In contrast to much of the previous analysis, this chapter argues that modern Leeds has a united and more coherent character than in past times. It is argued again that the question of identity is a complex one, with Jews able to feel multiple identities. The analysis relies on a number of attitudinal surveys which explore particularly young peoples’ attitudes to current issues. For example, it asked whether people would support Israel or England when they were drawn together in a European football competition. It is argued that young Jews in Leeds are confident and comfortable to display their allegiance publicly, such as lighting Chanukah candles at the Lubavitch centre.

In this chapter the importance of mutual aid and philanthropic endeavour are stressed as a means of community cohesion and as a counter to the fragmentation so characteristic of the Leeds community. As with many other activities, the fellowship bodies were often associated with place of origin, later replaced by national bodies, such as B’nai Brith. The 140-year history of the Board of Guardians, later the Welfare Board, is traced with stress on the desire of Leeds Jewry to look after its own poor. The changing role of charities is explained by reference to the increase in state welfare in the twentieth century

Wyclif’s views on sacramental theology are difficult to summarise collectively, but much of what he said on the topic was generally concerned with removing a particular sacrament from its ceremonial or accidental trappings, rather than questioning its necessity. The only sacrament about which he expressed some doubt is confirmation, but, even here, it would seem to be its administration at the hands of bishops that is the true target of the doubts he expresses. His beliefs about the process of sacramental change in the eucharist represent a more radical and controversial departure from orthodox teaching, but, once again, the need of this sacrament is never questioned. Because of the complexity of Wyclif’s ideas about the eucharist, and of the metaphysical principles that inform it, as well as the volume of writing dedicated to this topic, it will be covered separately in Chapter 4.

This chapter adopts a biographical approach and identifies a number of leading figures who made a contribution to the community and the city. These include philanthropic figures, such as Victor Lightman; municipal ‘giants’, such as Hyman Morris; academics, such as Selig Brodetsky and retail entrepreneurs, such as Montague Burton. The only woman included, Fanny Waterman, is a musical pioneer who established the Leeds Piano Competition. It is admitted that the choice was subjective and others might have been included.

Wyclif’s views on the church and the papacy were recorded systematically in two roughly contemporary treatises, On the Church (1378/9) and On the Power of the Pope (late 1379). His conception of the church, like his understanding of the nature of scripture, was underpinned quite conspicuously by his philosophical realism, which privileged the eternal over the finite and ephemeral. In the first chapter of On the Church, in response to his initial desire to describe the quiddity of the church, he therefore claims simply that the church is ‘the congregation of all of those predestined to salvation’. This definition, he suggests, underlies many of the diverse conceptions of the church that are found in scripture. It is this church, he goes on to suggest, that we should properly identify as the bride of Christ. The head of the church, we are told, is uniquely Christ himself, and its members are his limbs. Nobody can know for certain that he or she is among the predestinate, or even the foreknown (that is, those predestined to damnation), which meant that for Wyclif, nobody could be sure that he or she was truly a member of the church, except by ‘special revelation’.

For the student at any university in late medieval Europe, logic and metaphysics were the necessary preliminaries to any serious engagement with theological questions. Wyclif’s distinctive and controversial theological system relied upon an equally distinctive and impressively intricate philosophical system. His three logical treatises and his Summa de Ente (a modern title) are only now beginning to receive the attention they deserve from scholars, but only one of them (On Universals) is available in English translation. I have here selected texts that deal with a range of issues that were to become crucial to Wyclif’s later thought. All are clearly informed by his developing philosophical realism, and represent his desire to gesture away from the material particulars of the world, towards the universal entities that Wyclif felt were the proper objects of philosophical knowledge.

The chapter analyses the character and impact of the mass migration which transformed the Jewish community in the late Victorian period. It is shown that despite family stories which asserted that people arrived in Leeds by accident, there were clear geographic connections which made Leeds the intended destination for most immigrants. Leeds Jews came predominantly from the western part of the Russian Pale, from Lithuanian and the province of Kovno. The new arrivals soon made their presence felt in local affairs such as strikes. The 1917 anti-Semitic riots were a low point in attempts to integrate into Yorkshire society.

The final chapter falls into two parts, a survey of developments in the second half of the twentieth century and some final thoughts analysing the key themes of the book as a whole. Social mobility, economic success and residential concentration are notable characteristics of the modern community. Divisions persisted and one of the aims of the Jewish Representative Council was to speak for the diverse range of opinion, from the liberal Sinai Synagogue to the ultra-orthodox Lubavitch supporters. Much is made of the achievement of integration without assimilation and the penetration of the professions is highlighted. The case of Arnold Ziff is cited as a prime example of a major contribution to the economic and social life of Leeds, including benefactions to a range of causes, while retaining a committed Jewish identity.

This chapter provides a detailed and comprehensive account of the workers and masters in the Leeds tailoring industry. Many of the new immigrants worked in sweatshops and in the outsourced workshops, which were in many ways an updated form of the domestic system in which all members of the family worked in the home. The workers soon found common cause and combined together to form the first and largest tailoring trade union. Their leader was the socialist Moses Sclare, who was a nationally important figure in the labour movement. Many of the Jewish masters exploited their fellow Jews but an exception was David Lubelski, who supported higher wages and shorter hours.