Trudy Gold
Churchill and The Jews, Part I

Trudy Gold | Churchill and the Jews, Part 1 | 07.07.21

- Right, so Trudy.

• Okay.

• So, I’m going to say welcome Trudy and welcome to everybody that’s join us. We are now just over 1,200 participants. And Trudy, I will be handing over to you.

• Thank you, and Judi, thank you as ever for putting my slides together. I am five years old when it comes to technology, anyway.

• You’re welcome.

Visuals displayed throughout the presentation.

• Thanks you. William, of course is, William and I had a long talk. Churchill is such a towering figure. And of course, in any poll of the English, he always comes out as everyone’s favourite Englishman. And his life did touch Jewish history in many, many ways. And because his life is so eventful and because his participation in matters to do with the Jews was so crucial, what we decided to do was to give him six sessions. We’ve never done this before. Three from William and three from me. And I’m going to concentrate, and of course, William’s giving the overview of Churchill, and he’s coming onto the Churchill, the great war leader. And of course he had that very long extraordinary life. But what I am specifically concentrating on is Churchill and the Jews.

And I suppose the best book on it is Sir Martin Gilbert’s, “Churchill and the Jews.” But there is a proviso, Sir Martin was Churchill’s official biographer and he adored the man. Yes, I have huge admiration for Churchill. How can’t you have admiration? But like all of us, he did have warts and he did have flaws. And the first thing I want to say about Churchill, and can we see a picture please, Judi? Let’s have a look at the great man when he was young. Yeah, Churchill was the grandson of a Duke. He was born in 1874, he dies in 1965. Churchill in the end was a Victorian aristocrat. And many of the attitudes that were formed in that generation are not the attitudes of today. This has already come up in one of William’s talks, and I’ve discussed it with my colleagues. And I think one of the issues on we have to take people in the context of their own time.

So here you have a man who’s born in 1874, he had a great sense of history, and of course his ancestor was the Duke of Marlborough, the hero of Blenheim when he was born in Blenheim Palace. And not only is he going to be perhaps the greatest war leader that Britain has ever known, and don’t forget that he was a very talented artist and he won the Nobel Prize for literature. He was, he was a genius in many ways. And, but like all of us, he was a very complicated man. Now let’s have a look at the pictures of his father and mother. Now that’s his father, Randolph Churchill.

Randolph Churchill was the youngest son of the Duke of Marlborough. And he was an extraordinary man. He entered politics, he became chancellor of the Exchequer. He dies before Churchill’s 21st birthday and Churchill absolutely adored him. Sir Randolph Churchill surrounded himself with Jewish friends. Churchill was a bit of a maverick. You’ve got to remember in the hidebound world of this, the Victorian aristocracy, it had been, I’m going to use the word infiltrated. It’s a very loaded world by a group of very interesting Jewish entrepreneurs. And Randolph and later on, Churchill was very friendly with these characters. It’s characters like Nathaniel Rothschild, like Baron Maurice de Hirsch, like Sir Ernest Cassel, like the Sassoon family.

These Jewish entrepreneurs, hugely wealthy, sophisticated businessmen who walks the world and also were desperate to enter English upper class, the upper class life. And this is a fascination in Jewish identity. And the whole theme of Jewish identity is something that I’m going to turn to time and time again. Karl Popper that great quote of his, which you tie up, of course, with Kaneti. “The complication of being a Jew. "There are no people more difficult to understand "than the Jews.” And what is fascinating is how these great, these great entrepreneurs, what in the end they wanted was the approbation of the English aristocracy. Now antisemitism is a very, very loaded term. I did say I’d never used it again, I’d always use the term Jew hatred.

It was an Israeli historian who said, “Antisemitism is to dislike Jews more than is reasonable.” That is the world would weary comment of an Israeli academic. Because in, I think what we have to say in the old world of Christianity, the Jew, the demon Jew. So even if you are an enlightened person of your period, you can’t really rob yourself of these kind of prejudices. So there was, there was mild antisemitism, Jew hatred in Victorian England. And even amongst those who had friendships with the Jews, there were attitudes. Now let’s have a look at his wife, Jennie Jerome. You see Churchill, Randolph Churchill did what many other aristocrats did, they found themselves a wealthy American to marry.

There were many dozens of American, Americans coming to England. Many of them were Jewish, Jennie Jerome wasn’t. This was often levelled against Churchill that he had Jewish blood, he had no Jewish blood. The slightly exotic Jennie Jerome, she probably had Indian blood, Native American Indian blood. Her father had made a fortune and along with these heiresses, they come to London, and what do they want to do? They want to bag a title. And you can see it just how beautiful she was.

But there was a tragedy in the family. And that is of course, that Randolph Churchill had contracted syphilis. And towards the end, when he had third degree syphilis, it had eaten away at his brain and his mind wandered and he was given to huge outbursts of rage. And Churchill did not have an easy childhood. He had a very, he had very absent parents. And frankly, if it wasn’t for his beloved nanny, he would’ve been a very, very lonely child.

William talked about his days at Harrow and also, but there was something in Churchill, a positive attitude, an indomitable will. But let’s get onto the story of the Jews, because his father surrounds himself with Jewish friends. In fact, there’s a story that Randolph arrives at the home, the London home of another English aristocrat, and the aristocrat said very snootily, “Oh, "I see you haven’t brought your Jewish friends with me.” And Randolph replied, “No, I didn’t think they’d be amused "with the company that you keep.”

Anyway, so already the father is surrounded by Jewish friends, and we know that in Churchill’s sort of coming of age, it’s going to be Sir Ernest Cassel and Nathaniel Rothschild and to a lesser extent, Maurice de Hirsch, who are going to help him on the way. And later on, this is going to be held against Churchill so by those who hated him. So can we see the next photograph if you don’t mind, Judi. Here, you see Randolph Churchill with his great friend Nathaniel Rothschild. So who was Nathan Rothschild, Nathaniel Rothschild. His dates are 1840 to 1915.

He is the grandson of the Nathan Rothschild who came to England from Germany with a fortune of 20,000 pounds. And the second of the five, brilliant Rothschild brothers, the father back in the ghetto of Frankfurt, sent his sons out into the world. And you are now looking at the grandson of Nathan Rothschild. His father had been ennobled. And here you have Nathaniel, who is the first Jewish peer. He became a peer in 1885. Now he was the eldest son, as I said, of Lionel de Rothschild, who was so close to Benjamin Disraeli and Baroness Charlotte von Rothschild. In the main, the Rothschilds married amongst their own, and once in a while they married into other, other branches of the “Jewish aristocracy.”

And what is fascinating about the Rothschild family, if you look at the Habsburgs and see what intermarriage did to them, there was huge degeneracy. With the Rothschilds, it didn’t seem to make any difference. So it’s, they both, both Charlotte and Lionel, Nathan’s parents had common grandparents, so that, that was to keep the money in the family. So here you see him at rest with, with, of course with Churchill’s father. So he also, he sees himself, you see, once you are a Rothschild, he felt that he had great duty to the Jewish people. But he very much lived the life of an English aristocrat. He was captain in the Buckinghamshire Yeomanry. He’d been educated at Trinity College Cambridge.

This was before Jews could graduate. He studied at Cambridge, but he didn’t graduate, why? Because the oath was not removed until 1871. Up until 1871 when you graduated, you have to swear on the King’s James Bible. So that of course, didn’t just stop Jews, it stopped dissenters, free thinkers. And that’s one of the reasons that university college was created so that characters like that could graduate. But it’s not until 1871, remember he’s born in 1840, that Jews could actually graduate from Oxford and Cambridge. He became head of the bank in 1879.

And those for our South African friends, he funded Cecil Rhodes in the British South African Company, and also in the De Beers Diamond conglomerate. He was, this is the era of trade. This is the era of the British Empire. And the British Empire needed these kind of entrepreneurs. You know, even Gladstone’s grandfather made it in trade. On the continent, the aristocracy really looked down on trade. But for an Englishman, you can, it’s not a terrible thing to have made your fortune in trade. But by the time you get to the third generation, can we forget about it please. Anyway, after Rhodes deaths, Nathaniel was very important in establishing the Rhode scholarships, which of course, in this modern day of ours, are they going to be under threat through political correctness?

He was a huge philanthropist. He set up The Four Per Cent Industrial Dwelling scheme. Many of you will remember that when Sandra lectured on this. In fact, it was her husband, Bernie, who was for a while, he was in fact managing director of Rothschilds Bank. And he was in control of this. It was originally a scheme to improve the housing of the Jews in the East End of London. And now it’s very much for the inhabitants of the East End. He was a huge philanthropist. So he’s also a well-known agriculturalist. In his beautiful homes, he developed wonderful gardens.

He was a privy counsellor, he was a member of the council at Buckingham Palace. After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, Edward VII takes the throne. He was a very close friend of Edward VII. Victoria, the very hidebound court but her son, Edward VII who was married to Princess Alexandria of Denmark, he surrounds himself with Jews. He was very much an interesting character. He loved gambling, he loved cards, he loved horses, he loved women. And he found these kind of characters more interesting than the stayed English aristocrats. So this is the transition also, and this is the world of Winston Churchill’s father and later on, it’s going to be Winston’s world.

He entered parliament in 1865. Jews were allowed, Jews, the emancipation progress in England was very different to that on the continent. There wasn’t one edict of emancipation. In 1858, Jews could swear on the Hebrew Bible. And his father had become an MP in 1858. Up until then, he had been elected but he couldn’t sit because he couldn’t swear on the Christian Bible. But after 1858, he could. So in 1865, he becomes the MP for Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. And he takes the title when he is elevated to the Peerage, Baron Rothschild of Tring, his major stately home.

In 1914, he advises the government of George V on economics. This is under Lloyd George. And he said, these important, important figures who walk the world, Lloyd George, the Welshman, he also had a lot of Jewish friends. He turns to people like Rothschild for advice. And Rothschilds advice was tax the rich and tax them heavily. In 1867, he married Emma Louise von Rothschild, again, a first double cousin from the Frankfurt branch. He’s buried in the Jewish cemetery in Willesden.

So there you see him at rest with Churchill’s father. Can we go to the next picture, please? Ah, here you haves Sir Ernest Cassel, another absolutely fascinating character. And who is in front of them? Mrs. George Keppel. Mrs. George Keppel was Edward VII mistress. And ironically, she’s the great-grandmother of Camilla Parker Bowles, who is now of course the wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the throne of England. So and evidently the story is that when Camilla met Charles for the first time, she said, “Do you know that my great-grandmother "was your great-grandfather’s mistress.” So basically, this is the world they moved in.

So this is the young Winston, after the death of his father with Sir Ernest Cassel, a very close friend of his father who’s going to help him financially. So who is Ernest Joseph Cassel? His dates are 1852 to 1921. He was born in Cologne. He was the son of a Jacob Cassel and Amelia Rosenheim. His father ran a small bank in Prussia. Ernest comes to Liverpool in 19, he comes to Liverpool when he’s 17 years old. He was the youngest of the three children.

At the age of 14, before he came to Liverpool, his father had apprenticed him with another Jewish banker, a man called Eltzbacher. Now this other banker, Jewish banker in Prussia, he specialised in financing foreign and industrial ventures. Remember, this is Prussia under Bismarck, the beginnings of the huge industrialization process of Prussia. So you have the two great rival empires, the British and the Prussian, later the German Empire, because don’t forget, in the end, Bismarck unifies Germany. So very early on, he learns the world of finance and he learns it very thoroughly.

And remember, this is the time when the world is exploding for those who understand finance. So he arrives in Liverpool with absolutely no capital and he goes to work for a firm of grain merchants, again, friends of his father’s. This is really the Jewish network. Evidently he had an absolutely brilliant mind, he was incredibly hardworking and he had an incredible ins, he had the entrepreneurial spirit. He went to Paris having, he leaves Liverpool, he goes to Paris, he works in a bank but then it’s the Franco-Prussian War. So the Franco-Prussian War, not a good place for a German to be.

So what happens is he comes to London and he, who does he work for? He goes to work for some friends of his fathers. And he goes to work in the Goldschmidt and Bischoffsheim Bank in London. And, but soon he’s putting together his own deals. What is he getting involved in? Where does his capital needed? In mining, infrastructure, heavy industry. He becomes very interested in Turkey and putting together the Turkish Empire is falling apart. He’s one of those characters who tries to modernise the Turkish Empire, along with another man who’s going to fit into all of this, Baron de Hirsch. Baron de Hirsch who I’ll talk about in a minute, he is the man who pulls together the railway network for the Turkish Empire. He also has interests in Sweden, South America, Morocco, Egypt, don’t forget Egypt 1876, the Suez Canal becomes an area of British interest.

He is one of the financiers of the Aswan Dam. Between 1899 and 1902. He was present of the opening. He received his baronetcy for that. He also consolidated Vickers-Armstrong, the UK’s leading arms manufacturer. He put them on the road, he understood the, the importance of England being strong. And he becomes one of the richest men of Europe. He’s really part of Edward VII set, he’s actually nicknamed Windsor Cassel. He’s a close friend of Asquiths and Churchill. And something else, those of you who live in London, he financed the first underground railway. He retired in 1910.

His interests, he had a huge racing stable. He had castles and homes all over Europe. He had a very famous art collection. And not only that, he was a huge philanthropist. He actually donated, now I’m talking about the turn of the 20th century, 500,000 pounds for education, 225,000 pounds, the hospital for nervous diseases, 50,000 pounds to the King Edward Hospital in memory of his only child. He built an endowed, an Anglo German Institute in 1911 as a memorial to his great friend, Edward VII. And during World War I, he gave huge donations to the British Red Cross. He married, he married late, he married in 1878, a woman called Mary Maud Maxwell. He had one child by her. She died, she died very early, Emily Cassel.

And Emily Cassel, also becomes a fascinating figure. When his wife died young, his sister Wilhelmina became his housekeeper and helped him bring up his daughter. His granddaughter, his, remember his daughter’s died and his granddaughter was very unhappy because her father married again. Her father was an Englishman, an English aristocrat, he married again. So Edwina came to the daughter, came to live with her grandfather. He absolutely adored her, he doted on her. And she of course later married Louis Mountbatten and became vicereine of India. So he actually converted to Roman Catholicism to please his wife.

Now he had so many honours awarded him in his lifetime, not just from the British, he was awarded the, he had awards from Sweden, from Turkey. He had the Légion d'honneur from France, the Order of the Crown from Prussia, the Order of the Rising Sun from Japan. Because many of these Jewish industrialists and I’m going to call him a Jewish industrialist, even if he converted to Catholicism, because he was seen as a Jew. Why Japan? You know, Japan, the rising star of the East. Many of these philanthropists hated Russia because of the antisemitism of the Tsar. And Jacob Schiff, for example, was one of the main financiers of the Russo-Japanese War on the side of Japan.

So at his death, he left an estate of nearly seven and a half million pounds, which is an absolute fortune. He was one of the founders of the National Bank of Turkey. He was the sole owner of the National Bank of Egypt. And in 1914, when Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty, Cassel was authorised by him and by Lord Lloyd George, to visit the Kaiser on a secret mission to try and make peace. It was unsuccessful, but this is the kind of man who walked with kings.

Now, this is a letter that Churchill wrote to his daughter, Edwina on Cassels death. “I had the knowledge that he was very fond of me "and believed in me at all times, especially in bad times. "I had a real and deep affection for him, "saw with sadness "that he was approaching the end of his mortal span. "The last talk we had about six weeks ago, "he told me that he would hope to live "see me at the head of affairs. "I could see how great his interest was in my doings "and my fortunes. "I did hope he would live to see a form of four more years "of sunshine.”

Now it was Cassel and Rothschild after his father’s death, who really helped Churchill both in friendship and in finances. In 1899, when Churchill went on that great mission to South Africa, that William has already talked about, Rothschild gave him 150 pounds, Cassel gave him 100 pounds, which is basically the annual income at the time of a middle class English family. And in 1902, Cassel secured Churchill, a 10,000 pound state in a Japanese loan. And Churchill writes, “I hope to make a small profit.” Cassel financed a library for Churchill in his first bachelor flat at 105 Mount Street.

And when he moved to Bolton Street after he married his darling Clementine, he furnished the sitting room. And during the summer holiday of 1906, the one of the first of his marriage, Cassel hosted him at the Villa Cassel in the Swiss Alps. He, in 1907, he bought him bonds in Atchison, Topeka in the Santa Fe Railroad. And which by doing that, that gave him, Churchill, ‘cause Churchill was always having money troubles. Remember he had to earn his living as a journalist. He provided him with the salary for a typist twice over. And when he married Clementine, Cassel gave him, his present from Cassel was 500 pounds, which is very much, it’s 25,000 pounds in today’s money.

So, and later on, this is all going to be held against Churchill, that these are the people that he turned to. And also, when he was a young boy at school, he was very friendly with the Sassoon boy at Harrow, who also became close friends. So Churchill mixes very much in this milieu of these interconnected, extraordinary Jewish financiers. Can we go on please with the pictures? Thank you, Judi. Ah, there you see Churchill at his first outing and it’s going to be in Manchester. And I’m going to talk about that later on because a third of his constituency is Jewish. And this is a very important outing because it’s the first outing, you see the woman with him that is his wife, Clementine.

It’s her first official function when he was an MP in North Manchester. Much more about all of this later on. Can we go on please? And now you see Baron Maurice de Hirsch, the extraordinary Baron Maurice de Hirsch, who is the third really of the triumvirate of Jews who surrounded Churchill. He was an extraordinary character and he is around him as he’s a young man. He was far more the friend, he dies in 1896 when Churchill’s 22. But he’s very much a close friend of his father’s and he is an extraordinary individual. His father was the banker to The House of Wittelsbach. And he was the first Jew, he’s born in Munich and his father was the first Jew to be ennobled.

The House of Wittelsbach is of course the family of Ludwig II of Bavaria. And those of you who have ever visited Munich, he’s the king who created all the fairytale castles. And he is the banker. At age 13, he’s sent to Brussels for schooling and then he goes into the banking business. He marries Clara Bischoffsheim, whose family, of course are another very important banking family. Her father was co-founder of Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt, and he plays a pivotal role in the financial, in the early years of Belgium independence. They play an absolutely pivotal role in the creation of modern Belgium. He’s a director of the Bank of Belgium, the National Bank of Belgium, with his brother, he founded the bank which became Paribas.

His mother was a member of the Goldschmidt family from Frankfurt. The English branch changed its name to Goldsmith. I suppose the most famous member of that family was of course the James Goldsmith. And it’s his son, of course, who was in parliament and his daughter, of course is an English socialite. The mother, his mother, his wife, beg your pardon, Clara had a very liberal education. She could write and she could write and speak about half a dozen languages. And she, herself, his mother’s family were Wertheimers, another famous banking family. So really I’m talking about the modern court Jews.

So after his marriage, he goes to work for his father-in-law. He amasses a huge fortune. Along with his friend Sir Ernest Cassel, they go into the railway business. He has the working, he has the concessions where for Austria, Turkey, the Balkans, he speculates in copper, in sugar. And his most spectacular railway venture was the line which linked Vienna to Constantinople. So these are characters of huge vision. He lives most of his time in Paris. And those of you who heard my lecture on Hertzl, of course he’s going to be very important in the history of Zionism.

He had homes in Paris, he had a wonderful chateau. He had a residence in London, Bath House, Piccadilly. He had a hunting lodge in Hungary where the Churchill family visited, again, a string of race horses. He used to give all his winnings to charity. He did, although he was a huge help to Jewish settlement in Palestine, and he was a huge help to poor Jews of Russia. Think of the fortune ought, et cetera. He said, he thinks that, he thought, this is a quote from him to Herzl. He thought that the Jewish problems stemmed from Jews being overly cerebral, we have too many intellectuals.

So basically in London, he’s very interested in educational work. He helps in London, he gives a hundred thousand pounds to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He gives a huge amount in France. He is the main supporter of the work of the Alliance. He founded the Jewish Colonial Association, Colonisation Association as an English society. 200,000, I’m sorry, 2 million pounds, he gave them another 7 million. This is to help the Jews of Eastern Europe settle some in Palestine, but not Zionists and some settle in South America.

And after his death and that of his wife, the capital increased to 11 million. At the time, he was probably, his trust was probably the largest in the world. He very much helped his people. He helped, his vision was to equip his people to cope with the modern world. He set up all sorts of schemes for immigration out of Russia, distribution agencies, technical schools, think ought, cooperatives, factories, saving and loan banks, model dwellings. He also worked with Baron Horace de Gunzburg. And as I said, these are the connected characters who are really the lords of the Jewish world.

So it’s no accident that people, and I’m going to say including Churchill, think Jews had a lot of power. So these are the characters. There’s one other character who’s quite, who has quite a bit to say about Churchill’s early years. Can we see the next picture please, Judi? Can we go on Judi? Yes, there is, there is the Hirsch. Can we go on one more? There you have, Sir Felix Simon. Now, many of you know that Winston Churchill had a bit of a lisp. And who does he go in order to try and have that lisp cured? He goes to visit Sir Felix Simon.

Now, Sir Felix Simon, his dates are 1849 to 1921. He came from Prussia, he was the son of a Berlin, a stock broker, brilliant medical student. He took a degree in 1873 studies in Venice, and beg your pardon, Vienna, Paris. He specialised in diseases of the throat and nose. And he’s brought to London really because he becomes one of the most famous laryngologists in the world, and he joined the throat hospital. And he was a very, very important figure. And he’s the character that Churchill goes to see to try and do something about his lisp. When we think of Churchill as the incredible speech maker, this is what Sir Simon tells his wife after his meeting.

This is just before he leaves for India as a soldier. “I have just seen the most extraordinary young man "that I have ever met. "It is not my intention, it is not my intention.” Churchill said to him, “It’s not my,” and he’s reporting it to his wife. “It’s not my intention "to become a mere professional soldier. "I only wish to gain some experience, "someday I shall be a statesman as my father was before me.”

Now, this is very important, Churchill all his life was haunted by the memory of his father, his father who had reached the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ironically, a post that Churchill was later going to fill. And he, if you just think about it, the father towards the end of his life, tertiary syphilis, the outbursts of rage and all the rest of it, the way he behaved in the house. And one of Churchill’s overriding concerns was to vindicate the memory of his beloved father. So here you have Simon actually reporting to his wife, the huge ambition.

And we know that Churchill spent one of his summer holidays when he was at school, he actually was a guest of Baron de Hirsch in Paris, and he’s there in 1898 and of course it’s the height of The Dreyfus affair. And he writes, he writes home to his mother. “I am delighted to witness the complete debacle "of this monstrous conspiracy.” Here you have the grandson of the Duke of Marlborough, actually in Paris, at the extraordinary home of one of the richest Jews in the world who is violently against the horror of antisemitism in Paris.

So, as I said, when Randolph dies in 1895, really these are the men who take Churchill under their wing. Not only, not only did they help him financially, they helped him socially. His mother was a bit of a butterfly woman, you know, she was immensely attractive. And after her husband’s death, Churchill adored her. How much of a real mother was she is another story. But he relied very heavily on these individuals. And his son, Randolph Churchill, Churchill’s son Randolph said in his biography of his father, “During this time, he was sometimes invited into Gentile society.”

So we know that when he was in India, he decided he wanted to become a war correspondent. And he, “Lord Rothschild will arrange it,” he writes to his mother, “1899 politics.” Again, Rothschild helps him with introductions. And after Randolph’s death, they didn’t just help him, Cassel really took over his finances. So now, so what I think I’ve established is that he was very much part of that milieu of those international Jewish bankers. I’ve also mentioned that he was very close to the Sassoon family, those extraordinary, those extraordinary Jews who I’ll be talk, we’re going to cross reference back to the Sassoon family when we spend more time looking at the Sephardi Jews.

And in fact, his close friendship was with Ruben Sassoon and his nephew, Phillip Sassoon became Secretary of State for Air. And of course, then he was working with Churchill. So Churchill continues his progress. Before his marriage in 1904, he becomes the conservative MP for Oldham, but he’d already begun to support liberal causes. And he deserts the Tories for the liberals and he needs a new constituency, and that’s when he stands for Manchester Northwest. Whereas I’ve already mentioned a quarter of the electorate was Jewish. And one of his principal supporters in Manchester was Nathan Laski, who was a chairman of the Hebrew Congregation of Manchester and chair of the Jewish Hospital.

And he enlisted his support against the Aliens Act. Those of you who have studied this period will know that in 1905, the British introduced, the British government introduced an act to restrict immigration, it’s the Aliens Act. But for Alien rid Jew, this was to curtail the number of Eastern European Jews fleeing Russia into Britain. Look, I’m sure the majority of you realise that between 1881 and 1914, 40% of the Jews of Eastern Europe about two and a half million people got out. They got out because of huge economic hardship and because of pogrom. And where did they go? Well, of course the majority went to America but a large number came to Britain, about 300,000 came to Britain. Further number went to, of course, to South Africa.

That’s the basis of the largest Jewish South African community, mainly from Lithuania. Others went to Palestine. But of those who came to Britain, they settled in the East End and it coincided, the second wave coincided with the Berlin War. And socialism, ironically, in England blamed Jewish finance for the Berlin War, just as ultra rights-wing characters looked at the poverty in the East End, and they blamed the Jews for destroying the working people. So anti Judaism was hitting the Jews both from the left and the right.

And this is what Churchill had to say about the Aliens Act. “The whole bill looks like an attempt to gratify a small but noisy section of their own constituents to purchase a little popularity by dealing harshly with a number of unfortunate aliens who have no votes. It is expected to appeal to insular prejudice and foreigners to racial prejudice against Jews, and to labour prejudice against competition.”

So he’s saying it, what’s it really about? These are unscrupulous people, they’re appealing to insular prejudice against foreigners, to racial prejudice against Jews, and to labour prejudice against competition. Because of course, as the area is being flooded with immigrants, it’s forcing the price of wages down. You know, this is tragically you can look at history and you can see different circumstances, but motivations do not seem to change.

And he goes, Churchill goes on to say, “English working men are not so selfish as to be unsympathetic to the victims of circumstance and oppression. They do not respond in any marked degree "to the antisemitism, which has darkened recent continental history. And I, for one, believe that they disavow and attempt to shut out the stranger from our land because he is poor or in trouble. And will resent a measure, which without any proved necessity, smirches those ancient traditions of freedom and hospitality, from which Britain has been so long renowned.

So this is Churchill in the house screaming out against the Aliens Bill. Now Laski writes to him, remember Nathan Laski an important constituent. "You have won the entire gratitude "of the whole Jewish community in the entire country.” So, his first major speech actually as a liberal on the opposing bank was to try and stop the Aliens Act. And the, those who were in favour of the act alleged that Churchill’s opposition was on orders from his Jewish friends, such as Lord Rothschild and Sir Ernest Cassel.

And it’s later going to actually explode after the sec, after the first World War. It’s going to explode into a global action. So, but more about that next time. Also, this is in 1905 at a public meeting in Manchester, remember his constituency is a third Jewish. It’s about the terrible Kishinev, this is about the terrible, there was a Kishinev pogrom in 1903, there was another pogrom in 1905 which coincided with the revolution in Russia. There was a phoney revolution in Russia, why was it phoney ? Because it wasn’t successful. And there’s another terrible massacre in Russia.

And he’s the main speaker of this public meeting. “The number of victims have been enormous, many thousands of weakened defenceless people have suffered terribly. Old people alike with little children and feeble women who are incapable of offering resistance and could not rely at all on the force of law, and the regulation of order. That these outrages were not spontaneous, but rather in the nature of a deliberate plan combined to create a picture so terrible that one could hardly distinguish it in its grim reality, even amidst the darkness that was Russia.”

Now, can we go on please, Judi. That is Simon, can we go on once more? That’s the doctor and who was sitting next to him on that platform, but a young man who he, I know you’re seeing his picture of him in old age. A young man who had arrived in Manchester to become an assistant lecturer in chemistry at the university. So this is when he and Churchill meet, and they are going to strike a very deep friendship. So this is important. Churchill makes this speech. He, in a Jewish area, but he was offended by Russia, there’s no doubt about that. And sitting next to him, of course, was Chaim Weizmann.

And the other thing, he went to many, his first meeting after his marriage was to a Jewish hospital fund. He very much liked Jewish self-help and philanthropy. Later on, another British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, she invites Lord Young into government. Just think about the positions he held in Jewish care. She was always fascinated, so was Churchill, how Jews tended to help each other. The fact that this is very much a part of our history of outside in this, but this was, this very much attracted, attracted Churchill.

Because in Manchester, just as there was in London, look it must be said that there were Jews in London and in Manchester, who paid immigrants to go back to Russia or paid them to go on to America. Even Louis B. Mayer went on to America, can you imagine if Louis B. Mayer stayed in London? The history of the film ministry may have been different, but what they do at the same time is huge philanthropy. There was a Jewish soup kitchen, there was Jewish lads club, there was a Jewish tennis and cricket club. Let’s make our refugees into English gentlemen.

He also visited a Jewish working man’s club. He visited a Talmud Torah because of course they were the religious. The Eastern European Jews were much more religious. Oh, no, religious in, they were more orthopraxic because of course United Synagogue was the majority, religion of Anglo-Jewry. But it very much emulated England. If you think about it, the rabbis wore canonicals, there was a chief rabbi. It was structured like the, really, like the Anglican church.

So ironically, when these youngsters come over from Russia, the federation is created. It’s much more outwardly practising . I’m not denying the orthodoxy, the religious orthodoxy of Anglo-Jewry or the United Synagogue, but it was an attempt to prove that Jews could be English gentlemen. He said at a meeting, “Guard and keep,” this is a meeting addressing young Jews at the Working Man’s Club. “Guard and keep your spirit as a special, precious thing, a bond of union, which is an inspiration and source of great strength. You have the spirit of a race and faith.” And this is what he also said, “Be a good Jew. A Jew cannot be a good Englishman unless he was a good Jew.”

Now he, as I said, he fought against the Tori Aliens Act, and of course, the liberals. When the liberals were in power, they introduced an Aliens Act of their own which really depressed him. And this is a letter to the home secretary Herbert Gladstone. “I was concerned to find how very bitter and disappointed the Jewish community has become in consequence of this continuance of this very harsh and quite indefensible measure.”

In 1908, after he returned, Churchill returned from a tour of the East Africa, he was asked by a leading Zionist, Dr. Moses Gaster, to send a message to the English Zionist Federation. The Zionist organisation was split, but too well it was split, loads of splits, but it was split between the Territorialists, who after the failure of the Uganda offer of Theodore to Theodore Herzl, the British offered the Jews a Homeland in Uganda. It was turned down by, because of particularly the Eastern European Jews, they said it has to be in our ancient homeland. But there was a group led by Israel Zangwill who created the Jewish Territorial Trust.

And there was a split amongst his constituencies, between the Territorialists and the Zionists. And this is the letter he writes, “I’m in full sympathy with the historic traditional aspiration of the Jews. The restoration to them of a centre of true racial and political integrity, will be a tremendous event in the history of the world. Whether the wide effort of the Jewish race should be centred on Palestine to the exclusion of all other temporary solutions, or whether in the meantime, some other outlet of relief and place and unification should be provided for the better need of those who suffer. Are questions on what I can scarcely presume to express an opinion.”

So he’s saying, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the Jews wanting a place in the world. He was acutely aware of antisemitism remember, or Jew hatred. But he doesn’t want to get involved in the argument between the Territorialists and the Zionists who wanted to focus on Palestine. Now, he had written in that letter, Jerusalem must be the ultimate goal, but he decided not to include it.

Now, in 1910, he was home secretary. 1911, there were a series of terrible nationwide strikes. I don’t have to tell you, when there’s economic horror and poverty, people look for a scapegoat. And what happened in South Wales, in the mining town of Tredegar, there were 30 Jewish families in a town of 20,000 people, 17 shopkeepers, a rabbi and three peddlers. And the rumour went around that Jewish, that landlords were evicting miners. It was absolutely balderdash.

But the mob went on the rampage. And this is a pogrom in modern England in the 20th century. They went on the rampage against the Jews. They were, the Jews were terrorised for three days. Churchill actually sent the soldiers in to quell the riots and it spread to Ebbw Vale in Wales, Churchill was horrified. There were no deaths but hundreds of Jews were impoverished by it. So it was a very, very, very difficult time.

I think I’m going to stop there because there are many other episodes in Churchill’s life that I’m going to deal with, and I’ve got two more sessions. In the next session, I’m going to deal with Churchill and communism, and Churchill and Palestine. Because of course in 1922, Churchill is responsible for a white paper on Palestine. That is the white paper that William decided I should talk about and not him. And then I’m going to be talking about Churchill in the war, specifically from a Jewish point of view.

And look, I know that on our Zoom channel, there are so many of us with so many different opinions, I’m trying very hard to hold a balance. So what have I said about Churchill, Churchill so far, that he was comfortable around wealthy Jews, no question of that. They were his milieu. He certainly developed a good friendship with Chaim Weizmann, who impressed me incredibly. Chaim Weizmann impressed Balfour. You know, the way I’ve looked at Weizmann towards the end of his life, of course, he believed so much in England and England in the end betrayed him. There’s no question of that.

But Churchill had sympathy for the poor Jews of Russia. But the people he really mixed with, you know, okay, he would go and give speeches, but his social friends were really with this extraordinary group of elite Jews. I’m calling “elite” in inverted commas. Who really wanted to be Europeans and many of them converted. But he always had, certainly at this stage of his life. And I would suggest nearly through the whole of his life, there’s going to be a turning point, and that turning point’s going to be the assassination of Lord Moyne. And I will give time for that. I just hope I can do it in three sessions.

But as Wendy keeps on saying to me, if you can’t, take four. Because William and I decided, and this was really very much Wendy’s idea, that we need to go slower. To give, you know, the rich tapestry. And also, I think it’s important, I hope you like this way of doing it to weave other people into the story. Because you know, it’s what Disraeli said, “Real history is biography.” He said, “When I want to study history, I read biography.” So I think I better stop there because I wanted to look at what happened after the Russian Revolution. And that will take at least a quarter of an hour and I don’t want to hurry it. So I’ll do that at the next session.

So let me have a look at the questions, Judi.

Q&A and Comments

Q: Ah, what part did alcoholism play in his behaviour? A: You will remember that, William refused to see him as an alcoholic, he drank a lot, does that make him an alcoholic?

Esther, “Loved his command of English. "Let us not forget, "this is the anniversary of the Entebbe Rescue.”

Garfield, “It’s called tertiary syphilis,” yes, thank you. And that is of course what Randolph had.

Q: “Why is it that a Jewish person who’s highly successful, wealthy and has all the attributes of success, needs the approbation?” A: Marilyn, that is an incredibly important question and it’s about Jewish identity. Look, you’ve got to imagine, I’m going to quote at you the parable of Isaiah Berlin. You imagine a bunch of people from planet Earth, they come from another planet and they land on planet earth. This is the Jew. You’ve got to remember, Jews were more or less outside European society, right up until the 19th century. And all of a sudden they’re emancipated and they fall in love with it. They fall in love with its music, its art, its literature. And because according to Isaiah Berlin, they come from another planet. Where on that planet, what on earth did they ever have but learning?

Think about it, what was the greatest thing that could happen to a Jewish boy? Go to Yeshiva. For a wealthy Jewish merchant before the modern age, who did he marry his daughter to? Not to another wealthy merchant, but the best match was the rabbi. The worship of knowledge because that’s was something we can always have. But it’s a specific kind of knowledge. It’s Talmudic knowledge. No, not every Jew was learned but every Jew dreamt of it. That’s the point. They land on planet earth, they fall in love with it. And because they are outsiders and because of that tradition of learning, they do incredibly well.

You know the extraordinary book by Yuri Slezkine, “The Jewish 20th century.” He goes as far as to say that the modern world was made for the Jews. He said, “Think about it, what’s the modernity about? Flexibility of thought, changing of employments, seeing the opportunity, in fact becoming Jewish.” So basically, but they fall in love. They fall in love with English manners and the aristocracy and they do it in France and Germany and they love it. And if they no longer have the love of their own Judaism, their own people, they want a different world.

So it’s not difficult to slip in. It’s a very complicated story. And I will get, one of the things William and I have decided to do. He’s going to lecture on Napoleon, I’m going to lecture on Napoleon and the Jews. And I’m really going to, because Napoleon, he poses the Jews of France various questions like, can you be loyal to the nation state? Will you be Jews? Will your identity be Frenchmen of the Jewish religion? That’s what the English, that’s what the English Jews wanted. They wanted the Russians to become Englishmen of the Jewish religion. Give up your notion of nationality and peoplehood. So Marilyn, you’ve asked an incredibly important question that will take probably a few weeks to answer. And whether I can answer it successfully, I don’t know. All of us know, you see, to a Jew living in England, what’s the greatest accolade? To become a Lord? And now of course you have Israel. Where is your loyalty, can it be to both? I mean, that’s why I think when Kaneti says, “There are no people more difficult to understand "than the Jews,” it really is complicated. If I was teaching Christian history, it would be very different, you know, because if you asked an Englishman to define himself, he would say English first, wouldn’t he? Then religion. But if you ask a Jew to define themselves, what do they say first? English, French, German, Scottish, then Jew? Complicated.

Q: Oh, who was a Rothschild? A: The one, I showed you the big picture. They’re both, he’s the one with the beard.

Q: Romaine, “How conflicted do you think the Jews of England were between their origins and their desire to respected by the English aristocracy?” A: It still goes on, of course it still goes on. My daughter, who’s a journalist, she’s got a lovely expression. She says, “Have we still got our noses pressed against the ghetto war?” Look, there’s something very seductive about the English upper classes in their manners. You know, that’s what they fell in love with.

Steve, “In these times with the Rhodes Must Fall movement, Rhodes University is still called, well, Rhodes University. Toronto City Council has just announced a list of 60 street names that are be reviewed for the political correctness. Surprisingly, Churchill’s name is on the list, what a fiasco.” You see, this is something that William talked about, this whole issue of looking at the prism of history through today’s eyes. Look, Churchill did have certain views, which many of you today would find repugnant. Not as repugnant of many of the other characters that I could talk about, but he was a man of empire. He did say some pretty racist things.

Can we judge him by the standards of today? You know, as an educator, I think it’s a much more sensible way to actually keep the street names, but perhaps in certain cases add a little proviso saying there are certain issues that need to be discussed. I wouldn’t go around smashing some statues. As a Jew, I’m going to say something really naughty although we’re told that Jews don’t do irony. As a Jew, do I demand that all those great cathedrals that depict Jews as devils and monsters, should those windows be smashed? In Parliament Square, should the statue of Richard I be taken down? Because the worst, it wasn’t his fault but the worst pogrom in English history happened in his reign.

In Ukraine, Petliura, one of the worst murderers in Jewish history, is a hero of Ukraine. So let’s be very careful. You know, even when you’re dealing with the slavery issue, and I think, you know, I cannot imagine anyone of decency thinking that slavery wasn’t evil. But it’s a bit like the French Revolution that can lead to the reign of terror. I believe passionately in the right to speak, unless you screamed fire in a crowded theatre. Platforming, stopping people’s views. If you incite murder, that’s something else and there are laws, you know, to prevent those kind of things. But what is that great quote? “I don’t believe in what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” And I think what’s happened in our modern world, which of course has been exacerbated by modern technology, is where is the line? The Greeks always said we need philosopher kings, unfortunately we don’t have any, no society has ever managed to provide them. So you’re living in a very complicated time.

Q: “Would I agree that British antisemitism was mostly rooted in classism, snobbery and exclusions, more on the continent antisemitism was mostly rooted in religion.” A: Hank, that’s a very, very important question. I’m not going to answer it now because I’ve realised I’m going to have to give a lecture on Jew hatred, I think it’s important. It’s more, I think it, it needs a more, it needs a very nuance, that’s a very important question that needs a nuanced answer.

Q: “Why were Cassel and Rothschild supporters of Churchill?” A: They liked his father, they liked him, he had a lot of spirit, he had a big brain and he liked them, simple.

“Accepting all that from Cassel will get him into load of trouble today.” Yes, of course it would, Wendy. And as I said to you, there’s going to be a court case. A man called Lord Alfred Douglas, who was the boyfriend of Oscar Wilde, is going to libel him. And because he is a government minister, the British government are going to bring him to court. So I’ll be dealing with that case next time.

Now this is from Hindi, “Baron Hirsch was involved with Crown lands in the area of Estevan, Canada, and a Jewish farming community was established in this area.” Yes, this is, oh, this is fabulous. Thank you for this, Hindi.

“My husband’s family arrived in the middle of a freezing Canadian winter in the late 1890s where they set up a small farm. Today there’s a cemetery where these settlers are buried in the one room schoolhouse. We took our children to see the tiny farmhouse in the 1980s. For a city girl, this was quite an education. Hirsch is still a dot on the map and you can drive through it in about two minutes.” Yes, but he got them out of Eastern Europe. It’s extraordinary, isn’t it.

“Hirsch,” this is from Art, “Hirsch was responsible for my grandfather’s schlepping to Argentina in 1883.” Art, let’s get real, the fact that he schlep to Argentina saved his life. Think what happened to those characters who stayed behind in Eastern Europe, bulk of them finished up as victims of the Nazis.

Yes, Hirsch, “Who was the gent in the high hat?” I think you’re probably looking at Lord Nathaniel Rothschild.

Yes, Jonathan, “After the Wall Street crash when Churchill was wiped out, he was helped by his friends, including prominent Jews.” Yes, yes.

Q: “How many Jews came to South Africa?” A: 25,000 between 1881 and 1914, oh, over 40,000, sorry. Between till 1914, yes and the majority of them came from Lithuania. Very, very interesting community that we will be dealing with. Wendy and I have got it on the agenda and 'cause there’s going to be a lot to say obviously about South Africa.

This is from Rachelle. “I read a wonderful poem by Bialik on the slaughter in the Kishinev pogrom. If you read it in Hebrew, then read it. It has a double meaning not evident in English.” Thank you for that, Rachelle, lovely to hear from you.

“Could Trudy use he a bit less occasionally "and use the (indistinct)?” Yes, I will try, sorry Betty.

“Jewish immigrants to New York were finance to West also where some landed up destitute.” Yeah, you see Jews were people too. And those who were already established didn’t want all these immigrants coming in. Yeah, any immigrant group, when others come, you know, they think they’re settled, they think they’ve made it. And then co-religionists come over who are foreign. You know, in England there were only 60,000 Jews up to 1881. And then you have all these Eastern Europeans come in and they were Jewish and they looked Jewish, and they had accents. And you know, Rothschild sent an incredible letter to JFS, which is the major Jewish Free School saying, you know, “Send your boys onto the sports fields, let them become English gentlemen, don’t send them to Hillel.” It’s fascinating.

Tredegar, yes, my, Tredegar, my pronunciation. William and I are so bad at pronunciation, I apologise.

Q: “In what way did England betray Weizmann? After all they passed the Balfour Declaration.” A: Ditta, you’re going to have to take my word for it. In 1939, they issued the white paper on Palestine, in which they basically said the Balfour Declaration didn’t mean anything. I’m getting some compliments, thank you very much.

“So interesting to learn all that my distant cousin, Jacob Schiff undertook. We knew he was active, but not the scope.” Oh, he was a marvellous man, you should be proud. That’s (indistinct).

Christopher thinks my speed is right, thank you Christopher, I have slowed down.

“I’ve read both Martin Gilbert and Jenkins but a bit disappointed with Jenkins.” I think Martin’s is better. But Martin, I think Martin loved Churchill and would hear nothing against him. And it’s much more nuanced than that. But as I said, it’s going to take three or four sessions to get there.

Q: “Yes, did Weizmann not invent some type of explosive that was very helpful during the first World War?” A: Yes, of course he did. And of course, one of the reasons for the Balfour Declaration, it was partially a gift to Weizmann.

“Interesting that despite all British anti-Jewish sentiment, they were still able to succeed on such a scale.” There’s something about Jewish entrepreneurship, be it in the arts, the scientists, the sciences, I dunno what it is, it’s, is it a 2000 year old history of living on the edge, going from country to country? I was talking about this with friends last night and some of those friends came from the Sephardi world, and what makes us run, what is it about us? It’s, do we believe in the characteristics of a people or is it inherited? Are we, I talk with non-Jewish friends about it. I have a very close non-Jewish girlfriend and she said, “You are just like us, only you are all too more so.” And her, I trust.

Mrs. Riva, “Also, always thought Jennie was Jewish.” No, no.

Q: “What evidence is that Jennie was Indian?” A: Oh, there’s quite a lot of evidence, books on Churchill. Very remote, Iroquois, I think but don’t quote me on it. No, nothing Jewish about her. Believe me, this has all been studied.

“Rabbi Sacks was the consummate uniter, proud Jew and proud well connected Englishman.” Interesting. Rabbi Sacks was a fascinating man and a great scholar. I think many of my non-Jewish friends, I’ll never forget, I went to, I was staying with some non-Jewish friends in a country village. And they took me to church and I went because it would’ve been rude not to. And the vicar came up to me afterwards and he said, “Oh, I’ve just heard Rabbi Sacks. He gave such a Christian sermon.” The problem with Rabbi Sacks was though he couldn’t unite the Jewish community. He was the best spokesperson we could possibly have with the English world. And he was a brilliant orator and a brilliant scholar. But the ultra right-wing of Anglo-Jewry never gave him the honour that he deserved. That’s me speaking, that’s my view.

Q: “Why is it said that Jews don’t do irony?” A: That was said by an incredibly consummate wit known as Jeremy Corbyn. And if you don’t think that’s irony, I don’t know what. Isn’t that, so we invented irony and we’ve decided, Wendy and I have been discussing it with colleagues, and we’ve decided in April, we’re going to have fun, we’re going, beg your pardon. In August we’re going to have a much lighter programme. And I believe Professor Pima is going to look at satire and irony for his slot, and I’m going to do a lot of films. So we’re going to have fun and we’re going to talk about Jews and comedy and irony because honestly, how can anyone actually say that.

I like this, “History is the truth rewritten.” “If Jews don’t do irony then what is the definition of a bitter (indistinct).” I like that.

“Changing street names, in the Torah, Noah was righteous in his time. These new deplatformers do not understand the context of the particular time.” Well put, Joel.

Eli Brighton is no longer politically correct. Hmm.

Q: “What about the devastating deaths of children in residential schools, should the churches be demolished?” A: Yes, this is from Freeman, Ralph Freeman.

“An irony of our people is how discriminatory we can be towards one another. Consider attitudes between Jews of English origin and those who are originated in Russia and Germany, especially when they moved to create communities in other parts of the world. My grandfather, who moved to Durban from England helped create the Durban United Hebrew Congregation after many years of hostility. Reformed Jews were totally excluded from shared facilities, even in death,” Ralph. Yap, we’re our, ironically, I have often postulated, just imagine what we could do if we united. Our enemies think we are all linked, just imagine what we could do if we were.

Q: “Do you think Churchill will have turned out differently if he’d gone to University of Oxford? Did he regret not going?” A: As far as I know, no, he hated school. I think William dealt with that. Look, Churchill’s the grandson of a Duke, it didn’t matter. He knew his place in the world. I think that’s something else. He didn’t have a very happy family life, I think that was all, when he was a child, I think that was established but he had his beloved grandmother. He hated Harrow. But just think in the army how he achieved, you know. He was an extraordinary man.

He had, I think he had a huge dose of self-confidence, whether it was real or whether he melded himself into it. I’m not sufficiently, I’m not a psychologist but I muse on these characters. You know that wonderful line from Julius Caesar when Mark Anthony says, “He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus. And we petty men, do peer beneath his huge feet and look around to find ourselves dishonourable graves.” I mean, he did, he did walk the world. Nobody is without flaws.

And this is Denise. “My mother’s family came to South Africa by way of Odessa.” Odessa is an interesting city. I’ve lost my place, sorry about my hand going up and down.

And this is from Beverly.

Q: “Baron de Hirsch has a name, road named after him in Jerusalem, why?” A: Because he gave a huge amount of philanthropic money. He set up wine grow, he set up a wine growing industry. Think Rosh Pinna, he gave a fortune to Palestine. He helped poor Jews from Russia but he was not a Zionist. There’s a difference.

And this is from Beverly. “We met the last remaining Jew in Vineland, New Jersey, founded by Hirsch, an orthodox farmer.” What’s wrong with Jews being farmers? Trotsky’s father was a farmer.

This is Ellie, “I had great friends there, I had no idea it was Hirschs doing.” Oh, I’ve lost it again. Maybe we better stop there if that’s all right, Judi?

• [Judi] Yes, Trudy, 'cause we do have another talk starting in 45 minutes.

• Yes, exactly. So anyway, thank you all for listening. And I haven’t covered as much material as I hoped. So Judi, I’m hoping it won’t be four sessions, but you and I can talk. Anyway, have a safe evening and the talk, the next talk is, it’s political, isn’t it?

• [Judi] Yes, it’s a Palestinian politics briefing with Rami de Jenny. So all the education-

• And I think

• [Judi] Will centre Palestine.

• That should be very interesting. So thank you very much Judi, and God bless everyone. Bye.

• Thank you everybody. Bye-Bye.

• Bye.