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This study explores the conception of 'normative Judaism' in early 20th-century Britain through an analysis of unpublished sermons delivered during the First World War by an Orthodox and a Liberal preacher near the beginning of what would be illustrious careers. Common themes are exemplified in powerfully impressive passages from these sermons: the shock at the outbreak of a European-wide conflict and its challenge to widespread assumptions about civilization and progress; a strong sense that the apparent causes could not justify such bloodshed in tension with the desire to find some idealistic rationale for the war; ambivalence about siding with Czarist Russia against Germany and Austria, each with a far better record regarding their jewish populations; the crucial importance for British jews to demonstrate loyalty to their country; theological anguish and the question of why God permits the horrors to continue; the need to articulate an appropriate role for prayer (especially at national Intercession Services) despite the awareness that Jews and Christians in enemy nations were also praying for victory in the sincere belief that theirs was the cause of justice; a rejection of naive optimism about the goals to be achieved as a result of the conflict. On each of these points, the position taken by the two preachers was almost interchangeable, suggesting that the concept of an over-arching Anglo-Judaism during this period is not without basis. Further comparison with contemporary war-time French and German jewish preaching - in which the patriotic dimension and negative discourse about the enemy appears to be far more pronounced than in the British examples - will be illuminating.
In this essay, I propose to explore one small aspect of the concept of 'normativity' injudaism by reviewing the unpublished sermons of two preachers from very different positions on the spectrum of Anglo-Jewry delivered during World War I.
First is the Orthodox Rev Abraham Cohen (1887-1957) of Birmingham. Educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he continuedjewish studies in Manchester and eventually earned a Ph.D. from the University of London.* 1 In 1913 he came to the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation of Singer's Hill, where he would serve for some 36 years, becoming highly esteemed in the community and widely known beyond it for his publications on classical Jewish texts. His Sieff...