The "Isaacsons Hebrew Christian Scholarship"

A Racist Anglican Charity?

Introduction

Any discussion of "race" inevitably throws up problems. This is in part because the word "race" has been used in so many different ways over the years. Thus what was considered to be a clear "marker" of "race", say, in 1933 might today be dismissed as having no relevance. This is why one sometimes needs to place an institution in its historical context before making judgements as to whether or not it might be racist.

I hope that we can all agree that Nazi Germany was a racist state. However, contrary to what many people still believe, Nazi antisemitism was not based on biological "race" e.g. see The Concept "Jew" in Nazi "Race" Legislation.  Use your back button to return to this page.

A Racist Christian Charity?

The "Isaacsons Hebrew Christian Scholarship" (IHCS) is a registered charity (CR 529987) administered by National Westminster Bank (Finance and Investment Services, 6th Floor, Newland House, 49 Mount St., NOTTINGHAM, NG1 6GP, England). The IHCS's "Advisory Committee" is located at St. John's College (Chilwell Lane, Bramcote, NOTTINGHAM, NG9 3DS, England), with whom it has had a long association.

According to paragraph 1 of the scheme of its schedule, IHCS scholarships are to assist in training for the ministry of the Church of England students (i.e. Anglican Christians), "who shall at some pervious time have professed any form of the Jewish faith or either of whose parents shall at some time have professed any form of that faith".

So in the same way that, for example, in the Third Reich a German Christian with no personal knowledge of a Jewish past, but whose grandparents happened to have been members of the Jewish religious community was designated a "racial Jew" by Nazi law, an Anglican Christian is designated a "Hebrew Christian" (i.e. a Christian of the "Jewish race") by the IHCS's rules on the same grounds. The difference between a parent who "professed a form of the Jewish faith" and one that was a member of "the Jewish religious community" is no more than semantics.

By the foregoing it is not the intention to suggest that the IHCS is Nazi or that its supporters have Nazi sympathies. The only point that I wish to make is that the Anglican IHCS is practising racial discrimination against fellow Anglicans in the selection of those to whom it grants financial support.

I am not at all sure whether its various administrators fully appreciate the true nature of the IHCS. Surely, however, they must sometimes wonder why they are doling out money to someone on the basis of his or her parent's religion, or even former religion? This must seem especially strange considering that the IHCS, the beneficiary and the IHCS's Advisory Committee are all solidly Anglican, whist the religion on which the discrimination is based is Judaism. Surely, it is not the usual practice for Anglicans to discriminate against fellow Anglicans on the basis of their former faith? The question is whether the IHCS's various administrators can claim a defence of ignorance regarding this charity's racial discrimination, even in the face of some question-provoking evidence that something is definitely not in order?

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