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The Image of the Jewish Street Seller in Nineteenth Century London
ing his trade on the street, just outside the market, showing boots for sale and most
likely advertising his wares. He is fashionably dressed in a top hat, a nice-looking
coat, a vest, and trousers to match. The clothes look nice and clean, the same as the
garments of the women behind him. The fact that the man in the picture is a Jew
could be questioned since even his facial features do not match the stereotypes
known from earlier drawings. Nonetheless he is Jewish—the picture illustrates an
article about Rosemary Lane, which was in a nineteenth-century Jewish quarter in
London, and from the text we learn that the market was mostly occupied by Jews.
The fact that the late-nineteenth-century cartoons present Jewish figures that
are harder to recognize can be easily linked with the assimilation of the Jewish
population in Great Britain. However, as I have said, the nineteenth-century Jewish
population in London (and other major cities of Great Britain) was extremely di¬
verse. Some of the immigrants wished to remain traditional and show their cultural
and ethnical origin; for others, the chance to become an unrecognizable member
of the British society was very tempting and seemed to mean safety from possible
future persecutions or pogroms. More to the point, in most cases, the first genera¬
tion of immigrants found it very difficult to assimilate within the British society,
not only because it was so different from the one they knew and experienced before
migration,” but also because of cultural and linguistic barriers. It was the second
and sometimes the third generation of Jewish immigrants who actually managed
to assimilate fully.
Political Cartoons
Nineteenth-century cartoons representing Jewish presence in Great Britain vary
in topic. Apart from those showing day-to-day life there are a vast number that
involve the contemporary political figures, Jewish minority authorities, and events
such as new legislations, speeches, and elections. In most cases people represented
on the political pictures can be easily linked to events they took part in, that is,
anonymous characters are rare.
Caricatures concentrating on politics were usually drawn by request from pub¬
lishers and for publication in newspapers or magazines. The readers for which they
were intended were up-to-date on political events and current issues, therefore, they
did not need a clear hint as to who was in the picture. Instead they expected a cap¬
tion with a clever commentary or witty punchline to be added to the piece of art.
Out of all Jews in British politics, a few were commonly presented in the papers,
with Prime Minister Disraeli, Baron de Hirsch, and members of the Rothschild
family among them. Disraeli, the first prime minister of Jewish origin, became
22 Most immigrants had travelled from small cities or villages and getting used to life in one of the
biggest cities in the world was a challenge. Many of the immigrants lived in the closest neighbourhood
to their homes, rarely visited other districts, and tried to live without contacting the non-Jewish popula¬
tion except when necessary.
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