Newspaper article about the 1911 riots, 22 July 2011

Description

This newspaper clipping from The Jewish Chronicle contains an article by the historian Geoffrey Alderman, who wrote several books about Anglo-Jewry. He discusses the 1911 riots that took place in the South Wales Valleys, most famously in Tredegar. The article notes that the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill referred to the events as a pogrom. While the antisemitic nature of the riots has often been downplayed, the historical sources Alderman has discovered tell a different story. The rioters were mostly workers, and their wives, and the violence was explicitly directed against the Jewish population to whom many non-Jewish families were in debt.

Alderman also refers to evidence showing that the attacks were planned and could have been connected to the Welsh Baptist movement, which at the time had exhibited anti-Jewish prejudices. After the riots, the Monmouthshire Welsh Baptist Association refused to pass a resolution expressing sympathy with the Jews. The Baptist ministers expressed worry that a resolution might encourage more Jews to move to the Valleys. Alderman ends the article stating that the victims of the 1911 riots were subjected to religiously inspired and economically motivated prejudice.

The article is also available online at https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/features/when-the-pogrom-of-the-valleys-erupted-in-wales-1.25339.

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