Glasgow Poale Zion

• 1930 - 'The Workers’ Circle was not able to establish a Yiddish school in Glasgow, but Yiddish was not driven out of Jewish life in the city. It was still part of Jewish working class culture. At May rallies the Labour movement invited Yiddish speakers, they had done so since the beginning of the century and continued to do this in the 1930s. On another occasion, three speakers addressed an open air meeting of the Poale Zion in August 1930. Only one of them spoke in English: Misha Louvish. The meeting was conducted in Yiddish172. In a report on a convention in Leeds in 1933, the Glasgow representative of the Workers’ Circle was able to say that a “gratifying feature had been the prevalence of Yiddish, which was spoken and understood by young and old a l i k e . ” 173.
• 1935 - The Jewish Echo reported in 1935166 that during the election of 4 Glasgow representatives to the Zionist Congress in Lucerne, the General Zionists received 67.5% of the votes, Poale Zion 19.5% and the Mizrachi 13%.The British delegation consisted of 7 General Zionists, 3 Mizrachi members and 2 representatives from Poale Zion. At the Congress 450 delegates took part in the proceedings. During leadership elections at the Congress, the Poale Zion scored a victory with 57% of the votes. This suggests that the dominant element in Glasgow, as in Britain as a whole, consisted of the moderates, with the more extreme religious and Socialist elements in the

minority; unlike the balance as shown at the Zionist Congress. The State Party did not participate in the Glasgow elections. Although Jabotinsky remained a popular figure in Glasgow167, the influence of the State Party and revisionism in general appear to have been marginal prior to 1939. One of the Glasgow revisionists was Harry Furst, a former member of Poale Zion, who had served with Jabotinsky during the First World War in a Jewish army unit. He was joined by a small group of young people, including Harry Crivan, a scientist who after the Second World War became President of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council168.

• 1940s - 'One of the great Zionist activists in Glasgow was Misha Louvish, who was chairman of the Glasgow Poale Zion and who migrated to Israel in 1949.'
• 1942 - Harry Furst - Chairman, Joseph Harry Barnett, Secretary.
• 1952-3 - Glasgow Poale Zion 6, Dixon Street, Glasgow
  • Hon. President- H. Furst
  • Hon. Vice-President— I. Mail Chairman— T. Lucatz
  • Vice-Chairman— S. Mail
  • Treasurer- A. Benjamin
  • Hon Secretary-Miss E. Rosenheim, 268, Kenmure Street, S.1. Tel.: Pollock 1836