Lionel de Rothschild's hard-fought entry into Parliament in 1858 marked the emancipation of Jews in Britain — the symbolic conclusion of Jews' campaign for equal rights and their inclusion as citizens after centuries of discrimination. With this event, Jewish life entered a new phase: the post-emancipation era. This book explores the development of the Jewish community and its identity in Britain during this formative stage. Emancipation was ambiguous. British acceptance was not neutral but carried expectations, as well as opportunities. This book highlights how integrating into British societ ... More

Lionel de Rothschild's hard-fought entry into Parliament in 1858 marked the emancipation of Jews in Britain — the symbolic conclusion of Jews' campaign for equal rights and their inclusion as citizens after centuries of discrimination. With this event, Jewish life entered a new phase: the post-emancipation era. This book explores the development of the Jewish community and its identity in Britain during this formative stage. Emancipation was ambiguous. British acceptance was not neutral but carried expectations, as well as opportunities. This book highlights how integrating into British society required changes to traditional Jewish identity, as it also widened conceptions of Britishness. Many Jews, it suggests, willingly embraced their environment and fashioned a unique Jewish existence: mixing in all levels of society; experiencing economic success; and organizing and translating its faith along Anglican grounds. But, unlike many other European Jewish experiences, Anglo-Jews stayed loyal to their faith. Conversion and outmarriage remained rare, and connections were maintained with foreign kin. The community was even willing at times to place its Jewish and English identity in conflict, as happened during the 1876-8 Eastern Crisis, which provoked the first episode of modern antisemitism in Britain. The nature of Jewish existence in Britain was unclear and developing in the post-emancipation era. Using original research and focusing upon three inter-linked case studies of Anglo-Jewry's political activity, internal government, and religious development, this book explores the dilemmas of identity and inter-faith relations that confronted the minority in late 19th-century Britain. It illuminates a crucial period in which the Anglo-Jewish community shaped the basis of its modern existence, whilst the British state explored the limits of its toleration.