representative. On the occasion of the celebration in 1950 of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem the Society was invited to send a representative. The President, Dr. James Parkes, was appointed for the purpose and delivered a message of greeting and congratulation. It is a pleasure to record a flow of new students who communicate the results of their researches to the Society at its meetings, and in particular members of the younger generation. The membership of the Society consists of twelve Corre? sponding Members, eight Honorary Members, and 650 Ordinary Members. This number compares favourably, proportionately, with similar societies in other countries, but in view of the increasing cost of publications and administration a greater number is not only desirable but essential if the Society's work is not to be impeded. The publications since the issue of Volume XV of the Transactions in 1946, all</page><page sequence="4">X PREFACE of which have been distributed free to members, have been the six Lucien Wolf and the two Arthur Davis Memorial Lectures recorded in the list of lectures that follows ; the first part of the Sepher Hashoham of Moses ben Isaac Nessiah (a very important medieval work by an early English Jewish scholar), the publication of which was announced as one of the objects of the Society when it was constituted over sixty years ago. This publication was issued as a tribute to the memory of Gustave Tuck and was rendered possible by the generosity of his son-in-law and daughter, the late Harry Flatau and Mrs. Flatau. Mr. Cecil Roth wrote an intro? duction and the book was published under the joint auspices of the Society and the Mekitze Nirdamim of Jerusalem ; Miscellanies Part V (the second section of the Elkan Adler Memorial Volume) ; Anglo-Jewish Notabilities, consisting of (a) a. Plan of a Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish Biography, by Mr. Albert M. Hyamson, (b) Anglo-Jewish Coats of Arms, by Mr. Alfred Rubens, and (c) Anglo-Jewish Wills and Letters of Administration, by Mr. Arthur P. Arnold ; and " The Rise of Provincial Jewry 55 by Mr. Cecil Roth, a book based on a series of articles con? tributed to The Jewish Monthly, developed out of two of Mr. Roth's Presidential Addresses to the Society. This book was published by the Anglo-Jewish Association and the distribution to members of the Society was rendered possible by a gift by Mrs. Harry Flatau in memory of her husband. The Society has been fortunate in receiving a number of gifts from members and other friends. They include from Mrs. Cyrus Adler a selection of books from the library of her late husband, a former corresponding member of the Society ; a set of the Soncino Talmud and a rare and valuable Hebrew Bible as well as a de luxe edition of" The Great Synagogue " from Sir Louis Sterling ; books from the libraries of the late Michael Adler and Elkan N. Adler, former Presidents ; books given by Mr. C. J. Epril, Mrs. Beth-Zion Abrahams, and the children of the late Mr. and Mrs. Corcos ; from Mrs. F. S. Franklin, portraits in oils of her great-grandparents, Moses and Kate Emanuel of Portsmouth ; from Mr. Owen E. Mocatta, a large handsome bookcase, and from Mr. Bertram Samuel a smaller bookcase. Six MS. letters of Sir Moses Montefiore were presented by Lady (Lionel) Cohen and a number of volumes have been received from many other donors. The Corporation of the City of London has entrusted to the Society on perpetual loan the extensive and valuable collection of Judaica and Hebraica formerly housed in the Guildhall Library. The following is a list of the meetings of the Society that have been held since the publication of Volume XV of the Transactions. During the earlier part of the period they were held at University College, London, by the courtesy of the authori? ties of that Institution. From the beginning of the Session 1947-48 the Council of the West London Synagogue has given hospitality to the Society in one or other of the halls or rooms in its annexe. 1945 18th Oct. Annual General Meeting. Mr. A. M. Hyamson, Presidential Address : " War and Jewish History " (repeated in the Hall of the Jewish Institute, Glasgow, 5th May, 1946). 15th Nov. Mr. Bernard Shillman, " More Light on the Jews of Ireland." 1946 17th Jan. Mr. Cecil Roth, D.Phil. : " Paralipomena."</page><page sequence="5">PREFACE xi 1946 21 st Feb. 21 st Mar. 25th April 5th May 23rd May 1 ith July 24th Oct. 14th Nov. 15th Dec. 1947 2nd Jan. 12 th Jan. 13 th Mar. 17 th April 15th May 19th June 17th July 3rd Nov. 15th Dec. 1948 19th Jan. 8th Mar. 12 th April 24th May 5th July ist Nov. 13th Dec. 1949 26th Jan. Fifth Lady Magnus Memorial Lecture. Mr. Lewis Edwards : " Records of Jewry." (This lecture was preceded by a reception to Dr. Samuel Krauss, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, and an appreciation of his life and work by Dr. G. H. Zimmels.) The Rev. S. Levy : Address in memory of the Very Rev. Dr. Joseph Herman Hertz, C.H., Chief Rabbi and former President of the Society. Mr. Paul Emden : " The British Financial System and the Jews." Mr. H. G. Richardson : " The English Jewry and the Angevin Kings." (See 18th October, 1945, above.) Tenth Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture. Senor S. de Madariaga : " Spain and the Jews." 1 Mrs. Olga Somech Phillips : "A Picture of Old North London Jewry." Annual General Meeting. Mr. A. M. Hyamson, Presidential Address : " An Anglo-Jewish Family " (repeated at a joint meeting with the St. Anne's Jewish Literary and Social Society, at St. Anne's-on-Sea, Lanes, on 12th January, 1947). The Rev. E. Levine : Address in memory of Elkan Nathan Adler, former President of the Society.2 Mr. J. Mewburn Levien : "John Braham." 2 Fifteenth Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture. Rabbi Leo Baeck, Ph.D., D.D. : " Changes in Jewish Outlook." 1 Mr. H. Levine : " One Hundred Years of Birmingham Jewish Life (1750-1850)." (See 24th October, 1946, above.) Mr. H. G. Richardson : " The Legend of Jurnet of Norwich." Eleventh Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture. Prof. A. L. Goodhart, K.B.E. : "Jewish Contributions to Anglo-American Law." 1 Prof. Norman de M. Bentwich : " Some Further Jewish Causes Cetebres. Mrs. H. F. Finberg : "Jewish Residents in Eighteenth Century Twickenham." Dr. O. K. Rabinowicz : " Solomon de Medina." Sixth Lady Magnus Memorial Lecture. Mrs. Beth Zion Abrahams : " Grace Aguilar?A Centenary Tribute. 1816-1847." Annual General Meeting. The Right Hon. Lord Justice Cohen, Presidential Address : " Levi Barent Cohen and some of his Descendants." Dr. RedclirTe N. Salaman, F.R.S. : "Jews and the Royal Society." 3 Mr. John Gwyer : " Roderigo Lopez." Mr. Lewis Edwards : " Church and Synagogue in Medieval English Art." Mr. A. R. Rollin : "Jewish Contributions to the British Textile Industry." Twelfth Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture. The Hon. Mr. Justice Vaisey : " The Power of Minorities." 1 Mr. Peter Elman : " The Origins of the Jewish Trade Union Movement." Annual General Meeting. Rabbi Dr. Alexander Altmann : " William Wollaston (1659-1724), English Deist and Rabbinic Scholar." Mr. Paul Emden : " Isaac d'Israeli." 4 Mr. Cecil Roth, D.Phil. : " Sidelights on Anglo-Jewry (1805-1830) from the Earliest Minute Book of the London Beth Din." 1 The Lucien Wolf and Arthur Davis Memorial Lectures have all been published separately. 2 Published in Six Sovereigns of Songy by J. M. Levien. 8 Printed in Miscellanies No. V. 4 Published in The Quarterly Review, January, 1949.</page><page sequence="6">xii PREFACE *949 7th Mar. 25th April 23rd May 27 th June 25th Oct. 17 th Nov. 20th Dec. 1950 29th Jan. 14th Feb. 28th Mar. 25th April 5th June 5th July 8th Nov. 14th Dec. 1951 8th Jan. 7th Feb. 7th Mar. 1 ith April 16th May 13th June December^ Mr. Alex Jacob : " The Jews of Falmouth." Dr. Aron Owen : " References to England in the Responsa of Rabbi Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg (1215 1293)." Miss Lucy Stuart Sutherland, C.B.E. : " Sampson Gideon." Thirteenth Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture. Mr. Cecil Roth, D.Phil. : " England in Jewish History." 1 The Rev. Arthur Barnett : '' Solomon Bennett, Artist, Hebraist, and Contro? versialist (1761-1838)." Annual General Meeting. The Rev. Dr. James Parkes, Presidential Address : " The Medieval Church and Synagogue." Mr. Neville J. Laski, K.C. : " The London Sephardi Community (1664-7)." Mr. Edgar Roy Samuel : " Anglo-Jewish Notaries and Scriveners." Sixteenth Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture. Mr. Cecil Roth, D.Phil. : " The Record of European Jewry." 1 Mr. Louis Saipe : " The History of Leeds Jewry." Seventh Lady Magnus Memorial Lecture. Miss Marjorie B. Honeybourne : " The Pre-Expulsion Cemetery of the Jews and its London Setting." Mr. Rowland H. Landman : " Judah Benjamin." Fourteenth Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture. Prof. J. A. Lauwerys, D.Sc. : " The Idea of Europe." 1 Mr. V. D. Lipman, D.Phil. : " A Survey of Anglo-Jewry in 1851." Annual General Meeting. The Rev. Dr. James Parkes, Presidential Address : " The History of the Jewish Community in Gentile Society." Mr. Shimon Applebaum : " Were there Jews in Roman Britain ? " Mr. John Bowman, D.Phil. : " Hugh Broughton and the Jews." Mr. Alexander Behr : " Isidore Gerstenberg : Founder of the Council of Foreign Bondholders." Mr. Paul H. Emden : " Baron Julius de Reuter and Reuter's News Agency." Fifteenth Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture. Mr. Max Beloff : " Lucien Wolf and the Anglo-Russian Entente (1907-1914)." 1 Mr. Raphael Loewe : " Herbert of Bosham and the Pre-Expulsion Christian Hebraists." Dr. J. L. Teicher : " A Hitherto Unpublished Document on Pre-Expulsion Anglo Jewry." Mr. Arthur P. Arnold : " Some Notes on Jews in England in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries." Rabbi Eugene Newman : Some New Facts about the Portsmouth Jewish Community." 1 The Lucien Wolf and Arthur Davis Memorial Lectures have all been published separately.</page></plain_text>