“This book is remarkable for its comprehensive research and highly sophisticated viewpoint. It deals with the Anglo Jewish community in the mid-nineteenth century, roughly 1840 till 1880, a formative period in the evolution of the Jewish people in Britain, which is normally discussed by historians who take the so-called ‘struggle for Jewish Emancipation’ as this era’s central theme—that is, the struggle to allow professing Jews who were elected to Parliament to take their seats without having to swear a Christian oath, which was successfully concluded in 1858. Although obviously important, this was by no means the only major and formative change and evolution in the structure of the Anglo-Jewish community to occur during these decades, change which has been neglected by previous historians. Employing detailed and original research, Dr. Abosch-Jacobson shows how many of the major and characteristic institutions, communal stances, and communal ideologies also began in that period, some of which continue to this day to be major components of Anglo-Jewry. Her early chapters also set out in a comprehensive way the extraordinary range of historical writings on the history of the Jews in Britain which have been produced during recent decades, as well as the often sharp differences of opinion among these historians about a community which appears to have been significantly different, in a society which was significantly different, from other European Jewish communities, but was also subject to the same trends, including the political and social trends which were often bitterly hostile to Jews, common throughout modern Europe. Her book should be read by any historian interested in this subject.”
— William D. Rubinstein, Emeritus Professor of History of the University of Aberystwyth, author of A History of the Jews in the English-Speaking World: Great Britain