SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS JEWISH NON- CONFORMITY: REPRESENTATIONS OF THE ANGLO-JEWISH EXPERIENCE IN THE ORAL TESTIMONY ARCHIVE OF THE MANCHESTER JEWISH MUSEUM A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2019 Tereza Ward School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Contents Abbreviations.............................................................................................................. 5 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 6 Declaration .................................................................................................................. 7 Copyright Statement .................................................................................................. 8 Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... 9 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 10 1.1. The aims of this study .................................................................................. 10 1.2. A Brief history of Manchester Jewry: ‘the community’.............................. 11 1.3. Defining key terms ...................................................................................... 17 1.3.1. Problems with definitions of community and their implications for conformity .......................................................................................................... 17 1.3.1.1. People who relate to one another .................................................. 18 1.3.1.2. Shared experiences ....................................................................... 19 1.3.1.3. Jewish values ................................................................................ 21 1.3.1.4. Defining the Manchester Jewish community................................ 23 1.3.2. Sources of conformity and nonconformity........................................... 26 1.3.2.1. Family ........................................................................................... 27 1.3.2.2. Location ........................................................................................ 29 1.3.3. Chapter outline and a brief historiography ........................................... 32 1.4. Methodology ................................................................................................ 35 1.4.1. The importance of oral testimony ........................................................ 35 1.4.2. About the collection ............................................................................. 37 1.4.3. Individual themes ................................................................................. 40 1.4.4. Sociological approaches to the study of nonconformity ...................... 42 1.4.5. A note on chronology ........................................................................... 45 2. Crime & Communal Response ....................................................................... 47 2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 47 2.2. Jewish leadership and its bid for communal control ................................... 49 2.2.1. Prostitution and Philanthropy ............................................................... 51 2.2.2. Prostitution in Manchester ................................................................... 53 2.2.3. Representations of prostitution in Manchester: oral testimony ............ 55 2.2.4. Rescue Work in Manchester ................................................................ 59 2.3. Community under threat: the emergence of the Trades Advisory Council . 63 2 2.3.1. The elite: the interdependence of philanthropy and status ................... 64 2.3.2. Manchester Trades Advisory Council .................................................. 66 2.3.3. Inner Conflict ....................................................................................... 69 2.4. Jewish Experience of Gang Culture in Manchester..................................... 71 2.4.1. Battle for the Belles .............................................................................. 72 2.4.2. The Easy Street gang: “We’re a rum lot, wild but not vicious” ........... 73 2.4.3. Neville Solomon, the king of Fairy Lane Hills .................................... 74 2.4.4. The Shaun Spidah Gang ....................................................................... 75 2.4.5. The Cry of “Napoo” ............................................................................. 78 2.4.6. Scuttling and other gang culture in Manchester ................................... 81 2.5. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 84 3. Pacifists and Socialists ..................................................................................... 86 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 86 3.1.1. Sources of conformity and approaches to the study of nonconformity 88 3.2. Socialists ...................................................................................................... 92 3.2.1. Frank Allaun......................................................................................... 92 3.2.2. Benny Rothman .................................................................................... 97 3.3. Jewish Pacifists in Manchester .................................................................. 101 3.3.1. Historical reconstructions of pacifism................................................ 101 3.3.2. War through the eyes of pacifists ....................................................... 107 3.3.2.1. Emmanuel Nunes Ribeiro ........................................................... 107 3.3.2.2. Lionel Cowan .............................................................................. 112 3.3.3. Manchester Yeshiva ........................................................................... 119 3.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................. 122 4. The importance of marriage.......................................................................... 125 4.1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 125 4.2. Terminology and timeline ......................................................................... 127 4.2.1. The importance of terminology .......................................................... 127 4.2.2. Intermarriage before the First World War.......................................... 129 4.2.3. Interwar period ................................................................................... 132 4.3. Intermarriage or Intramarriage?................................................................. 135 4.3.1. Sephardi-Ashkenazi Intermarriage ..................................................... 135 4.3.2. Class, nationality and marriage .......................................................... 138 4.4. Assimilation ............................................................................................... 146 4.4.1. Factors leading to intermarriage......................................................... 148 4.4.2. Jews without a community: the importance of locality...................... 151 3 4.5. Ostracism ................................................................................................... 157 4.5.1. Elopement .......................................................................................... 158 4.5.2. Responses to intermarriage ................................................................ 165 4.6. Conclusion ................................................................................................. 168 5. Disability and Disease in the Jewish Community........................................ 171 5.1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 171 5.2. Disability and mental health in the socio-political context ....................... 174 5.2.1. Aliens Act and the involvement of medical professionals ................. 174 5.2.2. The Leadership response .................................................................... 178 5.3. Prestwich Asylum ...................................................................................... 183 5.3.1. Manchester provisions for the care of lunatics................................... 183 5.3.2. Jewish Experience of the Asylum ...................................................... 185 5.3.3. Diagnosis: uncertain ........................................................................... 187 5.4. Personal Experiences of the asylum .......................................................... 193 5.4.1. Asylum Visitors ................................................................................. 194 5.4.2. Memories of the Asylum: growing up in the Asylum........................ 196 5.5. Disability and mental health issues in the community .............................. 200 5.5.1. General communal attitudes to disability ........................................... 200 5.5.2. The village meshuggener ................................................................... 202 5.5.3. Deaf and Dumb and blind .................................................................