The Board of Guardians was a charity founded by the wealthier or more established part of the Jewish community in London in 1859. It was established because of the introduction of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 amendments by secular authorities. These laws applied a workhouse test to qualify for poor relief; the workhouse was unsuitable for the Jewish community because of their special religious constraints and requirements.
This report, from 1947, demonstrates the Board and its various charities and properties recovering from the losses of the war. It describes a very active organization, with large amounts of donors that varied from synagogues to thousands of individuals.
In the 1990s the Board of Guardians merged with other Jewish charities to become the modern “Jewish Care”.
Jewish Miscellanies 