http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2013/01/whos-afraid-of-bradford-bruising.html
Bradford,Yorkshire, traditionally one of the great woollen centres in England, became home to a large number of German Jews in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. These immigrants contributed to Bradford’s growth and prosperity, and played a not insignificant part in the civic and cultural life of Bradford.
Textile merchant and philanthropist Sir Jacob Behrens (1806-89), for example, knighted in 1882, was a long-serving president of the local Chamber of Commerce, and was instrumental in the establishment of the commercial department of the Foreign Office. Merchant Charles Semon (1814-77) was similarly involved in local civic life, and also philanthropic on a grand scale. A Bradford hospital and a nurses’ training institution, and model lodging houses and a day nursery founded on his initiative, benefited in particular from his largesse. Like Behrens, he served as mayor of Bradford.
Even more outstanding as a philanthropist was yet another textle merchant from Germany, Jacob Moser (1839-1922), who, some years after Bradford’s acquisition of city status, served as lord mayor. At a time when old age pensions did not yet exist he donated £10,000 (about £1million in today’s money) in order that elderly inhabitants of Bradford irrespective of creed would have a weekly income. His wife also played a prominent tole in local affairs. Moser was a Reform Jew who nevertheless aided the local Orthodox congregation, and it’s interesting to note that he gave what was, before the First World War, the most generous contribution by a single individual to the Zionist Organisation (in order to build the Herzlia Gymnasium in Jaffa).
Another notable Jew with Bradford connections was the artist and art school administrator Sir William Rothenstein, who was born there in 1872, the son of an immigrant woollen merchant, and died in 1945 after a distinguished career. His paintings include Jews mourning in a synagogue (which can be seen here).
Today, the Jewish presence in Bradford has been all but eclipsed, and the town to which those and other nineteenth-century immigrants flocked and in which they so eagerly integrated is home to a large Muslim community of mainly Pakistani origin who comprise about one quarter of the population.
It is against that backdrop that the outrageous remarks of Liberal Democrat MP David Ward, who represents the Bradford East, must be viewed.