Cytrynowy jedwab. Wdowa Hutchins, Żydzi i przestępczość zorganizowana w Londynie XVIII w.

Abstrakt

A Piece of Lemon-Silk: Widow Hutchins, the Jews, and Organized Crime in XVIIIth Century London

The article is informed by Old Bailey Proceedings of the case against a Jewish criminal gang, which in summer 1771 broke into a house of a well-to-do Chelsea widow. The case received much publicity: the press reports culled from major monthlies are used to corroborate the basic narrative, and its mutations, which – in turn – exemplify several themes, such as gang violence and criminal associations in the city, the English anti-Semitism and attitudes toward the newcomers, the Askenazi Jews, and the urban commodity-based market consciousness with its notions of security – important in shaping the late XVIIIth century London culture.