|
The Jewish Community of the South Manchester
Suburb
of Didsbury
1891-1914:
a socio-economic comparison with the Northern sector of the city's
Jewry
Introduction
This paper is based on my
1996 research project for the Open University DA301, Family and
Community History. I created this particular topic for my final project
because firstly, I wished to research my own locality of Didsbury, where I
have lived for most of my adult life. Secondly, I wanted to address the surprising lack
of published research on the Didsbury Jewry - very surprising because Didsbury
has long been known for its flourishing Jewish community, to the
extent that it became known as “Yidsbury” and Palatine
Road (a major road running through it) as “Palestine Road”. The Didsbury
Jewry, I feel, deserves far more documentation than has so far received
because of the rich and valued cultural diversity it has brought to Didsbury
mainstream society.
For the purpose of this study
Didsbury will include the
neighbouring suburb of Withington since many members of its Jewish
community lived on major route ways of Palatine Road and Wilmslow Road,
which ran through both areas. Besides the difficulty in determining the
boundary line on these roads, it would be frustrating to exclude certain
members of historical interest merely because they lived just over the Didsbury
border.
1. Aims and Strategy
Following primarily the hypotheses testing
strategy, the aim of this study is to identify, with
reference to the work of other researchers, socio-economic divisions
between the Manchester Jewish communities. By focusing on the Didsbury
Jewish community during the period
1891-1914, divisions
were expected to be found between the community and the northern sector of
the city’s Jewry of which
Williams
(1976) focused his research.
The hypotheses tested is taken
from Englander (1994, p.184), that ‘separation of classes affected the
Manchester Jewish minority as much as the general population’ in that:
a) affluent Jews moved
southward away from the city’s Jewish enclave, towards and into the
middle-class suburb of Didsbury.
b) further social divisions
within the Didsbury Jewish community existed between the Sephardi and
Ashkenazi Jews.
c) assimilation into mainstream middle-class society was
prevalent amongst the more
affluent Didsbury Jewish figures, which created further
social divisions between the community.
Due to time factors and word
limitations for this study, no attempt was made to distinguish between
orthodox and non-orthodox Jews.
2. Relation to the
work of other researchers
Class divisions amongst Jewish communities are documented by
Williams (1976), Englander (1994), Waterman (Pryce, 1994) and Price (1984).
Although the time scale of the work of some of these researchers is
different, they have nevertheless, conducted critical research in areas
which is relevant to my work.
Reference to
Williams’ book
The Making of Manchester Jewry: 1740-1875 (1976)
provided valuable statistical data for making quantitative socio-economic
comparisons, which will be discussed in Section 3. It was also an
excellent source base for information on the origins of the Manchester
Jewish community. It shows that the greatest suburbia movement (beginning
around 1815) was northward towards Broughton with a small southward
movement to areas such as Chorlton-on-Medlock and Rusholme. This is
significant to my research since trade directory and census data show that
numerous Didsbury Jewish residents began their southward step-migration
through these areas. Gustav Behrens (a wealthy Jewish merchant), for
example, lived in Plymouth Grove, Chorlton-on-Medlock in 1881-86 before
moving to Didsbury.
Elizabeth Gaskell (novelist) also lived in Plymouth
Grove until her death in 1865 and assimilation into mainstream
middle-class society is evident amongst her Jewish neighbours who
socialised at her house - it was a ‘social centre’ for ‘Jewish as well as
non-Jewish’ (Williams, 1976, p 169).
Waterman and Englander’s research demonstrates similar patterns of Jewish
suburbia movement from the central areas of other cities. Waterman’s
research of Jewish settlement in Dublin found that this began with
clustered segregation and gradually ‘prosperous families filtered out into
the surrounding suburbs ... which themselves then became the focus of
Jewish institutions and began to attract later immigrants’ (Pryce, 1994,
p.166). As my findings will show, this mirrors the development of the
Didsbury Jewish community which began around 1871 with only four Jewish
households.
Englander’s study of East London Jews illustrates similar class divisions
which he identified from the location of synagogal provision. Three new
synagogues were established in the West End as a result of ‘the westward
march of the wealthy’ (1994, p. 184). Similarly, new synagogues were
founded in South Manchester from 1872 to cater for the growing
south-suburbia Jewish middle-classes. By illustration of Mrs Brewer’s
article (1892), Englander also points to the predominance of certain
working-class ‘immigrant’ trades such as tailoring and cap making within
the East End Jewry. Such trades also dominated the Manchester’s Jewry and
contrasts with the Didsbury Jewish workers who were predominantly wealthy
shipping merchants.
A major question raised in my research was what brought the Jews to
Didsbury? Although there were numerous influential factors, such as cleaner
air and improved transport facilities, educational opportunities were
particularly likely to have drawn them to the area considering it was distinctly
academic.
Williams’ research shows that the Jewish community placed stress
on education as ‘an instrument of social change’ (1976, p.89),
particularly for social mobility into the professions. ‘The movement of
Jews into the professions had begun when Jacob Nathan sent his son, Lewis
Henry to Manchester Grammar School ... and on to London to train as a
surgeon’ (Williams, 1976, p.123). This project reveals similar aspirations
of numerous Didsbury Jewish parents for their offspring. Elias Canetti,
Jewish author of
The Tongue Set Free
(1988), for instance, lived in Didsbury as a child and recalls his father’s
response to his wish to become a doctor, ‘You don’t have to become a
businessman like me and the uncles. You will go to the university and you
will be what you want most’ (Canetti, 1988, p.42).
A less explicit factor that may have drawn the Jews to Didsbury could
relate to Englander’s statement:
To the anxious leaders of Anglo-Jewry the degraded condition and
rumbustious life styles of the Jewish populace were perceived as an
embarrassment, and as major obstacles to their integration into British
life (1994, p.185).
Williams
echoes this argument stating that the earliest Jewish settlers
to South Manchester moved southwards ‘to distance themselves from their
social inferiors’ (1976, p. 313). The issue of snobbery is, however,
difficult to establish within this study that is based primarily on quantitative
data.
Looking at documentary evidence related to the socio-economic divisions
within the Didsbury Jewish community itself, my findings support Price
(1984), that such divisions were evident between the Sephardi
and
Ashkenazi
Jews in that the Sephardim clustered in the prestigious Palatine Road.
(1984, p.44)
To compare the socio-economic divisions between the North and South
Manchester Jewish communities, Armstrong (Drake and Finnegan, 1994) and
Rau’s (1984) class indicators have been used which will be discussed under
Section 3.
3. Sources and Methods
The main primary sources used were the Manchester
Trade Directories.
Working back from 1891 to 1869 at five yearly intervals, I extracted the
names, addresses (including business address) and occupations of Jewish
residents. The objective was to analyse Jewish migratory patterns and to
classify the Didsbury residents’ socioeconomic status by occupation and
type of residence occupied. The number of Jewish residents living in
Didsbury at each time interval determined that the community began to
become established during the late 1880s. Local amenities such as schools,
transport and recreational facilities were also recorded. My search,
however, for Jewish facilities proved less fruitful. Apart from a kosher
butcher that opened in 1914, no synagogues or registered Jewish
institutions appeared to have been established in the Didsbury area during
this time.
A major limitation with the directories was that many of the residents
were listed under the private resident section of which occupations were
not listed. Many occupations therefore remain unidentified within this
study. Another limitation was in my lack of familiarity with untypical
Jewish surnames which presented problems in identifying them all. I
therefore supplemented my data with the trade directory data of 1891-1914
complied by Price (1984). Although Price also encountered difficulties in
tracing occupations, her data was invaluable as she identified additional
Jewish names that I had overlooked, and differentiated between those which
were of
Ashkenazi and Sephardi origin.
Several methods were adopted to test the middle-class credentials of the
Didsbury Jewish community. By comparing them with the northern sector of
the city’s Jewry, I consulted the statistical data from
Williams
(1976). From the
Census Enumerators' Books for Manchester and Salford, he
extracted individuals who belonged to the Jewish community of 1841-71.
I focused on his data for 1871 since it was the closest year to my study
period. A particularly useful set of data he provides from them is the
occupations of 1,170 Jewish workers (1976, pp.358-360). I then used
Armstrong’s classification (Drake and
Finnegan, 1994, pp.48-49) to compare
all known occupations of both communities.
Because the occupations of many Didsbury Jewish residents were unknown to
me, and
Armstrong’s classification did not always match those that were, I turned
to the
Census Enumerators' Books for 1891 for additional class indicators,
such as whether the householders were ‘employed’ or ‘employers’, and to
fill in missing occupations. The keeping of servants was one middle-class
indicator which Rau discusses in her article ‘Who Chose Chalcots?’ (Offprints
1, Article 2) and significant since the
Census Enumerators' Books showed
that Jewish householders kept an average of three servants. Another
middle-class indicator identified by Rau was out-migration from the
central areas of the city. The children’s place and date of birth were
therefore recorded as indicators of the length of time the family had
lived in the area, their previous area of residence and whether their move
involved step migration to more desirable areas. The householders’
birthplace indicated whether they had migrated directly from another
country or town. The names of male children were also cross-checked
against the Manchester Grammar School (1965) register of old Mancunians
(see below for objective).
Had the
Census Enumerators' Books been accessible up to 1914, as were the
directories, they would have been the most fruitful source because of
their standardisation into categories which enables comparisons of
statistical data to be made. Their limitations, however, is that the
handwriting is not always legible and some occupants may not have been home
on census night. The possibility of illiteracy or untruthfulness was also
taken into consideration.
In order to gain insight into the social position of members of the
community and of any possible assimilation into mainstream society, I
consulted several primary literary sources in search of familiar names.
Obituaries (from newspaper cuttings) of prominent Didsbury Jewish figures
reported any outstanding achievements made by the deceased and active
contributions made towards the wider community. The autobiography of Elias Canetti,
The Tongue Set Free
(1988), provided insight into the author’s childhood
years as a member of the Didsbury Jewish community and referred to
prominent Jewish figures with whom his family was connected. A
Biographical Register of Old Mancunians 1888-1951 (1965) was consulted for
the information it provides on former
Manchester Grammar School pupils and
because of the school’s long-standing tradition in attracting Jewish
pupils. Identification of registered Didsbury Jewish pupils was taken as
supportive evidence of their assimilation into mainstream society.
To gain deeper insight into the community, an interview was conducted with
a Jewish husband and wife (Mr and Mrs 'A') whose parents lived in the Didsbury
area in 1914-15. Since I had a specific set of questions in mind to test
the hypotheses and to fill in gaps, and was also restricted by time
limitations, I chose to conduct a structured
interview with pre-set, open-ended questions.
To ensure the
anonymity of my interviewees, I used pseudonyms throughout. The
real names of other people have only been used when cited from
public and published sources.
Numerous field studies of the area were also
undertaken, with the
aid of ordinance survey maps and lists of relevant addresses taken from
the
Census Enumerators' Books. These included
examination of surviving houses for class identification, and examination
of the local Jewish burial ground (situated in Southern Cemetery) for any
relevant evidence.
Because of the workload involved with such a large collection of data,
this was input into a database (see Table 1 sample) which proved to be a
valuable aid in analysing the community’s southward suburbia movement. It
also enabled me to isolate the
Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews
and residents of individual suburbs and streets at various time intervals.
Table 1 - Sample database of
Didsbury Jewish residents in 1905
|
Origin |
Surname |
First Name |
Address |
*
Area |
Occupation |
|
S |
Abdela |
Suvi |
17
Clyde Rd |
AP |
|
|
S |
Arditti |
Joseph |
55
Clyde Rd |
AP |
|
|
S |
Arditti |
Samuel |
144 Barlow Moor Rd |
WD |
Shipping merchant S. Arditti Bros. |
|
A |
Aronsberg |
Aaron |
3
Rathen Rd |
W |
|
|
S |
Ascoli |
Ephraim |
26
Wilmslow Rd |
W |
Shipping merchant |
|
A |
Baerlein |
Max |
131
Wilmslow Rd |
W |
Merchant & engineer |
|
A |
Behrens |
Gustav |
30
Palatine Rd |
W |
Shipping
merchant Sir Jacob & Son |
|
A |
Behrens |
Henry |
Darley Ave |
WD |
Merchant Beatty, Altgelt & Co. |
|
S |
Bezazienne |
David |
19
Cresswell Gr |
AP |
|
|
A |
Cobe |
Myer |
195
Burton Rd |
WD |
Manufacturer |
|
A |
Cohen |
Barnet |
28
Palatine Rd |
W |
|
|
A |
Cohen |
Max |
7
Amhurst St |
W |
|
|
A |
Cohen |
Samuel J. |
2
Mauldeth Rd |
W |
|
|
A |
Goldberg |
Abraham |
134
Wilmslow Rd |
D |
|
|
A |
Goldschmidt |
Herman J. |
200
Wilmslow Rd |
W |
Contractor & merchant / Alderman |
|
A |
Hesse |
Frank R. |
135 Barlow Moor Rd |
W |
Don Jewish board of guardians |
|
S |
Isaacs |
Isaac Judah |
75
Palatine Rd |
W |
|
|
A |
Israels |
Herman |
29
Goulden Rd |
W |
|
|
A |
Karnofski |
Joseph |
11
Pattern St |
W |
Householder |
|
S |
Klein |
Joseph |
33
Clyde Rd |
AP |
Manager |
|
A |
Lazarus |
Julius |
1
Wilmslow Rd |
AP |
|
|
A |
Levy |
Henry |
84
Wilmslow Rd |
AP |
Clerk |
|
S |
Menasce |
Nessim A. |
154
Clyde Rd |
WD |
|
|
A |
Meyer |
Adolph |
60
Egerton Rd |
W |
|
|
A |
Morreau |
Marcus |
139
Lapwing Ln |
D |
|
|
A |
Oppenheim |
Frederick |
11
Elm Rd |
D |
Solicitor |
|
A |
Potasch |
Jacob
B. |
80
Clyde Rd |
AP |
|
|
A |
Rapaport |
Isidor |
7
Atwood Rd |
D |
|
|
S |
Rofe |
David |
20
Palatine Rd |
W |
|
|
A |
Rothkof |
Jacob |
63
Clyde Rd |
AP |
|
|
A |
Saul
BA LSA |
Barnett |
42
Wilmslow Rd |
W |
Physician BA LSA |
|
A |
Saul
LSA |
Helen Mrs |
42
Wilmslow Rd |
W |
Physician LSA |
|
A |
Schloss |
Elkin |
7
Stanton Av |
WD |
Merchant |
|
A |
Simmons |
Samuel |
14
Cooper St |
W |
|
|
A |
Simonsen |
Lionel |
15
Circular Rd |
W |
Merchant (?) |
|
S |
Somech |
David |
43
Parsonage Rd |
W |
|
|
A |
Steinthal |
Arthur |
38
Landsdown Rd |
AP |
Merchant/employer |
|
A |
Steinthal |
Edgar Fredrick |
17
Didsbury Pk |
D |
Shipping merchant |
|
A |
Susmann Mrs |
Julie |
9
Wilmslow Rd |
D |
|
|
A |
Weingold |
Samuel H. |
11
Egerton Rd |
W |
Wholesale jeweller |
*
Area key: AP - Albert Park; WD - West Didsbury; W - Withington; D -
Didsbury
Sources:
Manchester Trade Directories
4. Findings
The pattern of out-migration from the central areas of the city southbound is
significant in my findings, as it was in Rau’s (1984) and Waterman’s
(Pryce, 1994), in that the movement was made by the middle-class Jews.
Migration moved southwards through Chorlton-on-Medlock, Rusholme and
Fallowfield towards and into the desirable suburb of Didsbury.
Seigmund
Oppenheim, one of the first Ashkenazi Jews to settle in South
Manchester around 1873 also followed this southward pattern of
out-migration. Arriving from Hamburg he resided in Lytham as well as his
town house in Oxford Street, Rusholme and by 1911 had moved to the 'Parkfield'
residence on Parkfield Road in Didsbury. As Table 2 shows there were only
four Jewish households in the Didsbury area in 1871 which, by 1914, had
increased to 103.
Table 2 - Number of Jewish
households identified in the Didsbury area
|
|
1871 |
1891 |
1900 |
1905 |
1910 |
1914 |
|
Ashkenazi |
? |
11 |
33 |
29 |
31 |
38 |
|
Sephardi |
? |
4 |
6 |
10 |
40 |
65 |
|
Total |
4 |
15 |
39 |
39 |
71 |
103 |
Sources:
Census Enumerators' Books
for 1891 and
Manchester Trade Directories
1869-1914
Observation of Victorian houses shows that those in Didsbury were the most
prestigious compared to those in the neighbouring suburbs from which
numerous Jews had moved. The
Census Enumerators' Books
for 1891 show that the
majority of Didsbury Jews lived in large villas or palatial mansions set
in their own grounds and kept an average of three servants. In sharp
contrast, rows of terraced houses, situated in densely populated areas,
dominated the northern sector of the city’s Jewry. In 1871 over one third
of its occupants lived in the notorious ghetto area of
Red Bank, Cheetham Hill.
The directories show a marked
improvement in transport facilities in Didsbury with the opening in the
early 1880s of railway lines and horse-bus services (with electric trams
from 1902) running from
Didsbury to the city centre. This was likely to have influenced Jewish
settlement in the area as most Jewish residents worked in or near the city
centre. As the map in Appendix 4 shows, a large proportion of Jewish
settlement was in the Albert Park area which was a short walking distance
to the Withington & Albert Park Train Station on Lapwing Lane and the horse-bus terminus on Palatine Road, West Didsbury.
Educational opportunities in
particular appear to have drawn Jewish families to Didsbury. The
directories list a wealth of educational establishments in the area and
surrounding areas, and
Mr and Mrs 'A' stated (1996) that many
local Jewish children attended preparatory schools for entrance into the
local grammar schools. Mr
'A',
himself, attended the highly academic and prestigious Manchester Grammar School and his wife attended the
equivalent Withington Girls’ School.
A Biographical register of Old
Mancunians 1888-1951 confirms that numerous Jewish boys from Didsbury
gained entry into the
Manchester Grammar
School. Ephraim Ascoli, a Sephardi shipping merchant of
Wilmslow Road, for example, sent his four sons to the
school during the years 1894-1906. His second eldest son, Francis, became
the managing director of Dunlop Plantations Ltd. (MGS, 1965). Some
Manchester Grammar School pupils, such as Leonard Behrens (son of Gustav)
and Louis Rosenberg moved on to Manchester University (or Owens College as
it was known up to 1903) which was a short tram-ride from Didsbury.
This class indicator contrasts
sharply with the education of the northern sector of the city. By the turn
of the century
The Jews School in
Derby Street had a child population of 2,000 (Williams, 1988, p.63).
Unlike the non-Jewish preparatory schools in Didsbury that placed
emphasis on academic attainment, The Jews School ‘reflected working-class
needs’ (Williams,
1976, p. 330). Girls were encouraged to develop domestic skills and the
boys were prepared for apprenticeship schemes.
In contrast to the occupations
found in
Williams’ research, of which 75% were working-class (Class
111 or IV) ‘immigrant’ trades (33% being tailors), the occupations
and lifestyles of the Didsbury Jews indicate that 36%
belonged to Class 1, 56% to Class 11 and only 8% to Class 111 of
Armstrong’s classification. Only 5% of the Jews in William’s study
belonged to Class 1 and 8% to Class 11; as little as 4% kept servants and
33% lived in Cheetham Hill’s ghetto area.
Table 3 - Occupations of
the Didsbury Jews -1891-1914
|
Occupation |
Ashkenazi |
Sephardi |
|
Barrister |
1 |
|
|
Butcher (kosher) |
1 |
|
|
Clerk |
1 |
|
|
Commission agent |
|
1 |
|
Contractor |
2 |
|
|
Engineer |
2 |
|
|
Furrier |
1 |
|
|
Householder |
5 |
7 |
|
Jeweller (wholesale) |
1 |
|
|
Manufacturer |
3 |
|
|
Manager |
1 |
|
|
Merchant |
15 |
25 |
|
Physician |
2 |
|
|
Picture dealer |
1 |
|
|
Retailing chain |
1 |
|
|
Solicitor |
1 |
|
|
Surgeon |
1 |
|
|
Tailor |
1 |
|
|
Tobacconist |
1 |
|
|
Traveller |
1 |
|
|
Unknown |
51 |
54 |
Sources:
Census
Enumerators' Books
for 1891 and
Manchester Trade Directories 1891-1914
There is also a marked difference between the occupations of the Didsbury
Jewish groups. The vast
majority of Sephardim were cotton shipping merchants whereas a diversity
of occupations, including professions, is evident amongst the Ashkenazim
(see Table 3). Although I found no
professional status amongst the Didsbury Jews from the directory and census data in 1891, by 1914 there
were two physicians, one surgeon, one solicitor, one barrister and two
engineers, all of whom were
Ashkenazi Jews.
Kirsten
Beach has confirmed that the
one solicitor
cited,
Frederick
Oppenheim, practiced at the law firm Vaudrey,
Oppenheim and Mellor on Oxford Street (Slater’s Directories 1903 and 1911)
and it seems his father, Siegmund, was also connected to the firm as
Justice of the
Peace. To the Ashkenazim, it seems
the security of professional status would have held more value over
business prosperity since it cannot be taken from them through persecution
from which their ancestors had previously fled. For those unable to afford
the educational qualifications leading to a professional career, various
businesses were established besides merchants.
Mr
'A’s' father, for instance,
built a successful retailing chain of men’s-wear retailers from 1905 which grew to
nearly thirty
branches nationwide.
Divisions between the Didsbury Sephardi and
Ashkenazi Jews are most evident in the separate synagogal
provision in South Manchester. The Withington
Congregation of Spanish and
Portuguese Jews (est. 1904) on Mauldeth Road catered for the Sephardi
congregation whilst the South Manchester Synagogue (est. 1872) which moved
to Wilbraham Road in
1913 from All Saints, catered for the Ashkenazim. Similar segregation
patterns were also found in the Jewish cemetery. The Sephardic graves are located at the back of the graveyard
whereas the
Ashkenazic
and Manchester Reform
synagogue
graves are close to the entrance gates
and the prayer chapel.
Data on residential patterns
supports Price’s finding (1984) that the Sephardim
clustered in the prestigious Palatine Road. This was particularly evident
during the years 1910-1914 when an influx of Sephardim settled there.
Solomon Arditti, a maternal uncle of
Elias Canetti,
for instance, moved to ‘The Rossett’ at number 123 during this
time where young Canetti lived with him for a short period. House sale
transactions were also frequently made between the same group of Jews.
Directory data shows that Arditti sold his house at 124 Barlow Moor Road
to David Manashee
and bought ‘The Rossett’ mansion from Joseph Smouha - all three being Sephardi Jews. Likewise, Ernest Horkheimer sold his ‘Holly Royd’ mansion
at 30 Palatine Rd between 1891-95 to Gustav Behrens - both
were
Ashkenazi
Jews. Mr and Mrs
'A'
stressed that although they are themselves of a ‘mixed
marriage’ (Mr
'A' an
Ashkenazi
and Mrs 'A'
a Sephardi), intermarriage was unusual during their parents’
generation and social divisions between the two groups was marked.
|
Holly Royd - 30 Palatine Road |
|
Author's collection |
|
|
|
Author's collection
The home of
Gustav Behrens from 1894 -1944, one of the community's wealthiest
Ashkenazi
shipping
merchants. Now (1996) owned by Manchester University, functioning as a
conference centre, given to the university in memory of Gustav and his
wife, Fanny.
|
|
The Rossett - 123 Palatine Road |
 |
|
Author's collection
Once the home of Elias Canetti's uncle, Solomon
Arditti, a wealthy
Sephardi shipping merchant. Canetti lived here for a short
time in 1912 after the death of his father, which he describes in
his book The Tongue Set Free (1988).
|
Assimilation into mainstream
middle-class society has shown to be most prominent amongst the affluent
Ashkenazi
members of the community. Crition Gradisky, for instance,
represented Didsbury Ward in the City Council (Obituary), Israel Sieff,
co-founder
of Marks and Spencer, donated £5,000 to the
Manchester Grammar
School (Graham and Phythian, 1965, p.86) and Gustav Behrens was chairman
of the Halle Concert’s Society and director of the Chamber of Commerce
(Obituary).
Siegmund
Oppenheim also participated on quite a high level in the local community
as a Vice-Consul and Justice of the Peace, Magistrate.
The fact that the community’s children attended non-Jewish
schools is likely to have promoted their assimilation into mainstream
society, as would their upward mobility into the professions.
Mr and Mrs 'A', however, recall that
despite their mainstream education and friendships with non-Jewish
school-peers, their parents rarely socialised outside the Jewish circle.
Most of their recreational time was spent involved with charity work,
literary and dramatic societies and concerts, particularly for the interest
of the Jewish community’s youngsters.
5.
Conclusions
This study has found, through
analysis of various class indicators (such as occupations, education and
servant-keeping), significant socio-economic divisions between the
Manchester Jewish communities of Didsbury and the northern sector of the
city’s Jewry. Divisions were also found between the Didsbury Sephardi and
Ashkenazi
Jews. Although there were many wealthy Ashkenazim, it was the
Sephardim that held the reputation associated with wealth and elitism.
Yet, unlike some prominent Ashkenazim who assimilated into mainstream
middle-class society, the Sephardim were more inclined to ‘keep themselves
to themselves’ as is evident in their residential clustering patterns and
shared occupations as shipping merchants. This study, then, bares out the
wider comparative findings of other researchers in confirming the
hypotheses that ‘separation of classes affected the Manchester Jewish
minority as much as the general population’.
To close on a personal
note, a particularly rewarding aspect of this project has been the ‘hands
on’ experience of using primary sources such as
Census Enumerators'
Books and interviewing surviving relatives. The excitement of tracing missing links
from such sources has made this study a most enjoyable pursuit.
6.
Bibliography
Brewer, Mrs (1892) 'The Jewish
Colony in London - First Paper' in DA301.
Canetti, E. (1988)
The
Tongue Set Free, London, Pan Books Ltd.
Drake, M. and
Finnegan, R.
(eds.) (1994)
Sources and Methods for Family and Community Historians:
A Handbook, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press in association with
The Open University.
Englander, D. (1994) `Jewish
East London, 1850-1950', in Pryce, W.T.R. (ed.)
From family history to
community history, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press in
association with The Open University.
Graham, J.A. and Phythian,
B.A. (1965)
The Manchester Grammar School -1515-1965, Manchester
University Press.
Price, S.L. (1984) Unpublished
dissertation for Honours degree of BA - The Rise of the Manchester
Jewish Suburbia: a study of intra-urban migration, Department of
Geography University of Nottingham.
Pryce, W.T.R. (ed.) (1994)
Volume 2,
From Family History to Community History, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press in association with The Open University.
Rau, D. (1984) `Who chose
Chalcots? Aspects of family and social structure in 1851', in DA301
Offprints Booklet 1, The Open University.
Williams, B. (1976)
The making of Manchester Jewry 1740-1875,
Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Williams, B. (1988) Manchester Jewry - A Pictorial History 1788-1988,
Manchester, Archive Publications.
7. Primary
Source References
Census Enumerators' Books,
1891, for Didsbury and
Withington, Manchester Central Library (Local Studies Unit).
Manchester Trade Directories,
1869-1914, of Fallowfield, Withington and Didsbury, Manchester Central
Library (Local Studies Unit).
Manchester Grammar School,
(1965) A Biographical register of Old Mancunians 1888-1951,
Manchester, H. Rawson & Co. Ltd.
Manchester Local Image
Collection, Manchester Library & Information Service, Manchester
Central Library.
Obituaries, Manchester
Newspaper Cuttings, Manchester Central Library (Local Studies Unit).
Oral
Sources
Mr and Mrs 'A' (second
generation Jewish immigrants, Director of men’s retail outfitters).
Interview not recorded. Interviewed in Manchester by Julia Maine (1996).
Website
Visitors Sources
Beach,
Kirsten Heemskerk, Netherlands (for the
Oppenheim/Cassell/Thompson
family). All correspondence via email (2005).
8.
Postscript
Due to the time constraints
and word limit of this project it was impossible to include all class indicators. One area that was particularly
frustrating to exclude was the social and cultural aspects of the
Manchester Jewish communities since culture is as much a class indicator as occupations, education and servant-keeping. Throughout my
research I encountered much evidence of the Didsbury Jewish community's active
interests in classical music, amateur dramatics, literary and philosophic debating
societies. It would have been particularly interesting to have explored
the extent to which such interests differed between the Didsbury Sephardi
and
Ashkenazi Jews and between the northern sector of the city’s Jewry.
Considering the qualitative nature of such an area, I feel that oral
interviews would be the most valuable primary source to pursue, though a
later period whereby a greater number of surviving
members of the community would be accessible for interviews.
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