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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 diverse. 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 generation 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 publishers 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 caption 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 population except when necessary. 401
