Post-War Jews
After World War Two, a sixth wave of Jewish immigration has seen Jews from Aden, Afghanistan, Burma, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and other countries, finding new homes in Britain. Many of these were fleeing antisemitic hatred, others came as refugees. It is estimated that 10% of British Jews are of Mizrahi (eastern) origin.
In more recent years, many Israeli, South African and French Jews have also made their homes in Britain.
After the Second World War, many Jews moved into the suburbs where communities built synagogues and schools.
The first Jewish nursery in Scotland opened in 1946. It was based on Jewish ideals and provided kosher‘Suitable’ or ‘fit’ according to Jewish law, often used to describe permitted foods. food for the nursery children and for older children attending nearby schools who could not get home for lunch.
Calderwood Lodge Primary School, Glasgow, Scotland’s only Jewish school, opened in 1962.
Jewish ex-servicemen (soldiers who had fought in the First and Second World Wars), created a Jewish branch of the British Legion.
It had originally set up to provide help for ex-servicemen and the widows and children of men who had died in the First World War, but later they starting organising annual events such as an old peoples’ outing, a children’s HanukahThe rededication of the Temple festival (Festival of lights). treat and a memorial service attended by servicemen (Jewish and non-Jewish) from all over Scotland.
Video: Hannah Frank: The Spark Divine (2008)
Jewish refugees and immigrants have made a huge contribution to British life.
Scottish examples include: Sir Abraham Goldberg in medicine, Sir Malcom Rifkind in politics, Sir Monty Finniston in business and Benno Schotz and Hannah Frank in art.