'the
cable' - Jeecs' magazine - latest August 2007 issue is out now!
The latest issue of The
Cable is now available. Its 40 pages, in full colour, are packed with
material about the East End of yesterday and today. Below, we give you
a taste, with articles about the JEECS seminar on the Battle of Cable
Street and this summer’s boxing exhibition at the Jewish Museum, plus
a round-up of JEECS news from Clive Bettington, our chairman. But
there is much, much more, as you can see from the full table of
contents
below.
The
magazine is available from JEECS at PO Box 57317, London, E1 3WG, price
£2 plus 70p postage. Cheques should be made out to Jewish East End
Celebration Society.
'the
cable' is of course free to Jeecs members! To advertise in 'the
cable', please email:
enquires@jeecs.org.uk
|
JEECS
news update - April 2007 by
Clive Bettington, JEECS chairman
c.bettington@jeecs.org.uk
It is apparent that we can only organise
events if we know that people, especially JEECS members, will
attend in large numbers. JEECS is too small an organisation to
bear the brunt of any financial loss relating on an event. It is
important for members to tell us what events they would like us
to organise. In the meantime it would be good if you could
peruse our events section in this issue, mark the dates in your
diaries and tell your friends about them.
I want to bring the following items to your
attention. Any comments on them, or on anything else, would be
extremely welcome.
Annual General Meeting: September 2
2007, 12.30pm
We try to keep this AGM at Nelson Street
Synagogue (30-40 Nelson Street, London E1 2DE) as short as
possible, but we are compelled to have it and it would be good
to see as many members as possible there. This is an ideal
opportunity for you to have your say in the running of the
society and to question committee members. After the meeting
there will be the unveiling of a marble stone that we retrieved
from the Whitechapel Library. It was originally erected in the
New Road Synagogue, to which Nelson Street is the successor
synagogue, and contains a letter, in lapidary form, from Queen
Victoria’s private secretary, Sir Fredrick Ponsonby, wishing the
synagogue well. The unveiling will be performed by the President
of the Board of Deputies and refreshments will be served
afterward
Simcha on the Square: September 2 2007
This event in Trafalgar Square, which took
place for the first time last year, is being repeated, starting
at 2pm. Unfortunate squabbling last year meant the time for
organising it was severely restricted. However, all the problems
have been resolved and it is hoped that this year’s event will
be much for extensive than last year’s. The intrepid Geraldine
Auerbach (of the Jewish Music Institute and a JEECS member) will
again be directing things and I am on the central committee.
JEECS will again have a stall to publicise its work. It is hoped
that one of the musical events in the evening will be a tribute
to the singer Marc Bolan. September marks the 30th anniversary
of his death and 60th anniversary of his birth
Members’ evening
out: Sit & Shiver
On January 29,
Shirley Murgraff of the committee organised a very enjoyable
evening out to the press night of Steven Berkoff ’s new play Sit
& Shiver at the glorious Hackney Empire. The play is set in the
East End. The evening started with some superb klezmer, included
many pieces from the Yiddish theatre, from the Solomon Sisters,
and Berkoff exhibited some of his marvellous photos of the East
End. There was a good response from members and we plan to
organise further such evenings.
Tilbury Shelter
We intend pushing for a plaque to be erected
on the site of what was the most famous bomb shelter in the East
End. If any member has stories of this shelter (or, even better,
photographs) please contact us. Thousands of people used to take
shelter there. They were often entertained by the Yiddish actors
Etta Topel and her husband Mark Markov, one of whose shelter
performances was evocatively described in the last issue of The
Cable.
Bancroft Road Library
We have received the worrying news that the
Tower Hamlets Council is intending to sell Bancroft Road Library
and divide the local history library between the various Ideas
Stores in the borough. The local history library is one of the
best in London and to divide it up and possibly lose its superb
staff would be a cultural disaster. JEECS is committed to
opposing these daft plans and will be supporting a campaign by
Councillor Peter Golds, the Tory leader in the Council
The Minnie Lansbury Memorial Clock
The Heritage of London Trust contacted me to
express concern about the state of the Minnie Lansbury Clock,
which is on the Electric Building in Bow Road. It was put up in
the 1930s to commemorate the life of Minnie Lansbury (born
Glassman), a suffragette, who died tragically young at 32. Her
husband, Edgar, was the son of George Lansbury, the East End
politician who was to become Leader of the Labour party. Edgar
later married an actress and their daughter is the actress
Angela Lansbury. The Heritage of London Trust have said they
will contribute £2,000 toward the restoration but that they want
JEECS to help raise the further £10,000 needed. Tower Hamlets
Council has indicated that it cannot afford this, but Councillor
Golds has indicated that he will try to raise the money from
various sources. I will keep you informed of progress.
c.bettington@jeecs.org.uk
Toynbee
Hall relives the Battle of Cable Street |
There was a strong mix of views
from the distinguished panel that participated in JEECS’s seminar on the
70th anniversary of an amazing day in East End history. DAVID
WALKER reports
A
capacity audience packed the JEECS evening at Toynbee Hall marking the
70th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, one of the seminal
events in the history of the East End when Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirt
thugs were prevented from invading the area.
With
some 180 people attending, numbers were so great that an overflow room
with a big-screen video link (which, unfortunately, took a little while
to get running smoothly) had to be utilized.
The
speakers were Nicholas Mosley (Baron Ravensdale), eldest son of Sir
Oswald; Professor Bill Fishman, the greatest living authority on the
East End; Max Levitas, a message runner during the battle who went on to
become a Communist councillor in Stepney; and Professor Tony Kushner of
Southampton University, who gave the main address on The Myths and
Realities of Cable Street.
The
venue itself was highly appropriate: it was a first aid station during
the “battle”, it has a very Jewish resonance, and it is within spitting
distance of Gardiners corner where most of the action took place.
The
event attracted a great deal of media attention, with articles in Time Out, the
Daily Mirror, the Observer, the Daily
Express, the Sunday Telegraph and the East London
Advertiser. There were items on Radio 4, Channel 4 News and ITV’s London Tonight programme
Before the meeting, Clive Bettington, JEECS’s chairman, had led a walk
on the route of the battle, attracting 68 people who thronged the narrow
pavements in that part of the East End. It included a visit to the mural
of the battle on the side of St.George’s Hall in Cable Street, painted
by the late Ray Walker.
The
meeting was followed by the screening of a youth film about Cable Street
by Elliott Tucker, who wrote poignantly about his experience in the East
End and his decision to make it his home in our last issue.
Chairing the meeting, Nadia Valman of Southampton University,
co-editor with Professor Kushner of a volume of essays on Cable Street,
reminded the audience that the “battle” had not always been viewed in a
positive light by Jewish leaders. The Anglo-Jewish leadership was “very
keen to promote the image of Jewry as respectable and law-abiding and
very much discouraged Jews from taking to the streets in protest or
self-defence”.
Nicholas Mosley,
13 at the time of the
Battle of Cable Street, was clear about the victory achieved by
the Cable Street barricades. Shortly after, in the January 1937 local
elections, Mosley’s party got a mere 16 to 17 per cent of the East End
vote, won no seats, and was deserted by two of its leader’s most
virulently anti-Semitic lieutenants, William Joyce and John Beckett, who
accused him of being too feeble. That was the end of any chance Mosley
had of securing political influence.
The
“battle” itself, Nicholas Mosley said, came after a period in which his
father had been out of control of his party. He had been ill, and his
people in the East End had “got out of control”.
“They pranced through the street with absurd anti-Semitic slogans and
being quite ridiculous.”
Mosley returned from a holiday after having had an operation and decided
on a march through the East End, during which he would stop off at
street corners and deliver his speech.
“It
would all be very disciplined; it wouldn’t be a bunch of thugs.” Hence
the new “super-Blackshirt” uniforms worn by the marchers.
A
big meeting at Olympia two years earlier had been invaded by Young
Communist League members intent on breaking it up. They had been set on
by the stewards who not only removed people from the hall but brutally
beat them up outside. That had done immense damage to Mosley’s image,
costing him much support, which he was hoping to repair and bring back
“the great and the good” such as Lord Rothermere to his cause.
“The
reason my father said he dressed them up in military style was that he
wanted to make it plain that he was in charge and they couldn’t break
away, causing rioting and breaking windows and things on their own. He
wanted a disciplined force.”
Local people, of course, knew of Mosley, and that he followed Hitler’s
style, which was “very absurd of him”. They knew too what was going on
in Germany, and the persecution that was happening.
So,
when they learnt of the planned march, they determined to stop it,
which, Nicholas Mosley said, “seems to me understandable”.
And
they did stop it. Mosley and his contingent arrived at Tower Bridge and
were halted by the Police, who said the streets had been barricaded and
there would be riots if the march went ahead. The Police then moved in
to try to remove the barricades but were beaten back. Mosley could get
no further.
“My
father was absolutely determined to show that the thuggery was over,
that his was an organised force,” Nicholas Mosley said. “But because of
the uniform people thought he’d just transferred individual thugs into
an army of thugs.”
After the war, said Nicholas Mosley, his father recognised that it was
“a great mistake”. He said the reason he’d done it was that as an old
soldier he thought they’d be seen as a disciplined force.
“That was a disaster.”
Nicholas Mosley called the people who’d put up the barricades “heroic”.
“They wanted to stop my father marching, and they succeeded.” As a
result, he had appeared “not a thug but a wimp”.
In
his early life, Nicholas Mosley said, at home he was never aware of any
anti-Semitism, and after the war, when he got to know his father better,
the elder Mosley again showed no sign of anti-Semitism.
“He
got carried away by the fascist bandwagon, the Nazi bandwagon,” he said.
“But he was responsible for allowing himself to be tainted – to be
carried away on an anti-Semitic wave. That’s almost worse; that’s what I
found unforgivable.”
Then
when Sir Oswald became carried away on an anti-Black wave, Nicholas
would not speak to him for some years. They were reconciled only when
Sir Oswald was an old man.
Professor Fishman, a 14-year old at the
time, said the thing that had struck him most on the day
were the banners that were flying everywhere, especially those of the
Anarchists. “No pasaran los fascismos” – they shall not pass, the
fascists – they proclaimed.
He
took issue with Nicholas Mosley on why Sir Oswald had chosen to hold his
march when he did; it was at the very moment that Franco and his forces
were at the gates of Madrid, and he wanted to show that he and his band
could do the same – that “they were men of power”.
“I
remember very distinctly walking through this mass, elbowing through
this mass of human beings, this great army, and getting to the steps –
they’re no longer there – of Whitechapel Art Gallery. Fortunately I was
six feet tall, so I could see above.
“I
saw this – it was about 3 o’clock; we were waiting two hours for Oswald
to come, and I saw this army, this man with his marvellous blackshirt
and trousers, shoulders back, chin and chest out, marching in front.
“I
think it was three columns, hundreds of blackshirted fascists. There was
a tremendous unity between them.”
Professor Fishman recalled how in Liverpool it had been the Irish who
were the fascists’ target, berated for taking away jobs from the native
population. “He was using any scapegoat to achieve power,” he said. “The
object of Mosley, I think, was to copy Hitler and Mussolini and to seize
power.”
There was always hostility to new groups. In the 19th century it had
been “the troublesome strangers” – the Irish – in this area. Then had
come the Jews.
His
experience of the period from about 1932 until he joined up in 1940 was
that there was “a miniature reign of terror” in the East End. “I
remember two of us – he was an Irish docker’s son – used to wait outside
some of the synagogues to see the old men safely home.” Otherwise, they
risked being attacked by Blackshirts. There were plenty of other
volunteers who played the same role in trying to ensure worshippers got
safely home.
“And
there were these horrid notices on the wall: ‘PJ’ – perish Judah – and
“Hep Hep” – Jerusalem is perdita; the Jews will be destroyed. That went
on for three or four years under the aegis of Mosley’s Blackshirts,
while the fascist papers of the time were horribly anti-Semitic,
Professor Fishman said.
Max Levitas, now 91, spoke about the role
of the Young Communist League in seeking to ensure the voice of London
people against fascism and racism would be heard. The Jewish Board of
Deputies had urged people to stay at home “because you’ll cause a load
of trouble”, he said.
“We
didn’t cause the trouble; the fascists caused the trouble, the
government caused the trouble.” The government – a Tory government – was
asked to ban the fascist march.
“They said no.” That would not be democracy. “Democracy for whom? Is it
democracy for fascists to attack Jews and to build up racist arguments
against people? The answer was: ‘No. We are going to stop Mosley.’ And
it was Labour party members who gave support to the fight against racism
and fascism. You can never do it without the Labour movement and the
trade unions.”
He
reminded the audience of employment conditions in the East End at that
time, with men waiting to be offered a day’s work tailoring. “We had
people there saying the only way you’ll get a job now is by coming on
the march, to go to Whitechapel and
Gardiners Corner. And they went.”
The
lessons from those events had to be learnt. “And the lessons are: if you
don’t struggle against racism then racism will grow
“We’ve got to form a movement now, because racism in this country is
growing. We’ve got to learn the lessons of the Battle of Cable Street,
its organisation that was there. We’ve got to ensure in the next
election that takes place in Barking and Dagenham that no fascists are
allowed to be councillors. Unless we do it we shall be the sufferers.”
Professor Fishman’s mention of Irish immigrants had particular resonance
for him, he said, as someone who had come to England at the age of 12
because his father had been unable to find work in Ireland. He had, he
said, spent many years as a Communist councillor. “I’m now an
ex-councillor, still a communist, but not a member of any party.”
We
needed to “organise now, through unions and other movements, to end this
business of electing racists on councils, in Parliament, unions and
anywhere else”.
We
should all be proud of those who fought in the struggle against fascism
in the 1930s. They “will be, should be, a lesson for all of in the
victory against racism and anti-Semitism”.
Professor Kushner talked about the
importance of myth in creating power for the future, but also its danger
in over-romanticising an event.
One
of the most powerful myths of the Battle of Cable Street, he said, was
that it was between the fascists and anti-fascists, with police caught
in the middle of what was the biggest street demonstration seen in
Britain until the anti-war protests of a few years ago.
The
fact was that Police/Jewish and Police/Communist relations in the East
End were not very good. Writing immediately before the event the head of
the Metropolitan Police talked about the “hooligan element” of the
anti-fascist movement that was “far more anti-police than anti-fascist”.
He was ambivalent in his attitude to Jews, referring to the “lowest type
of foreign Jew” in a way that was highly relevant to the Police approach
to the Muslim community today.
The
“battle” was a very important day in terms of community/Police
relations, and that was often missed out in the myth that it was fascist
versus anti-fascist.
A
second myth was that it immediately destroyed British fascism. Though
that had an element of truth, he had to take issue with Nicholas Mosley.
In the short term, membership of the British Union of Fascists went up.
The
fascist march, Professor Kushner said, was intended to cause terror; “it
was no accident that the East End was chosen”. The outcome did not
destroy fascism or fascist violence immediately, though in the long term
it did.
The
fight was very much over who owned the East End. Jews and non-Jews alike
were saying that the Mosleyites did not belong there. And from that, in
the end, the Mosleyites could not recover.
The
fascists claimed that people had been brought into the area from outside
to oppose them. But the sheer numbers involved showed that could not be
true.
“They were shown to be the people who were not the patriots. They were
the people who didn’t belong.”
Mosley, he said, had been taken too seriously as a politician, and not
seriously enough as a demagogue with his racism. He had been
over-glamorised. Taking issue with Nicholas Mosley, he said of Sir
Oswald: “He went into the gutter and embraced the gutter.” After the
war, he pointed out, he was in the holocaust-denial camp.
Turning to the role of the Communist party in the Cable Street events,
he said the party had been split over whether to demonstrate against
Mosley in the East End or whether to hold a big rally in Trafalgar
Square against what was happening in Spain.
The
Jewish People’s Council, opposing the stance of the Board of Deputies
and the Jewish Chronicle, had collected 100,000 signatures against the
fascist march’s being allowed. That was a crucial part of mobilising
people. Many were Communists; many were not. A broad range of Jewish
radical opinion was represented, plus many who were independent and
people who were not Jewish.
The
Communist party, though, had been very successful at “mobilising memory”
during the war and after.
Additionally, describing the day as a “battle” gave an image of a
military initiative and took away much of the confusion of the day. It
also hid the role of women on the day, and that of the very young and
very old, as well as the many ordinary people who were not East Enders
but who just turned up because they thought this march was wrong.
There was also a myth of contemporary relevance, in the context of
multi-culturalism and militant Islam when there were fears of Britain
falling apart. “It creates a sort of usable past”, one that we very much
needed.
“Here is a very important story of people coming together.” That had
resonance not just against the success of the British National Party but
the uses of racism in Britain today and the whole issue of Islamic
fundamentalism. “So Cable Street is our way of grabbing hope for the
future.”
What
Cable Street was about was stopping the British Union of Fascists taking
over the East End. Ordinary non-Jewish people were as upset at the BUF
as the Jews, because they disturbed the peace. A littler later, Mass
Observation found that the prevailing ethos in the East End was live and
let live – but Mass Observation also found that Jews and non-Jews lived
relatively separate lives, and that anti-Semitism remained.
The
Police claimed 100,000 people were at the “battle”, which was far too
low a figure; the activists claimed half a million, which was too high.
Whatever the true number, they were there out of implicit opposition to
politicised anti-Semitism. But they were not necessarily explicitly
supporting the Jews in every aspect of their lives. There were still
divisions in the East End.
When
the war came, there were fears of big clashes between non-Jews and Jews.
They did not happen; people lived together peaceably enough.
Nevertheless, there had to be caution about the limitations.
There were no mass demonstrations in support of Jews elsewhere, in
support of European Jewry.
Cable Street was “one of the most remarkable days in British history”.
But it had to be put in perspective. We must accept that there were some
limitations as well as the important achievement of Cable Street.
Citing a reference he had just read to Muslim ghettos in Britain,
Professor Kushner said: “Generally speaking it’s easier to be
anti-fascist than it is to be supportive of pluralism in this way.”
From
the floor, the audience heard from Harry Kaufman, who at the age
of 16 had joined The 43 Group, formed by Jewish ex-servicemen and women
to fight against the attempted resurgence of Mosley and his party in the
years after the war. Three members of the group were in the audience.
They had, we were told, broken up Mosleyite meetings across London,
storming the speakers platform and attacking British Union of Fascists
stewards and speakers.
“It
wasn’t a very nice thing to say; it wasn’t a very nice thing to do. But
it had to be done in the climate of the time.”
Another speaker from the floor described his experience as a member of
the organising committee that arranged the anti-Mosley demonstration. Ubby Cowan, now 89, said he had been in charge of the messengers who
were set up at Gardiners Corner.
“I
heard the clip-clop of the police horses that were coming down Aldgate,”
he said. He questioned Professor Fishman’s account of seeing the fascist
marchers. “There was no Mosley. He never came to Aldgate. They didn’t
come to Gardiners Corner.”
He
had been standing in Gardiners Corner when the police made their attack,
and was pushed through a window. Carried round to a first-aid post in
Church Lane, he later returned to Gardiners Corner. A messenger came up
from Leman Street to say the police were coming down Cable Street.
The
barricades there had been planned six or seven weeks earlier, with Jack
Dash (who was to become a well-known militant dockers union leader in
the 1960s) and his dockers. “They had done it and they organised. We had
someone helping them, but the majority of them was the dockers,” he
said.
So
he went to Cable Street. “For another hour I was there with the dockers.”
The police could not break through. Then there was a call to say the
police had gone.
“All
we could see were the tails of the horses going away. In Cable Street it
was amazing. There were marbles and broken glass.”
Bottles of lemonade and other carbonated drinks such as cola had been
used. “When you shook them up and threw them in front of the horse they
would explode and frighten the horses and that was what tipped the
police off their horses.”
Eventually, the demonstrators were able to march to Victoria Park
Square. “We had a little victory meeting and we all went home. “I had to
go to London Hospital to have a few stitches put in my head.” There was
no stitching for the brand new jacket that he had ruined in the
skirmish.
Asked about how many of the protestors had been injured and how they
were cared for, Max Levitas said 25 people had been injured in
Cable Street itself, with others injured elsewhere. A “hospital” was set
up at 9, Cable Street, where people could be sorted out for their
injuries from police batons and anything else. There was another first
aid post in a café at Garden Street next to the synagogue where people
were bandaged up and, if their injuries were really serious, taken to
the London Hospital just across the road.
Answering another questioner,
Professor Kushner warned against
“inherited intolerances” in British society. Things were being levelled
against British Muslims today that had been levelled against the Jews in
the past. There had been riots in some British towns against the Jews
during the troubles in Palestine in 1947, when Jews were accused of
split loyalties. British Muslims now faced the same accusations. There
were no easy answers to inclusiveness.
Under robust questioning,
Nicholas Mosley made very clear his own
feeling about his father’s activities and the fascist movement. “I’ve
spoken from my heart,” he said. As a schoolboy in the 1930s he had had
very little contact with his father. Subsequently, he had fought against
Hitler (he joined the Rifle Brigade in 1942, trained as an officer, and
fought in Italy where he was wounded and was awarded the Military
Cross).
“I
laid my life on the line. I don’t have to apologize for being Mosley
myself.”
After the war, when his father started attempting a return to politics,
he again had little to do with him. Later, he was aware that his
half-brothers Max and Alexander were “turning up in Notting Hill with
bands of thugs” but he did not see them and had nothing to do with them.
It
was only when he realised that Alexander, aged 19 or 20, was trying to
break away that he resumed contact. “I helped him get out of fascism,”
he said. He had no contact with Max.
Clive
Bettington writes:
It was
clear from the meeting that Cable Street is still a very emotive topic
and that some of the myths will remain unchallenged for some time. I
think that once all the veterans have passed away the whole battle will
be reappraised. In 2011 JEECS wants to devote the entire year to the
political history of the Jewish East End. That year will mark the 100th
anniversary of the Siege of Sidney Street and the 75th anniversary of
the Battle of Cable Street. During the year we will study anarchism,
socialism, communism, orthodoxy, Zionism etc and how all these played a
part in the development of the Jewish East End.
back to top of page
Ghetto
warriors to the fore at Camden
DAVID
WALKER previews this summer’s exhibition at the Jewish Museum devoted to
minority boxers in Britain
The
East End will have a major place in an exhibition at the Jewish Museum
in Camden this summer.
Running from May 8 to September 2, it focuses on boxing as a way out of
poverty and second-class citizenship for ethnic minorities. Starting
with Daniel Mendoza, the 18th century Jewish boxer who became boxing
champion of England, it will trace the phenomenon to the present day and
such iconic figures as Amir Khan, the Bolton-born inter-continental
light welterweight champion who rose to fame as a 17-year old at the
Athens Olympics.
Boxing was an escape route for many East Enders, as featured in The
Cable’s first issue last year, and helped change the way the wider group
was seen and saw itself. In the early 20th century, boxers were feted
and hero-worshipped. As the century came to an end star footballers had
taken on much of that mantle. But boxing has been making a strong
comeback, with someone like Amir Khan – young, clean-cut – doing much to
restore its image.
“He’s very aware of it,” says Jennifer Marin, the Museum’s curator.
“He’s a local hero for young Asians to emulate.”
From
prize-fighters in the age of bare-knuckle fighting such as Mendoza,
Samuel Elias (known as “Dutch Sam”) and the black boxers Bill Richmond
and Tom Molyneaux, the exhibition will move on to such East Enders as
Ted “Kid” Lewis, Jack “Kid” Berg (the “Whitechapel Windmill”), Harry
Mizler, and Young Johnny Brown, using historical records, photographs
and material borrowed from their descendants.
Moving toward the present, such champions as Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno,
Martin Power, Barry McGuigan, John Conteh and, of course, Amir Khan will
also feature strongly.
“I
had thought for years about it,” says Ruti Ungar, the young Israeli who
is organising the exhibition –
Ghetto Warriors: Minority Boxers in Britain –
as the Museum’s guest curator. Ruti, who is studying
for her PhD at the University of Berlin, had her interest sparked when
she came across Mendoza’s autobiography while doing research on the
early modern period.
It
is the first autobiography written by a boxer in England. Mendoza
(1764-1836) is credited as the inventor of scientific boxing and among
the exhibits will be a print of his autobiography from the British
Library.
Other exhibits will include prints from the British Museum, historic
figurines of great boxers, photographs, posters, programmes, souvenirs,
medals, gloves and even boxing trunks. The atmosphere of the ring, its
sights and sounds will be captured on film, while interviews with boxing
names of the past will illustrate the ways in which the sport has
changed lives.
Through these means, the exhibition will tell the story of some of the
most famous boxers, as well as the role of boxing in boys clubs, such as
the Oxford and St George’s featured elsewhere in this issue, and youth
organisations. It will show how, for many young men from a deprived
background, boxing has not only been a way out of the ghetto but also a
means of gaining acceptance, respect and in some cases riches and fame.
Underlining boxers’ achievements, their historical significance in
relation to their ethnic communities and their contribution to British
society, it will highlight the way boxing served as a means of social
integration by enabling boxers to be proud of their ethnic identity
while also feeling a part of British society.
The
aim is to show boxing as a social phenomenon that helped broadly propel
ethnic minorities into the mainstream. “It was very important to put the
Jewish boxers into context,” says Ruti.
Jennifer says: “We’re emphasising that boxing changes the image of the
group in wider society, so that it adds to the self-esteem of ethnic
minorities.”
Alongside the exhibition is an ambitious programme of lectures. S.I.
Martin, freelance writer and researcher on black issues in the UK, will
speak on the relationship between the abolition of the slave trade in
1807 and the prominence of black prize-fighters from Abolition to the
present day.
Writer, reviewer and journalist Jad Adams will give an illustrated talk
on the life and times of Mendoza. Dr Gavin Schaffer, Senior Lecturer in
European History at the University of Portsmouth and author of a new
book on the history of Racial Science, will examine racial stereotypes
in sport, looking at the way minority athletes have responded to labels
based on racist perceptions.
Writer and lecturer on film, poetry and literature Sylvia Paskin will
explore representations of the fighter in film, showing how boxing has
fascinated Hollywood film makers. Professor Sander Gilman, the American
cultural and literary historian and expert in the history of medicine,
will discuss European stereotypes of the Jewish body and its antithesis
in the body of the athlete.
The
museum’s annual lecture, by Professor Tamar Garb, is in early June, a
month into the exhibition.
The
exhibition text, written by Ruti, will be much expanded for the
catalogue, to be published by University College London Press. Edited by
Ruti and Professor Michael Berkowitz of UCL’s Department of Hebrew and
Jewish Studies, who are writing the introduction, it will include
previously unpublished prints and photographs and a wide-ranging series
of essays.
Professor Gilman is writing about the Jews' sporting body,
and Dr George Eisen, of Nazareth College, Rochester, New York,
an expert on Jewish sport, on Jews in European Boxing.
Adam Chill of Boston
University is writing about minority boxers in 18th and 19th century
Britain; Howard Fredrics of Kingston University (author of the article
on Jewish boxers of the East End in our first issue) on Jack "Kid" Berg
and Jewish boxers in mid-century Britain; Kassia Boddy of UCL on boxing
in British and American films; Lynda Nead of Birkbeck College on the
fascination of boxing; and Kath Woodward of the Open University on
boxing and masculinity.
There will also be an interview with “Busy Louie”, as Professor Loïc
Wacquant, the distinguished French sociologist who, in an unlikely
combination, is also a boxer, is known in the ring.
The
Museum is at Raymond Burton House, 129-131 Albert Street, London NW1
7NB, a few minutes walk from Camden Town tube station. For more details,
see its website:
www.jewishmuseum.org.uk
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