An unorthodox history
British Jews since 1945
By Gavin Schaffer
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- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 272
- Price: £20.00
- Published Date: February 2025
Description
A bold, new history of British Jewish life since the Second World War.
Historian Gavin Schaffer wrestles Jewish history away from the question of what others have thought about Jews, focusing instead on the experiences of Jewish people themselves.
Exploring the complexities of inclusion and exclusion, he shines a light on groups that have been marginalised within Jewish history and culture, such as queer Jews, Jews married to non-Jews, Israel-critical Jews and even Messianic Jews, while offering a fresh look at Jewish activism, Jewish religiosity and Zionism.
Weaving these stories together, Schaffer argues that there are good reasons to consider Jewish Britons as a unitary whole, even as debates rage about who is entitled to call themselves a Jew. Challenging the idea that British Jewish life is in terminal decline, An unorthodox history demonstrates that Jewish Britain is thriving and that Jewishness is deeply embedded in the country's history and culture.
Reviews
'A brave and important book that presents post-war British Jewry in a new light. Taking the attention away from the centre, Gavin Scahffer presents the vibrant, rooted but diverse nature of Britain's oldest minority with a generosity of spirit, revealing a dynamism rarely acknowledged.'
Tony Kushner, author of Anglo-Jewry since 1066
'Gavin Schaffer compellingly argues that contrary to popular belief, British Jewry has flourished since 1945.'
Jacob Freedland, The Telegraph
'Gavin Schaffer has written a lucid and readable account of an "unorthodox" British-Jewish community made up of disparate groups of Jewish people who are queer, non-Zionist, converts to Judaism and Christianity and émigrés to Israel. In doing so he has radically changed our perspective of a so-called model minority.'
Bryan Cheyette, author of The Ghetto: A Very Short Introduction
'Gavin Shaffer's excellent new book demonstrates that the most insightful way to tell the story of a community is from its margins. In doing so he illuminates the vibrant debates about belief, politics and national identity that have reshaped what it means to be a Jew in postwar Britain.'
Nadia Valman, Professor of Urban Literature, Queen Mary University of London
Contents
Introduction
1 The last Jew of Merthyr and other Bubbe meises: Jewish History and Heritage in Flux
2 Meshuga frum? Devotion and Division in Religious Practice
3 We speak for them: Political Activism in the Six-Day War and the Campaign for Soviet Jewry
4 These wicked sons: Israel Critical Jews and the Zionist Majority
5 Oi vay - I'm Jewish and gay: Queer Jewish lives and the struggle for Recognition
6 The (un)forgivable sin: Intimacy, Love and Inter-Faith Marriage
7 The nice Jewish boy (who believes in Jesus): Jews, Christianity, and the Challenge of Messianic Judaism
8 The last post of the British Empire: Youth Movements and Kibbutz Aliyah
Conclusion: Ending, Shmending
Acknowledgements
List of figures
Select bibliography
Notes
Author
Gavin Schaffer is Professor of Modern British History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on race, ethnicity and immigrant histories and regularly contributes to television and radio.