ABSTRACT
The preceding chapter dealt with Jewish political opinion in Britain concerning the revolution in Russia, and the situation of the Jews therein. It is now time to focus on official communal policy. How did Anglo-Jewry, as a collective, act in response to the Russian Revolution? Four main areas of organised Jewish activity may be highlighted, this activity being most intense during 1919 and 1920. It was initially limited to the traditional spheres of relief-work and Shtadlanut - that is, to philanthropy and diplomacy. Relief funds were collected for the victims of the pogroms. Appeals had been launched at the time of the mass evacuation of Jews from the war zone by the tsarist authorities in 1915; now they were renewed in greater earnest. Lucien Wolf, the de (acto 'Foreign Secretary' of Anglo-Jewry, simultaneously engaged in diplomatic intercession behind the scenes, not only with the British government but also at the Paris peace conference and at the League of Nations. On behalf of oppressed Jewry in eastern Europe, Wolf raised such issues as the refugee question, Allied relations with the Whites and the problem of the Ukraine. Thus 'quiet diplomacy' was revived, after its almost total suspension during the war, owing to the delicate circumstances of the Anglo-Russian Alliance.
