Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Community, Jewish Organisations, Strategic Planning, Policy, Demography, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Care and Welfare, Health, Children, Youth, Poverty, Housing, Elderly Care, Age and Generational Issues
Abstract: At 28,075 Jewish people, Greater Manchester recorded the largest Jewish population in the UK
outside of London and adjacent Hertfordshire. At first sight, it appears to have grown by 12%
between 2011 and 2021, most likely driven largely by high birth-rates among the strictly Orthodox
community. Similarly, if the data eventually proves to be accurate, this constitutes a growth of 29%
over the twenty years between 2001 and 2021. Provisional estimates of the Haredi community
based on other data sources (such as Manchester Connections) suggest that the Haredi community
could be as large as 22,778 but, again, further analysis is needed before any firm conclusions can be
drawn. Whatever the final numbers, it is clear that Greater Manchester, which includes the largest
Eruv in the UK with a perimeter of more than 13 miles, covering parts of Prestwich, Crumpsall and
Higher Broughton, is an important and growing centre of Jewish life.
This report was commissioned by Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Regions
(GMJRC) to research and analyse community strengths and provide a mapping of Jewish
organisations in the Greater Manchester area. It was overseen by the GMJRC strategic group – a
group that was formed of Councils and organisations across the Jewish religious spectrum as a
response to the pandemic. It reviews services in seven themes: Children & Young People; Adult
Services; Older People; Health; Employment; Emergency Response; and Housing. As well as looking
at delivery, governance, leadership, and building assets, it also tries to understand where the gaps
and support needs are. As the demographics and relative sizes of the mainstream and strictly
Orthodox Jewish populations continue to change, this study represents an important examination
of both the challenges and opportunities of how the respective communities work together. As
these populations change across the UK, and beyond, the study will have significance to other cities
where these Jewish communities exist side by side.
The Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR) used a variety of data sources to identify organisations
delivering in each theme and built maps of that data which can be seen throughout this report.
Mobilise Public Ltd use several methods to gather data from these organisations in each theme.
The main approach was qualitative, using stakeholder interviews and focus group discussions with a
purposely selected sample of these organisations, and the evidence collected was supplemented
with a short survey which was issued to a larger number of organisations. The research was
coproduced with a subset of the strategic group through a series of facilitated sessions and was
designed to build a good understanding of delivery in each theme as well as an understanding of
challenges and opportunities in readiness for the strategic group to develop a more integrated
strategy for the Greater Manchester Jewish community
Abstract: Seven decades of severe Soviet cultural-religious suppression and two world wars had isolated and demolished the once flourishing Jewish communities behind the Iron Curtain. When the era of Glasnost and Perestroika presented an opportunity for world Jewry to reestablish its lost ties with the three of four million Jews still living throughout the former Soviet Republics, it was unknown whether there was any hope for some kind of Jewish community renewal. The story of how the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a voluntary, humanitarian organization supported by American Jewry, made its entry into the isolated, poverty-stricken world, is a dramatic one. Beginning with only a few highly motivated and experienced workers, contact was made through music, literature, food packages, and religious holiday celebrations. Local Jewish leadership emerged and was encouraged. Plans for community development through social, religious, educational and welfare services were made and implemented. With the guidance of AJJDC and its dedicated community workers came rehabilitation and renewal.
Abstract: This report looks at how faith organisations have been responding to the impact of the financial crisis and the politics of austerity. It is based on a scoping survey of the work of 90 faith organisations and 13 case studies of faith-based initiatives, conducted by a research team based in the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at the University of Bristol. This study builds on a core area of the Centre’s work which focuses on the role of, particularly minority, religions in public life. The project is hosted by the Centre’s online forum on religion and policy, Public Spirit. It is funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust as part of an ongoing interest in promoting economic justice.
The role and impact of faith organisations in providing welfare services, and particularly in the context of economic recession and welfare reform, are well recognised. It is important to acknowledge that faith organisations are not only plugging gaps in social or financial provision left by the market and state, but also bring critical perspectives to questions of socially just economic organisation. Across different religious traditions, faith organisations are also mobilising values, people and resources to develop and innovate alternative approaches to market-based finance and credit. This report focuses on the role of faith organisations in:
1) assisting those experiencing financial hardship;
2) engaging in activism on and campaigning for the reform of financial products and services;
3) advocating or providing alternatives to market-based finance.
We explore how faith organisations, particularly from minority religious groups, view the effects of the financial crisis and austerity on faith communities and neighbourhoods and the ways in which they are responding to these issues. We examine the ways in which they assist those experiencing financial hardship, the issues on which they campaign, and the alternatives to market based finance they are helping to develop or advocate. We look at how and with whom they collaborate, and the values, models and practices that underpin their work.
[Includes Jewish case studies]
Abstract: During wars, Jewish communities often become scapegoats and victims of the combatants. In the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s, the opposite happened. The Jewish community in the country’s capital Sarajevo extended humanitarian services indiscriminately to people of all religions and was respected by the three warring parties, Muslims, Orthodox Serbs, and Roman Catholic Croats.
Support from the American Joint Distribution Committee and other foreign groups enabled the Jewish community to provide free food, medicine, as well as radio and mail services.
During the battle for Sarajevo the Jewish community evacuated a thousand Jews and two thousand non-Jews in eleven convoys and planes.
At present, six Jewish communities remain in Bosnia-Herzegovina with a total of a thousand members. Of these seven hundred are in Sarajevo and the remainder in Mostar, Zenica, Tuzla, Banja Luka, and Doboj.
Abstract: There has been a Jewish community in Greater Manchester since the early 19th
Century. Greater numbers of people migrated to the area during and after the
Second World War when refugees and survivors of the Holocaust settled in a number
of the boroughs. Indeed, the largest Orthodox Jewish community outside London is
situated within the boundaries of Salford, Bury and Manchester. The overall aim of
this study was to provide an assessment of the housing needs of Jewish
communities in Greater Manchester.
In particular, the study aimed to do the following:
o Map population change, household sizes, ages and the location, size and
types of housing occupied by Jewish households;
o Examine whether there has been significant movement of the Jewish
community (domestically and internationally);
o Identify a range of demographic trends amongst the sample population,
including housing circumstances and characteristics; economic activity, age,
employment, education / study, membership of a synagogue and the particular
denomination;
o Identify any housing needs relating to health, disability, age of the individual,
condition of the property, security of tenure, appropriateness of location,
proximity of the property to a place of worship, community infrastructure and
retail provision;
o Explore economic circumstances and housing costs, particularly in relation to
the financial capacity of the household and whether housing costs are being
met, whether the household has any affordability issues relating to its housing
needs now and in the future, and what barriers exist to specific housing
products such as affordable housing;
o Identify housing expectations, looking specifically at the type, tenure, location
and size of housing the household might expect in the short term future at
intervals of 5 years and 10 years;
o Explore future aspirations, focusing on longer term needs and aspirations of
the household including need arising from childbirth, aging; needs related to
health, disability or other factors over the next 5 years and the next 10 years;
o Assess the extent to which lifestyle, level of practice of religion or other
reasons motivate or demotivate household movement;
o Assess whether the existing home meets the current needs including religious
and cultural needs; and
o Measure the level of community cohesion with the wider community in
Manchester and measure the extent of anti-social behaviour, harassment,
incidence and fear of crime.
The study was commissioned by Manchester Jewish Housing Association in
December 2010 and was conducted by a team of researchers from the Salford
Housing & Urban Studies Unit (SHUSU) at the University of Salford. The study was
greatly aided by research support from a number of community interviewers and was
managed by a steering group composed of representatives of Manchester Jewish
Housing Association, Bury Council, Manchester City Council and Salford City
Council.
Abstract: This paper is based on current research which is concerned with the revival of religious and ethnic identity among Jews in Hungary after the collapse of communism. Several non-governmental institutions, groups and individuals from various countries, but especially Israel, the UK and the USA, are involved in the revitalization and transformation of Jewish life in the areas of education, ethnicity, religion and social welfare. I examine the complex relationship between emigre donors, often from an Hungarian background, and local Hungarian Jews, to show how cultural aid is accepted, transformed and sometimes resisted. Such aid is not uni-directional from donor to recipient. Rather, it may require the donors to modify their goals; to realize that their assessment of Hungarian needs may be based on anachronistic attitudes. The impact of the recipients on the donors is such that reciprocal change occurs between the two parties.
Abstract: This landmark survey of the Jewish population in London and south-east England, conducted in 2002 and based on 2,965 completed questionnaires, was, at the time, the largest ever study of Jews in Britain. It covers a wide range of topics: housing, lifestyle, health and illness, communication and leisure, participation in Jewish cultural activities, charitable giving, voluntary work, education and schooling, and care for older people and the infirm. Written by leading experts in contemporary Jewry working in partnership with senior researchers at the National Centre for Social Research, it has provided planners and decision-makers across the Jewish voluntary sector with essential data to support their efforts.
Abstract: Jewish leaders, policy-makers, academics, researchers and communal leaders attended the historic three-day conference on 'Planning for the Future of European Jewry'. Over 200 delegates came from over 25 countries. Delegates from Eastern and Western Europe were joined by leading members of the American Jewish Committee and academics from the US and Israel. The conference was held from 2 to 5 July 2995 at the Hotel Forum in Prague. It was co-chaired by Professor Dominique Moisi from France and Lord Weidenfeld from the UK. The aims of the conference were to share existing ideas, proposals and policy options, and, to generate new ones, with the aim of providing those working for a viable Jewish future in Europe with the tools to achieve it, to develop a culture of strategic policy planning so that change can be managed as systematically as possible, to set up a dialogue between researchers and decision-makers with the aim of coordinating their work, to provide an opportunity to inform others about European Jewish problems.
