The assimilation of the Middlesbrough Jewish Community into English life

There is every indication that the majority of Jewish immigrants entering Middlesbrough in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were welcomed by the established Jews. Samuel Smith, who had migrated to Middlesbrough when it was a small but rapidly expanding town shows his approval of the Jewish immigrants in his book. He writes:

"The immigrants in the majority were, more of the refined type, the same can be said for the women."(I)

There does seem to have been a greater rapport between established Jews and Jewish immigrants in small provincial communities as predicted by Lloyd F Gartner. (2) There would probably not have been any conflict between established Jews and Jewish immigrants over the degree of devotion to the Hebrew faith. The strong religious and cultural heritage carried by the Jewish immigrants would correspond with the strict orthodox religious observation of the established Jews. (3)

The assimilation into the English language by the established Jews and the immigrants showed rapid progress. Ernest Hush whose parents were immigrants in the 1880s recalls:

"Both my parents spoke English at home."(4)

However, evidence indicates that before 1910 there was very little integration with the wider Gentile community of Middlesbrough with the Jewish people reservedly keeping themselves to tbemselves.(5) One reason for this may have been because the majority of Jewish people in Middlesbrough had not lived in this country for very long; they may have been wary of the reception from the Gentiles if they made contact. It is understandable that a group of people who had suffered persecution in their own countries would be wary of the reception given to them in what, for them, was a foreign country, where the majority of the population were Christians.

It was after 1910 when the Jewish immigrants and their children became settled as residents of Middlesbrough that they moved rapidly towards assimilation in all aspects of English life and social culture. The English language was now firmly, the accepted everyday language of the Middlesbrough Jewish Community. One first generation English-born Jew reveals when asked if it was important for the members of the Jewish community to be able to converse in both the English and Hebrew languages:

"Hebrew only used in the synagogue, the Hebrew that I was brought up with and. mostly all Jews that were born in this country speak English."(6)

The evidence indicates the majority of first generation English born Jews attended Christian schools, with some attending public schools. One interviewee recalls:

"I attended Fleetham Street Elementary School, then Middlesbrough High School, then I went on to Leeds Teachers Training College. I returned to Fleetham Street to teach before I was married and returned for a period after I was married."(7)

This Jewish lady not only was educated in a Christian dominated environment but also was employed in a Christian dominated environment.(8) The majority of Jewish children attending Christian schools had friends of the Christian faith:

"My Gentile school friends would wait for me after their Sunday School was finished until my religious tuition was finished." (9)

There is only evidence of one remembered case of intolerance occurring when the first generation of English-born Jews were of school age. Ernest Hush who did have Gentile school friends while attending a Christian school remembers:

"I came home one day and I said to my mother, I said, I’ve just been having an awful argument and nearly got beaten up by some of my so-called friends from school. They... they said that I killed Christ and I did’nt know who or what Christ was."(10)

It is important to state that some of the parents of first generation English-born Jews by 1910 were in a finacial position where they could afford to hire private tutors for their children instead of sending them to Christian schools for their general education. Many immigrants now had established careers or businesses. Ernest Hush’s father, an established pawnbroker(11) could afford to send his son to a fee-paying Christian dame school.(12) This indicates the immigrant parents of first generation English-born Jewish children were quite willing, in the majority, to allow their children to attend Christian schools for their general education as argued by Lloyd P Gartner.(13)

The majority of Jewish children in Middlesbrough did attend Christian schools, but did they live in areas of Middlesbrough where the houses in the surrounding neighbourhood were occupied by Jewish families only? One interviewee recalls:

"In 1945 the majority of Jewish people did live in the Linthorpe and Park Road South areas of Middlesbrough. I would not say the Jewish Community was a separate community, this area was not only occupied by Jewish families. We did have Gentile neighbours and lived in harmony with all our neighbours, whether Jewish or Gentile."(14)

The Linthorpe area is approximately one mile outside the town centre and the second permanent synagogue, built in 1938, was situated in Park Road South which is less than a mile from the Linthorpe area of Middlesbrough. The Linthorpe and Park Road South areas were highly populated in the period covered by this dissertation with the Jewish people living in different streets and avenues. The Middlesbrough Jewish Community had just over three hundred members in 1960, therefore they must have had Gentile neighbours. One member of the community, who did not live in the Linthorpe or Park Road. South area confirms

"I have always lived among a completely Gentile community."(15)

There is no evidence that the Jewish people suffered any discrimination in the housing market or that they created any intolerant feelings by living in areas only occupied by Jewish families in the period covered by this dissertation.

All the evidence suggests the majority of Jewish people lived in harmony with their Gentile neighbours and partook in the same social activities. In the period from 1910 to 1960 the majority of the Gentile population of Middlesbrough frequented the local cinemas or music halls.(16) One popular place of entertainment was the Empire Music Hall.(17) The first generation of English-born Jews gave very similar answers to the question, which social activities did you partake in? One interviewee remembers:

"I visited music halls, including the Empire, theatre, the pictures. I tried golf, but did not succeed, liked playing table tennis." (18)

The same interviewee reveals all the social activities did. involve interaction with the wider Gentile population. He continues:

"Yes, always, the social activities did involve interaction with the Gentile population. I was an associate member of the YMCA and you know what that stands for."(19)

The fact that all the interviewees did partake in the genera]. social activities of the wider community was not a new occurrence. Ernest Hush’s father who was a Jewish immigrant in the 1880’s had bought a season ticket for the Empire Music Hall so he was not paying money on his Sabbath.(20)

The only social activities that were purely Jewish were located in the synagogue. In the communal rooms there had been youth clubs and adult activities but this was no different to the normal Christian youth clubs and adult activities performed in church halls.(21) There had been a Jewish Social and Literary Club founded in the late 1890’s for Jewish people only but it soon declined.(22) It appears, as Lloyd P Gartner argues, the children of Jewish immigrants in Middlesbrough did assimilate into English social culture.(23) This social integration was not confined to outside social activities, as one interviewee recalls

"My wife and I entertained Gentile couples in our home for dinner."(24)

The majority of the first generation English-born Jews in Middlesbrough had assimilated into English educational and social activities, but was there integration in the working environment? One interviewee who was a self-employed tailor stressed:

"I have conducted business with and employeGentiles all my working life, as my parents did before me."(25)

Evidence from the Middlesbrough Jewish Community shows no sign of discrimination in the employment market against Jews as argued by Colin Holmes.(26) No evidence emerged to indicate that any barriers were placed in the way of Jews entering the professions in Middlesbrough as argued by Tony Kushner.(27) One interviewee had been a teacher in a Middlesbrough Protestant Elementary School and her brother became a eminent solicitor in the town.(28)

There was evidence that some of the members of the Middlesbrough Jewish Community were advancing into the middle-class at the begining of the twentieth century. Some of those did face exclusion from one important social contact as argued by Tony Kuslmer.(29) The Times newspaper reported the banning of any more Jews being accepted as members of the Middlesbrough and District Motor Club, although only six out of a membership of four hundred were Jewish.(30) This was clearly discrimination against the Jewish people of Middlesbrough, although situations of this kind do appear rare.

When the interviewees were asked if as a member of an ethnic minority group in Middlesbrough they experienced any social intolerance because of their religious and. cultural distinctiveness many replied with the following answers:

"I would not say I was a member of an ethnic group, I am a Middlesbrough man of the Jewish religion. I have never experienced any intolerance at any time of my life. I do not see the Jewish community as a separate community. I have always had a harmonious relationship with people of the Christian religions."(31)

"I would not say I was a member of an ethnic group. I was born in Middlesbrough to nationalized English parents. I have never experienced any intolerance. The Christian people of Middlesbrough are very tolerant." (32)

"I have never believed I was a member of an ethnic group, cause I have always believed I was British and I have come across certain intolerance, but nothing that I could really write home about."(33)

It is necessary to marshall those three very similar answers to illustrate that the majority of the Jewish people of Middlesbrough did not perceive themselves as an ethnic group as some writers on race relations and minorities groups portray them.(34)

Their loyalty to England as a nation is beyond doubt. The Jewish people of Middlesbrough played their full role in the war effort in both World Wars. In the First World War a large number of Jewish young men from Middlesbrough enlisted in the fighting forces and five were killed in action, indicating that the local Jewish people were willing to die for their country. (35) There is every indication that Lloyd P Gartner was correct in stressing the Anglo-Jewish people played their full part in the war effort.(36)

The Jewish people of Middlesbrough played their full role in the fighting forces in the Second World War when 96 men and women served in the forces, including one interviewee who served in the Royal Air Force.(37) Moreover there is every indication that the Jewish people of Middlesbrough were at pains to maintain a formal loyalty to the Crown, as one interviewee reveals:

"Services are conducted in the Hebrew language, although a prayer is spoken in English for the Royal Family."(38)

There is every indication that the Middlesbrough Jewish Community between 1910 and 1960 had rapidly become assimilated into the English language and English habits, with very little evidence of intolerance. The majority of the members of the community did consider themselves to be English and not an ethnic group. Did this signify that the assimilation into English life did result in the decline of the Jewish peoples’ religious and cultural distinctiveness?