JSG was founded in Manchester/Liverpool in 1974–1977 as a lobby group campaigning against the fascist National Front and for the left to relate more positively to Jewish issues.

It developed a perspective via drawing on the tradition of the Bund, stressing Yiddishism, cultural pluralism and a commitment to the vitality of the diaspora.

In the mid-1980s, it became associated with the Greater London Council's municipal socialism and multiculturalism, receiving funding to launch Jewish Cultural and Anti-Racist Project (JCARP).

[3]In 2021, when the owners of the Pink Peacock were charged with a breach of the peace in response to them displaying tote bags with the phrase "Fuck the Police/Daloy Politsey" on them, the JSG sent a message of solidarity:The Jewish Socialists' Group sends solidarity to comrades of the Pink Peacock Queer Yiddish Anarchist café after the recent attacks you have experienced against your premises... Daloy Politsey (Down With the Police) was sung on demonstrations by our political forebears as part of their courageous collective struggle against antisemitism and state repression in Tsarist Russia.

In a statement the JSG said:The Jewish Socialists' Group stands for a future of peace and coexistence for the people in Israel and Palestine that can only be based on equality, justice, freedom and an end to occupation, colonisation and apartheid practices that reflect racist and fascist values of supremacy... We stand fully behind the right to resist occupation and oppression and the siege of Gaza.