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Daniel Mendoza, the boxing legend who raised the status of Jews with his bare fists

He was so proud of his ethnicity that he fought anyone who traduced it. In the process, he became one of Britain’s all-time sporting greats

October 31, 2019 13:20
The Famous Battle Between Richard Humphreys & Daniel Mendoza. Etching by James Gillray, 1788
5 min read

The bareknuckle boxer Daniel Mendoza is one of the most important Jews in British history.

He was not a pious man — his first professional fight was on Shabbat — but he was proud of his ethnicity, to the degree that he would fight those who traduced it.

In so doing, quite unconsciously, he aided the integration of Jews into British society, raising their social standing and making it dangerous to physically threaten them. Incredibly, no full length biography has hitherto existed.

Several events in the mid-18th century militated against the harmonious integration of the relatively new and small number of Jews into the wider British population.