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Part Ii. Foreign Countries I

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Part Ii. Foreign Countries I REVIEW OF THE YEAR 5701 125 PART II. FOREIGN COUNTRIES I. BRITISH COMMONWEALTH By THEODOR H. GASTER* Let the sharp ball of fire be hurled at me; Let heaven be alive with lightning flash And scourge of angry winds; O let the earth Ail from her prime foundation tempest-tost! Crash forth, ye mighty breakers of the sea; Stars in your courses, clash and run together! Let the swift eddies of relentless Fate Sweep this poor body into darkest hell; Yet still shall life endure. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, 1045-1055. Great Britain British Jewry was mainly occupied during the past year with the twin problems of air raids and evacuation, both of which brought profound changes in its structure and complexion. Wholesale destruction on the one hand and the readjustment of life on the other confronted the community with a host of new problems and anxieties. It is the object of the following pages to offer a rounded picture of these developments. No attempt has been made to produce a day-by-day record. Indeed, in present circum- stances this would have been impossible, in view of the rigid censorship to which all news from Britain is subjected. It is, for example, quite impossible, in most cases, to state the precise date on which a building was bombed, nor is it by any means a simple matter to identify in every instance the "well-known structure" or "prominent synagogue" of an official dispatch. Air Raids LONDON'S Jewish quarter, where the policemen speak Yiddish and where East meets West in striking defiance of the well-worn proverb, is a sprawling jumble of mean 'Editorial Secretary, Institute of Jewish Affairs of the American Jewish Congress. 126 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK sidestreets and alleys spreading, like rivulets from a giant stream, on either side of bustling Whitechapel and the seemingly interminable Mile End Road. Here, in the latter-day babel of Stepney and Bethnal Green, live half the Jews of the metropolis and here, in the combined squalor and magnificence of the ghetto, there has grown up, during the past fifty years, that strange cultural syncretism which marks the evolution of the immigrant masses who fled the pogroms of Russia and Poland in the '80s and '90s of last century. On the morning of September 7, 1940, a goodly part of this area lay in ruins. A fleet of German aircraft, sweeping in during the night, had marked it out, along with many less humble landmarks, as the target of its attacks. When dawn broke, entire blocks were seen to have been reduced to rubble, and there was scarcely a street which was not roped off for the clearance of debris and the extrication of the dead and wounded. A few days later, the Nazi press gleefully reported that the roads out of London were choked with the limousines of terrified Jews fleeing the havoc. This, however, was an exaggeration. What was really happening was that thousands of homeless and destitute were wandering aimlessly through the streets pushing handcarts and perambulators laden with their few salvaged belongings. The raid, which was but the prelude to further attacks (especially in December and the following April and May), served to point up once more the gross inadequacy of official provisions, for while air raid wardens, fire-fighters and rescue squads distinguished themselves by their heroic handling of the emergency, it became abundantly clear that Whitehall had no comprehensive plan for dealing with such situations or for succouring the victims of disaster. Tours of inspection conducted both by the Jewish Board of Deputies and by other competent bodies revealed that underground refuges in the East End were dangerously overcrowded and devoid, in most cases, of proper sanitary arrangements; while shortly after the blitz, the Chief Air Raid Officer of Stepney tendered his resignation in protest against the government's stubborn refusal to provide deep shelters. Especially grave was the plight of those REVIEW OF THE YEAR 5701—GREAT BRITAIN 127 bombed out of their homes, many being obliged, as the result of official muddle and confusion, to trudge for miles in search of accommodation and sustenance. Moreover, a large number of the older generation faced an additional hardship in the fact that they were Yiddish-speaking im- migrants with insufficient command of English to seek or understand directions. Mr Basil Henriques, the energetic director of the East End's leading Jewish settlement, re- ported that it was impossible to walk more than a few yards in the bombed areas without being confronted by some hapless refugee of this type. Nevertheless, if official quarters were negligent, un- official agencies strove manfully to bring relief, Jewish communal organizations taking a prominent part in these efforts. Thus, to mention but a few instances, the Brady Girls' Club became a hotel for young women who had been bombed out, while the United Synagogue, in collaboration with the London County Council, established rest and feed- ing centers in several districts, and set up a special depart- ment of its Welfare Committee to assist Jewish victims of the raids. Similarly, the London Jewish Hospital, though itself damaged by enemy action, bravely kept its doors open, while the Jews' Temporary Shelter, well-known refuge of immigrants which had closed down last year, was turned over to Stepney Borough Council as a haven for the homeless. Nor was it only the Jewish population of the East End that suffered in the aerial siege of London. Along with many of the city's more famous monuments, the premises of Jewish institutions and synagogues were seriously af- fected. Especially deplorable was the total loss, in the September attacks, of the Mocatta Library and Museum, housed at University College, and of the Great Synagogue. The former, owned by the Jewish Historical Society, in- cluded the finest collection of Anglo-Jewish books and manuscripts in the world, while the latter, built in 1722, was regarded as the cathedral synagogue of the Ashkenazim in England. Other Jewish houses of worship which were destroyed were the Central Synagogue, about to celebrate its jubilee, and the independent Western Synagogue, rich in historical associations. Among buildings damaged, but 128 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK not demolished, in these and subsequent raids1 were 10 out of the 22 constituents of the United Synagogue, viz: — Borough, Brixton, Brondesbury, Dalston, East London, Hackney, Hampstead, New, New West End and North London. Bombs also fell on the following 7 affiliates of the Federation of Synagogues, all situated in the East End: — Bethnal Green Great, Commericial Road Great, Great Garden Street, Philpot Street, Sidney Street and Vine Court. Hits were also scored on a large number of com- munal institutions. Indeed, there were few of any impor- tance which escaped. Among the casualties were: — The Beth Din (Ecclesiastical Court), B'nai Brith hostel for refugee children, N. W., the Board of Guardians, the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Institute, the Jewish National Fund, the London Jewish Hos- pital, the Moses and Solomon Almshouses, the Samuel and Myer Home for Orphan Boys, the Sabbath Observance Bureau, the Spanish and Portuguese Congregational Almshouses (founded, 1703), the West Central Jewish Club, the West Central Jewish Lads' Club, and Woburn House (communal center, housing the offices of the United Synagogue, the B'nai Brith, the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Memorial Council, etc.). Even cemeteries were not spared, bombs falling, among others, on the ancient (disused) burial ground of the Sephardim, occupying a plot of land originally given to Marrano refugees by Oliver Cromwell. Provincial communities also suffered the effects of the Luftwaffe's onslaughts. In Manchester (33,000 Jews), the Victoria Memorial Jewish Hospital was put out of action for two months, while an unidentified synagogue and some Jewish schools were also hit. In Sheffield (2,175 Jews), the Great Synagogue, erected in 1790, was demolished, while in Birmingham (6,000 Jews), although the Central Syna- gogue was saved from destruction by the prompt action of "fire-spotters," the Jewish Social Club and the offices of 1 The rigors of censorship make it impossible to determine the precise dates of the several attacks. REVIEW OF THE YEAR 5701—GREAT BRITAIN 129 the Singers Hill Synagogue were damaged. In Hull, (2,000 Jews), bombs fell on the Main Synagogue and on one other, unidentified, and an adjoining beth hamidrash. In the Ports- mouth area (600 Jews) a small synagogue was blasted, and in Liverpool (7,500 Jews) it was found necessary to dyna- mite a Jewish religious building which had become a dan- gerous structure. As in London, Jewish communal organizations in the provinces rose magnificently to the new emergency, despite the fact that the exodus of their own supporters on the one hand and the arrival, on the other, of evacuees from the metropolis were already taxing their resources to the ut- most. In most centers, relief committees were at once created and hostels opened in safe areas. Thus, the Glasgow community arranged for the evacuation of children to Skelmorlie and Castle Douglas, while the Leeds and District Jewish Children's Convalescent Home was immediately turned over to evacuees. The latter community also organized a main relief center for the local homeless at Brandsby Lodge. Manchester set up an Inquiry Office to assist the destitute, while the Birmingham Jewish com- munal hall was reported, on January 3, 1941, to have been turned into a feeding center. At Liverpool, the Zionist Central Council converted its Zion House into a refuge for those bombed out, and in the Fylde and neighboring districts, which include Blackpool, Lytham St. Annes, Preston, Southport and Lancaster, an arrangement was made to pool resources in meeting the situation.
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