Jewish emigration - overview
Arrival of Jews to Scotland
• Jews began to arrive in Scotland throughout the 19th century.
• Jewish settlement patterns:
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Edinburgh in 1816
Glasgow in 1823
Dundee by the 1870s
Aberdeen by 1893.
• These early immigrant Jews tended to come from Russia, Lithuania,
Estonia and Latvia.
Why did the Jews leave their homelands?
• Mostly this movement of people can be attributed to the pogroms
(persecution instigated by the government against a minority group) in
Russia.
• Many others would arrive in the 1930s as a result of Adolf Hitler’s
persecution across Germany and in his desire to achieve lebensraum
(living space) for his master race.
Kindertransport
Here are some of the
children who arrived on
British soil as part of the
Kindertransport in the
1930s.
© Jewish Archive of Glasgow
Case study: Jewish community in Glasgow
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Minutes from the synagogue in Glasgow show that the
formation of a community began around 1887.
By 1879 there were 800 Jews affiliated to a synagogue
in the Garnethill area of Glasgow.
In Glasgow, a strong Jewish community emerged in the
Gorbals. In 1901 there were 5000 Jews. It is estimated
that by 1939 this figure had doubled to 10,000.
This community began to establish networks that were
based around religion, culture, charity and education as
well as a socialising.
This is documented in numerous leaflets that were
produced in 1901 for the Gorbals Jewish community.
These continued to be produced for many years, initially
in Yiddish but then with some English words too.
The increasing numbers of Jews led to the production of
the Jewish Times newspaper and then in 1927 the
Jewish Echo.
© Jewish Archive of
Glasgow
Employment
• At this time many of these Glasgow Jews were poor.
• Organisations were established for administering poor relief, which
continued well into the 1930s.
• Jews found a degree of difficulty in gaining employment.
• Jews were not employed in banks or in government offices.
• Many established their own businesses, such as travelling sales.
Assimilation?
• Jews tended to stay in their own
communities, namely in the
Gorbals in Glasgow, with some in
the more affluent area of
Garnethill in the West End of
Glasgow.
© Jewish Archive of Glasgow