JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

on a smaller scale, and the dispersal of the population was followed
by a regrouping in new communities in the evacuation
areas. The countryside and small towns, which had hardly
known a Jew, became the homes of thriving communities for
the duration of the war, and some of these new communities
maintained their existence even after the war. The main effect
of the war on the distribution of the Jewish population, however,
is seen in the East End of London and in some of the
other Jewish quarters in the main provincial cities, where the
bombing destroyed the physical environment. The Ashkenazi
Great Synagogue in Duke’s Place, London, was only one of the
Jewish monuments and institutions that was lost. In the East
End of London, the old Jewish residential area was never rebuilt
though some of the older people remained or returned
and many others continued to come in daily to work.
ENGLAND AND PALESTINE. The relations of the developing
Jewish community in Palestine with the British government
as a mandatory power increasingly concerned the Anglo-Jewish
community, which expressed opposition to the policy set
down in the White Paper of 1939, limiting Jewish immigration
to Palestine. Support for a Jewish state was the policy of
the Zionist bodies and the *World Jewish Congress, but not
of the *Anglo-Jewish Association nor of its splinter group,
the anti-Zionist Jewish Fellowship, headed by Sir Basil *Henriques
(which dissolved in 1948). The Anglo-Jewish Association
enjoyed great prestige for its distinguished membership
and 70 years of concern with foreign affairs. The wish to mobilize
the support in the representative body of Anglo-Jewry
for Zionist policies was combined with a desire to make its
leadership reflect the changing character of the community
as a whole. These aspirations were symbolized by the 1939
election of Selig *Brodetsky, a first generation Russo-Jewish
immigrant, educated in Britain, as president of the Board of
Deputies. They were realized in 1943 by a carefully planned
campaign to secure the election to the board of a majority
committed to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. The
newly elected board dissolved its joint Foreign Committee
with the Anglo-Jewish Association. As in World War I, the
problems of Palestine effected a polarization in the Anglo-Jewish
community between those who put primary emphasis on
Jewish national ideals and those who stressed the overriding
claims of British citizenship.
Although this dichotomy was unrealistic in many respects,
it sharpened communal tensions. After the creation
of the State of Israel, the Anglo-Jewish Association adopted a
policy of goodwill toward the new state, but stressed the responsibilities
of Anglo-Jews as citizens of Britain who were
identified with its national life. Communal tensions were also
heightened by some antisemitism, which resulted from the
conflict between the mandatory administration and the yishuv,
beginning with the assassination of Lord Moyne in 1944
and culminating in the hanging of two British army sergeants
in August 1947. The latter was followed by minor disorders in
some provincial cities and some attacks on Jewish property.
england
Normalcy was restored after the establishment of diplomatic
relations between the British government and the new state.
EDUCATION. The need to provide for the education of children
dispersed in the 1939–45 evacuation led to the formation
of a joint emergency organization. In 1945 Jewish education
was substantially reorganized on this basis with a central
council for the whole country and an executive board for
London, representing the United Synagogue and other Orthodox
institutions. Jewish education during the evacuation
had been limited to an average of one hour a week, and improvement
of standards after the war was slow. The new organization
was responsible for the reconstitution of the Jews’
Free School and two other of the prewar private schools that
were closed during the war, one of which was a secondary
comprehensive school in a central location with a planned
complement of 1,500 pupils. As Jewish education regained
importance, the schools took various forms: the Jewish secondary
schools movement, begun in 1929 by Victor Schonfeld;
the day schools begun in the 1950s under Zionist auspices; independent
Orthodox day schools with Yiddish as a language
of instruction; the long-standing provincial day schools; and
Carmel College, a private school in the country, founded by
Kopul Rosen.
Early Postwar Period
Chief Rabbi Hertz died in January 1946 and Israel *Brodie succeeded
him in May 1948. The first chief rabbi to be both born
and educated in Britain, Brodie found the religious spectrum
of Anglo-Jewry not only growing stronger at either end but
also tending to disintegrate in the middle. Orthodoxy, combining
strict observance and exact learning with secular culture,
had been strengthened by the Central European refugees
of the Frankfurt school and, particularly after 1945, was
also increased by refugees from Poland and Hungary, many of
whom were Ḥasidim. The Reform and Liberal congregations,
while still a minority, probably increased their membership
at a greater rate than the United Synagogue, opening numerous
new congregations and founding the Leo Baeck College
to train their own ministers. Although their leadership was
clearly strengthened by the Central European immigration of
1933–39, much of their postwar membership could only have
come from the ranks of the nominally Orthodox. The Spanish
and Portuguese Congregation also increased with the immigration
of Jews from Egypt, Iraq, and Aden.
In 1956, Anglo-Jewry celebrated the tercentenary of the
resettlement, with a more or less united service at the historic
Bevis Marks Synagogue and a dinner at London’s Guildhall,
in the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh. But the sentiments
of communal solidarity – and of self-congratulation
on communal self-discipline – engendered by these celebrations
were short-lived. There had already been considerable
changes within the main synagogal bodies. The character of
the Federation of Synagogues changed as its membership,
while hardly increasing, moved from the small ḥevrot of the
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 419