The Centre for Jewish Studies
University of Manchester
One-Day Conference
Manchester and Zionism:
The Community, the University and the State
of Israel
October 21st 1998
The following summary of the conference has kindly been provided
by the Rev. Roger Tomes:
Piecing together the story of the beginnings of Zionism in Manchester
is like trying to complete a 1,000 piece jigsaw when you only have 20 pieces,
said Bill Williams, the historian of Manchester Jewry, at the conference
on "Manchester and Zionism" promoted by Manchester University's
Centre for Jewish Studies. Valuable records had been destroyed by an over-zealous
caretaker in 1951, and only brief autobiographical accounts and sporadic
newspaper accounts remained.
Mr Williams did however produce evidence which suggested that Chaim
Weizmann's view, when he came to Manchester in 1904, that Zionism in Manchester
was "stagnant", was unjustified. It was a movement among recent
immigrants, generally boycotted by the Anglo-Jewish elite, but contact had
already been made with local politicians through Charles Dreyfus.
Frank Adam gave a lively account of Weizmann's
own Manchester career. The question of who introduced Weizmann to Balfour
seems destined to be unresolved. Philip Alexander quoted a letter in which
Weizmann said it had been Samuel Alexander, who had played his own part
in the founding of the Hebrew University and the relief of refugees from
Austria, but Frank Adam thought it was more likely to have been Dreyfus.
Weizmann is only one of the celebrated Zionist leaders in the West,
and Michael Berkowitz, of University College, London, reminded the conference
of the others: Balfour (featured on sweet wrappers), Louis Brandeis (who
found his way back to Judaism through Zionaism), Rebecca Sieff (who gave
Zionism its public welfare dimension), and Einstein (who gave the Hebrew
University credibility).
Although, as Jeremy Michelson showed, only the most ideologically committed
of Manchester Jews (and British Jews generally) had any incentive to make
aliyah to Israel, Manchester's historic synagogues, in their architecture
and stained glass, contain reminders of Jerusalem and the Temple. Sharman
Kadish, who has recently come to Manchester, demonstrated her obvious enthusiasm
for these features with a lavishly illustrated talk. (For her bibliography
of the The Architectural Development of the Synagogue, click here.)
The conference was timed to mark the opening on the Internet of an exhibition
which traces the history of Manchester's contribution to Zionism, the beginning
of an on-going project to which "readers" (or "visitors")
are invited to send comments or further material.
An immediate contribution was made by Ralph de Groot, who gave a moving
account ("the finest piece of living history I have heard for a long
time," said Bill Williams) of the work done by the Zionist Central
Council in 1975-77 to educate the wider public about Israel and Judaism
and to support Jewish students in the wake of the United Nations resolution
which branded Zionism as "racist". Click here
for the full text.
The Centre for Jewish Studies
The Department of Religions and Theology
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0)161 275 3614; Fax +44 (0)161 275 3613
e-mail: Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk