Preface Vol 17

<plain_text><page sequence="1">Preface With the present volume of Transactions most of the arrears of papers read before the Society, that have accumulated and were awaiting publication, have been disposed of and the list of papers ready for inclusion in Volume XVIII is at present a short one. Volume XVII follows its predecessor after an interval of about a year, and it is hoped henceforward to issue to members at least one volume a year, in addition to pamphlets. This aim can be achieved only by reviving a former practice of the Society which fell into desuetude a generation ago. The ordinary income of the Society has never sufficed to cover the cost of administration as well as that of an annual volume and as time passes the gap between the ordinary income and the total expenditure grows wider. To bridge that gap a Publications Fund has been introduced. No general or public appeal is or has ever been made for contributions to this fund. Only well-wishers of the Society who might be expected to contribute have been asked to do so. Members who feel that the publications of the Society should continue to appear annually are earnestly asked to help in a practical manner towards this objective. The relatively short interval between the appearance of Volumes XVI and XVII of the Transactions has necessarily reduced the length of the record of the activities of the Society with which this volume, like its predecessors, is prefaced. Seven or eight meetings have, as usual, been held in each session and a selection of the papers read at those meetings appears in this volume or will appear in its successor. A list of the meetings held since the end of the 1950-51 session appears on a later page. Since the appearance of Volume XVI "The Sephardim of England", by Mr. Albert M. Hyam son, a book written and published under the authority of the Wardens of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Congregation of London in connection with the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the consecration of the Sephardi Synagogue in Bevis Marks in September 1701, has been distributed to members of the Society. This has been made possible by the generous terms given by the Congregation for the purchase of copies. A smaller book, "Israel and the Diaspora," the Seventh Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture by the Rev. Dr. James Parkes, was also distributed in the course of the year. Several other volumes are projected and should reach members in the course of the next few years. The completion of the new Gustave Tuck Theatre and Museum to house the Gustave Tuck collection of Jewish ritual silver and the Moccatta Library which was destroyed in an air raid in the course of the Second World War, should also mark the near future in the history of the Society. The collection of silver, which fortunately escaped destruction, has been catalogued by Mr. A. G. Grimwade. At the same time the library, which was for the most part destroyed, has been built up again, largely through the generosity of Sir Louis Sterling, the widow of Dr. Cyrus Adler, the late Rabbi Henry Cohen of Galveston, U.S.A., and others. Both the Museum and Library as well as the new Gustave Tuck theatre should be completed and in use before the next volume of Transactions appears. The late Sir Thomas Colyer Fergusson, Bart., for many years a member of the Council of the Society and the leading authority on Anglo-Jewish genealogy, bequeathed to the Society all his books and papers of Jewish historical and genealogical interest, including above all, his very extensive and unique collection of Anglo-Jewish pedigrees. This collection, together with the Lucien Wolf papers, makes the Society the chief depository of Anglo-Jewish genealogical material. The Jewish Museum has also a Genealogical department under the direction vii</page><page sequence="2">viii PREFACE of Mr. R. J. d'Arcy Hart, a member of the Council of the Society. Co-operation between the two institutions is thus easy and is always cordial. The Society continues to enjoy the hospitality of the West London Synagogue, which hospitality is much appreciated. In its absence the Society would have been homeless pending the rebuilding of the Gustave Tuck Theatre, as a part of University College, London. Its collection of books still remains in store, since no accommodation in which it can be made available to the members can be found for it. In June, 1952, Mr. Bertram B. Benas, LL.M., B.A., was re-elected President of the Society for a second term. Mr. B. Ifor Evans, M.A., D.Litt., the new Provost of University College, London, was elected an Honorary Member. The Council decided to revise the scheme governing "The Lady Magnus Memorial Lecture," which was endowed under the will of the late Sir Philip Magnus, Bart., The lecture in memory of a writer on and student of Anglo-Jewish history years before and after the establishment of the Society, will be delivered in future every third year and the income from the endowment will accumulate so that an honorarium of ten pounds may be paid to the Lecturer. Preparations have been begun for the celebration, in the year 1956, of the Tercentenary of the Resettlement of the Jews in England. A meeting of representatives of a number of the principal Anglo-Jewish institutions was convened by the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London, the senior institution of the Anglo-Jewish Community, for this purpose, and a provisional committee appointed. The represent? atives of the Society on this Committee are Mr. Cecil Roth, a past President and a Vice-President, and the Rev. Arthur Barnett, the Honorary Secretary. The Society was also represented at the celebration in November, 1952, of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Rabbi Sir Hermann Gollancz, a former President of the Society. The following is a list of the meetings of the Society since the issue of Volume XVI of its Transactions. 1951 14th Nov. Annual General Meeting. Mr. Bertram B. Benas, LL.M., B.A., Presidentia Address : "A Survey of the Institutional History of Liverpool Jewry." (Repeated at Liverpool on 6th January, 1952). 18th Dec. Miss Stella Wills, M.A. (Lond.), B.A. (Cantab.) : "Anglo-Jewish Contributions to the Education for Women in the Nineteenth Century." 1952 6th Jan. Joint Meeting with the Liverpool Jewish Literary Society. (See 14th Novemberl 1951, above). 6th Feb. Mr. Cecil Roth, M.A., D.Phil. : "New Facts on Menasseh Ben Israel and the Resettlement." 3rd March Mr. Joseph Leftwich : "Israel Zangwill" (Memorial Lecture). 22nd April Mr. H. G. Richardson, M.A., F.B.A. : "Jewish Mortgages and Monastic Endow? ments." 16th May Sixteenth Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture. Prof. D. Seaborne Davies, M.A., LIB. : "The Bible in English Law." 8th June Seventeenth Arthur Davis Memorial Lecture. The Rev. Dr. James W. Parkes, M.A., D.Phil. : "Israel and the Diaspora."</page><page sequence="3">13th Nov. Annual General Meeting. Mr. Bertram B. Benas, Ll.M., B.A., Presidential Address : "Jacob Waley (1819-1873), Conveyancing Counsel to the Court of Chancery." 10th Dec. Mr. Arthur P. Arnold, M.A. : "Some Sidelights on the Jews in the City of London in 1695." 1953 21st Jan. Mr. V. D. Lipman, M.A., D.Phil. : "The Mediaeval Norwich Jewry and the Family of Jurnet." 18th Feb. Mr. William Urry : "Mediaeval Canterbury and the Jews." 18th March Mr. J. A. Giuseppi : "Sephardi Jews and the Early Years of the Bank of England." 15th April Mrs. Mary G. Levy : "Some Jewish Physicians at the English Court." 18th May Seventeenth Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture. Dr. Redcliffe N. Salaman, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. : "Whither Lucien Wolf's Anglo-Jewish Community". 17th June Mr. Alfred Rubens : "Francis Town and his Family". 1 July, 1953. B</page></plain_text>