‘Rootsie-tootsie’: (Re)locating Jews in Contemporary Britain

This chapter builds on the previous discussion of memory and British-Jewish identity in order to reflect on the Jewish diasporic experience. In particular it focuses on a perceived lack of rootedness which is reflected in the above quotation from Bernard Kops’ poem ‘Diaspora’. This sense of disconnection is a recurring motif in contemporary Jewish literature. The following discussion explores the diasporic experience but focuses also on the ways in which ideas of displacement might be interrogated in relation to the lives of Jews in Britain today. So, whilst it looks at themes of place and displacement, belonging and longing, sites of origin and of destination, the chapter will also reflect on more local and contemporary relocations within Britain’s cities, suburbs and countryside.