BAGELS, PLATZELS AND CHOLLAH: THE STORY OF THE LONDON JEWISH BAKERS’ UNION
Jewish Socialists’ Group and Socialist History Society
by LARRY WAYNE
UNION BREAD is a story both of division and of solidarity. There were bitter divisions between Jewish and non-Jewish Bakers over the issue of Sunday baking, and between the journeymen and the masters. But there was also great solidarity with many of the other tiny “immigrant” unions – the Mantlemakers, the Tailors, and the Tobacco-cutters, and a history of respected affiliation to the TUC. Though frequently repudiated by the mainstream of Establishment Jewry and sometimes underrated by the British Left, these unions all played their part fighting for justice at home and abroad in the early years of the 20th century.
SHS Occasional Paper No. 26