A tempest in three teapots: Yom Kippur balls in London, New York, and Montreal

For at least two decades beginning in 1888, Jewish anarchists in Jewish immigrant centers held annual Yom Kippur balls, featuring antireligious speeches and recitations, music and dancing, and refreshments. These events, which took place on the most holy day of the Jewish year, the Day of Atonement,
served as a mass demonstration against what the anarchists perceived as the evils of religion. The Yom Kippur balls faced wide protest from the established Jewish communities in which they were held and received wide coverage in the Jewish and non-Jewish press. This paper will examine the evolution and subsequent decline of the Yom Kippur balls in London, New York, and Montreal. It will discuss the factors that led to the rise and fall of the Yom Kippur ball while placing its development within a broader historical framework.