Published: 21 December 2017
Last updated: 4 March 2024
In the extract below, Schama takes his readers to 17th century England, where Jews are grappling to become accepted by society – and, in the case of one brave boxer, to become the most well-known face in the country.
“Even when he was beating the living daylights out of an opponent, delivering a facer to that particular spot between the brows which would bring on temporary blindness, or a sickener to the mark, the pit of the stomach, there was something oddly cherubic about Dan Mendoza: the long lashes fringing wide brown eyes; the Cupid’s bow lips; the mass of dark, curly hair, grown long |and artfully cut, tied at his neck with a black silk ribbon.”
FULL STORY Simon Schama’s story of the Jews: Belonging (Jewish News)
Photo: A contemporary drawing of the 18th-century Jewish boxing champion Daniel Mendoza (New Statesman)
