Scaling the Jewish East End

Abstract

This chapter makes innovative use of the concept of scale, to offer a fresh reading of the Jewish East End at the time of the aliens debate. It demonstrates that, only by ‘scaling’ downwards to examine different interior sites within the Jewish ghetto, such as the synagogue, sweatshop and home, can a truly nuanced appreciation of the alien Jewish milieu emerge. It explores how the fin de siecle fashion for social observation and urban spectatorship opened up the East End for scrutiny in ways which encouraged comparison between ‘British’ practices and ‘alien’ ones; the Russian Pale, and ‘darkest’ Africa; the ‘romance’ and mysticism of biblical times with the harsh realities of industrialisation. These complex readings of alien Jewish space in the British capital complicated the parameters of the aliens debate, conversely providing a platform for both the passage of the Aliens Act of 1905, and a site of belonging for the alien Jew.