The Immigrant Experience of Scotland

Scotland’s Jewish Immigrants

• Of the overseas immigrants, the Jewish community have had the highest profile in Scottish society, if not across the whole of Great Britain’s society. Although it was estimated that there were only 300 Jews in Glasgow in 1883, the overseas population of Scotland increased substantially between 1881 and 1911

1. What is meant by the sentence in bold?

• Jews arrived in Scotland throughout the 19th century. From this time, there were isolated individuals who settled in Scotland but communities were not formed. Jews arrived in Edinburgh in 1816, in Glasgow in 1823, in Dundee by the 1870s and in Aberdeen by 1893.

‘Communities were not formed’

2. What does this mean?

3. Give examples of how a community could be formed?

• These early immigrant Jews tended to come from Russia, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Mostly, this movement of people can be attributed to the pogroms (persecution instigated by the government against a minority group) in Russia which began at this time. Many others arrived in the 1930s as a result of Adolf Hitler’s persecution across Germany and his desire to achieve lebensraum (living space) for his master race.

Why the Jews came to Scotland…• Most of these foreigners

were Russian Jews fleeing poverty and pogroms in their native lands.

• In 1881, there were 225 Russians in Scotland, which constituted 3.5% of the total foreign population of Scotland. By 1901 the Russian (overwhelmingly Jewish) population was 6102, or 24.7% of the total foreign population.

4. Three words on this slide and the previous one are in bold. Are these examples of push or pull factors? Explain your answer.

• In Glasgow, a strong Jewish community emerged in the Gorbals. In 1901 there were 5000 Jews. It is estimated that by 1939 this figure had doubled to 10,000. This community began to establish networks that were based around religion, culture, charity, and education as well as a socialising. This is documented by numerous leaflets that were produced in 1901 for the Gorbals Jewish community.

5. Which ways did the Jewish community spirit exist in Scotland?

6. What evidence is there that the Jewish community was starting to establish itself in Scotland in the twentieth century?

• These continued to be produced for many years, initially in Yiddish but then with some English words too. At this time, many of these Glasgow Jews were poor and organisations were established for administering poor relief, which continued well into the 1930s. The increased numbers of Jews led to the production of the Jewish Times newspaper and then in 1927 the Jewish Echo.

• Jews found a degree of difficulty in gaining employment. Jews were not employed in banks or in government offices. This continued into the 1930s and led to many Jews establishing their own businesses, such as travelling sales. Their business model was based on the one penny repayment. This business plan was significant as it did not put Jews in direct competition with other immigrants in Scotland, namely the Irish. The Irish tended to work in the shipyards or the mines.

• The main area of settlement was the Gorbals in Glasgow. There were estimated to be 6500 Jews living in the Gorbals in 1901 and 18 years later there were 9000. The Gorbals was attractive because of its cheap accommodation, but once roots had been established and individuals began to prosper there was a movement towards Pollokshields.

Jobs• Many of these immigrants were involved in the tailoring

trade, but equally they were important in the development of the cigarette industry in Glasgow. Hawking and peddling were also popular among Jews in Glasgow and Edinburgh, where 10% were involved in this occupation. In industry, Jews had a reputation for both undercutting wages and for militancy. Such a combination of different views laid the basis for scapegoating. Jews were seen as ‘sweaters’: masters employing labour for long hours in terrible conditions at low wages, but there is very little evidence to connect Glasgow Jews with the sweating system. Nor was there any evidence to connect them with diseases such as cholera, which in the late 19th century were said to have been exclusively connected with Jewish communities

• The previous slide listed some jobs done by Jewish Scots. How many can you remember?

• Anti-Jewish organisations failed to make any headway in Scotland and the press refused to be caught up in the general London hysteria about alien immigrants. Trades unions were briefly involved in opposing immigration in the early 1890s, although this sentiment was aimed at all groups coming into Great Britain and not just the Jews. However, by 1895 the Glasgow Trades Council opposed an anti-immigration resolution at the Scottish Trades Union Council (STUC).

• “Jews found life easier in Scotland than those who went to England”

• Give evidence that this is true.

• The Aliens Act of 1905 did much to halt the number of immigrants coming into Great Britain, and the whole immigrant question declined in importance. Free from being the subject of controversy, the Jewish community in Scotland prospered and made a substantial contribution to Scottish society, particularly in the legal profession. Such was the integration of Jews into Scottish society that attempts by the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s to spread anti-Jewish propaganda were largely unsuccessful. Few Scots took any notice. There is little evidence today of anti-Semitism in Scottish society.

• These early immigrant Jews tended to come from Russia, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Mostly, this movement of people can be attributed to the pogroms (persecution instigated by the government against a minority group) in Russia which began at this time. Many others arrived in the 1930s as a result of Adolf Hitler’s persecution across Germany and his desire to achieve lebensraum (living space) for his master race.

• In terms of assimilation Jews tended to stay in their own communities, namely the Gorbals in Glasgow with some in the more affluent area of Garnethill in the West End of Glasgow. It is significant to highlight that even among the Jewish communities there were some signs of division. Eyewitnesses suggest that there was a ‘class’ division, as the Russian descendants tended to be poorly educated compared with their German counterparts.