M. H. Davis: the rise and fall of a communal upstart

In this paper I propose to survey some aspects of the career of Morris Harold Davis, one of the most colourful and, at the same time, enigmatic communal leaders who walked the Anglo-Jewish stage in the period between the two World Wars. Davis pursued two careers simultaneously. He was President of the Federation of Synagogues from 1928 to 1944; his presidency of that body therefore spanned the period when the Federation reached the height of its ascendancy in Anglo-Jewish affairs during the first century of its existence, but also when it began its long decline. Davis was in some measure responsible both for that ascendancy and, in some measure, for the decline. At virtually the same time he became the leading figure in the Stepney Labour Party, was Mayor of Stepney in 1930- 1, Labour Leader of Stepney Borough Council from 1935 to 1944, and one of the first Labour

Written by

Geoffrey Alderman

Published in

Volume 31

1988

Other articles within the volume

• M. H. Davis: the rise and fall of a communal upstart
• Colonel Patterson, soldier and Zionist
• A ‘Miniature Sanctuary’ at Clapton House, 1781
• Old-clothes men: 18th and 19th centuries
• The readmission of the Jews to England in 1656, in the context of English economic policy
• A second Jewish community in Tudor London
• The Curiel Family in 16th-century Portugal
• Money and the hangman in late-13th-century England: Jews, Christians and coinage offences alleged and real (Part I)
• A magnate among the marchers: Hamo of Hereford, his family and clients, 1218-1253
• Anglo-Jewry under Edward I: credit agents and their clients
• Vivian Lipman: a personal tribute
• In Memoriam: Vivian David Lipman CVO, DPhil, FSA, FRHistS 1921-1990
• Preface