ABSTRACT
The Jewish Lads’ Brigade (JLB) is the oldest Jewish youth movement in Britain. The JLB owes its inspiration to Christian uniformed youth movements which mushroomed in Britain in the closing decades of the nineteenth century: chiefly the Boys’ Brigade (1883), a nonconformist grouping, and the Church Lads’ Brigade of the established Anglican Church (1891). The JLB was inaugurated in the East End of London on 16 February 1895. By the 1930s, the JLB, with its emphasis on patriotic service to the state, had become the natural home for those ‘Englishmen of the Mosaic Persuasion’ to whom Jewish nationalism was anathema. Gluckstein was Commandant of the JLB for the 10 years between 1945-55. Under his leadership, even behind the scenes the subject of Zionism was studiously ignored.
