British Jewish history within the framework of British history 1840 - 1995

This essay is a context statement in critical defence of my submission for the degree of Ph.D by Published Works in keeping with the requirements of MIddlesex University as laid down in the Guidance Notes dated April 1996. The underlying theme of the submission is that my published works serve to illustrate my belief that it is imperative to locate British Jewish history within the broader framework of British history. Thus, I have not limited my research and writing to one issue, event or section of British Jewish society, rather I have sought to develop a historiographical style which exemplifies the way in which individuals, groups and events, within and beyond the framework of Anglo-Jewry, interface and interact. Historical phenomena do not occur in a vacuum and it is imperative to understand what is taking place beyond the perimeters of ethinicity in order to fully comprehend both immigrant and receiving societies' actions and responses. In my most recent works I have taken this one stage further with the recognition that, in what is increasingly a multi-ethnic society, it is vital both to locate British Jewish history within that of the wider British immigrant/settler experience and to see it as a constituent of specific communities in order that comparisons and contrasts can be made and, where possible, lessons learnt

Clinical utility of anti-cytosolic 5\u27-nucleotidase 1A antibody in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies

OBJECTIVE: To define the clinicopathologic features and diagnostic utility associated with anti-cytosolic 5\u27-nucleotidase 1A (NT5C1A) antibody seropositivity in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs). METHODS: Anti-NT5C1A antibody status was clinically tested between 2014 and 2019 in the Washington University neuromuscular clinical laboratory. Using clinicopathologic information available for 593 patients, we classified them as inclusion body myositis (IBM), dermatomyositis, antisynthetase syndrome, immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy (IMNM), nonspecific myositis, or noninflammatory muscle diseases. RESULTS: Of 593 patients, anti-NT5C1A antibody was found in 159/249 (64%) IBM, 11/53 (21%) dermatomyositis, 7/27 (26%) antisynthetase syndrome, 9/76 (12%) IMNM, 20/84 (24%) nonspecific myositis, and 6/104 (6%) noninflammatory muscle diseases patients. Among patients with IBM, anti-NT5C1A antibody seropositive patients had more cytochrome oxidase-negative fibers compared with anti-NT5C1A antibody seronegative patients. Among 14 IBM patients initially negative for anti-NT5C1A antibody, three patients (21%) converted to positive. Anti-NT5C1A antibody seropositivity did not correlate with malignancy, interstitial lung disease, response to treatments in dermatomyositis, antisynthetase syndrome, and IMNM, or survival in IIMs. INTERPRETATION: Anti-NT5C1A antibody is associated with IBM. However, the seropositivity can also be seen in non-IBM IIMs and it does not correlate with any prognostic factors or survival

Ethnicity and consumption: South Asian food shopping patterns in Britain 1947-75

Authors' draft version also available on University of Surrey e-print repository. Final version published by Sage and available at http://joc.sagepub.com/This article reviews the literature that explores the relationship between ethnic identities and food consumption, with particular reference to business management studies. It focuses on the food shopping practices of south Asians in Britain in the period 1947 to 1975, to illustrate the need for more historically contextualized studies that can provide a more nuanced exploration of any interconnections between ethnic identity and shopping behaviour. The article draws on a reasonably long-standing interest in ethnicity and consumption in marketing studies, and explores the conceptual use of acculturation within this literature. The arguments put forward are framed by recent interdisciplinary studies of the broader relationship between consumption and identity, which stress the importance of contextualizing any influence of ethnic identifications through a wider consideration of other factors including societal status, gender and age, rather than giving it singular treatment. The article uses a body of empirical research drawn from recent oral histories, to explore how these factors informed everyday shopping practices among south Asians in Britain. It examines some of the shopping and wider food provisioning strategies adopted by early immigrants on arrival in Britain. It considers the interaction between the south Asian population and the changing retail structure, in the context of the development of self-service and the supermarket. Finally, it demonstrates how age, gender and socioeconomic status interacted with ethnic identities to produce variations in shopping patterns

Place, Space and Memory in the Old Jewish East End of London: an Archaeological Biography of Sandys Row Synagogue, Spitalfields and its Wider Context

Sandys Row (London E1) is the only functioning Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jewish) Synagogue in Spitalfields and the oldest still functioning Ashkenazi synagogue in London. Located in an area, which from the mid­late nineteenth century until WWII was the centre of London’s Jewish population, it is one of the last surviving witnesses to a once vibrant and dynamic heritage that has now virtually disappeared. This area has been the first port of call for refugees for centuries, starting with French Protestant Huguenots in the eighteenth century, then Jews fleeing economic hardship and pogroms in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century followed by Bangladeshi Muslims in the twentieth century. Using a broadly archaeological analysis based very closely on the sort of practice widely used in church archaeology, the authors argue that much can be inferred about wider social and cultural patterns from a study of architectural space at Sandys Row and its associated material culture. This is the first such archaeological study undertaken of a synagogue in Britain and offers a new perspective on wider issues regarding the archaeological definition of religious practice and religious material culture

The violent frontline: space, ethnicity and confronting the state in Edwardian Spitalfields and 1980s Brixton

This article discusses in comparative terms the relationship between space, ethnic identity, subaltern status and anti-state violence in twentieth century London. It does so by comparing two examples in which the control of the state, as represented by the Metropolitan Police, was challenged by minority groups through physical force. It will examine the Spitalfields riots of 1906, which began as strike action by predominantly Jewish bakers and escalated into a general confrontation between the local population and the police, and the Brixton riots of 1981, a response to endemic police harassment of mainly Caribbean youth and long-term economic discrimination in that area of South London. It will begin by dissecting the association of physical metropolitan space with the diasporic ‘other’ in the Edwardian East End and post-consensus South London, and how this ‘othering’ was influenced both by the state and the anti-migrant far right. It will then interrogate the difficult relationship between the Metropolitan Police and Jewish and Caribbean working class communities, and how this deteriorating relationship exploded into in extreme violence in 1906 and 1981. The article will conclude by assessing how the relationships between space, identity and violence influenced long-term national and communal narratives of Jewish and Caribbean interactions with the British state

Digital Food and foodways. How online food practices and narratives shape the Italian diaspora

The article discusses the role of online food practices and narratives in the formation of transnational identities and communities. Data has been collected in the framework of a doctoral research project undertaken by the author between 2009 and 2012 with a follow-up in 2014. The working hypothesis of this article is that the way Italians talk about food online and offline, the importance they give to ‘authentic’ food, and the way they share their love for Italian food with other members of the same diaspora reveal original insights into migrants’ personal and collective identities, their sense of belonging to the transnational community and processes of adjustment to a new place. Findings suggest that online culinary narratives and practices shape the Italian diaspora in unique ways, through the development of forms of virtual commensality and online mealtime socialization on Skype and by affecting intra and out-group relationships, thus working as elements of cultural identification and differentiation