Ben Gidley: Are Jews the Model Immigrants in England?
[Ben Gidley is Senior Researcher at the COMPAS Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, Oxford University. He is the co-author of Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today.]
Brick Lane is the heart of London’s East End, the immigrant quarter celebrated in the Victorian novels of Israel Zangwill (the man who first popularized the term “melting pot“), the 1950s film A Kid for Two Farthings, and Monica Ali’s 2003 bestseller. Whether it was the best use of the cash or not, it is unsurprising that Tower Hamlets, the borough where the Lane is located, should decide to create a culture trail for the area, using some of the funds from the developers of Bishops Square Spitalfields.
However, when the word got out earlier this year that the start of the trail would be marked by “hijab-shaped” steel gates and a “minaret-style” sculpture on the side of the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid mosque, formerly the Machzikei Hadas synagogue and before that a Huguenot (French Protestant) chapel, this sparked a bit of a furor. The opposition brought together an unlikely alliance, including artist and local resident Tracey Emin and the Jewish East End Celebration Society. The council has now abandoned the plan.
I don’t want to comment here on whether they were right to, or if the “hijab-style” gates are degrading and exclusionary, but instead on another aspect of the debate. Listening to the callers on BBC London’s phone-in radio show, hosted by Vanessa Feltz, one of Britain’s most Jewish of public figures, I was struck by the repeated invoking of the East End’s Jews as a model minority....
Read entire article at Dissent
Brick Lane is the heart of London’s East End, the immigrant quarter celebrated in the Victorian novels of Israel Zangwill (the man who first popularized the term “melting pot“), the 1950s film A Kid for Two Farthings, and Monica Ali’s 2003 bestseller. Whether it was the best use of the cash or not, it is unsurprising that Tower Hamlets, the borough where the Lane is located, should decide to create a culture trail for the area, using some of the funds from the developers of Bishops Square Spitalfields.
However, when the word got out earlier this year that the start of the trail would be marked by “hijab-shaped” steel gates and a “minaret-style” sculpture on the side of the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid mosque, formerly the Machzikei Hadas synagogue and before that a Huguenot (French Protestant) chapel, this sparked a bit of a furor. The opposition brought together an unlikely alliance, including artist and local resident Tracey Emin and the Jewish East End Celebration Society. The council has now abandoned the plan.
I don’t want to comment here on whether they were right to, or if the “hijab-style” gates are degrading and exclusionary, but instead on another aspect of the debate. Listening to the callers on BBC London’s phone-in radio show, hosted by Vanessa Feltz, one of Britain’s most Jewish of public figures, I was struck by the repeated invoking of the East End’s Jews as a model minority....