Ed Glinert’s Jewish Manchester Tour

Manchester is home to Britain’s second biggest Jewish community, yet it began small-scale when Jews arrived here at the end of the 18th century and ironically settled around the parish church (what is now Manchester Cathedral), for that was where the old town was located.
Manchester was then the cradle of the industrial revolution and there were opportunities for trade.
The 19th century saw a battle for acceptance. The upwardly mobile Manchester Jews adopted many tenets of established gentile Manchester society, while the arrival of refugees fleeing persecution in eastern Europe frightened the established Jews who did their best to anglicise them.

Jews in Manchester have made significant contributions to the life of the city:

* Chaim Weizmann came to Manchester as a chemist in 1904, spent his time pushing the new creed of Zionism, and convinced the British government to lend their support in what was a remarkable coup, as explained on the tour. Weizmann became the first president of Israel in 1948.
* Israel Sieff who made Marks & Spencer into one of the country’s most successful retail companies.
* Louis Golding wrote the best novel of Manchester Jewry: Magnolia Street (1932)
* Graham Gouldman ranks as one of the greatest songwriters of the rock era, responsible for the Hollies’ “Bus Stop”, Herman’s Hermits’ “No Milk Today” and the Yardbirds’ “Heart Full of Soul”, before forming 10cc.
On the tour we also reveal the less-celebrated side of well-known Jewish figures who came here, such as Robert Maxwell and Karl Marx. (Ah, but was the latter really Jewish?).