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‘Too Semitic’ or ‘Thoroughly ‘Anglicised’? The Life and Career of Harold Abrahams

2011; Routledge; Volume: 29; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09523367.2011.631006

1743-9035

David Dee,

Jewish Identity and Society

Abstract Harold Maurice Abrahams (1899–1978) – the British-Jewish athlete made famous by the film Chariots of Fire – won gold for Britain in the 100 m sprint in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Far from being the ‘outsider’ depicted in Chariots of Fire, however, Abrahams’ ‘Anglicisation’ was extensive and played an important role in his life before, during and after his athletics career. Abrahams’ integration went hand-in-hand with his sporting success – something which was celebrated by British Jewry. Such was his assimilation, that by 1936 – a year when Abrahams courted controversy over his stance on the Berlin Olympics – he was criticised for having ‘lost’ all attachment to the community of his birth. In contrast to the film, where Abrahams is seen to be ‘too Semitic’, the Bedford athlete was actually ‘thoroughly Anglicised’. A desire to move into or support middle-to-upper class British society characterised Abrahams’ personal and sporting life much more so than his Jewishness. As time progressed, Abrahams’ Jewish origins meant less and less, both to Harold himself and to those around him. ‘Trop Sémitique ’ ou profondément Anglicisé ' ? La vie et la carrière d'Harold Abrahams Harold Maurice Abrahams (1899-1978) - l'athlète juif britannique rendu célèbre par le film Les chariots de feu- a gagné l'or pour la Grande-Bretagne dans le 100 m des Jeux olympiques de Paris en 1924. Loin d'être 'l'étranger' dépeint dans Les chariots de feu, 'l'anglicisation' d'Abraham fut cependant importante et a joué un rôle considérable dans sa vie avant, pendant et après sa carrière athlétique. L'intégration d'Abraham est allée de paire avec ses succès sportifs - ce qui fut célébré par la communauté juive britannique. Son assimilation fut telle qu'avant 1936 - année où Abrahams a fait l'objet de controverses au sujet de sa position contre les Jeux olympiques de Berlin - il fut critiqué pour avoir 'perdu' tout attachement à sa communauté de naissance. En contradiction avec le film, où l'on voit qu'Abrahams est ' trop sémitique', l'athlète de Bedford était en réalité 'profondément anglicisé'. Un désir d'intégrer ou de soutenir les classes moyennes à supérieures de la société britannique a ainsi caractérisé la vie personnelle et sportive d'Abrahams bien davantage que le fait d'être juif. Avec le temps, ses origines juives ont perdu de leur importance à la fois pour Abrahams lui-même et pour ceux qui l'entouraient. ¿' Demasiado semítico’ o ‘totalmente anglicanizado’? La vida y la trayectoria de Harold Abrahams Harold Maurice Abrahams (1988-1978), el atleta británico-judío que se hizo famoso a raíz de la película Carros de Fuego, ganó una medalla de oro para el Reino Unido en los 100 metros lisos de los juegos olímpicos de París de 1924. Lejos de ser un ‘outsider’ al estilo de lo que sugiere Carros de Fuego, la ‘anglicanización’ de Abrahams fue profunda y desempeñó un papel importante en su vida antes, durante y después de su carrera como atleta. La integración de Abrahams vino de la mano de sus éxitos deportivos, cosa que fue celebrada por la British Jewry. Su asimilación llegó hasta tal punto que en 1936, un año en que Abrahams flirteó con la polémica a raíz de su postura ante los juegos de Berlín, fue criticado por haber ‘perdido’ toda vinculación con su comunidad de nacimiento. En contraste con lo que refleja la película, en la que Abrahams es visto como ‘demasiado semítico’, el atleta de Bedford estaba en realidad ‘totalmente anglicanizado’. Lo que caracterizó la vida personal y deportiva de Abrahams fue un deseo de integrarse en o de apoyar a las clases sociales medias-altas del Reino Unido, y no su condición de judío. Con el paso del tiempo los orígenes judíos de Abrahams fueron perdiendo significado, tanto para él mismo como para los que lo rodeaban. “Zu semitisch” oder “voll und ganz anglikanisiert”? – Das Leben und die Karriere von Harold Abrahams Harold Maurice Abrahams (1899-–1978) -– der britisch-jüdische Athlet, der durch den Film „Die Stunde des Siegers“ berühmt wurde, gewann 1924 bei den Olympischen Spielen in Paris die Goldmedaille für Großbritannien. Im Gegensatz zu dem „Außenseiter“ – wie er in „Die Stunde des Siegers“ dargestellt wird - war Abrahams Anglikanisierung tiefgreifend. Sie spielte vor, während und nach seiner sportlichen Karriere eine wichtige Rolle. Abrahams Integration vollzog sich im Einklang mit seinem sportlichen Erfolg – eine Tatsache, die von der britisch-jüdischen Gemeinde geschätzt wurde. Seine Assimilation war sogar so stark, dass er 1936 kritisiert wurde, jegliche Bindung zu seiner Herkunftsgemeinde „verloren“ zu haben. Im Unterschied zum Film, in welchem Abrahams „zu semitisch“ gezeigt wird, war der Athlet aus Bedford in Wirklichkeit „durch und durch anglikanisiert“. Der Wunsch, in die britische Mitte- und Oberschicht aufzusteigen, kennzeichnete Abrahams persönliches und sportliches Dasein weitaus mehr als das Judentum. Im Laufe der Zeit bedeutete ihm und seinen Mitmenschen die jüdische Herkunft immer weniger. Keywords: JewsJewishsportHarold AbrahamsChariots of FireAnglicisationintegrationathleticsMots clés: juifsJuifsportHarold AbrahamsLes chariots de feuanglicisationintégrationathlétismePalabras clave: judíosjudíodeporteHarold AbrahamsCarros de FuegoanglicanizaciónintegraciónatletismoSchlagwörter: JudenJudentumSportHarold AbrahamsDie Stunde des SiegersIntegrationLeichtathletik Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council for providing the funding which enabled me to undertake the research for this article. I would also like to express my gratitude to the two anonymous referees of this article for their detailed and constructive comments of this work in an earlier format. Notes 1. See, for instance, Dee, ‘Jews and British Sport’. 2. Dee, ‘Nothing specifically Jewish’. 3. The Times, 7 May 1925. After his retirement, Abrahams worked as a barrister, a columnist for The Times, held various positions in the British Athletic Board, including Chairman (1948–1975), and was elected President of the Amateur Athletics Association in 1976. He also co-authored in 1931, Oxford versus Cambridge, a complete record of all of the 7489 ‘blues’ who had represented their Universities at sport. He was appointed CBE in 1957. McWhirter, ‘Abrahams’. 4. See, for instance, Dee, ‘Nothing specifically Jewish’. 5. In 2011, the first official biography of the sprinter was published, entitled Running with Fire. Ryan, Running. 6. Cashmore, ‘Bigotry’. It is worth highlighting here the contrast between the relative lack of interest in Abrahams compared to his rival in Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell. A number of biographies of ‘The Flying Scotsman’ have been published in recent years. For example, S. Magnusson, The Flying Scotsman: The Eric Liddell Story (London, 1981); D. McCasland, Eric Liddell: Pure Gold (London, 2003); J. W. Keddie, Running the Race: Eric Liddell, Olympic Champion and Missionary (London, 2007). 7. Holt, Sport and the British, 275; Collins, ‘Jews’, 147. 8. Chariots of Fire, (dir. Hugh Hudson, 1981). 9. Cashmore, ‘Bigotry’, 159. 10. Carter, ‘Chariots’, 14. 11. Interestingly, Abrahams’ rival in the 100 m final – New Zealander Arthur Porritt – later criticised the film for the overly Jewish depiction of Harold. Although he noted that the film ‘earned and deserved all the compliments and recognition it has received’, Porritt claimed there were many ‘major flights of fancy’ in the depiction of Abrahams – commenting that ‘I would have never imagined that his [Abrahams’] burning motivation for success was Judaism’. Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge (hereafter CAC), NBKR 6/54/4, New Londoner, 1, 1982. 12. Although Abrahams had a relatively ‘regimented and ‘Americanised’ training schedule’ compared to most of his British peers, his American rivals had a regime much more reminiscent of the modern athletic model. Llewellyn, ‘Olympic Games Doomed’, 785. 13. Birmingham University Special Collections, Birmingham (hereafter BUSC), HA/13/1, J. Bromhead, ‘Harold Abrahams as Athlete, Author and Amateur’, lecture given at University of Warwick, 1988, 5; Holt, Sport and the British, 275. 14. There is a consensus amongst friends and family that Chariots of Fire displays an ‘exaggerated’ level of racial discrimination. Abrahams’ daughter, Sue Pottle, has repeatedly criticised the film for its over-emphasis on anti-Semitism during her father’s time at University. See, for example, Daily Express, 14 September 2007; The Observer, 9 September 2007. Close friend of Abrahams, Norris McWhirter, has noted that Abrahams would have felt the suggestion of anti-Semitism at Cambridge in the manner portrayed by Chariots of Fire to be ‘over-fanciful’. McWhirter, ‘Abrahams’. 15. As Weber has shown, a ‘pervasive Gentleman's anti-Semitism’ was apparent in the pre − 1914 period especially, but was rarely ‘overt’ or ‘violent’. Weber, Our Friend, 200–2, 208. Historians of British Jewry have also shown that ‘social’ discrimination against Jews attending Oxbridge (i.e. banning them from social or sporting clubs) was also common during the early twentieth century. See, for instance, Julius, Trials of the Diaspora, 379–80; Kushner, ‘Anti-Semitism’, 200–1; Lebzelter, Political Anti-Semitism, 32–3. 16. He also noted this to his friend and fellow athlete, Phillip Noel-Baker, in the after his success in the 1924 Olympic Games. In a letter many years later to Arthur Porritt, Noel-Baker commented ‘I was Captain of the Track Team of 1924 and shared a bedroom with Harold Abrahams … Immediately after the games Harold came to stay with me in the Lake District (Pigou's Cottage), he said to me in the Lake District on the first day ‘You must not mind if I swank about winning in Paris, I was so kicked round at Repton for being a Jew that I now react too personally and too much’. This was an entirely new thought to me, I had never then even heard the phrase ‘anti-semitism’. See CAC NBKR 6/54/4, Phillip Noel-Baker to Arthur Porritt, 24 May 1982. 17. BUSC HA/2, H. Abrahams, ‘What Makes a Champion’ (unpublished); In a BBC radio interview in 1963, Abrahams noted that ‘I had to find something where I could score off people and running, of course, you can, you can get first and win and I was determined to do so’. BUSC HA/17/21, H. M. Abrahams interview, BBC Radio, People Today, 20 September 1963. 18. Chariots of Fire is generally advertised as the ‘true story’ of Abrahams’ life and a depiction of the very ‘real’ anti-Semitism he faced from Cambridge University and his peers. See, for instance, www.bbc.co.uk/films/2000/09/12/chariots_of_fire_review.shtml 19. Daily Telegraph, 22 November 1989. 20. Jewish Chronicle, 3 April 1981. 21. Carter, ‘Chariots of Fire’, 16. 22. McWhirter, ‘Abrahams’; BUSC HA/7/1, Memorial Address at Harold Abrahams Funeral, 20 February 1978. For a detailed overview of Harold's early life, see Ryan, Running, 3–18. 23. McWhirter, ‘Abrahams’. 24. Weber, Our Friend, 197. 25. Ibid. 95. 26. Endelman, Radical Assimilation, 76–80. 27. McWhirter, ‘Abrahams’; BUSC HA/7/1, Memorial Address at Harold Abrahams Funeral. 28. Holt, Sport and the British, 82–3. 29. BUSC HA/17/21, H. M. Abrahams interview, BBC Radio, People Today, 20 September 1963; BUSC HA/7/1, Memorial Address at Harold Abrahams Funeral. 30. Correspondence of author with E. Bryant [Harold Abrahams’ niece], 20 May 2011. Abrahams later noted that ‘as far as I was concerned in 1920, I attached far more importance to getting my ‘blue’ at Cambridge than being chosen to represent Great Britain in four events in the [Antwerp] Olympics’. BUSC HA/2, Harold Abrahams, ‘Competing at the Olympic Games’. 31. BUSC HA/17/21, Harold Maurice Abrahams interview, BBC Radio, People Today, 20 September 1963; BUSC HA/2, Transcript of interview with Harold Abrahams, 20 October 1977. 32. Crump, ‘Athletics’, 44. 33. For a general survey of amateur dominance, see Holt, Sport and the British, chapter 2, ‘Amateurism and the Victorians’. 34. Crump, ‘Athletics’, 53. 35. Athletics Weekly, 6 January 1973; The Times, 7 May 1925; BUSC HA/2 Transcript of interview with Harold Abrahams, 20 October 1977. 36. Jewish Chronicle, 1 August 1924. 37. Cashmore, ‘Bigotry’, 162. 38. Daily Mirror, 9 July 1924; Athletics Weekly, 6 January 1973. 39. Jewish Chronicle, 27 July 1923. 40. Jewish World, 15 March 1923. 41. Jewish Chronicle, 13 April 1923, 1 September 1924; Jewish World, 28 June 1923, 2 October 1924. 42. Jewish World, 29 November 1923. 43. Ibid. 19 April 1923. 44. Ryan, Running, 19. 45. Jewish Chronicle, 14 February 1913; BUSC, Interview with Tony Abrahams; Correspondence with E. Bryant. 46. Quoted in Ryan, Running, 82. 47. Jewish Chronicle, 27 November 1925. 48. Jewish World, 10 February 1927. 49. This is interesting when compared with Abrahams’ rival in Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell, who did achieve success despite being devoutly Christian. Although there were many inaccuracies in the portrayal of the Scotsman in the film, it was true that he did not run in the heats of his favoured event, the 100 m, because the heats fell on a Sunday. He knew of this several months in advance, however, and not as he boarded the British team boat – as portrayed in the film. Despite this setback, he was still successful in the 400 m event at the Games. Seemingly, Abrahams’ assertions were aimed mainly at strictly religious Jews, whose aspirations for a successful sporting career would have been hampered by observance of the Jewish Sabbath, dietary laws and other religious practices. Cashmore, ‘Bigotry’, 164. 50. Quoted in Ryan, Running. 232. Maccabi was founded in Europe in the early twentieth century and had strong links to political Zionism. Underpinning its ideology was the notion of increasing Jewish interest and involvement in sport in order to improve Jewish physical and mental toughness – pivotal in the plans for the creation of a Jewish homeland. Maccabi came to Britain in 1934, with the establishment of the British Maccabi Association and grew considerably. By 1963 it had 6,000 members in Britain, dwarfing any other Jewish organisation catering for children and young adults. See Dee, ‘Jews’, 214–49. 51. Ibid. Chapter 2. Jewish communal organisations, which had loudly espoused the need for ‘Anglicisation’ during the early part of the twentieth century, were increasingly realising that integration and assimilation had been overly successful and that religious observance amongst young Jews was rapidly declining. Sport, in the minds of communal and religious elites, was one contributory factor in this ‘drift’ and was said to be weakening the bond between Jews and their religion and culture. 52. Jewish Chronicle, 8 May 1936. 53. Kruger, ‘Germany’, 18–21. 54. Holt, ‘Great Britain’, 70–72. 55. Beck, Scoring for Britain, 201–2. See also, Polley, ‘The British Government’, 30–40. 56. Holt, ‘Amateur Tradition’, 70. For more on the British boycott movement, see Holt, ‘Amateur Tradition’, 70–86; Llewellyn, ‘Epilogue: Britannia Overruled’, 821–2; Beck, Scoring for Britain, 201–2. 57. Manchester Guardian, 6 December 1935. 58. Jewish Chronicle, 27 March 1936. The NWSF was the sporting wing of the Communist Party and drew much of its leadership from politicised Jews such as Benny Rothman. 59. Quoted in Walters, Berlin Games, 124. 60. Ibid. 59. At the 1935 meeting of the BOA, Abrahams argued that if the Games were boycotted then this would lead to a deterioration of international relations. He also felt that a boycott would unnecessarily harm sporting ties to the Nazi regime. 61. Holt, ‘Amateur Tradition’, 72; Mandell, The Nazi Olympics, 80. 62. CAC, NBKR 6/54/1, Philip Noel-Baker to Harold Abrahams, 25 September 1935. 63. Ibid. Philip Noel-Baker to L. Montefiore, 30 November 1935. In a letter to L. Montefiore – Manchester Guardian athletics correspondent and public advocate of a British boycott of the Berlin Games – Noel-Baker remarked that Abrahams had ‘promised to help me in writing such a letter and in editing the draft when I had made it’. 64. Ibid. Harold Abrahams to Philip Noel-Baker, 3 December 1935. Seemingly, Abrahams’ decision to recommend to Noel-Baker not to publish the letter was driven by The Times’ public denouncement of attempts to stop a football friendly between England and Germany, scheduled for 4 December, from taking place. See Beck, Scoring for Britain, 201. 65. Quoted in Llewellyn, ‘Epilogue: Britannia Overruled’, 822. 66. A point which is echoed by Abrahams’ biographer. Ryan, Running, 212–16. 67. Holt, ‘Amateur Tradition’, 72. 68. Jewish Chronicle, 27 March 1936. 69. Ibid. 29 May 1936. 70. Quoted in Walters, Berlin Games, 60. 71. Jewish Chronicle, 25 September 1936. 72. Abrahams met with Foreign Office officials, including Sir Robert Vansittart and Sir John Simon, on many occasions to discuss his possible attendance at the Games with the BBC. He was told by both Vansittart and Simon that the Foreign Office had no objection to him going to Berlin. Ryan, Running, 202. 73. McWhirter, ‘Abrahams’; BUSC HA/17/21, Harold Abrahams BBC interview. 74. BUSC HA/17/21, Harold Maurice Abrahams interview, BBC Radio, People Today, 20 September 1963. 75. Ryan, Running, 212. 76. Jewish Chronicle, 8 May 1936. 77. Ibid. 3 April 1936. 78. Ibid. 27 March 1936. 79. Mandell, Nazi Olympics, 297. 80. Jewish Chronicle, 27 March 1936. 81. Carnes, Past Imperfect, 10. 82. Holt, Sport and the British, 275. 83. BUSC HA/13/1 J. Bromhead, ‘The Life and Times of Harold Abrahams’. For Abrahams’ views on the ‘need’ for specialisation see The Times, 25 April 1926, 18 July 1931. For his views on the Olympic Games see BUSC HA/13/1 Adolphe Abrahams Memorial Lecture. Norris McWhirter claimed Abrahams ‘worked against the stolid petty opposition of senior office holders in various governing bodies, often athletic manqués … to raise athletics from a minor to major national sport’ during his time with the British Amateur Athletic Board from the 1940s through to his death in 1978. McWhirter, ‘Abrahams’.