![England in the UK and Europe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/England_in_the_UK_and_Europe.svg)
The history of the Jews in England goes back to the reign of
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
. Although it is likely that there had been some Jewish presence in the
Roman period
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
, there is no definitive evidence, and no reason to suppose that there was any community during
Anglo-Saxon times. The first written record of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
settlement in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
dates from 1070. The Jewish settlement continued until
King Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...
's
Edict of Expulsion
The Edict of Expulsion was a royal decree issued by King Edward I of England on 18 July 1290 expelling all Jews from the Kingdom of England. Edward advised the sheriffs of all counties he wanted all Jews expelled by no later than All Saints' D ...
in 1290. After the expulsion, there was no overt Jewish community (as opposed to individuals
practising Judaism secretly) until the rule of
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
. While Cromwell never officially readmitted Jews to the
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execut ...
, a small colony of
Sephardic Jew
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...
s living in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
was identified in 1656 and allowed to remain.
![Tower of London viewed from the River Thames](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Tower_of_London_viewed_from_the_River_Thames.jpg)
The
Jewish Naturalisation Act of 1753, an attempt to legalise the Jewish presence in England, remained in force for only a few months. Historians commonly date
Jewish Emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, e.g. Jewish quotas, to which European Jews were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights. It incl ...
to either 1829 or 1858, while
Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...
, born
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
but converted to
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
, had been elected twice as the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...
in 1868 and in 1874. At the insistence of Irish leader
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...
, in 1846 the British law "De Judaismo", which prescribed a special dress for Jews, was repealed. Due to the rarity of anti-Jewish violence in Britain in the 19th century, it acquired a reputation for religious tolerance and attracted significant immigration from Eastern Europe. By the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, about half a million European Jews fled to England to escape the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
, but only about 70,000 (
including almost 10,000 children) were granted entry.
Jews faced
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
and stereotypes in Britain, and antisemitism "in most cases went along with
Germanophobia" during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
to the extent that Jews were equated with Germans, despite the
British royal family having partial German ethnic origins. This led many
Ashkenazi Jewish
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
families to Anglicise their often German-sounding names.
Jews in the UK now number around 275,000, with over 260,000 of these in England, which contains the second largest
Jewish population
As of 2020, the world's "core" Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewis ...
in Europe (behind France) and the
fifth largest Jewish community worldwide. The majority of the Jews in England live in and around London, with almost 160,000 Jews in London itself and a further 20,800 in nearby
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
, primarily in
Bushey
Bushey is a town in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It has a population of over 25,000 inhabitants. Bushey Heath is a large neighbourhood south east of Bushey on the boundary with the London Borough of Harrow re ...
(4,500),
Borehamwood
Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known ...
(3,900), and
Radlett
Radlett is a village in Hertfordshire, England, between Elstree and St Albans on Watling Street, with a population of 8,042. It is in the council district of Hertsmere in the south of the county, and is covered by two wards; Aldenham East and ...
(2,300). The next most significant population is in
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
with a community of slightly more than 25,000, primarily in
Bury
Bury may refer to:
*The burial of human remains
*-bury, a suffix in English placenames
Places England
* Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village
* Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire
** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
(10,360),
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
(7,920),
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
itself (2,725), and
Trafford
Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...
(2,490). There are also significant communities in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
(6,760),
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...
(3,000),
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
(2,730),
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
(2,330),
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
(2,150), and
Southend
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...
(2,080). It is generally believed that Jews are undercounted in censuses due to a disinclination on the parts of some community members to reveal their ethnoreligious background and practice, so these numbers may be low estimates.
Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England
It is probable that there were Jews in Roman Britain under the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
, perhaps as
soldiers
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
,
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
,
silversmith
A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...
s or traders. However there is little or no definitive evidence. One piece of circumstantial evidence is from a tradition in
Caerleon
Caerleon (; cy, Caerllion) is a town and community in Newport, Wales. Situated on the River Usk, it lies northeast of Newport city centre, and southeast of Cwmbran. Caerleon is of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable Roman ...
(in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
), a major legionary base, of two Roman era Christian martyrs,
Julius and Aaron
Julius and Aaron (also Julian) were two Romano-British Christian saints who were martyred around the third century. Along with Saint Alban, they are the only named Christian martyrs from Roman Britain. Most historians place the martyrdom in Cae ...
, with the name Aaron suggesting Jewish origin.
There is little reason to think that there was any settled Jewish presence in Anglo-Saxon England, although there is considerable discussion of the nature of Jewish religion and its relationship to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
in literature. The few references in the
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
Church law
Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...
s relate to Jewish practices about
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
.
Norman England, 1066–1290
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a ...
states that
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
brought Jews from
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
to England during the
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...
. William the Conqueror's object may be inferred: his policy was to get
feudal dues paid to the
royal treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in ...
in coin rather than in kind, and for this purpose it was necessary to have a body of men scattered through the country who would supply quantities of coin.
["England"](_blank)
''Jewish Encyclopedia
''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...
'' (1906)
Status of Jews
Prior to their expulsion in 1290, the status of Jews in England was completely dependent on the will of
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
. English Jews were legally under the jurisdiction of the king, who offered them protection in return for their economic function. As "royal serfs", they were allowed freedom of the king's
highway
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...
s, exemption from tolls, the ability to hold land directly from the king, and physical protection in the vast network of royal castles built to assert Norman authority.
The Jews of London were the responsibility of the
Constable of the Tower
The Constable of the Tower is the most senior appointment at the Tower of London. In the Middle Ages a constable was the person in charge of a castle when the owner—the king or a nobleman—was not in residence. The Constable of the Tower had a ...
and for this reason they were able to seek refuge in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
when at risk of mob violence. This was resorted to on a number of occasions, with large numbers staying there, sometimes for months at a time. There are records of a body of Jewish men-at-arms forming part of the garrison of the
Tower
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
in 1267, during a civil war.
A clause to that effect was inserted under
Henry I Henry I may refer to:
876–1366
* Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936)
* Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955)
* Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018)
* Henry I of France (1008–1060)
* Henry I the Long, Margrave of the No ...
in some manuscripts of the so-called ''
Leges Edwardi Confessoris
The title ''Leges Edwardi Confessoris'', or ''Laws of Edward the Confessor'', refers to a collection of laws, purporting to represent English law in the time of Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042–1066), as recited to the Norman invader king Wil ...
'' ("Laws of Edward the Confessor"). Henry granted a charter to Rabbi Joseph, the chief
Rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
of London, and his followers. Under this charter, Jews were permitted to move about the country without paying tolls, to buy and sell, to sell their pledges after holding them a year and a day, to be tried by their peers, and to be sworn on the
Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
rather than on a
Christian Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
. Special weight was attributed to a Jew's oath, which was valid against that of twelve Christians. The sixth clause of the charter was especially important: it granted to Jews the right to move wherever they wanted, as if they were the king's own property ("sicut res propriæ nostræ").
As the king's property, English Jews could be mortgaged whenever the monarch needed to raise revenue and could be taxed without the permission of
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, eventually becoming the main taxpaying population.
English Jews experienced a "golden age" of sorts under
Henry II in the late 12th century due to huge economic expansion and increased demand for credit. Major Jewish fortunes were made in London,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
,
Lincoln, England
Lincoln () is a cathedral city, a non-metropolitan district, and the county town of Lincolnshire, England. In the 2021 Census, the Lincoln district had a population of 103,813. The 2011 census gave the Lincoln Urban Area, urban area of Lincoln, ...
,
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, and
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
. The Crown, in turn, capitalized on the prosperity of its Jews. In addition to many arbitrary taxes,
Richard I
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
established the Ordinance of the Jewry in 1194 in an attempt to organize the Jewish community. It ensured that mandatory records would be kept by royal officials for all Jewish transactions. Every debt was recorded on a chirography to allow the king immediate and complete access to Jewish property.
Richard also established a special exchequer to collect any unpaid debts due after the death of a Jewish creditor. The establishment of the
Exchequer of the Jews
The Exchequer of the Jews (Latin: ''Scaccarium Judaeorum'') was a division of the Exchequer of Pleas, Court of Exchequer at Westminster, which recorded and regulated the taxes and the law-cases of the History of the Jews in England, Jews in England ...
eventually made all transactions of the English Jewry liable to taxation by the king in addition to the 10% of all sums recovered by Jews with the help of English courts.
So, while the
First
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade (1145–1149) was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144 to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusa ...
s increased
anti-Jewish
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
sentiments, Jews in England went relatively unscathed beyond occasional fines and special levies. Though they did not experience the same kind of social mobility and cultural advancements that
Jews under Muslim rule did, the Jews of England's population and prosperity increased under the protection of the king.
The status of Jews in England dramatically worsened with the consolidation of governmental authority as well as the deepening of popular piety in the late 12th century; further isolating Jews from the greater English community. Though rulers of both church and state exploited and monopolized on the advancements in commerce and industry of English Jews, popular anti-Jewish sentiments grew as a result of their prosperity and relationship with the king and the courts.
External pressures such as the circulating myth of the
blood libel
Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...
, the religious tensions in light of the
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
, and the interference of
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...
in the late 12th century created an increasingly violent environment for English Jews.
Mob violence
A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people.
Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...
increased against the Jews in London,
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, and
Lynn. Entire Jewries were murdered in
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
. Because of their financial utility, however, English Jews were still offered royal protection, and
Richard I
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
continued to renew orders to protect the Jews, formalizing the Exchequer and designating "
archae", or centralized record chests monitored by panels of local Christian and Jewish key holders to better protect records of all Jewish transactions.
The incompetence of
King John in the early 13th century depleted even the wealthiest Jews, and though they had more than a decade to recover,
Henry III's equally mismanaged finances pressed roughly 70,000 pounds out of a population of only 5,000. To do so, they had to sell off many of their mortgage bonds to wealthy nobles. The Jews then became a focal point of those debtors' hatred and mass violence spiked again in the mid-13th century. Their legal status, however, did not change until Henry's son,
Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
, took control of the Jewries. He issued restrictive statutes, forbidding them from taking any more property into bond, the means by which they could lend money and how they lived. With almost all means of income denied them and property being confiscated, the Jewish population diminished. New waves of crusading zeal in the 1280s in conjunction with debt resentment pressured Edward into the expulsion of the depleted Jewish community in 1290.
Attitudes of the kings
Gentile
Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym for ...
-Jewish relations in England were disturbed under
King Stephen, who burned down the house of a Jew in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
(some accounts say with a Jew in it) because he refused to pay a contribution to the king's expenses. In 1144 came the first report in history of the
blood libel
Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...
against Jews; it came up in the case of
William of Norwich
William of Norwich (2 February 1132 – 22 March 1144) was an English boy whose disappearance and killing was, at the time, attributed to the Jewish community of Norwich. It is the first known medieval accusation against Jews of ritual murder. ...
(1144).
Anthony Julius
Anthony Robert Julius (born 16 July 1956) is a British solicitor advocate known for being Diana, Princess of Wales' divorce lawyer and for representing Deborah Lipstadt. He is a partner at the law firm Mishcon de Reya.
He holds the chair in Law ...
finds that the English were endlessly imaginative in inventing antisemitic allegations against the Jews. He says that England became the "principal promoter, and indeed in some sense the inventor of literary anti-Semitism." In his book, Julius argues that
blood libel
Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...
is the key, because it incorporates the themes that Jews are malevolent, constantly conspiring against Christians, powerful, and merciless. Variations include stories about Jews poisoning wells, twisting minds, and buying and selling Christian souls and bodies.
While the
Crusade
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...
rs were killing Jews in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, outbursts against Jews in England were, according to Jewish chroniclers, prevented by King Stephen.
With the restoration of order under
Henry II, Jews renewed their activity. Within five years of his accession Jews were found at
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
,
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...
,
Bungay
Bungay () is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . It lies in the Waveney Valley, west of Beccles on the edge of The Broads, and at the neck of a meand ...
,
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour.
...
,
Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
,
Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...
,
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
, and
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
. Yet they were not permitted to bury their dead elsewhere than in London, a restriction which was not removed till 1177. Their spread throughout the country enabled the king to draw upon their resources as occasion demanded. He repaid them with demand notes on the sheriffs of the counties, who accounted for payments thus made in the half-yearly accounts on the
pipe rolls (see
Aaron of Lincoln
Aaron of Lincoln (born at Lincoln, England, about 1125, died 1186) was an English Jewish financier. He is believed to have been the wealthiest man in Norman England; it is estimated that his wealth exceeded that of the King. He is first mention ...
).
Strongbow's conquest of
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
(1170) was financed by Josce, a Jew of Gloucester; and the king accordingly fined Josce for having lent money to those under his displeasure. As a rule, however, Henry II does not appear to have limited in any way the financial activity of Jews. The favourable position of English Jews was shown, among other things, by the visit of
Abraham ibn Ezra in 1158, by that of
Isaac of Chernigov in 1181, and by the immigration to England of Jews who were exiled from the king's properties in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
by
Philip Augustus
Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French m ...
in 1182, among them probably being
Judah Sir Leon of Paris.
In 1168, when concluding an alliance with
Frederick Barbarossa
Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on ...
, Henry II seized the chief representatives of the Jews and sent them to
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, and imposed a
tallage Tallage or talliage (from the French ''tailler, i.e. '' a part cut out of the whole) may have signified at first any tax, but became in England and France a land use or land tenure tax. Later in England it was further limited to assessments by the ...
on the rest of the community of 5,000 marks. When, however, he asked the rest of the country to pay a
tithe
A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...
for the Crusade against
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
in 1188, he demanded a quarter of all Jewish
chattels. The so-called "
Saladin tithe The Saladin tithe, or the Aid of 1188, was a tax, or more specifically a tallage, levied in England and to some extent in France in 1188, in response to the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187.
Background
In July 1187, the Kingdom of Jerusalem ...
" was reckoned at £70,000, the quarter at £60,000. In other words, the value of the personal property of Jews was regarded as one-fourth that of the whole country. It is improbable, however, that the whole amount was paid at once, as for many years after the imposition of the
tallage Tallage or talliage (from the French ''tailler, i.e. '' a part cut out of the whole) may have signified at first any tax, but became in England and France a land use or land tenure tax. Later in England it was further limited to assessments by the ...
, arrears were demanded from the recalcitrant Jews.
Aaron of Lincoln
Aaron of Lincoln (born at Lincoln, England, about 1125, died 1186) was an English Jewish financier. He is believed to have been the wealthiest man in Norman England; it is estimated that his wealth exceeded that of the King. He is first mention ...
is believed to have been the wealthiest man in 12th century Britain. It is estimated that his wealth may have exceeded that of the king. The king had probably been led to make this large demand on English Jewry's money by the surprising windfall which came to his treasury at Aaron's death in 1186. All property obtained by usury, whether by Jew or by Christian, fell into the king's hands on the death of the usurer; Aaron of Lincoln's estate included £15,000 worth of debts owed to him. Besides this, Aaron's large fortune passed to King Henry but much of it was lost on the journey to the royal coffers in Normandy. A special branch of the treasury, known as "
Aaron's Exchequer",
was established in order to deal with this large account.
During the earlier years of Henry II's reign Jews lived on good terms with their non-Jewish neighbours, including the clergy. They entered churches freely, and took refuge in the abbeys in times of commotion. Some Jews lived in opulent houses, and helped to build many of the
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conce ...
s and
monasteries
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
of the country. However, by the end of Henry's reign they had incurred the ill-will of the upper classes. Anti-Jewish sentiment, fostered by the Crusades during the latter part of the reign of Henry, spread throughout the nation.
Persecution and expulsion
![Medieval Artefacts from Jewish Homes in London on display at the Jewish Museum London](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Medieval_Artefacts_from_Jewish_Homes_in_London_on_display_at_the_Jewish_Museum_London.jpg)
The persecution of England's Jews was brutal, and massacres were recorded in London,
Northampton
and
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
during the crusades in 1189 and 1190. The massacre at York was mentioned by
William of Newburgh
William of Newburgh or Newbury ( la, Guilelmus Neubrigensis, ''Wilhelmus Neubrigensis'', or ''Willelmus de Novoburgo''. 1136 – 1198), also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon of Anglo-Saxon des ...
that it was carried out less for religious reasons, but instead for greed. In 1269,
Henry III made blasphemy by Jews a hanging offence, and when Edward returned from Crusade, he passed the Statute of Jewry in 1275. The number of Jews were around 2,000 in England.
To finance his
war against Wales in 1276,
Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
of England
taxed Jewish moneylenders. When the moneylenders could no longer pay the tax, they were accused of disloyalty. Already restricted to a limited number of occupations, Edward abolished their "privilege" to lend money, restricted their movements and activities and forced Jews to wear a yellow patch. The heads of Jewish households were then arrested with over 300 being taken to the Tower of London and executed. Others were killed in their homes.
On 17 November 1278 all Jews of England, believed to have numbered around 3,000, were arrested on suspicion of
coin clipping
Coin debasement is the act of decreasing the amount of precious metal in a coin, while continuing to circulate it at face value. This was frequently done by governments in order to inflate the amount of currency in circulation; typically, some o ...
and counterfeiting, and all Jewish homes in England were searched. At the time, coin clipping was a widespread practice, which both Jews and Christians were involved in, and a financial crisis resulted, and according to one contemporary source, the practice reduced the currency's value to half of its face value. In 1275, coin clipping was made a capital offence, and in 1278, raids on suspected
coin clippers were carried out. According to the Bury Chronicle, "All Jews in England of whatever condition, age or sex were unexpectedly seized … and sent for imprisonment to various castles throughout England. While they were thus imprisoned, the innermost recesses of their houses were ransacked." Some 680 were detained in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
. More than 300 are believed to have been executed in 1279. Those who could afford to buy a pardon and had a patron at the royal court escaped punishment.
Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
increasingly showed
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
as in 1280 he granted a right to levy a toll on the rivulet bridge at
Brentford
Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross.
Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...
"for the passage of goods over it, with a special tax at the rate of 1
d. each for Jews and Jewesses on horse, 0.5d. each on foot from which all other travellers were exempt". This antipathy eventually culminated in his legislating for the expulsion of all Jews from the country in 1290. Most were only allowed to take what they could carry. A small number of Jews favoured by the king were permitted to sell their properties first, though most of the money and property of these dispossessed Jews was confiscated. Almost all evidence of a Jewish presence in England would have been wiped out if it had not been for the efforts of one monk,
Gregory of Huntingdon
Gregory of Huntingdon (fl. 1290) was a monk of Ramsey Abbey, of which abbey he is said to have been prior for thirty-eight years. He is described as a man of much learning, acquainted with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. On the expulsion of the Jews fr ...
, who purchased all the Jewish texts he could to begin translating them.
From then until 1655, there is no official record of Jews in England outside the
Domus Conversorum
The ''Domus Conversorum'' ('House of the Converts'), later Chapel of the Master of the Rolls, was a building and institution in London for Jews who had converted to Christianity. It provided a communal home and low wages. It was needed because, u ...
, with a few exceptions such as
Jacob Barnet, who was ultimately arrested and exiled.
Resettlement period, 16th–19th centuries
Henry VIII and Judaism
Over the course of his reign,
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
showed interest in Judaism. During his attempt to
annul his marriage to
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon (also spelt as Katherine, ; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until their annulment on 23 May 1533. She was previously ...
, Henry's representatives consulted with notable Italian Jews, and he attempted to justify his annulment using laws from the Old Testament. Later in Henry's reign Hebrew was first printed in England from 1524. While in 1549 the use of Hebrew was allowed to be used in private worship.
Hidden Jews in England
From the beginning of the 16th century, in the wake of the
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition ( es, Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition ( es, Inquisición española), was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand ...
, Jews began to return to England. Although Jews had to conceal their religion for fear of raising discourse, they needed only to conceal it loosely, and many Jews in England became known as Jews, despite their attempts to conceal their faith. Many hidden Jews made names for themselves while in England. One
Marrano
Marranos were Spanish and Portuguese Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula who converted or were Forced conversion#Spanish Inquisition, forced to convert to Christianity during the Middle Ages, but continued to Crypto-Judaism, practice Judaism i ...
from Spain, Hector Nunes, played a vital role in English espionage by relaying intelligence from Spain to
Queen Elizabeth's spymaster,
Sir Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster".
Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wals ...
, on his merchant vessels. This information was instrumental in England's defeat of the
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...
in 1588.
Another Jew who made a name for himself in England was
Joachim Gaunse
Joachim Gans (other spellings: Jeochim, Jochim, Gaunz, Ganse, Gaunse) was a Bohemian mining expert, renowned for being the first Jew in North America.Grassl, Gary C. ''Joachim Ganz of Prague: The First Jew in English America.''
Biography
Early li ...
of Bohemia, who came to England as a metallurgist and metal engineer to aid in their defeat of Spain. Because of his work,
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...
invited Gaunse to sail with him on an
expedition to North America, where he became the first Jew to set foot on North American soil.
Another Marrano gained attention in England for less patriotic reasons.
Roderigo Lopez
Roderigo Lopes (also called Ruy Lopes, Ruy Lopez, Roderigo Lopus, Ruy Lopus, Roger Lopez and Rodrigo Lopes; also referred to as Roderigo Lopez and Rodrigo Lopez; c. 1517 – 7 June 1594) served as a physician-in-chief to Queen Elizabeth I of En ...
, who became personal physician to Elizabeth I, was bribed by the Spanish Crown to poison the Queen, and he was executed after the plan was discovered. This prompted a wave of anti-Jewish sentiment in England which had not been seen since the Jews' expulsion. In the wake of his trial, famous plays like
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''
The Merchant of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock.
Although classified as ...
'' and
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
's ''
The Jew of Malta
''The Jew of Malta'' (full title: ''The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta'') is a play by Christopher Marlowe, written in 1589 or 1590. The plot primarily revolves around a Maltese Jewish merchant named Barabas. The original story comb ...
'' were written, both of which depict Jews in negative, stereotypical manners.
Toward the middle of the 17th century a considerable number of Marrano merchants settled in London and formed there a secret congregation, at the head of which was
Antonio Fernandez Carvajal
Antonio Fernandez Carvajal (c. 1590November 10, 1659)—in pt, António Fernandes Carvalhal—was a Portuguese-Jewish merchant, who became the first endenizened English Jew. Carvajal and Simon de Caceres, together with other prominent members ...
and
Samuel Maylott, a French merchant, who has many descendants in England. They conducted a large business with the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
,
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
and
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
,
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
, and
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, and above all with the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
.
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 (t ...
's quartermaster in his
circumnavigation of the globe
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circ ...
was named as "Moses the Jew". There is evidence of Jews resident in
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
in the 17th century.
Resettlement, 1655
Prior to their resettlement, a growing
philo-Semitism
Philosemitism is a notable interest in, respect for, and appreciation of the Jewish people, their history, and the influence of Judaism, particularly on the part of a non-Jew. In the aftermath of World War II, the phenomenon of philosemitism saw ...
in England had turned the environment there into a more hospitable one for Jews. In the wake of the
English Reformation
The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...
, it became more popular for Anglicans to identify their practices and traditions with Jewish ones over Catholic ones. In 1607,
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
received its first rabbi to teach Hebrew to students, and many of these students went on to translate the
King James Bible
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
. This translation of the Bible, for the first time, began to "dehellenize" biblical names For example, Elias, as he had been called previously, became
Elijah
Elijah ( ; he, אֵלִיָּהוּ, ʾĒlīyyāhū, meaning "My God is Yahweh/YHWH"; Greek form: Elias, ''Elías''; syr, ܐܸܠܝܼܵܐ, ''Elyāe''; Arabic: إلياس or إليا, ''Ilyās'' or ''Ilyā''. ) was, according to the Books of ...
to sound more like the Hebrew pronunciation. Many
Puritans
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. P ...
showed great appreciation for these Old Testament names, and Puritan children were often named using the new Hebrew spellings.
Puritans furthered the English appreciation of Judaism by adopting Jewish practices like strict observation of the Sabbath. When they challenged Anglican practices as being too similar to Catholic ones,
Richard Hooker
Richard Hooker (25 March 1554 – 2 November 1600) was an English priest in the Church of England and an influential theologian.The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church by F. L. Cross (Editor), E. A. Livingstone (Editor) Oxford University ...
, a well-known Anglican theologian, was cunning enough to tie these practices to Jewish ones rather than Catholic ones in an attempt to silence the Puritan reformers' attacks.
At the turn of the 17th century, Englishmen like
Edwin Sandys and
Laurence Aldersey began to show interest in Jewish culture, traveling to Jewish ghettos, visiting synagogues on the Sabbath, and comparing Jewish and Anglican practices in popular writings upon their returns.
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
believed the English to be one of the
Ten Lost Tribes of Israel
The ten lost tribes were the ten of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire BCE. These are the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Ash ...
, and therefore entitled to the blessings promised in the Old Testament.
Under his rule after the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, philo-Semitism flourished, making the climate right for Jews to propose their official readmission.
![Bevis Marks Synagogue P6110044](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Bevis_Marks_Synagogue_P6110044.JPG)
In the 1650s,
Menasseh Ben Israel
Manoel Dias Soeiro (1604 – 20 November 1657), better known by his Hebrew name Menasseh ben Israel (), also known as Menasheh ben Yossef ben Yisrael, also known with the Hebrew acronym, MB"Y or MBI, was a Portuguese rabbi, kabbalist, writ ...
, a rabbi and leader of the
Dutch Jewish
The history of the Jews in the Netherlands began largely in the 16th century when they began to settle in Amsterdam and other cities. It has continued to the present. During the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in May 1940, the J ...
community, approached Cromwell with the proposition that Jews should at long-last be readmitted to England. He agreed, and although he could not compel a council called for the purpose in December 1655 to consent formally to readmission, he made it clear that the ban on Jews would no longer be enforced. In the years 1655–56, the controversy over the readmission of Jews was fought out in a
pamphlet war. The issue divided religious radicals and more
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
elements within society. The
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
William Prynne
William Prynne (1600 – 24 October 1669), an English lawyer, voluble author, polemicist and political figure, was a prominent Puritan opponent of church policy under William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633–1645). His views were presbyter ...
was vehemently opposed to permitting Jews to return, the
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
Margaret Fell
Margaret Fell orMargaret Fox ( Askew, formerly Fell; 1614 – 23 April 1702) was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends. Known popularly as the "mother of Quakerism," she is considered one of the Valiant Sixty early Quaker preachers and mi ...
no less passionately in favour, like
John Wemyss, a minister of the
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
. In the end, Jews were readmitted in 1655, and, by 1690, about 400 Jews had settled in England.
Emblematic of the progress in the social status of Jews was the
knighting
The accolade (also known as dubbing or adoubement) ( la, benedictio militis) was the central act in the rite of passage ceremonies conferring knighthood in the Middle Ages. From about 1852, the term ''accolade'' was used much more generally to ...
by
William III of England
William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of County of Holland, Holland, County of Zeeland, Zeeland, Lordship of Utrecht, Utrec ...
in 1700 of Solomon de Medina, the first Jew to be so honoured.
18th century
Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753
The Jewish Naturalisation Act received royal assent from George II of Great Britain, George II on 7 July 1753 but was repealed in 1754 due to widespread opposition to its provisions.
During the Jacobite rising of 1745, the Jews had shown particular loyalty to the government. Their chief financier, Samson Gideon, had strengthened the stock market, and several of the younger members had volunteered in the corps raised to defend London. Possibly as a reward, Henry Pelham in 1753 brought in the Jew Bill of 1753, which allowed Jews to become naturalised by application to Parliament of Great Britain, Parliament. It passed the House of Lords, Lords without much opposition, but on being brought down to the British House of Commons, House of Commons, the Tories made a great outcry against this "abandonment of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
", as they called it. The British Whig Party, Whigs, however, persisted in carrying out at least one part of their general policy of religious toleration, and the bill was passed and received the royal assent (26 Geo. II., cap. 26).
In 1798 Nathan Mayer Rothschild, Nathan Mayer von Rothschild established a business in Manchester, and later N M Rothschild & Sons#History, N M Rothschild & Sons bank in London, having been sent to the UK by his father Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812). The bank funded Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars, financed the British government's 1875 purchase of Khedivate of Egypt, Egypt's interest in the Suez Canal and funded Cecil Rhodes in the development of the British South Africa Company. Beyond banking and finance, members of the Rothschild banking family of England, Rothschild family in UK became academics, scientists and horticulturalists with worldwide reputations.
Some English ports, such as History of the Jews in Hull, Hull started to receive immigrants and trading "port Jews" from around 1750.
Emancipation and prosperity, 19th century
![nathan rothschild](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Nathan_rothschild.jpg)
With Catholic Emancipation in 1829, the hopes of the Jews rose high; and the first step toward a similar alleviation in their case was taken in 1830 when William Huskisson presented a petition signed by 2,000 merchants and others of Liverpool. This was immediately followed by a bill presented by Robert Grant (MP), Robert Grant on 15 April of that year which was destined to engage the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament in one form or another for the next thirty years.
In 1837, Queen Victoria knighted Moses Haim Montefiore; four years later, Isaac Lyon Goldsmid was made a baronet, the first Jew to receive a hereditary title. The first Jewish Lord Mayor of London, Sir David Salomons, was elected in 1855, followed by the 1858 emancipation of the Jews. On 26 July 1858, Lionel de Rothschild was finally allowed to sit in the British House of Commons when the law restricting the oath of office to Christians was changed;
Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...
, a Jewish Christian, baptised Christian of Jewish parentage, was already an MP. In 1868, Disraeli became Prime Minister having earlier been Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1884, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild became the first Jewish member of the British House of Lords; again Disraeli was already a member. (Though born a Jew, Disraeli's baptism as a child qualified him as eligible for political aspirations, presenting no restrictions regarding a mandated Christian oath of office.) Disraeli as a leader of the History of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party, with its ties to the landed aristocracy, used his Jewish ancestry to claim an aristocratic heritage of his own. His biographer Jonathan Parry argues:
Disraeli convinced himself (wrongly) that he derived from the Sephardi aristocracy of Iberian Jews driven from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century....Presenting himself as Jewish symbolized Disraeli’s uniqueness when he was fighting for respect, and explained his set-backs. Presenting Jewishness as aristocratic and religious legitimized his claim to understand the perils facing modern England and to offer ‘national’ solutions to them. English toryism was ‘copied from the mighty [Jewish] prototype’ (''Coningsby,'' bk 4, chap. 15). Disraeli was thus able to square his Jewishness with his equally deep attachment to England and her history.
Nevertheless, Todd Endelman points out that, "The link between Jews and old clothes was so fixed in the popular imagination that Victorian political cartoonists regularly drew Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) as an old clothes man in order to stress his Jewishness." He adds, "Before the 1990s...few biographers of Disraeli or historians of Victorian politics acknowledged the prominence of the antisemitism that accompanied his climb up the greasy pole or its role in shaping his own singular sense of Jewishness.
By 1880 the flourishing Jewish community in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
was centred on its synagogue. The men organised collective action to defend the reputation and promote the interests of the community. Rituals regarding funerals and burials brought together the rich and the poor, the men and the women. Intermarriage outside the community was uncommon. However, the arrival of East European Jews after 1880 caused a split between the older, assimilated, middle-class Anglicized Jews and the generally much poorer new immigrants who spoke Yiddish language, Yiddish.
By 1882, 46,000 Jews lived in England and, by 1890, Jewish emancipation was complete in every walk of life. Since 1858, Parliament has never been without practising Jewish members. At this time many of the Jews of the East End of London, East End moved to more prosperous parts of East London such as Hackney, London, Hackney (including Dalston and Stamford Hill), or to North London districts such as Stoke Newington and Canonbury.
Synagogues were built openly, occasionally across the country as large, architecturally elaborate Classical architecture, classical, Romanesque architecture, romanesque, Italianate architecture, Italianate or Victorian Gothic, Victorian gothic buildings such as Singers Hill Synagogue, in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
. However, not all grand examples survive: for instance Dalston Synagogue (counter-intuitively not in Dalston, but in Newington Green, North London) in the last-mentioned style was in poor repair so its congregation sold its land for building of an apartment block and relocated in 1970.
All Jewish Rifle Volunteer Corps, 1861
The invasion scare of 1857 saw the creation of the Volunteer Force which included both Engineer and Rifle Volunteer Corps. These units were raised by local communities with the permission of their local Lord Lieutenant.
The Lord Lieutenant of the Tower division, Tower Hamlets, an area larger than the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, modern borough and which stretched from Stepney to Stamford Hill, was the
Constable of the Tower
The Constable of the Tower is the most senior appointment at the Tower of London. In the Middle Ages a constable was the person in charge of a castle when the owner—the king or a nobleman—was not in residence. The Constable of the Tower had a ...
. With his permission, Jews from East London formed the ''East Metropolitan Rifle Volunteers (11th Tower Hamlets)''.
''The Jewish Chronicle'' reported on the 165 Jewish volunteers, marching along with fife and drum as "a sight never before seen in Britain, and very rarely if ever since the rising of Simon bar Kokhba, Bar Cocba"
Like most of the Volunteer Force units, the ''East Metropolitan Rifle Volunteers'' only existed for a short time before being merged with other (integrated) Tower division, Tower Hamlets units, but their establishment stimulated debate in the Jewish community, at the time and subsequently, as to whether separate or integrated military units were more desirable.
Modern times
1880s to 1920
![Immigrant Jews in the Transit Shed at Tilbury](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Immigrant_Jews_in_the_Transit_Shed_at_Tilbury.jpg)
From the 1880s through the early part of the 20th century, massive pogroms and the May Laws in Russia caused many Jews to flee the Pale of Settlement. Of the East European Jewish emigrants, 1.9 million (80 percent) headed to the United States, and 140,000 (7 percent) to Britain. The chief mechanism was chain migration in which the first successful member(s) of the chain send information, local currency (and sometimes tickets or money for tickets) to later arrivals. These Ashkenazi Jews were funnelled by the Rail transport in Europe, railways of Europe to its North Sea and Baltic Sea, Baltic ports, and entered England via London, History of the Jews in Hull, Hull, Grimsby and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Newcastle. The Jewish communities of the Northern ports were swelled both by transient and temporary migrants, bound for New York City, New York, Buenos Aires, Cape Colony, the Cape, as well as London and other British cities.
In 1917, Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild set up the conditions for the Balfour Declaration, which promised a Homeland for the Jewish people, homeland in Palestine (region), Palestine for Jews in a new Zionism, Zionist State.
The Jewish population increased from 46,000 in 1880 to about 250,000 in 1919. They lived primarily in the large industrial cities, especially
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
and
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
. In London, many Jews lived in Spitalfields and Whitechapel, close to the docks, and hence the East End became known as a Jewish neighbourhood. Manchester, and neighbouring Salford, were also areas of Jewish settlement, particularly the Strangeways, Cheetham, Greater Manchester, Cheetham and Broughton, Greater Manchester, Broughton districts. Unlike much of the History of the Jews in Poland, Jewish community in Poland, the Jewish community in England generally embraced assimilation into wider Culture of England, English culture. They started Yiddish and Hebrew language, Hebrew newspapers and youth movements such as the Jewish Lads' Brigade. Immigration was eventually restricted by the Aliens Act 1905, following pressure from groups such as the British Brothers' League. The 1905 legislation was followed by the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919.
Marconi Scandal (1912–1913)
The Marconi scandal brought issues of antisemitism into the political arena, on the basis that senior ministers in the Liberal government, 1905–1915, Liberal government had secretly profited from advanced knowledge of deals regarding wireless telegraphy. Some of the key players were Jewish.
Historian Todd Endelman identifies Catholic writers as central critics:
:The most virulent attacks in the Marconi affair were launched by Hilaire Belloc and the brothers Cecil Chesterton, Cecil and G. K. Chesterton, whose hostility to Jews was linked to their opposition to Liberalism in the United Kingdom, liberalism, their Traditionalist Catholicism, conservative strand of Catholicism, and the nostalgia for a medieval Catholic Europe that they imagined was ordered, harmonious, and homogeneous. The Jew baiting at the time of the Second Boer War, Boer War and the Marconi scandal was linked to a broader protest, mounted in the main by the Radicalism (historical), Radical wing of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party, against the growing visibility of successful businessmen in national life and the challenges. What were seen as traditional English values.
Historian Frances Donaldson says, "If Belloc's feeling against the Jews was instinctive and under some control, Chesterton's was open and vicious, and he shared with Belloc the peculiarity that the Jews were never far from his thoughts."
First World War
About 50,000 Jews served in the British Armed Forces during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and around 10,000 died on the battlefield, while Britain's first all-Jewish regiment, the Jewish Legion fought in Palestine (region), Palestine. An important consequence of the war was the British conquest of the Mandate for Palestine, Palestinian Mandate, and the Balfour Declaration, making an agreement between the British Government and the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland to strive to set up a homeland for Jews in Palestine.
Entrepreneurs
The Eastern European Jews brought with them a long history as skilled entrepreneurial middlemen. They were much more likely to become entrepreneurs than their gentile neighbours, with a heavy concentration in the garment industry as well as in retailing, entertainment and real estate. London provided excellent financing opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Sports
![Harold Abrahams 1924](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Harold_Abrahams_1924.jpg)
Antisemitism was a serious handicap for Britain's Jews, especially the widespread stereotype to the effect that Jews were weak, effeminate and cowardly. The Zionist social critic Max Nordau promoted the term "Muscular Judaism, muscle Jew" as a rebuttal to the stereotype. Challenging that stereotype was an important motivation for wartime service in the Second Boer War, Boer war and in the First World War. It was also motivation for sports that appealed to the largely working-class Jewish youth element.
From the 1890s to the 1950s, British boxing was dominated by Jews whose families had migrated from Russia or the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Jews were heavily involved in boxing as professional and amateur fighters, managers, promoters, coaches and spectators—as well as gamblers and a certain criminal element that tried to fix fights. Their high visibility in a prestigious sport among the British working class helped reduce antisemitism and increased their acceptance in British society. The Jewish establishment worked hard to promote boxing among the youth, as a deliberate "Anglicisation" campaign designed to speed their adoption of British character traits and cultural values. The youth themselves eagerly participated, although the rising middle class status after the Second World War led to a sharp falloff of interest in younger generations.
The most celebrated of the Jewish athletes in Britain was Harold Abrahams (1899–1978)-– the man made famous by the film ''Chariots of Fire'' for winning the gold medal in the 100 metre sprint in the 1924 Summer Olympics, 1924 Paris Olympics. Abrahams was thoroughly Anglicised, and his cultural integration went hand-in-hand with his sporting achievements. He became a hero to the British Jewish community. However, Abrahams' quest to enter upper class British society increasingly dominated his career, as his Jewishness meant less and less to him and his associates.
Before and during World War II
![Kindertransport-Meisler](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Kindertransport-Meisler.jpg)
Though there was some growing antisemitism during the 1930s, it was counterbalanced by strong support for British Jews in their local communities leading to events such as the Battle of Cable Street where antisemitism and fascism was strongly resisted by socialists, trade unionists, Jews and their neighbours, who were successful in preventing a British Union of Fascists rally through a heavily Jewish area, despite police efforts to clear a path.
Consistent with its complex history, Britain was not particularly receptive to Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazism, Nazi regime in Germany, and the other fascist states of Europe. Approximately 40,000 Jews from Austria and Germany were eventually allowed to settle in Britain before the War, in addition to 50,000 Jews from Italy, Poland, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Despite the increasingly dire warnings coming from Germany, Britain refused at the 1938 Evian Conference to allow further Jewish refugees into the country. The notable exception allowed by Parliament was the Kindertransport, an effort on the eve of war to transport Jewish children (their parents were not given visas) from Germany to Britain. Around 10,000 children were saved by the Kindertransport, out of a plan to rescue five times that number.
During the German occupation of the Channel Islands, Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands three Jews from Guernsey—Marianne Grunfeld, Therese Steiner, and Auguste Spitz—were deported to Saint-Malo, German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi-occupied France, and eventually killed at Auschwitz concentration camp. They would be the only Jews deported from British soil and killed in the The Holocaust, Holocaust.
![Allied Forces Celebrate Jewish New Year- Religious Celebrations at the Balfour Service Club, London, UK, 1943 D16288](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Allied_Forces_Celebrate_Jewish_New_Year-_Religious_Celebrations_at_the_Balfour_Service_Club%2C_London%2C_UK%2C_1943_D16288.jpg)
With the declaration of war, 74,000 German, Austrian and Italian citizens in the UK were interned as enemy aliens. After individual consideration by tribunal, the majority, largely made up of Jewish and other refugees, were released within six months.
Even more important to many Jews was the permission to settle in the British-controlled Mandatory Palestine. In order to try to maintain peace between the Jewish and Arab populations, especially after the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, Britain strictly limited immigration. This limitation became nearly absolute after the White Paper of 1939 all but stopped legal immigration. During the War, Zionists organised an illegal immigration effort, conducted by "Mossad LeAliyah Bet, Hamossad Le'aliyah Bet" (the precursor of the Mossad) that rescued tens of thousands of European Jews from the Nazis by shipping them to Palestine in rickety boats. Many of these boats were intercepted and some sank with great loss of life. The efforts began in 1939, and the last immigrant boat to try to enter Palestine before the end of the war was Struma disaster, MV ''Struma'', torpedoed in the Black Sea by a Soviet Navy submarine in February 1942. The boat sank with the loss of nearly 800 lives.
Many Jews joined the British Armed Forces, including some 30,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine alone, some of whom fought in the Jewish Brigade. Many formed the core of the Haganah after the war.
By July 1945, 228,000 troops of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, including Polish Jews, were serving under the high command of the British Army. Many of these men and women were originally from the Kresy region of eastern Poland and were Population transfer in the Soviet Union, deported by Soviet First Secretary Joseph Stalin to Siberia 1939–1941. They were then released from the Soviet Gulags to form the Anders Army and marched to Pahlavi Iran, Iran to form the II Corps (Poland). The Polish II Corps then advanced to the British Mandatory Palestine, Mandate of Palestine, where many Polish Jews, including Menachem Begin, deserted to work on forming the state of Israel, in a process known as the 'Anders Aliyah'. Other Polish Jews remained in the Polish Army to fight alongside the British in the North African campaign, North Africa and Italian campaign (World War II), Italy campaigns. Around 10,000 Polish Jews fought under the Polish flag – and British High Command – at the Battle of Monte Cassino.
[Klieger, Noah (September 11, 2006]
Army was Polish, soldiers were Jews
Ynetnews.com All of them were eligible to settle in the UK after the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, Britain's first mass immigration law.
See also
*Antisemitism in the United Kingdom
*Chuts (19th Century Dutch Jewish immigrants)
*Council of Christians and Jews
*Early English Jewish literature
*Emancipation of the Jews in the United Kingdom
*History of the Jews in Ireland
*History of the Jews in Manchester
*History of the Jews in Northern Ireland
*History of the Jews in Scotland
*Jews in Wales, History of the Jews in Wales
*Jewish Museum (Camden)
*List of British Jewish nobility and gentry
*List of British Jews
*Polish British
*Rothschild banking family of England
*Starr (law)
*''The War on Britain's Jews?'', a 2007 documentary film
References
*
Bibliography
* Carlos, Ann M., Karen Maguire, and Larry Neal. "‘A knavish people...’: London Jewry and the stock market during the South Sea Bubble." ''Business History'' (2008) 50#6 pp: 728–748.
* Crome, Andrew. "The 1753 ‘Jew Bill’ Controversy: Jewish Restoration to Palestine, Biblical Prophecy, and English National Identity." ''English Historical Review'' 130.547 (2015): 1449-1478
online* Davis, Richard W. "Disraeli, the Rothschilds, and anti-Semitism." ''Jewish History'' (1996): 9-1
online
*
* Endelman, Todd M., and Tony Kushner, eds. ''Disraeli's Jewishness'' (2002)
* Endelman, Todd M. ''The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000'' (Univ of California Press, 2002)
* Feldman, David. ''Englishmen and Jews. Social Relations and Political Culture, 1840–1914'' (Yale UP, 1994).
* Godley, Andrew. ''Jewish Immigrant Entrepreneurship in New York and London, 1880–1914'' (2001)
* Green, Joseph. ''A Social History of the Jewish East End in London, 1914–1939: A Study of Life, labour, and liturgy'' (Edwin Mellen Press, 1991)
* Hirsch, Brett D. "Jewish Questions in Robert Wilson’s The Three Ladies of London." ''Early Theatre'' 19.1 (2016): 37-56. See The Three Ladies of London (1584)
online* Holmes, Colin. ''Anti-Semitism in British Society, 1876–1939'' (1979)
* Julius, Anthony. ''Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England'' (Oxford University Press; 2010) 811 pages; Examines four distinct versions of English anti-Semitism, from the medieval era (including the expulsion of Jews in 1290) to what is argued is anti-Semitism in the guise of anti-Zionism today.
* Katz, David S. ''The Jews in the History of England, 1485–1850'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994) xvi, 447 pp.
* Katz, David S. ''Philo-Semitism and the Readmission of the Jews to England, 1603–1655'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982) x, 286 pp.
* Kent, Aaron M. ''Identity, Migration and Belonging: The Jewish Community of Leeds, 1890-1920'' (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015)
* Knepper, Paul. "The British Empire and Jews in Nineteenth Century Malta." ''Journal of Modern Jewish Studies'' 9.1 (2010): 49-69.
* Langham, Frank Raphael. ''The Jews in Britain: A Chronology'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
* Lipman, Vivian David. ''Social history of the Jews in England: 1850–1950'' (1954)
*
* Nicolay, Claire. "The anxiety of 'Mosaic' influence: Thackeray, Disraeli, and Anglo‐Jewish assimilation in the 1840s." ''Nineteenth‐Century Contexts'' 25.2 (2003): 119-145.
* Pollins, Harold. ''Economic history of the Jews in England'' (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982)
* Rabin, Dana Y. "The Jew Bill of 1753: Masculinity, virility, and the nation." ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' (2006) 39#2 pp: 157–171.
* Ragussis, Michael. ''Figures of Conversion. The “Jewish Question” and English National Identity'' (1995).
* Wohl, Anthony S. "'Ben JuJu': Representations of Disraeli's Jewishness in the Victorian political cartoon." ''Jewish history'' 10.2 (1996): 89-13
online* Yuval-Naeh, Avinoam. "The 1753 Jewish Naturalization Bill and the Polemic over Credit." ''Journal of British Studies'' 57.3 (2018): 467-492
online
Primary sources
*
External links
The Jews of Angevin England; documents and records, from the Latin and Hebres sources, printed and manuscript by Joseph Jacobs, 1854-1916*
York 1190: Jews and Others in the Wake of the Massacre (academic conference, March 2010)England related articles in the Jewish EncyclopediaArticles on British Jewish history(from ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' 1971)
Jewish Communities & Records – United KingdomTracing the First Jews of BritainChabad-Lubavitch Centers in England''The Jewish Chronicle'' (UK) A reading of Israel Zangwill's historical satire ''The King of Schnorrers (1894)'']
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The Jews In England
Jewish English history,
Antisemitism in England, *
Massacres in England