PASSPORT refugee academics was Christ Church, despite its alleged propensity for admitting Isaiah Berlin and Oxford old Etonians as undergraduates. The classicists Paul Jacobsthal and Felix Jacoby Isaiah Berlin was one of the most famous Jewish intellectuals came to Christ Church. Jacobsthal’s expertise lay in the obscure field of early in post-war Britain, yet his attitude towards Jewish life at Celtic art. His appointment indicated a Oxford was ambivalent, says David Herman considerable degree of flexibility by the college, given that this subject could hardly form part of its undergraduate teaching. ‘the N[ew] West End Synagogue’, Christ Church also admitted Jewish ‘Women Zionists’). Letters to refugees as undergraduates. Some of English friends, however, have these, like the celebrated translator few if any Jewish references, Michael Hamburger, made substantial and are full of the gentile world contributions to British culture. of college gossip. This division Oxford gained much from refugee continues throughout his time at expertise in the arts and social sciences, in Oxford in the 1930s, until he left subjects such as medieval and Renaissance for America during the war. history, classics, art history (before the We get an interesting picture arrival of Otto Pächt and Edgar Wind the of these issues in the third, subject hardly existed as an academic enlarged edition of Berlin’s discipline in Britain), philosophy, law and book, Personal Impressions, economics. Oxford’s science also benefited just published by Penguin. In a greatly under an initiative of Professor piece called ‘Jewish Oxford’, he Frederick Lindemann, head of the writes about the Jewish world of Clarendon Laboratory. Aware that Oxford late 1920s and 1930s Oxford, the lagged behind Cambridge in the field, people he met and the societies Lindemann travelled to Germany in 1933 he joined. There were hardly any The refugee scholars who found and targeted a team of Jewish scientists Jews in Oxford when he arrived; working on low-temperature physics at he writes, ‘I doubt if there were OXFORD Breslau. Kurt Mendelssohn led the team more than seventy or eighty’. safety among the spires along with his assistants, Franz (Francis) They were an interesting mix: Simon and Nicholas Kurti, and their n 1928 Isaiah Berlin (pictured Maranos, Sephardim, children of doctoral students, Heinz and Fritz London. above) arrived at Oxford as a first- the ‘mostly German-Jewish middle OXFORD Oxford played an important role in offering a haven to the refugee academics forced to flee Nazi Sir Francis Simon was one of the I year undergraduate. He went on class’ and of Yiddish-speaking Jews. Germany after 1933. Anthony Grenville uncovers the story of this distinguished group first refugee scientists to be awarded the to spend almost 70 years in Oxford In his letters there are just a Nobel Prize. Two others who held Oxford as a student, academic and founding handful of references to refugee xford University took in more Report). Oxford colleges worked with SPSL barrier: whereas German academics positions also went on to win the Nobel: president of Wolfson College. academics who arrived in Oxford from refugee scholars than any other and its devoted secretary, Esther Simpson, remained remote from undergraduates Ernst Chain, who was responsible for the Berlin was enormously happy to 1933 – the philosopher Ernst Cassirer, O academic institution in Britain, to find posts for many refugees. and focused on research, at Oxford the development of penicillin with Howard be there. As he told his biographer, the classicist Eduard Fraenkel, the according to a report in November 1938. Oxford was not entirely welcoming; tutorial formed the basis of a don’s work, Florey, and the biochemist Hans Krebs. Michael Ignatieff, ‘I was an Oxford economist Jacob Marschak. There Though its record in its reception of these some colleges took no refugees at all. This at least in the humanities. This difference But when Krebs first arrived in Britain in don, absolutely … and fitted into seems little interest in them or their refugees was, like that of British society as was due in part to residual antisemitism, proved hard for the newcomers to 1933, neither the Professor of Biochemistry the Oxford texture, absolutely – felt predicament. a whole, distinctly mixed, the impact on its but more to a generalised antipathy overcome. They also found the culture of at Oxford nor the Master of Balliol College perfectly cosy and comfortable in Berlin knew many of the leading academic standards was great and lasting. to foreigners. This was the Senior Common Room showed much interest in him, and Krebs Oxford academic life.’ Jewish thinkers of his time. Personal As early as 7 April 1933, Jews employed demonstrated in 1931 in the ‘One classics alien to their conception of took up a research position at Cambridge. In 1932 Berlin was elected a fellow Impressions includes tributes at German universities were among those case of Albert Einstein, when a professional university The sociologist Theodor Adorno at All Souls – its first Jewish fellow. to almost a dozen Jewish figures removed from their posts under the Law he was offered a fellowship professor community. Beatrix Walsh, spent four years at Merton College before The Jewish Chronicle published an including Einstein, Weizmann and for the Restoration of the Professional Civil at Christ Church. Despite protested then the wife of a young departing for the USA. During his years article, A Jewish Fellow at Oxford, and Ben-Gurion. Elsewhere, he wrote Service. This threatened them with penury Einstein’s distinction, his furiously philosophy don at Merton in Oxford, Adorno and his colleague Max the chief rabbi congratulated him in a famous essays about Marx, Disraeli and stripped them of their livelihoods. But election provoked a furious College, described the Horkheimer developed the ideas that letter addressed to ‘Irving Berlin, Esq., and Moses Hess. He was a passionate, by forcing them to emigrate early, the law response from one classics when Einstein relations between the two became the inspiration for the revitalised New College’. lifelong Zionist. arguably saved their lives. professor JGC Anderson, was offered a groups of scholars: ‘That Marxism of the New Left in the late 1960s. But this wasn’t the whole picture. And yet in ‘Jewish Oxford’ and in Britain was unique in its response to who sent a four-page note was the trouble with these Other young refugees who completed In his memoir, written just after the his letters there are few references this emergency. The Academic Assistance of protest to the Dean of fellowship’ new chaps: they didn’t their studies at the university included the war, Berlin’s father, Mendel, wrote, to the rise of Nazism. Curiously, the Council, later renamed Society for the Christ Church. The protest seem to care about British philosopher Ernest Gellner. ‘I was sure in my mind that a College more famous Jews in 1930s Oxford Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), failed, but its argument that jobs at British gentlemanly conventions; they were Claus Moser, a teenage refugee from known for their great selectivity, full barely appear, even though Lewis was set up in 1933 to assist academics universities should go to British academics outside some Common Rooms’ pales… Nor Berlin who was later director of the Central of bishops and statesmen, will not Namier and Felix Frankfurter (visiting dismissed by the Nazis to find posts in retained its force. This was hardly did some of the incomers fail to make this Statistical Office and then chairman of plump for a foreign-born Jew… And from America) are the subjects Britain or countries surprising, given that plain to those who befriended them.’ the Royal Opera House, became Warden I believe the first reaction of Lord of essays elsewhere in Personal such as the USA. It was 80 percent of Oxford’s She also recalled the refugees’ descent of Wadham College. John Krebs, the Chelmsford, the Warden, after your Impressions. Thanks to Henry Hardy, the initiative of William 500 dons were Oxford into genteel penury, as they lived on British-born son of Hans Krebs and an examination, was “I hope he will not who edited the letters and all three Beveridge (Director graduates themselves handouts in unfamiliar surroundings: Oxford graduate, became principal of Jesus join our College.”’ This gives a sense of editions of Personal Impressions, of the London School and the colleges tended ‘Most of them had to continue on their College. This feels a fitting legacy to the the obstacles facing even the brightest we have a richer and more nuanced of Economics, later to give posts to the pick subsistence grants until the end of the war. impact these scholars continue to have. n Jewish students at interwar Oxford. sense of Berlin and his Jewish Master of University of their graduating Professors and their wives, who had lived Berlin’s letters published in connection to Oxford. n College, Oxford, and students who devoted in solid German comfort, with two staff Anthony Grenville is Chair of the Research Centre Flourishing: Letters 1928-1946 confirm author of the Beveridge themselves to tutorial at least, just as dons did in north Oxford, for German and Austrian Exile Studies, University how complicated his situation was. David Herman produced three programmes teaching. had no choice but to set up home in petit of London. His latest book is Encounters with A letter to his parents in 1928 is full on Isaiah Berlin for BBC2. Personal Albert Einstein visiting Oxford This system bourgeois Summertown.’ Albion: Britain and the British in Texts by Jewish of Jewish references (‘the Schlemihl Impressions by Isaiah Berlin, Pimlico University in 1931. signalled another Among the colleges that did welcome ALAMY TRUST BERLIN LITERARY OF THE ISAIAH OF THE TRUSTEES COURTESY Refugees from Nazism, Legenda, 2018.