The Middlesbrough Jewish Community would have been well established in the first half of the twentieth century and formed a society apart. Very few Jews did not live within the confines of the community which would be situated in the centre or on the outskirts of the town. The Jewish immigrants who entered Middlesbrough in the late nineteemth and early twentieth centuries would not be peasants or illiterates but carried with them a strong religious and cultural heritage. This may have caused some conflicts with the established Jews who had moved towards Anglicisation, especially in language.

There would be no conflict in how the established Jews and immigrants maintained their religious and. cultural distinctiveness within the community. The synagogue was the main place of worship, although the need to work would sometimes cause conflict with the need for strict religious observation. The Jewish home was an important place for religious observation and marital fidelity. The kinship ties were very strong within Jewish families and respect for ones’ parents was preserved even after children had reached adulthood. Jews usually married Jews to reproduce the ethnic community.

Prior to 1910 the Jewish people tended to keep themselves to themselves, this was to change with the first generation of English-born Jews. The children of immigrants attended Christian schools for their general education and the school room of the synagogue for their religious education. The children of immigrants moved rapidly towards Anglicisation in all aspects of English life although this is not an indication of a decline in their religious or cultural distinctiveness.

There would be no interaction with the wider community in the home environment. Outside the home environment the first generation of English-born Jews would interact with the rest of society on every level, including business, education and social activities. As with any ethnic group within a society there would be periods when discrimination would occur. The Jewish people would be blamed for this discrimination because of their exclusiveness and their refusal to relinquish their religious and cultural distinctiveness.