Chapter 5 Josephus and the Jewish Chronicle: 1841–1855

Sarah Pearce

The single most important source for the nineteenth-century historian of Anglo-Jewry, if it is possible to identify one, is the Jewish Chronicle newspaper. Michael Clark1 ∵

Founded by Isaac Vallentine (1793–1868) in November 1841, The Jewish Chronicle remains widely acknowledged as the fundamental source of evidence about the history, culture and attitudes of British Jews in the nineteenth century.2 Much less well known is the fact that the Chronicle, together with its arch- rival in the Anglo-Jewish press, The Voice of Jacob (1841–1848),3 has much to tell us about Jewish knowledge of and attitudes towards the Jewish historian Josephus.4 Anglo-Jewish authors of the period remind us repeatedly of the dominant presence of Josephus in the contemporary sphere. In 1855, the Chronicle’s editor Abraham Benisch confidently asserted that ‘[t]he writings of both Moses and Josephus [are] in the hands of everyone …’5 The point is strongly affirmed by later generations of contributors, regretting the striking

1 Michael Clark, Albion and Jerusalem: The Anglo-Jewish Community in the Post-Emancipation Era, 1858–1887 (Oxford, 2009), 22. 2 Cf. Cecil Roth, The Jewish Chronicle 1841–1941: A Century of Newspaper History (London, 1949), xi; on the period 1841–1855: David Cesarani, The Jewish Chronicle and Anglo-Jewry, 1841–1991 (Cambridge, 1994), 8–31. 3 Founded by Jacob Franklin (1809–1877), the fortnightly Voice of Jacob (henceforth VJ) appeared for the first time on 16 September 1841. 4 Studies of reception history in the Jewish Chronicle (henceforth JC) are relatively rare, but cf. Daniel R. Langton, ‘The Apostle Paul in the Popular Jewish Imagination: The Case Study of the British Jewish Chronicle’, Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations 4 (2009): 2–12. 5 Abraham Benisch, ‘Lecture to the Palestine Archaeological Association’, JC, 24 August 1855, 287.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004393097_007 Josephus and the Jewish Chronicle: 1841–1855 107 absence of knowledge of Josephus among their contemporaries.6 In the mid- nineteenth century, contributors to the Chronicle represent Josephus as a familiar figure and one of great significance to the Anglo-Jewish community. In 1851, a leading article on the state of Jewish intellectual culture proudly declared: ‘Of historians, we can boast of a Josephus, a Manasseh ben Israel, and a Jost’.7 At the same time, perhaps reflecting the relatively low impact in Britain of Isaak Jost’s German-language histories of the Jews, contributors lament the absence of a Josephus to record the history of the Jewish people since the first century. ‘Oh for a Josephus to record the great fact’, writes one of the Chronicle’s star authors as he reflects on widespread ignorance of the oppression of Warsaw’s Jews in 1853.8 In the course of the nineteenth century, Josephus makes more than five hundred appearances in sixty years of the Chronicle.9 Of these, in excess of one hundred examples are concentrated in the first major period of the newspaper’s evolution (1841–1855). In what follows, focusing on a small number of examples, the aim is to offer a detailed exploration of the representation of Josephus in the Chronicle of this period. What does the evidence reveal about the contexts in which the Chronicle’s readers and contributors engaged with Josephus? How did they evaluate Josephus as a Jewish historian? How did they understand his significance for the contemporary world and for the Jews of Britain in particular? A key aspect of this exploration involves close attention to the contexts in which Josephus appears in the Chronicle. In its earliest years, the Chronicle’s proprietors observed strict anonymity with regard to the identity of the paper’s editors and contributors. In some cases, detective work is required to trace the identity of the Chronicle’s writers on Josephus; in others, the question must remain open.10 The first issue of Vallentine’s Chronicle appeared in November 1841 with editors representing both the Spanish and Portuguese and the Ashkenazi communities of London: David Meldola, spiritual leader of Bevis Marks synagogue, and Moses Angel, master of the Jews’ Free School. In the opening address ‘To Our Readers’, the purpose of

6 Cf. Israel Abrahams, ‘Books and Bookmen’, JC, 22 March 1907, 23: ‘Two generations ago the family Bible and Whiston’s Josephus were constant companions in the parlour of humble households; but it is now quite the exception to find an educated man who has any speaking acquaintance with the industrious Jewish historian’. 7 ‘Are the Jews Given to Intellectual Pursuits? A Retrospective Glance’, JC, 11 July 1851, 312–13. 8 Hertz ben Pinchas, letter to the editor: JC, 30 September 1853, front page. 9 The calculation is based on an electronic search of the Chronicle’s online archive; the accuracy of the search is necessarily limited by the quality of the digitized text and of the original, sometimes damaged material on which it is based. 10 On anonymity: Roth, The Jewish Chronicle, 17, 24, 35.