1. Immigration to Scotland 1830s-1939

2. Aims: Examine the impact of Jewish immigration on Scotland. Success Criteria: You Can……… Name two countries which Jews came from. Give three reasons why many Jews settled in the Glasgow area. Describe three ways that Jews faced discrimination.

3. Background As the Scottish economy grew, more workers were needed. Many people came from the countryside to work in the towns. Another source of labour or workers came from people who left their own country to work in Scotland. Immigrants who worshipped a different religion or spoke a different language were viewed with suspicion. As time went on some groups were accepted and others kept a strong sense of their own identify.

4. Immigration 1830s-1939 The four main groups of immigrants who came into Scotland were: Jews Lithuanians Italians Irish You need to understand where they settled and why they came to Scotland. You also need to appreciate the different experiences which immigrants had as they tried to build a new life in Scotland.

5. Glossary Anti-semitism – cruel and unfair treatment of Jewish people. Pogram – an organised attack to drive out a group of people from an area. Prejudice – an unreasonable opinion about a situation or group of people. Discrimination – unfair treatment of a group of people or person. Yiddish – a traditional language spoken by many Jewish people.

6. Jewish Immigration Large numbers of Jews arrived between 1880-1914. They mainly came from Russia and Poland.

7. Jewish Immigration Many came to escape religious and economic persecution. Many Jews faced ‘pogroms’ – attacks on Jews by local authorities to make Jews leave an area. Jews also migrated because they were not able to become skilled craftsmen or professional people e.g. doctors, lawyers. Many Jews were poor and wanted the opportunity to have a better life and escape poverty.

8. Jewish Population In Glasgow Large numbers of Jews settled in Glasgow and by 1939 around there were around 15,000 Jews in the city and they had developed into a strong community.

9. Jewish Population In Glasgow ◦ Most lived in the Gorbals area, as cheap rented accommodation was available and this meant that Jews could live alongside other Jews who spoke Yiddish, the main Jewish language.

10. Jewish Community in Glasgow Synagogues were built such as the one in South Portland street in Glasgow. Jewish reading rooms were set up. A Benevolent Loan Society, granted loans to Jewish businesses.

11. In Source A, a Scottish Jew Ralph Glasser remembers: These loans were granted free from interest mainly to pedlars and travellers and that gave them the basis for making a living from the stock that they could buy and sell. They were selling various things, braces, mouth-organs, games, small things that needed small money for stock. When they became a little wealthier they paid the money back.

12. In Source B, another Scottish Jew, Mrs Aitken remembers: It was nearly all Jewish shops and firms in the Gorbals. There was the Jewish bakery at the corner of Dunmore Street, Gleicken, the gown people were there and the Ashers as well. The Gerbers, the Woolfsons, them that had all the jewellers, the shops in the Trongate, they came from there. There were small cabinet-making businesses and upholstery work right up to Cumberland Street. They all opened little shops, just doing alterations and repairs to suits and everything. It was a great place the Gorbals.

13. Prejudice and Discrimination There was concerns that Jews were undercutting the wages of Scottish workers – they were prepared to work longer hours for low wages. Jews faced verbal and physical attacks for their religion. Having a Jewish surname could even affect your chances of trying to find rented accommodation or lodgings.

14. A Growing Identity – Scottish Jews By the 1920s and 1930s, the distinct Jewish identify was disappearing as Jews integrated more and more with the local population. The Yiddish language began to die out, as did Yiddish newspapers. Jewish supporters of Rangers and Celtic could be found on the terraces of Ibrox and Parkhead. The Jew in Scotland had become a Scottish Jew.