The Board of Deputies of British Jews, founded in 1760 as the London Committee of Deputies of British Jews, is the representative body of British Jewry. Representatives from the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities in London originally met to present a loyal address to George III on his accession to the throne, but soon decided to continue joint meetings. The organisation blossomed in the Victorian period under the leadership of Sir Moses Montefiore and is now one of international standing. The main archive of the Board is held at the London Metropolitan Archives under reference ACC/3121, but the Defence Archive has always been held separately and is only now being made available for general use. The Board's Jewish defence work dates back to 1918 when Lord Rothschild established a Press Committee, initially to rebut false press allegations that Jews had not joined the armed services in the First World War. This was enlarged in 1921 to include representatives of other Anglo Jewish organisations, and renamed the Joint Press Committee. In 1938 the Press Committee was merged with a sub-committee of the Board's Joint Foreign Affairs Committee in order to better confront the rise of fascism in continental Europe, but renamed itself the Jewish Defence Committee in 1938, and re-focused its efforts to the domestic threat. Thereafter the Board, together with the Association of Jewish Ex Servicemen, established monitoring systems which thoroughly penetrated the pre War fascist and Nazi organisations.
Open
By written permission only
69 Boxes
FOR PERMISSION TO ACCESS THIS ARCHIVE PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW IN THE ATTACHED DOCUMENTS FIELD AND PRINTOUT, FILL OUT AND SEND TO ADDRESS GIVEN. The Defence Archive contains reports from the Jewish community's observers who attended many local and national meetings held by these groups, assessments of the groups' aims and capabilities, correspondence with the police and government, as well as the minutes of the Board's committees. Part of the Defence Archive has remained closed but in 2011 it was decided to put it on long term loan with the Wiener Library so that researchers of the period 1933- 1960 would have material in one place. It illuminates a thorough and systematic information gathering effort by the Jewish community against those who sought to aid Nazism and undermine democracy. A small number of files, for the immediate post Second World War period, will remain closed but the main records are now available for researchers with the permission of the Board of Deputies (form). Any subsequent request for publication would also require written permission from the Board of Deputies.Contents 1 Minutes /1 Defence /2 London/ Metropolitan area Committee /3 Provincial Liaison Committees /4 Sub-Committees, alphabetical /5 Appeal Fund with TAC 2 Administration and General /1-12 Administration and general papers, chronological /13 Miscellaneous alphabetical correspondence files 3 London/Metropolitan Area Committee /1 General (a) London District Co-ordinating Committee 1933-7 (b) London Area Council 1937-9 (c) Metropolitan Area Council 1944-9 4 Provincial Liaison Committees /1 General /2 Correspondence alphabetical by area 5 Observers' Reports Ã Ã “ PART CLOSED TILL 2050 6 Speakers campaign 7 Sub-Committees /1 Meetings sub-committee 1933 /2 Elections sub-committee /3 Press and Publications sub-committee /4 Finance sub-committee /5 Appeals sub-committee inc, joint with TAC /6 Antisemitism in Schools sub-committee /7 Joint austerity sub-committee /8 Grants sub-committee /9 Arab boycott special purposes sub-committee 8 Central Jewish Lecture Committee 9 Fascist and Antisemitic activities: files on /1 Correspondence and reports, chronological /2 Fascist groups: cuttings and pamphlets, chronological /3 Fascist individuals: alphabetical /4 Misc individuals, parties and incidents files 1947- 10 Organisations, topics and individual, alphabetical series 11 Publications
Board of Deputies: Defence committee papers