ABSTRACT
This chapter examines British Labour politics in relation to issues of 'Jewishness' in public and political life. It discusses the concept of 'Jewishness' in the light of the impact of the First World War, and with regard to the role played by gender and sexuality in defining the Jewish image. The chapter then focuses on the world of Labour. The First World War altered perceptions of Jewish integration in public life. Using gender analysis as an introduction to the history of Anglo-Jewish identity in the Labour movement is a useful way of understanding more generally the public perceptions of 'Jewishness' as they came to be formed in the twentieth century. The bourgeois ideal of femininity often impeded women's access to the public sphere and also saw religiosity as an appendage of feminine behaviour; and so, women retained greater 'markers' for Jewishness than did men.
