Bill Williams and the Jewish historiography: past, present and future

Abstract

Any student of modern British Jewry who wants to understand not only the subject matter but how to approach it has to begin with Bill Williams’ The Making of Manchester Jewry, 1740-1875 (1976). Williams’ approach blurs the barriers between politics, culture and society and his influence can be detected as much within literary and cultural scholars of British Jewry, such as Bryan Cheyette and Nadia Valman, as historians such as Tony Kushner and David Cesarani. With his many accomplishments in the fields of heritage and history, Williams has provided a remarkable legacy in terms of publications, museums, organisations and in the training and inspiration of later generations of scholars and activists. Sander Gilman has asked us to “imagine a new Jewish history written as the history of the Jews at the frontier, a history with no center; a history marked by the dynamics of change, confrontation, and accommodation; a history which focuses on the present and in which all participants are given voice. It is the place of the ‘migrant culture of the in-between.’“ Rather than a utopian vision, Bill Williams’ work has provided an example of how this ideal can be achieved in practice.

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