UCL Discovery Stage
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery Stage

Jews and the English countryside: some notable contributions to conservation, access, and order

Pearlman, J. J; (2016) Jews and the English countryside: some notable contributions to conservation, access, and order. Jewish Historical Studies , 48 pp. 200-224. 10.14324/111.444.jhs.2016v48.032. Gold open access

[thumbnail of Pearlman_article.pdf]
Preview
Text
Pearlman_article.pdf

Download (205kB) | Preview

Abstract

As a Jewish practising solicitor and a regular rambler, the author developed an interest in the law of public rights of way.1 It was part of the English legal system, but one that was not in the standard curriculum for law students. Eventually he became the Honorary Solicitor to the Ramblers Association, which campaigned for greater lawful access to the countryside, especially by protecting the network of public rights of way. This was at a time when a doyen of the rambling movement, Benny Rothman, was attracting much publicity because he was held up as an example of a campaigner who had fought for what is known as “the Right to Roam”, which is explained later. He was also Jewish, and he became an inspiration to the author. Jews in England have largely been urban in their day to day way of life, but there are exceptions. The contributions to nature conservation and countryside recreation activities of those mentioned in this article are widely accepted by countryside managers to be significant. This paper is an attempt to bring together some strands of their influence and to explain the important effect they have had, both on the English countryside evident today and in the manner in which many people can enjoy, appreciate, and understand the countryside. With the exception of Jewish writers such as Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967) and artists such as David Bomberg (1890–1957) in whose works nature or landscape often play an important role, the interest of most British Jewry had been confided to taking a stroll in the countryside. It is likely that one of the factors which prevented Jews from ‘mingling’ with nature was the prohibition on travelling on the Sabbath and on leaving the borders of cities and towns on religious grounds. Hence the interest of some Jews, mainly secular or less Orthodox, in the countryside had grown under the influence of the non-Jewish milieu. The particular areas to be examined are firstly nature conservation; secondly, the need to record the existing rights of the public which were being forgotten owing to changes in lifestyle, particularly as a result of modern transportation; thirdly, to achieve public access to the countryside; fourthly, the establishment of National Parks. It is in most of these that one finds notable contributions. In spite of the diverse backgrounds of the people involved, this paper does not purport to be able to find a specifically Jewish link between any of the persons identified, ranging from the wealthy to a Communist agitator, from modern Orthodox to possible convert to Christianity, and from researcher to campaigner. Their only common denominator was their Jewish creed and love of nature. I make no claim for the influence of religion, although a tenable theory is that the Jews as a people are stubborn and inquisitive by nature. In addition, Jews are said to be a “stiff-necked people” (Exodus 32:9).

Type: Article
Title: Jews and the English countryside: some notable contributions to conservation, access, and order
Open access status: An open access publication
DOI: 10.14324/111.444.jhs.2016v48.032
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.jhs.2016v48.032
Language: English
Additional information: © 2017, The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1561327
Downloads since deposit
6,216Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item