Israelism in Modern Britain

247 Pages·2020·2.223 MB·English

by  Aidan Cottrell-Boyce

Israelism in Modern Britain
This book unpacks the history of British-Israelism in the UK. Remarkably,
this subject has had very little attention: remarkable, because at its height in
the post-war era, the British-Israelist movement could claim to have tens of
thousands of card-carrying adherents and counted amongst its membership
admirals, peers, television personalities, MPs and members of the royal
family including the King of England.
British-Israelism is the belief that the people of Britain are the descendants
of the lost tribes of Israel. It originated in the writing of a Scottish historian
named John Wilson, who toured the country in the mid-nineteenth century.
Providing a guide to the history of British-Israelism as a movement, including
the formation of the British-Israel World Federation, Covenant Publishing,
and other institutions, the book explores the complex ways in which British-
Israelist thought mirrored developments in ethnic British nationalism during
the twentieth century.
A detailed study on the subject of British-Israelism is necessary, because
British-Israelists constitute an essential element of British life during the most
violent and consequential century of its history. As such, this will be a vital
resource for any scholar of Minority Religions, New Religious Movements,
Nationalism and British Religious History.
Aidan Cottrell-Boyce completed his PhD in Theology at the University of
Cambridge, UK. He has published multiple chapters and articles in journals
such as the Journal of Religious History and the Journal of the Irish Society
for the Academic Study of Religions.
Routledge New Religions
Series editors: James R. Lewis and George D. Chryssides
The popularity and significance of New Religious Movements is reflected in
the explosion of related articles and books now being published. This series
offers an invaluable resource and lasting contribution to the field.
Israelism in Modern Britain
Aidan Cottrell-Boyce
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Israelism in Modern Britain
Aidan Cottrell-Boyce
First published 2021
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2021 Aidan Cottrell-Boyce
The right of Aidan Cottrell-Boyce to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cottrell-Boyce, Aidan, author.
Title: Israelism in modern Britain / Aidan Cottrell-Boyce.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020022532 (print) | LCCN 2020022533 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367376673 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780429355486 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Anglo-Israelism.
Classification: LCC DS131 .C68 2021 (print) | LCC DS131 (ebook) |
DDC 303.48/24105694—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022532
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020022533
ISBN: 978-0-367-37667-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-35548-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Introduction 1
1 What do British-Israelists believe? 26
2 A history of British-Israelism in the twentieth century 59
3 British-Israelism and the Jews 82
4 British-Israelism and the British Empire 109
5 British-Israelism and Ireland 127
6 British-Israelism and the state of Israel 152
7 British-Israelism and Russia 177
8 British-Israelism and the European Union 198
Conclusion 213
Select bibliography 219
Index 237

Introduction
In October 1976, the new NEC in Birmingham played host to the Ideal
Home Exhibition. The event attracted 450,000 visitors over fifteen days.1
Amongst the attractions, shoppers could experience a ‘fashion parade,’ a
‘model radio studio,’ a ‘food fair,’ and ‘family theatre shows.’2 At stand
2430, patrons could also find a display devoted to the promotion and sale of
products supplied by the British-Israel World Federation and the Covenant
Publishing house. Amongst the items promoted at the British-Israel stand
were books, posters, ‘heritage charts’ and acetate ‘slide lectures.’3
British-Israelism was still enjoying its moment. British-Israel organisations,
clubs, meetings, newspapers, magazines and publishers were still in opera-
tion across the country and across the Commonwealth. One British-Israelist
organisation alone – at its peak in the middle of the century – advertised
regular meetings at over three hundred regional branches.4 Writing in 1975,
Bishop David Jenkins issued a sombre warning about the popularity of Brit-
ish-Israelist ideas in the shires of England:
The size of such groups in our midst is sufficiently large to be a warning
that such alienation and frustration exist and that religious quasi long-
ings can take very curious forms when they are bound up with cultural
attitudes and a concern for the wellbeing of society.5
Having flourished as a popular movement from the end of the nineteenth
century up until the 1970s, at this point the movement fell into a seem-
ingly irreversible decline. The decades since have seen a steady diminution
of adherents. Nonetheless, and against all the odds, the movement contin-
ues to hang on with communities dispersed across Britain, Ireland, Canada,
Australia, America, South Africa and even Israel.
What follows is an exploration of the history of British-Israelism in the
twentieth century. In particular, this book focusses on the history of the
movement in the British context. It is the story of a movement which gath-
ered pace during the middle of the twentieth century and presented an idea,
an image of Britain which – though couched in language and indeed in
concepts which may appear strange – has much in common with the image
2 Introduction
of Britain that was shared by much of the population of the country during
that period.
What is British-Israelism?
British-Israelism is a theory. It is not a religion or a denomination. Its adher-
ents are not bound together by any common confessional affiliation. British-
Israelists typically belong to mainstream Protestant churches. They ‘do
not establish churches,’ they ‘do not hold regular services on Sunday,’ and
‘members are encouraged to be good faithful members of the Church of their
choice.’ British-Israelists ‘are not sheep stealers’ and, as such, ‘other Chris-
tian denominations have nothing to fear’ from them.6 They are brought into
community only by their commonly held belief that the people of Britain are
descended from the lost tribes of Israel.
British-Israelism first came to public attention in the nineteenth century.
It originated in the writing of John Wilson: an historian and advocate of
racial pseudo-science. It was popularised in the early stages of its history by
a former bank clerk named Edward Hine – who would become the founder
of the British Israel Identity Corporation – and a barrister named Edward
Wheeler Bird. Wheeler Bird established a British-Israelist periodical – The
Banner of Israel – which would remain the most widely circulated organ
of the movement until the 1920s. Hine, Wheeler Bird and Wilson’s work
spawned admirers and emulators and, by the end of the century, there were
already large numbers of British-Israelist clubs, classes, magazines and
newsletters across the United Kingdom. It was not until 1919, however, that
these disparate elements were able to organise themselves into a large and
contiguous mass movement. In that year, over ninety organisations joined
together in order to form the British-Israel World Federation (BIWF). The
BIWF has survived to the present day, but at various points in its history it
has been forced to weather schisms and defections. In the aftermath of the
Second World War, a few BIWF branches, centred around the South-East,
established a separate organisation, which they called the Society for the
Proclamation that Britain is Israel (SPBI). The SPBI would later, itself, be
rebranded as the Covenant People’s Fellowship. Meanwhile, in the second
half of the twentieth century, other, smaller, rival organisations emerged
such as the Crown Covenanters and the Ensign Trust.
Newspapers and magazines, written and published by British-Israelists,
form the basic source material of this study. The first national organ of
British-Israelism was promoted by the Metropolitan Anglo-Israel Associa-
tion and was called The Banner of Israel. Alongside The Banner, a num-
ber of smaller magazines were distributed by British-Israelists in the early
twentieth century, including but not limited to The British-Israel Pilot,
The Prophetic News and Israel’s Watchman and Protestant British-Israel
Quarterly. The BIWF – through its publishing arm, the Covenant Publish-
ing Company – produced a number of weekly and monthly magazines,
Introduction 3
including The National Message, The Covenant Voice, The Link, Wake Up
and Crown and Commonwealth. Other organisations published their own
magazines in the twentieth century, the most notable being Brith, which
was written and edited by members of the SPBI and latterly the Covenant
People’s Fellowship.
There are many worthwhile accounts of the nineteenth century origins
of the British-Israel movement and of the apparent links between the rise
of British-Israelism and the rise of British imperial sentiment.7 Up to now,
however, very little has been written about the history of the movement in
the twentieth century, the century during which the movement grew and
flourished whilst the Empire dwindled.8 This book is an attempt to correct
this omission. The following is intended to serve as an argument in favour of
studying British-Israelism. It is also intended to highlight the curious disap-
pearance of British-Israelism from the national consciousness.
British-Israelism in the public sphere
A short story entitled ‘Winifred Breaks Out’ appeared in The Guardian
on 29 February 1932. It lampooned the phenomenon of British-Israelism
as a familiar tendency, typical of elderly military veterans. Two friends,
Miss Simpson and Miss Martin, gossip about their neighbour:
‘Miss  Oliver and Miss  Gulliver are drawing conclusions,’ said
Miss Simpson. ‘Miss Oliver said to Miss Gulliver how off it was that a
man like the Colonel, who detests dogs, or did, should be joining Our
Dumb Friends’ League, and Miss Gulliver said yes, it was particularly
odd that it happened just when Winifred was beginning to ask the Colo-
nel for information about British Israel.’
‘British Israel!’ exclaimed Miss Martin. ‘Why I do believe it was
something British Israelitish that Winifred made me read yesterday. Yes
it was!’
‘If Winifred’s breaking out over that,’ said Miss Simpson. ‘Then it
must be the Colonel. He’s steeped to the eyes in British Israel.’9
One of the reasons that the apparent disappearance of British-Israelism from
public consciousness is so striking is that – until relatively recently – the
topic of British-Israelism was not infrequently raised (critically and uncriti-
cally) in stories, novels and newspapers and in the Houses of Parliament. In
other words, until the latter half of the twentieth century, British-Israelism
still occupied space in the British popular imagination.
From the 1890s up to the 1970s, high profile companies took out adver-
tisements in British-Israelist publications. Bovril advertised in The Banner of
Israel during the inter-war years, whilst Cow and Gate continued to adver-
tise in The National Message into the 1960s.10 This testifies to the reader-
ship which these publications commanded but also to the belief, held by the