Bouncing Back – and Forward: From Immigrant Household to Cambridge Fellowship

The tale of how a boy of working-class, immigrant Jewish parents in Edinburgh became a Cambridge scholar of international repute. Stefan Reif traces the numerous obstacles encountered as he struggled to make a life that released him from poverty and anonymity but maintained the best of Ashkenazi Judaism. We follow his adventures as a pupil subjected to the rigours of a Scottish Presbyterian education, as well as the demands of traditional Jewish learning. The account describes London, Glasgow, and Philadelphia before concentrating on Cambridge and describing how difficult it was for a scholar who had degrees from London to win academic recognition. This is not only the personal tale of how a poor boy made good that will touch the hearts of many who have struggled to achieve success or seen others who have failed to do so. It is also a readable, informative, and moving account of Jewish life in immigrant Edinburgh; of the teachers and politics of Jews’ College, London, in the 1960s; and of the intricacies of Cambridge academia in the final third of the twentieth century. It contains fresh information, controversial revelations, and frank assessments of individuals and institutions.