Racing, Betting, Anti-Semitism and English Jewry 1800–1939

Abstract

Historiography has largely focused on more respectable Anglo-Jewish leisure life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but this study uses the national and regional press, contemporary novels, books and magazines to explore non-Jewish representations of Jewish sports betting and related gambling involvement, and the extent to which such representations involved anti-Semitic attitudes. In part Jewish betting and gambling simply attracted similar respectable opprobrium to that of working-class gambling more generally, and prejudice was not a consistent feature. But at times, coverage suggested that Jews were greedier for money, less honest and more attracted to betting than other ethnic groups. Where Jews were involved in criminal activities, such as racecourse frauds in the 1840s, gaming room presence throughout the period, or the involvement of bookmakers in racecourse feuding in the inter-war period, such activities were sometimes deliberately foregrounded. Some rich Jews became involved in racehorse ownership, but with the exception of the Rothschild family they were excluded from Jockey Club membership. In the interwar period, the British Union of Fascists exploited any Jewish involvement in betting as part of their anti-Semitic propaganda.