PALGRAVE CRITICAL STUDIES OF ANTISEMITISM AND RACISM CHRISTIAN AND JEWISH WOMEN IN BRITAIN, 1880-1940 Living with Di erence ANNE SUMMERS Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism Series Editor David Feldman Birkbeck College – University of London London, United Kingdom Aims of the Series Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism considers antisemitism from the ancient world to the present day. The series explores topical and theoretical questions and brings historical and multidisciplinary perspectives to bear on contemporary concerns and phenomena. Grounded in history, the series also reaches across disciplinary boundaries to promote a contextualised and comparative understanding of antisemitism. A contextualised understanding will seek to uncover the content, meanings, functions and dynamics of antisemitism as it occurred in the past and recurs in the present. A comparative approach will consider antisemitism over time and place. Importantly, it will also explore the connections between antisemitism and other exclusionary visions of society. The series will explore the relationship between antisemitism and other racisms as well as between antisemitism and forms of discrimination and prejudice articulated in terms of gender and sexuality. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15437 Anne Summers Christian and Jewish Women in Britain, 1880–1940 Living with Difference Anne Summers London, United Kingdom Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism ISBN 978-3-319-42149-0 ISBN 978-3-319-42150-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42150-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016958215 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image © The Women’s Library collection at LSE, 2SJA/K/35/12, Religious leagues for women’s suffrage, c. 1913 Cover design by Fatima Jamadar Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When I began the research embodied in this book, with the generous support of a British Academy travel grant, I knew that I might be looking for the occasional needle in a great many haystacks. The solidarity and expertise of a correspondingly large number of historians and archivists was needed and was, happily, forthcoming to bring the project to fruition. I am deeply grateful to fellow scholars Ruth Abrams, Sally Alexander, Clyde Binfield, Elizabeth Crawford, David Feldman, Abigail Green, Jenifer Glyn, Naomi Hetherington, Janet Howarth, Jean Holder, Louise Jackson, the late Elaine Kaye, Jill Liddington, Carmen Mangion, Meri-­ Jane Rochelson, and Gill Sutherland for their many gifts of time, effort, expertise and information. Within the wonderful freemasonry which guards and interprets the archival record I particularly thank Professor Chris Woolgar and Karen Robson of the Hartley Library at the University of Southampton; Gail Cameron and Teresa Doherty, formerly at The Women’s Library at London Metropolitan University, and Liz Chapman, Anna Towlson and Gillian Murphy of The Women’s Library at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Jill Butterworth and Clara Li-Dunne at the Armitt Gallery, Ambleside; Alex Grime at the Manchester Jewish Museum and Mark Cunningham of the Manchester Jewish Federation; Annette Mevis at the former IIAV, now Atria, Amsterdam; Rochelle Rubinstein at the Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem; Alison Behr Turner at the Montagu Centre, London; Stefan Dickers at the Bishopsgate Institute, London; and Giles Mandelbrote at Lambeth Palace Library, London. v vi Acknowledgements Warm thanks are also due to staff at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the City Library and County Record Office in Manchester, the Marks & Spencer Company Archives at the University of Leeds, London Metropolitan Archives, the Friends’ House Library, London, The National Archives, the Tower Hamlets Archives, the Rothschild Archives, London, the Jewish Museum, London and last, but never least, my alma mater the British Library. My research has benefited from responses both positive and astringent to papers presented at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, in the Women’s History Seminar, the Modern British History Seminar, and the Jewish History Seminar respectively; in the European Jewish History Seminar at the University of Oxford, and at the Parkes Institute Seminar at the University of Southampton. I am grateful to all their convenors for these opportunities. For permission to republish portions of earlier articles, I thank the editors and publishers of Women’s History Review, Archives, and Cambridge University Press and the Journal of Ecclesiastical History. Particular thanks are due to the anonymous read- ers of those articles for their helpful editorial recommendations. Illustrations are reproduced with the kind permission of the British Library; the Franklin family; Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council; the Marks & Spencer Company Archive; the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaisme, Paris; The Women’s Library at the London School of Economics and Political Science; and the Jewish Museum, London. Professor David Feldman has encouraged this project from its very ear- liest stages, and is responsible for propelling me out of my historiographi- cal comfort zone in more ways than one. As series editor he, together with Emily Russell and Rowan Milligan at Palgrave Macmillan, have shown great patience and care in the production of this work, and I am also very grateful to the anonymous external reader whose comments on the entire text were both challenging and constructive. Those faults remaining in the book are, as pavement artists used to say, all my own work. I wish to record a particular debt of gratitude to Dr Phyllis Lassner, whose interest and encouragement were vital to developing and complet- ing this study of ‘Living with Difference’. To David Lawrence, thanks beyond words. CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 Part I Group Encounters, 1870s–1918 21 2 Women and Men in a Religious Landscape: Britain in the Late Nineteenth Century 23 3 Joint Enterprises: ‘The Co-operation of Ladies Who Are Not Christians’ 33 4 ‘Dear Madame Dreyfus’ 49 5 ‘Votes for Women!’ 63 Part II Friendship in Private and Public, 1890s–1930 85 6 ‘A Dear Good “God-Mother” to Her’: Margaret MacDonald and Lily Montagu 87 vii viii Contents 7 ‘We Fell in Love with Each Other at First Sight’: Charlotte Mason and Netta Franklin 113 Part III Continuity and Change, 1920s–1940s 135 8 False Start or Brave Beginning? Lily Montagu and Interfaith Initiatives 141 9 Separatism Without Separation: Rebecca Sieff, Englishwomen and Zionism 155 10 Refuge and Asylum 175 11 Conclusions 199 12 Coda: Rachel Bernstein goes to Surrey Lane 205 Bibliography 209 Index 229 ABBREVIaTIONS BCL British Commonwealth League BL British Library BUF British Union of Fascists CCJ Council of Christians and Jews COPEC Conference on Politics, Economics and Citizenship FWZ Federation of Women Zionists GEC Germany Emergency Committee ICW International Council of Women ILP Independent Labour Party JAPGW Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women JAPGWC Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls, Women and Children JC Jewish Chronicle JLVA Jewish Ladies’ Visiting Association JLWS Jewish League for Woman Suffrage JPS Jewish Peace Society JRU Jewish Religious Union JTS Jews’ Temporary Shelter LMA London Metropolitan Archives LSE London School of Economics and Political Science MP Member of Parliament MSSA Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association NCW National Council of Women NUWSS National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies NUWW National Union of Women Workers ix x Abbreviations ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography PEP Political and Economic Planning PNEU Parents’ National Education Union RCM Refugee Children’s Movement (Kindertransport) TAS Travellers’ Aid Society TNA The National Archives TWL The Women’s Library UJW Union of Jewish Women USL University of Southampton Library WIC Women’s Industrial Council WIZO Women’s International Zionist Organisation WLL Women’s Labour League WPPA Women’s Publicity Planning Association WSPU Women’s Social and Political Union YWCA Young Women’s Christian Association LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 4.1 Portrait