Three English Jews : identity, modernity and the experience of war 1890-1950

Abstract

This thesis analyses through the intersection of biography and history the Jewish identities of three English Jews of the modern era, Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939), Sir Basil Henriques (1890-1961), and James A. de Rothschild (1878-1957). The thesis is divided into three main parts; diasporic and national identity; politics, patriotism and power; war and sexuality. Within these three parts issues such as assimilation, deracination, Empire, homosexuality, Zionism, masculinity, pederasty, modernity and diaspora are considered, and used as the thematic backbone of the argumentation.

Results stemming from the use of three micro-studies show that Jewishness was not a static state of being, and that existing historiography of the Jewish 'Cousinhood' has over-emphasised the influence of group mentality, and ignored individual motivation and chosen deviation from the normative. The central importance of Englishness is demonstrated, but with the important distinction that it is an Englishness constructed by concepts of ethnicity, class and sexuality, and a multi-layering of diasporic and national identity. This Englishness was then in turn crafted, fashioned, and at times rejected by these three men and others, so that the demands of the non-Jewish world could be appeared to some degree. Based on the evidence provided, this research concludes with the assertion that the nature of modern Jewish identity is by necessity, as much by design, complex, plastic, multi-layered and multi-historied.

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