Immigration to Scotland Immigration to Scotland 1830s-19391830s-1939

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.

BackgroundAs 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.

Immigration 1830s-1939The four main groups of immigrants who came

into Scotland were:

JewsLithuaniansItaliansIrishYou 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.

GlossaryAnti-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.

Jewish ImmigrationLarge

numbers of Jews arrived between 1880-1914.

They mainly came from Russia and Poland.

Jewish ImmigrationMany 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.

Jewish Population In GlasgowLarge 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.

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.

Jewish Community in GlasgowSynagogues 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.

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.

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.

Prejudice and DiscriminationThere 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.

A Growing Identity – Scottish JewsBy 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.