1936 Cable Street Riots

Writer: David Rosenberg

4 October 1936 |  Working Class Jews |  Political Radicals  |  Jewish Class war |  How fascism came to Britain |  Mosley's movement |  Media stereotypes |  Police protection? |  Trouble brewing |  Fighting anti-Semitism |  The Battle of Cable Street |  After Cable Street |  Resources

Jewish Class war

Before the East European migration, Britain was home to around 50,000 relatively wealthy Sephardic Jews who originated from Spain and Portugal. These Jews were concentrated in banking and finance. They lived in the City, the West End and even amongst landed gentry in the Home Counties. They controlled official Jewish institutions such as the Board of Deputies (BOD) and the Anglo Jewish Association. They regarded themselves as the uncontested spokespersons for "the Jewish community".

During the 1930s there were 18 Jewish Members of Parliament, nearly every one was a Sephardic Jew representing a constituency with barely any Jews. The East End Jews and the Sephardic gentry looked at each other with suspicion and lack of comprehension. The East Enders called them hekher fensters (high windows), and certainly, through their windows, the Sephardic establishment saw the institutions of British society in a different light.

While East End Jews experienced increasing verbal abuse, discrimination in the workplace and physical thuggery on the street, their richer cousins maintained a rosy view of Britain as a land of tolerance, and a haven from European antisemitism. They refused to believe that anti-Semitism could grow and flourish on British soil.

They publicly supported the key institutions of British society – Parliament, courts, and police. And yet privately they harboured some doubts and unease. They promoted Jewish integration while being very aware of their own occasional exclusion. They were sensitive to upsetting the "host" community and admonished Jews not to "crowd" professions such as dentistry, medicine or law.

The East End Jewish working class community saw and felt things very differently. They experienced brutal anti-Semitism at first hand. Much like Black and Asian minorities in East London today, they felt that the media scapegoated them, the police did not defend them adequately, and the politicians didn't care. During the 1930s, when Jewish communities were being attacked, Parliament debated anti-Semitism only once.

If they felt disenfranchised by Parliament they also felt unrepresented by their own community leaders – the Board of Deputies. So they looked outside their community to trade unions and the Communist Party to advance the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

They wanted equality, rights, respect, and acceptance and they were willing to fight for them openly, without fear of disapproval

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