Manchester disunited
Manchester University Press, £95
BETWEEN 1 9 3 3 a nd 1940, some 8,000 refugees from European fascism came to Manchester. Most were Jewish, though there were others, such as children from the Basque region of Spain. For the previous century and more Manchester had been thought of as a quintessentially “liberal” city, the home of Free Trade that opened its doors to all, irrespective of creed or colour. Bill Williams does not refute this view but demonstrates that, no matter how liberal Mancunians may have declared themselves to be, there was a limit to their generosity, especially during an economic depression — and that this liberalism was moderated by the Jews themselves or, rather, by the local Jewish leadership of the period.
It is not an edifying story. For most of that decade, the lay leader of Manchester Jewry was Nathan Laski, president of the Manchester Jewish Representative Council and father of Neville Laski, president of the Board of Deputies for muchof thesameperiod.Fatherandson shared the view that Jews were a major cause of antisemitism and both were preoccupied with communal image.
While Neville toured the country warning Jewish businessmen and womennottoengageinpracticesthat,however legal, might annoy the goyim, Nathan turned his home (in Smedley Lane) into what Williams calls “a private court”, wherein workers and tenants could have their grievances heard against Jewish employers and landlords.
In so doing, Nathan was merely reflecting the fears of the Manchester Jewish bourgeoisie. In December 1935, the Manchester Women’s Lodge of B’nai Brith resolved that “the spread of antisemitism in England is largely brought about by ourselves.” Little wonder, therefore, that, as Williams puts it, “systematic action to facilitate the entry of refugees was judged to be unnecessarily provocative.” What was also judged to be provocative were the efforts of individuals and groups working independently of the rep council.
Prominent among these was the Manchester Yeshiva (founded 1911), whose very existence, as “one of the last strongholds of Jewish cultural insularity”, attracted Nathan’s ire. But even the yeshivah’s efforts in rescuing victims of Nazism were exceedingly modest. And in attempting to find Jewish foster-homes for refugee Jewish children, the grandees of Manchester Jewry faced an uphill struggle.
Of course, excuses can be made. The exertions of the Quakers and of the Catholic Church were similarly half-hearted. The major preoccupation of the Catholics was with Communism (customar- ily viewed as a Jewish conspiracy: the formation of a tiny Manchester branch of the German Communist Party in 1938 hardly helped to dispel this myth). Meanwhile,thosecentral-EuropeanJews who did secure a refuge in Manchester frequently found themselves exploited, as virtual slave-labourers, by their Mancunian Jewish hosts.
All in all, it is a very depressing story and Bill Williams has had the courage to tell it just as it was. It is hoped that a paperback edition will in due course follow the formidably priced hardback.
Geoffrey Alderman is a JC columnist