Churchill and the Jews

Discusses the attitudes and fluctuating policies of Winston Churchill towards the Jews and Zionism. Churchill attacked the 1905 Aliens Act, designed to restrict Jewish immigration to Britain. However, he may have been motivated partly by opportunism, as his Manchester constituency contained a high proportion of Jewish voters. He was not above exploiting antisemitism in an attack on Sir Marcus Samuel in 1914, accusing him of extorting high prices from the British Admiralty. Churchill was affected by "Jewish conspiracy" theories, and tended to accept the stereotype of the Jews' immense wealth and influence. Paradoxically, this may have played a role in his sympathy for Zionism. Churchill's supposed friendship with the Jews did not find expression in substantive actions on their behalf during the 1930s and World War II.