Foreign Countries (1942-1943)
166 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK PART TWO: FOREIGN COUNTRIES I. BRITISH COMMONWEALTH 1. Great Britain BY THEODOR H. GASTER* ON THE morning of September 7, 1941, exactly a year after the modern "Fire of London," the narrow thoroughfares of the City were the scene of a unique and moving spectacle. The historic alleys, once the site of London Jewry, were thronged with some thousands of men and women, many in uniform and not all of them Jews, who had come from the four quarters of the metropolis to attend an open-air memo- rial service conducted by the Chief Rabbi in the ruins of the bomb-wrecked Great Synagogue. Instinct with pathos and imagination, compact both of memories and of hopes, the service typified the life of English Jews during the past year. Surrounded by the havoc of war, its normal structure disturbed and its services disrupted, the community bravely endeavored to regroup its forces and to keep its flag flying amid the dust and heat of the battle. The main task was to transform the existing machinery, or as much of it as remained intact, to meet the needs of a now scattered and decentralized community. With its numbers dispersed over countless small towns and villages, its children billeted in districts remote from Jewish contacts, its communal personnel largely absorbed in the war services, its finances depleted and many of its buildings damaged or destroyed, English Jewry faced a problem of maximal re- organization with minimal resources. Educational, religious, dietary and philanthropic facilities, previously concentrated in London and the larger cities, had now to be extended to outlying areas.
[Show full text]