3. ISAAC DIAMOND in LONDON

Isaac Diamond & Family [ 36 ] Chapter 3 Isaac in London 3. ISAAC DIAMOND in LONDON of his father-in-lawh; it seems unlikely they were previously living at the same house at 95 Back Church Lane, St George-in-the East; Jane's father (see Chap 5) came from Poland, so Jane and Isaac Isaac was born on 8th October 1861 according to his were both Ashkenazi and could easily have met in the East End. 13b naturalisation petition which he made in 1886, but his Isaac presumably had been living in marriage registration in 1881 gives his age then as 23 (not 20), The witnesses are Shoreditch with his father, who I believe to be which means he would be born within 8th June 1857-58. unknown: the “I. then (see p 20) in S.Africa. Isaac is not indexed Curiously he five years later devised a precise but different date. Mendoza” is surprising, as present in London or Middlesex at the From his age (32) given in the 1891 census he was born in April presumably of census in April 1881. He stated that he had no 1858-59. He was born in Warsaw according to his 1886 petition, Sephardic origin; there brothers30 (his 2 sisters are known). but as with Zyman not found in the Warsaw records. Victor and were Mendoza leather- Marriage took place at the Great Synagogue Claude believed he was brought to England as a baby with his sellers in Bethnal Green [see mention re Zyman‘s marriage in Chap 2 immigrant parents (Zyman and his first wife Miriam). His in the 1881-2 and picture Fig 2-D], Isaac then a member, the marriage authorisation Fig 3-A and tombstone 4-F give his directories45. “B. most popular venue, on a Wednesday (the Hebrew name as Yitzchak or Yitzak. Cohen” is too common fashionable day for weddings, Sunday being Isaac married Jane Goldstein (see Chapter 6) on 8th June to try to identify. Figure 3-B: Marriage registration of Isaac & Jane ,1881 h As was common [though illegal] for Jewish marriages then, the 1881; the marriage registration Fig 3-B states he was aged 23 and a turner (he then followed his father's occupation usually given as reason is unknown but it is said it was convenient or cheaper in wood turner). At the time of the marriage he gave his address as registration fees (G.H. Whitehill, Bevis Marks Records, III, 1973, page 3) Isaac Diamond & Family [ 37 ] Chapter 3 Isaac in London regarded as non- Jewish)44, 13./11/.81. The marriage was conducted by the Reader, Marcus Hast, Fig 3-C), who was also chazan, teacher and composer at the Synagogue from 1872 to 1911. Since Figure 3-D: Church St, Goad Plan ca the institution of the 1890, shows No 87 [Laundry] Chief Rabbi in 1802 there was no separate Minister for Figure 3-C: Marcus Hast, Reader the Great Figure 3-F: Burial Synagogue. The Authorisation of narrow, a reminder of the Chief Rabbi would Arthur Diamond cramped confines of this area officiate to marry in the 19th cent., still has a even a humble ragged appearance. couple such as Suchar Goldstein The street, renamed Redchurch Street in 1937, and Leah in 1857 Figure 3-E: Church St, pub and adjacent Fig. 3-A: Marriage Author’n by Chief Rabbi: runs between Shoreditch High Street and Bethnal (see Chap 5); but No 87, in 2006 Green Road, see area map 2-M. The house was since 1879 the Chief at the south edge of the Old Nichol, and so it was Rabbi had been unwell and delegated some of his duties to his son demolished ca 1895; and see Chap 2 re Zyman in that area. It is Herman. outside the main areas of settlement by the Jews, although by 1899 Residences of Isaac & Jane there were 5-25% Jews along most of Bethnal Green Road but less After their marriage in June 1881 their first home was at 87 than 5% nearby except on the north side of Church Street, along 136 Church Street, Bethnal Green (north side) next to the Dolphin pub Brick Lane and Bacon Street . The street was in the cabinet- and very near Zyman's business premises. Here their first child making area of Bethnal Green, where Jewish settlement really Leopold was born in 1882. This is now a narrow 3-storey house; see began later in the 1890s, influenced by the clearance of the Old plan & photograph of the house, Figs 3-D &-E. In April 1881 the Nichol. The nearest synagogue of those which formed the United house was unoccupied11, but at 85 was a licensed victualler, and Synagogue in 1870 was the Great Synagogue, Duke's Place, where at 89 an umbrella maker. Pevsner commented that the street is they were married; but there were numerous small Chevras - Isaac Diamond & Family [ 38 ] Chapter 3 Isaac in London benefit clubs85 p314 and burial societies - for the 12-15,000 poorest The article in The Builder referred to in Chap 2 included the foreign Jews; 35-40% of working Spitalfields men were members in passage: 1864-72 (& see pp21-22). The streets on each side of Old Bethnal-green-road we found in an abominably dirty The western end of Church Street was Club Row [see p 24 & Figs condition. Minerva-street, - sludge, heaps of filth and ashes unremoved; Hope-street, 2-N-R]. In 1898 the police reported: 3 & 4-storey houses, shops Treadery-street, Temple-street, Charles-street, - all miserable, and here wretched below, centre for birds & rabbits in cages; no prostitutes, all thieves attempts at repairs had been a-making, with an odd barrow of stones flung into the ruts. or receivers of stolen goods; Jews beginning to come in; Jews have We went through some long passages or lanes leading off Old Bethnal-green-road, unbroken windows28a p159 [Arkell ‘s map136 shows 5-25% of Jews]. where rows of houses with little gardens before them may be seen. The roadway was Just to the south of this street was Sclater Street (home of the deep with sludge, and the gardens in some instances but receptacles for all sorts of refuse ... the summer aspect might be different. The lanes parallel to this, and at right Rubens), where a famous bird fair (Fig 7-B) was held, see Chap 7. angles, are filthy, and heaps of un-removed dirt are in abundance. An enquiry in 1887 into the sanitary conditions in Bethnal Green heard52 from witnesses of conditions of the poorest being a scandal, lack of water to toilets, water percolating into buildings, need to demolish houses, which had happened to some of the Nicholl type being replaced by warehouses and railway extensions. Blacker remembered77 p14 the area as having narrow cobbled streets, terraced houses, gas-lit cabinet-making workshops, tiny synagogues, public baths in Cheshire Street [Isaac owned No’s 5&7, see Jane’s Will, p59], delicatessen in Virginia Road and visits to Victoria Park. Various industries spewed noxious fumes into the atmosphere, damaging property, plants and the health of the inhabitants143 p88. Booth79,II , 1902, describes the East End: Bethnal Green being hard working especially in boot and cabinet making, and surprisingly healthy, rents in 1898 for a typical 4-storey 4-6 room house 10-13 shillings/wk. See description in Ch 1. The 15 births are shown in the page from the Family Bible, 6-D and the deaths as 3-G; within three days in August 1884 their two-month old twin Figure 3-G: Isaac & Jane's family’s deaths Isaac Diamond & Family [ 39 ] Chapter 3 Isaac in London boys died, one death of diarrhoea (one of chief causes of infant high for E. End workers) at West Ham cemetery (10 acres, deaths especially in hot summers, although less prevalent in Jews) opened 1857 for the New & Great Synagogues); even the & exhaustion, the first of the 8 childhood deaths, the next being in indigent would be buried but gravestones not allowed unless their next home in 1887 of Frederick of intestinal gland wasting. burial fees paid; few memorials are now visible in the area where Next were Arthur of measles at 2 yrs in 1890 and Esther of diphtheria they are buried. aged 5, Rose at 18 mths of a neck abscess and asphyxia) in 1892, In first 2 years of the Federation's burials from 1890, 117 of the [see JC announcements of the death of Rose in 1892 and the 199 interments were of infants under one year (incl 43 stillbirths)71 tombstone consecration at West p71. Up to 1885 Isaac was designated for burial authorisations31 a Ham of Esther in 1890 above,], "Stranger", presumably unaffiliated; thereafter as "of German finally in 1893 Henry of pertussis & Syn”, which was located half a mile from Isaac’s home at No 139. bronchitis at 21 mths and Lillian aged 7 mths of bronchitis (1890 & The “German“ congregation was founded in 1858105 p74, moved 1893 were particularly bad years to Spital Square (a building holding 200 men and 120 women, see per an official report in 1895; rates photos 3-H, J), was erected in 1885. This were highest for the poorest class; synagogue in Spital Square was built in 1886, to such causes of infant deaths are replace the German Synagogue in Old Street. It mentioned by Marks114, e.g.pp52-60). is named after a town in Ukraine, reflecting the Children comprised a very high origins of the congregation [J.C. 8 Jan 1886] proportion of deaths in the E End although membership in 1897 was only 120; it immigrant population; immigrants was a benefit had early weddings, a high birth society, rate and enjoyed a low rate of contributions infant mortality which declined being 7d a from 1895, believed to be due Fig 3-K: 139 Bethnal Green week, a Shiva Figure 3-L: :Rear of amongst Jews to extended breast Road in 2006; & the coalhole benefit of 21s cover and basement grating No.139 feeding and good infant diet and was paid after care114 Ch2.

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