Comparing the Jewish and Irish Communities in Twentieth Century Scotland

Abstract

When examining ‘place and displacement in Jewish history and memory’ it is clear that the notion of ‘displacement’ is too pejorative and unhelpful in the Scottish historical context. In examining Jewish relations with the Irish this study demonstrates that while the Jews settled in the Gorbals area of Glasgow's south side a generation after the Irish, they ‘broke free’ of the ‘Glasgow Ghetto’ a generation and more before them. The Jewish experience of settlement in modern Scotland was thus a positive one and their relations with host community much less problematic than that of the immigrant Irish.