Jewish Aid Committee of Britain

The CST gives the following account:

By the time the 1970s came around, the far right was still very much a danger but the broader political context for anti-fascism had changed. Meanwhile the Jewish community faced a growing threat of terrorism connected to the Middle East that required a different approach to communal security. Gerald Ronson takes up the story in his memoir:

“I became chief fund-raiser for the 62 Group – we needed money not just to run the organisation but to pay fines – so I had some say about how it was run and what we should be doing. By now, however, I was beginning to think that being hooligans to fight hooligans wasn’t the smartest way we could fight the enemy. I knew I was dealing with a bunch of loonies, but I was thinking that we needed to beat the enemy by being more sophisticated than them. That meant setting up a new organisation. It had to be more than 200 well-meaning tough boys behaving in an undisciplined fashion. It had to look for long-term solutions and I felt that the greater Jewish community in Britain should fund it.”

This led to the formation of various groups to organise and fund this work, including the Jewish Aid Committee Of Britain (JACOB); the Group Relations Educational Trust (GRET); the Community Security Organisation of the Board of Deputies; and, finally, the Community Security Trust. The Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX) played a vital role for many years.

See also

• 43 Group | 62 Group | Group Relations Educational Trust | Community Security Organisation | Community Security Trust