'The Citizens of the Future': Educating the Children of the Jewish East End, c.1885-1939

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Scholars interested in British national identity in the early twentieth century have argued that this period was one in which ideas of national belonging became increasingly exclusive. At the same time, many Anglo-Jewish historians have argued that this was a period of increasing hostility towards the Jewish presence in Britain. An examination of the education of Jewish children in London's East End from the beginning of large-scale Jewish immigration in the mid-1880s through to the beginning of the Second World War, however, indicates that the story was more complicated than this. Although there were various early twentieth-century discourses which were ambivalent or hostile towards Jews, the actual policies followed in educating London's Jewish children were open and accommodating, particularly when compared with policies implemented in response to New Commonwealth immigration later in the century. The London County Council, building upon policies established by its predecessor the School Board for London, worked in a variety of ways to allow Jewish pupils to fully participate in the life of their schools without creating conflict with their Jewish background. Oral history and autobiographical evidence indicates that Jewish pupils generally did not feel excluded or alienated by their schooling, but found it to be a largely positive initiation into the national community. This illustrates the importance of examining not only the discourses of national belonging, but also actual practices which helped to define national belonging and the experiences of those affected by those practices.