BISA lecture (recorded on 06/12/11) - Making History: Archives, Artefacts and Interpreting the Past - lecture series in partnership with the Wiener Library. During the 1930s Britain’s Jewish leadership felt itself compelled to formulate and implement a coherent, communities-wide “defence” policy. This was something that had never before been attempted. What the leadership was defending was a benign communal image, grounded in the belief that Jewish Emancipation in Britain had been an unqualified success. But the reality was very different. Many communal leaders found themselves as concerned with social control as with confronting the fascist menace. Using a variety of archival sources – including those originating from within fascist circles – Professor Geoffrey Alderman will trace the evolution of this idiosyncratic defence policy and attempt to judge its validity.

• published: 28 May 2024
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