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Abstract
Glasgow gangs have not only captured the public imagination, but also attracted considerable academic attention. However, the issue of the Jewish experience of, and involvement in, the city's gangs has barely been studied thus far. This article considers the relationship of the gangs to the Jewish community in the city's Gorbals district during the interwar period. It demonstrates the rarity of Jewish involvement in gangs in this period and discusses the extent to which the gangs were viewed as a threat to the community. In doing so, the article sheds light on inter-community relations in Glasgow between the wars.
Keywords:
Acknowledgements
I would particularly like to thank Daniel Laqua for his support and his comments on earlier drafts of this article. I should also like to thank Don MacRaild and anonymous referees for their helpful comments. Finally, I would like to thank Harvey Kaplan, the director of the Scottish Jewish Archive Centre in Glasgow, for his help and support.
Notes
Avram Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in History at Northumbria University. He has published on working-class credit, history and theory, and the history of Jews in Glasgow.
[1] Kenna, Heart of the Gorbals, 9.
[2] McArthur and Long, No Mean City. Ian Spring calls No Mean City ‘perhaps … the thirties' major contribution to the mythology of Glasgow’. CitationSpring, Phantom Village, 73.
[3] For a discussion of gangs in popular histories of Glasgow, see, for example: CitationBoyle, Sense of Freedom; CitationJeffrey, Gangland Glasgow; CitationMcKay, Last Godfather. For a discussion of Glasgow gangs in academic histories of the period, see, for example, CitationStevenson, British Society, 374; CitationSmout, Century of the Scottish People, 48; CitationPugh, We Danced All Night, 113.
[4] See, for example, CitationMurray, Old Firm; CitationGallagher, Glasgow the Uneasy Peace.
[5] Smout, Century of the Scottish People, 48.
[6] CitationSillitoe, Cloak without Dagger, 127–30.
[7] CitationCollins, Second City, 46–7.
[8] David Cesarani estimates that there were about 15,000 Jews in Glasgow as a whole during the interwar years. CitationCesarani, ‘Transformation of Communal Authority’, 118. The estimate for the Gorbals was provided by Harvey Kaplan, the director of the Scottish Jewish Archive Centre in Glasgow, who has worked on the 1901 and 1911 censuses for the Gorbals.
[9] CitationMaitles, ‘Jewish Trade Unionists’, 51.
[10] Collins, Second City, 11.
[11] Ibid., 13–14, 71.
[12] CitationBraber, Jews in Glasgow, 97, 161–162. For a comprehensive list of Jewish organisations in Glasgow during the period, see The Mitchell Library G1296 0941435 GLA Glasgow Jewish Year Book 1937–1938 (Glasgow, 1938).
[13] See, for example, Collins, Second City; CitationCollins, Be Well!; CitationBraber, ‘Trial of Oscar Slater’; Braber, Jews in Glasgow; CitationKenefick, ‘Comparing the Jewish and Irish’.
[14] Of the historians of Glasgow Jewry, Ben Braber has addressed the issue of Jewish involvement in criminality and violence most directly in both his general study of the community and his excellent account of the trial of Oscar Slater. However, although he acknowledges that the Jewish community were not unused to violence, he does not discuss their involvement in street gangs. See Braber, ‘Trial of Oscar Slater’; Braber, Jews in Glasgow, 23–9. William Kenefick discusses both sectarianism and relations between Jews and non-Jews in the Gorbals in the interwar years but does not consider Jewish involvement in the district's gangs. See Kenefick, ‘Comparing the Jewish and Irish Communities’, 53–68.
[15] Although there is no mention of the Jewish community in the Gorbals in No Mean City, there is one passing reference to the presence of Jews in the city, in a scene where the protagonist walks down Sauchiehall Street and observes that, ‘This is no Glasgow onywey! It's full o’ bliddy Englishmen and high-class tarts an' Jews stinking of money.' CitationMcArthur and Long, No Mean City, 296.
[16] See, for example, CitationBurrowes, Great Glasgow Stories, 11–23.
[17] CitationSavage, Teenage, 301–2.
[18] CitationShore, ‘Criminality and Englishness’, 474–6.
[19] Savage, Teenage, 298.
[20] CitationEndelman, Jews of Britain, 205–6.
[21] CitationBerkowitz, ‘Unmasking Counterhistory’, 65.
[22] Ibid., 66.
[23] CitationKnepper, ‘British Jews and the Racialisation’.
[24] CitationEmsley, Crime and Society, 45; CitationKushner and Knox, Refugees in an Age of Genocide, 73–4.
[25] CitationEnglander, Documentary History, 95.
[26] CitationEnglander, ‘Policing the Ghetto’, 35–40.
[27] Ibid., 40–3.
[28] For a description of the autobiographies in question, and a general discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of autobiographies for historians, see CitationTaylor, ‘Remembering Spring’.
[29] The Evening Citizen, 4 August 1930.
[30] Davies, ‘Glasgow's “Reign of Terror”’.
[31] Davies, ‘Street Gangs, Crime and Policing’, 253; CitationDavies, ‘Glasgow's “Reign of Terror”’.
[32] Glasser, Growing Up, 61.
[33] Tape: Mrs Berkowitz – 21 July 2005 – 0890.
[34] Tape: Mr Danzig – 28 August 2003 – Side 2 – 1950.
[35] Tape: Mrs Cohen – 26 April 2002 – Side 2 – 1050–1065.
[36] Tape: Mrs Greenberg – 24 July 2005 – 2238. Mrs Laski also said that she did not recognise the portrayal of the Gorbals in No Mean City, as she never saw any fights herself, although she was aware of the gangs in the district. Tape: Mrs Laski – 21 July 2005 – 1156–1175.
[37] Tape: Mr Sacks – 19 July 2005 – 1245–1250 and 1705–1710. Mr Lipman also said that he heard of gangs while he was living in the Gorbals but never actually saw any. Tape: Mr Lipman – 19 July 2005 – 1324.
[38] Tape: Mr Cowan – 21 July 2005 – 0958–0990.
[39] Tape: Mrs Friedlander – 20 July 2005 – 1169–1205.
[40] Tape: Mrs Solomons – 21 July 2005 – 1868–1880. Mr Levy also said that he saw gangs in the Gorbals, but they only fought amongst themselves. Tape: Mr Levy – 21 July 2005 – Side 2 – 0450.
[41] See, for example, Thomson, ‘Unreliable Memories? The Use and Abuse of Oral History’, 23–34. Thomson cites his own work with Australian working-class veterans of the First World War as an illustration of how oral history can reveal the significance of the past in the present by ‘reading between the lines of memory’. Thomson, ‘Unreliable Memories?’, 32–33. Other authors have also cited this study as a good example of the way in which generalised public history can influence the way in which individuals construct their own accounts of themselves. See, for example, Summerfield, ‘Culture and Composure’, 68.
[42] Tape: Mrs Danzig – 28 August 2003 – Side 2 – 1810–1820.
[43] Ibid., 1835–1845.
[44] CitationBurrowes, Benny Lynch, 29.
[45] CitationHumphries, Hooligans or Rebels?, 187–8.
[46] See, for example, CitationGathorne-Hardy, Doctors, 13; The Times, 16 February 1973; CitationDudgeon, Our Glasgow Memories, 232.
[47] Tape: Mr Levy – 21 July 2005 – Side 2 – 0424–0460.
[48] Tape: Mrs Laski – 21 July 2005 – 2210–2219.
[49] Tape: Mrs Laski – 21 July 2005 – 2220–2230.
[50] CitationCowan, Spring Remembered, 101–2.
[51] CitationCaplan, Memories, 73.
[52] Ibid., 77–8.
[53] Humphries, Hooligans or Rebels?, 189.
[54] Ibid., 190.
[55] Tape: Mr Danzig – 28 August 2003 – Side 2 – 1925–1935.
[56] Tape: Mr Sacks – 19 July 2005 – 1695–1705.
[57] Tape: Mr Levy – 21 July 2005 – Side 2 – 0498–0515.
[58] Tape: Mr Levy – 21 July 2005 – 1195–2005.
[59] Tape: Mr Zuckerman – 24 August 2003 – 2400–2410. There was at least one Jewish bookmaker in the Gorbals who was regularly raided by the police according to Mrs Laski. Tape: Mrs Laski – 21 July 2005 – 1475–1485.
[60] Tape: Mr Danzig – 28 August 2003 – Side 2 – 0355–0365.
[61] CitationDavies, ‘Street Gangs, Crime and Policing’, 254–5.
[62] Ibid., 255; CitationDavies, ‘Football and Sectarianism in Glasgow’, 207.
[63] Davies, ‘Football and sectarianism in Glasgow’, 207, 211.
[64] Weekly Record, 7 March, 14 March, 21 March; Evening Citizen, 10–14 January 1955.
[65] CitationLucas, Britain's Gangland, 3–5.
[66] Ibid., 6.
[67] The Glasgow Herald, 3 June 1928.
[68] Lucas, Britain's Gangland, 7; CitationKenna, Heart of the Gorbals, 76; The Glasgow Herald, 3 March 1934.
[69] CitationConnell, Masculinities, 67–9.
[70] Ibid., 76.
[71] For a discussion of the importance of ‘respectability’, see CitationGlasser, Growing Up, 46. ‘Manliness’ is specifically discussed in relation to Meyer Melek in Glasser, Growing Up, 61.
[72] Ibid., 52.
[73] Ibid., 61–9.
[74] Ibid., 52.
[75] Tape: Mr Cowan – 21 July 2005 – 0958–0990.
[76] Collins, Be Well!, 44.
[77] Ibid.
[78] Mitchell Library SR22/63/11, Register of Criminals Photographed with Personal Descriptions and Details Of Convictions, 1910–1933 (n.d.). No Jewish offenders were identified in this volume. Mitchell Library SR22/63/19, Photograph Album of Convicts with Notes on Each (c.1934). Three Jewish offenders were identified in this volume: SCR.283/28, CRO.8381/28, SCR.598/27, CRO.11863/19 and SCR.CRO.S.74798. Mitchell Library SR22/63/20, Registered Criminals, Convicts and Thieves and their Associates (c.1930). Two Jewish offenders were identified in this volume: S.C.R.440/24 and S.C.R.133/24.
[79] Braber, Jews in Glasgow, 161.
[80] Collins, Second City, 115–16.
[81] CitationTananbaum, ‘Ironing Out the Ghetto Bend’, 59.
[82] CitationDee, ‘“Nothing Specifically Jewish in Athletics”?’, 81–100.
[83] This was the first Jewish sports club in Glasgow, and was based in the Talmud Torah building on Turriff Street in the Gorbals. http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php (accessed 7 July 11).
[84] Braber, Jews in Glasgow, 10–11; CitationCollins, Aspects of Scottish Jewry, 26.
[85] Livingstone, From Strength to Strength, 20. For a discussion of Scottish identity, see CitationMcCrone, Understanding Scotland, 16–21.