JEWS IN LONDON.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 16 October 1914, Page 3

JEWS IN LONDON.

A NATION WITHIN A NATION

During the past fortnight (says a correspondent of the Times on July 17) London has witnessed the birth "of a new evening paper. Few, apart from its own public, have heard of it, and most Londoners would nqi be able to read a word of its news. It is in Yid--1 dish, and it makes the fourth of the Yiddish dailies now published in Whitechapel. Yiddish newspapers are no novelty in the East End. The "Daily Jewish Express" has been in existence j t°^? ny. years > aiKl is approaching its 5,500 th issue. The Jewish Journal, j which claims the largest circulation, : has been published for eight or nine ' years. A. few months ago an active' -Roumanian immigrant, Mr Morris ! Myers, started the "Jewish Times/ and he is responsible for the new journal, the "Jewish Evening News" T£?r re \ is also a Yiddish weekly, the Workers' Friend," which represents the foreign Jewish revolutionary groups. It describes itself as "A weekly anarchist communist journal." An examination of the four Yiddish dailies is a revelation of the great alien population that has settled down in Last London. Here are papers set by linotype, with a good show of advertisements, and read eagerly in foreign 10 nr7' one cl^ims a. circulation of f 2j°oP a day. They are entirely written m Yiddish, save for a few words of necessary imprint, and an occasional phrase m an advertisement. English news is reported, but the Yiddish newspapers are to a special degree cosmopolitan^ The trouble in Ulster for example, is a topic of interest, aJs trouble m Portugal might be to a Londoner ; but a rumor of a pogrom in Russians a vital event. . Comparatively little has been heard m recent years of the foreign Jewish quarters of London. Occasionally some outstanding incident, such as the Houndsdith murders or the anarchist shooting affray in Tottenham, has brought them into momentary prominfw" c svei-e economic results tnat followed the great incursions ot Russian Jews into East London— the increase m rents, overcrowding, and the driving out of Christianshave had time to adjust themselves. J-'or,tne past six or seven years it may ■be doubted if the total'of foreign' Jews ■ arriving m London has more than kept pace with the departures for foreign lands, particularly for America. The ' . alien question"'is no longer a burnino- * issue. -, f= . Yet to-day the vital aspects of the : problem of tho foreign Jew in London : remain -unaff.o-sd. The Yiddish com- ' munity is growing and growing rapidly, ' because of the virility and fecundity o! its people. The problem of the small family does not trouble it. The mothers lvetnurse their own children, and rear them m a way that is amazing when one remembers the overcrowding the absence of fresh air, and the somewhat eccentric ideas of sanitation which prevail. There was a time when Yiddish London was mainly confined to a small district around Brick Lane. To-day, the whole borough of Stephney is largely Jewish. The foreign' settlers have gone eastwards to Ilford;, they have crossed the river at Greenwich- they have a considerable settlement in Tottenham. South Dalston is largely occupied "by them, and Hackney is yearly becoming more Jewish. Tn West London, Sohb, yesterday, the home of the French and German, shows signs of developing principally into a Russian Jewish centre. There are numerous Russian Jews settled in St. Paneras and Marylebone. In olden days the foreign Jew who prospered made a home in Highbury New Park or Maidavale. To-day the prosperous Russian Jew goes on ( to Belsize Park,, which he is making ms own. I The aliens mostly come from Russia, Poland, Rumania, and Galicia. GermanJews form only a small body, but Rumanian Jews are a powerful element. There are 60,000 .Russian and Polish born Jews in London. In addition there are their English-born families, who retain the ' racial instincts. and language of their people to a surprising degree. They are still a race apart. They have their own theatre in WThitechaple road, where fine Jewish travelling companies come in their world tours. "Dramatically, Shakespeare is "their great .favourite —Shakespeare in Yiddish. In the theatre you can see some of the great masterpieces of the European drama performed before West London has. discovered ' them — Strindberg, Gorky, and the pessimists of the north. But to see this drama at the best one needs' to attend a distinctively Russian Jewish play. Not very long ago I witnessed a dramatic reproduction of the Beiliss trial there. To West London it would have been incomprehensible; 111 Whitechapel, it was, as it were, a leaf from the lives of many present. The foreign Jews are slowly, very slowly, coming under distinctly British influences. Most of them come' from Russia, but they have no affection for Russia,. Qur elementary schools are touching the younger generation. Unfortunately, strong ' separist influences are at work. A powerful movement has arisen to retain, not alone their faith, but their distinctive language, manners, life. They want to be, many of thera, a people wholly apart, - a nation within a nation.