3 - Communal Networks: Taking Care of their Own and Efforts to Secure the Community's Reputation

Summary

‘The reputation of the community’, noted the JBG in 1893,

is obviously a subject which touches vitally and directly all classes, and it is certain that the fair fame of the Jews in England is intimately bound up with, if indeed it does not directly depend on, the manner in which they apply themselves to grapple with this question of the care of their poor, aggravated as it has become in recent years by the immigration consequent on the cruel Russian persecutions.

From birth to death, England's Jewish community provided an impressive range of assistance for a small community, including food, clothing, dowries, scholarships and industrial loans. Whether consciously philanthropic or not, these efforts improved immigrants' quality of life and reinforced English cultural standards, values and contemporary gender roles.

As recipients of charity or as participants in social and recreational programmes, many immigrant women encountered more established Jews, large numbers of whom gave time and money to support such services. The resulting interactions played a role in anglicizing immigrants and developing a cadre of female leaders in Britain's Jewish community. While the Jewish community always accepted women's participation in charity, Jewish women's involvement followed much of the trajectory unfolding in Britain. Even as domestic duties remained paramount, new opportunities arose in education, employment and volunteerism, especially in the years leading up to and following World War I.