‘Wogs’ and ‘Kikes’: the Jewish Tribune – West Indian World Controversy of 1978

Abstract

ABSTRACT In early 1978 a conflict emerged between the Orthodox Jewish newspaper Jewish Tribune and the Black British West Indian World. After Tribune published a seemingly offensive Yiddish language editorial cautioning against Jewish public solidarity with West Indians, it was leaked to West Indian World who splashed it on their front page. This article will give a full account of the largely forgotten affair, focusing on the responses to it in the Black and Jewish press and examining what it illustrates about Jewish responses to issues of race relations in late 1970s Britain.