History of the Jews in England

{{Short description|none}} [[File:England in the UK and Europe.svg|thumb|The location of [[England]] (dark green) in the [[United Kingdom]] in [[Europe]].]] {{History of the Jews in England}} {{Jews and Judaism sidebar |expanded=population}} The '''history of the Jews in England''' can be reliably traced to the period following the [[Norman Conquest|Norman Conquest of 1066]], when England became integrated with the European system for the first time since the Roman evacuation of 410 CE, and thus came to the awareness of the Jewish communities of [[Continental Europe]]. The first Jews likely came to England circa 70 CE during the time of Roman rule, but were probably wiped out in the [[Invasions of the British Isles#Germanic invasions|tumultuous period]] that followed the Roman evacuation, when the [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|Anglo-Saxons]] gradually took power from the [[Romano-British culture|Romano-Celts]].<ref name="roth">{{cite book |last=Roth |first=Cecil |date=1964 |title=A History of the Jews in England |edition=3rd|url=https://resourcespacec2.svsu.edu/mount/library/archives/public/follett/documents/152_168/kfp152_08.pdf |publisher=Oxford at the Clarendon Press |pages=1–4,270 |isbn=9780198224884 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.org/details/bwb_O8-DCD-690 |archive-date=2024-02-23 |access-date=2025-07-19 }}</ref> <ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Prestwich |first1=Michael C. |last2=Joyce |first2=Patrick |title=Roman society in the United Kingdom |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/Roman-society |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=2025-07-19}}</ref>

In 1290 [[Edward I of England|King Edward I]] issued the [[Edict of Expulsion]], expelling all Jews from the Kingdom of England. After the expulsion, there was no overt Jewish community (as opposed to individuals [[Crypto-Judaism|practising Judaism secretly]]) until the rule of [[Oliver Cromwell]]. While Cromwell never officially readmitted Jews to the [[Commonwealth of England]], a small colony of [[Sephardic Jews]] living in [[London]] was identified in 1656 and [[Resettlement of the Jews in England|allowed to remain]]. The [[Jewish Naturalisation Act 1753]], an attempt to legalise the Jewish presence in England, remained in force for only a few months. Historians commonly date [[Jewish emancipation]] to either 1829 or 1858, while [[Benjamin Disraeli]], born a Sephardi Jew but converted to [[Anglicanism]], had been elected twice as the [[prime minister of the United Kingdom]] in 1868 and in 1874. At the insistence of Irish leader [[Daniel O'Connell]], in 1846 the British law "De Judaismo", which prescribed a special dress for Jews, was repealed.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100222092245/http://www.jewishireland.org/history_2.html Jewish Ireland]. Jewishireland.org</ref>

[[File:Tower of London viewed from the River Thames.jpg|thumb|The Tower was a refuge for the Jews of medieval London.]]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]].<ref>Lloyd P. Gartner, "Eastern European Jewish immigrants in England: a quarter-century's view." Jewish Historical Studies 29 (1982): 297-309.</ref> By 1939, about half a million European Jews had fled to England to escape the [[Nazis]], but only about 70,000 ([[Kindertransport|including almost 10,000 children]]) were granted entry.<ref>{{Cite news |author-last=Karpf |author-first=Anne|date=7 June 2002|title=We've been here before|url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jun/08/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices|access-date=2021-07-18|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|issn=0261-3077|language=en}}</ref> Jews faced [[antisemitism]] and stereotypes in Britain, and antisemitism "in most cases went along with [[Germanophobia]]" during [[World War I]] to the extent that Jews were equated with Germans, despite the [[House of Windsor|British royal family]] having partial German ethnic origins. This led many [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi Jewish families]] to Anglicise their often German-sounding names.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The Home Front Encyclopedia |title=Anglicization (?) |date=12 December 2006 |editor1-first=James |editor1-last=Ciment |editor2-first=Thaddeus |editor2-last=Russell |volume=1 |isbn=1576078493 |page=236}}</ref>

In the 21st century, [[British Jews|Jews in the UK]] now number around 275,000, with over 260,000 of these in England. The UK contains the second largest [[Jewish population]] in Europe (behind France) and the [[Jewish population#By country|fifth largest Jewish community worldwide]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-03-17-london-jewish-museum_N.htm |url-status=dead |title=London Jewish Museum reopens after major face-lift|newspaper=[[USA Today]] |issn=0734-7456 |date=17 March 2010 |author-last=Lawless |author-first=Jill |agency=[[Associated Press]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100322214311/https://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-03-17-london-jewish-museum_N.htm |archive-date=22 March 2010 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> 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]], primarily in [[Bushey]] (4,500), [[Borehamwood]] (3,900), and [[Radlett]] (2,300). The next most significant population is in [[Greater Manchester]] with a community of slightly more than 25,000, primarily in [[Bury, Greater Manchester|Bury]] (10,360),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/north-west/bury|title=Bury Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref> [[Salford]] (7,920),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/north-west/salford|title=Salford Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref> [[Manchester]] itself (2,725),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/north-west/manchester|title=Manchester Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref> and [[Trafford]] (2,490).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/north-west/trafford|title=Trafford Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref> There are also significant communities in [[Leeds]] (6,760),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/yorkshire-and-the-humber/leeds|title=Leeds Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref> [[Gateshead]] (3,000),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/north-east/gateshead|title=Gateshead Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref> [[Brighton]] (2,730),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/south-east/brighton-and-hove|title=Brighton and Hove Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref> [[Liverpool]] (2,330),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/north-west/liverpool|title=Liverpool Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref> [[Birmingham]] (2,150),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/west-midlands/birmingham|title=Birmingham Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref> and [[Southend]] (2,080).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://localstats.co.uk/census-demographics/england/east-of-england/southend-on-sea|title=Southend-on-Sea Census Demographics United Kingdom|website=localstats.co.uk}}</ref>

==Roman Britain== It is probable that there were Jews in Roman Britain under the [[Roman Empire]], perhaps as [[Legionary|soldiers]], [[Slavery in ancient Rome|slaves]], [[silversmith]]s or traders. However, there is little or no definitive evidence.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Shimon |last1=Applebaum |title=Were There Jews in Roman Britain? |journal=[[Jewish Historical Society of England|Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England)]] |date=1951 |volume=17 |pages=189–205 |jstor=29777901 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29777901 |access-date=19 December 2020}}</ref> One piece of circumstantial evidence is from a tradition in [[Caerleon]] (in [[Wales]]), a major legionary base, of two Roman-era Christian martyrs, [[Julius and Aaron]], with the name Aaron suggesting Jewish origin.<ref name="roth" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Churches in the landscape |pages=35–36 |author-first=Richard |author-last=Morris |author-link=Richard Morris (archaeologist)|publisher=[[Dent & Sons]] |date=1989 |isbn=9780460045094}}</ref>

==Norman England, 1066–1290== {{Main|History of the Jews in England (1066–1290)}} [[William of Malmesbury]] states that [[William the Conqueror]] brought Jews from [[Rouen]] to England during the [[Norman Conquest]]. William the Conqueror's object may be inferred: his policy was to get [[Feudal duties|feudal dues]] paid to the [[Treasury|royal treasury]] 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.<ref name="jewishencyclopedia">[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5764-england "England"] ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' (1906)</ref>

===Status of Jews=== Prior to their expulsion in 1290, the status of Jews in England was completely dependent on the will of [[the Crown]]. As a result of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum12-2.htm | title=Fourth Lateran Council : 1215 Council Fathers - Papal Encyclicals | date=1215 }}</ref> Christian authority, in the guise of the king, imposed certain discriminatory practices upon the Jews of England, one being the mandate on the wearing of a badge symbolising the two [[Tablets of Stone]]. The year 1215 also coincided with the two entries in the [[Magna Carta]], dated 15 June, regarding debts due to Jews.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/magna-carta/british-library-magna-carta-1215-runnymede/ | title=The National Archives - Homepage }}</ref> In return for their economic function (providing credit as a source of revenue for the Crown), Jews were offered some privileges and protection under the jurisdiction of the king.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Royal Jews: A Thousand Years of Jewish Life In and Around the Royal County of Berkshire|last=Romain |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Romain|publisher=Grenfell Publishing|year=2013|isbn=978-0957698604}}</ref> As "royal serfs", they were allowed freedom of the king's [[highway]]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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage|title=The History of the Medieval Jews of England: Royal Wards|website=Oxford Jewish Heritage|access-date=March 1, 2018|archive-date=October 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004224810/http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Jews of London were the responsibility of the [[Constable of the Tower]] and for this reason they were able to seek refuge in the [[Tower of London]] 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 of London|Tower]] in 1267, during a civil conflict, the Second Barons' War.<ref>''Jerusalem Post'' article relating to new exhibitions on Jewish history at the Tower</ref>

A clause to that effect was inserted under [[Henry I of England|Henry I]] in some manuscripts of the so-called ''[[Leges Edwardi Confessoris]]'' ("Laws of Edward the Confessor"). Henry granted a charter to Rabbi Joseph, the chief [[Rabbi]] 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]] rather than on a [[Bible|Christian Bible]]. 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").<ref name="jewishencyclopedia" /> 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 of England|Parliament]], eventually becoming the main taxpaying population.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage|title=The History of the Medieval Jews of England|website=Oxford Jewish Heritage|access-date=March 1, 2018|archive-date=October 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004224810/http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

English Jews experienced a "golden age" of sorts under [[Henry II of England|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]], [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]], [[Bristol]], and [[Norwich]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage|title=A Golden Age for the Jews under Henry II (The First Angevin King)|website=Oxford Jewish History|access-date=March 1, 2018|archive-date=October 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004224810/http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Crown, in turn, capitalized on the prosperity of its Jews. In addition to many arbitrary taxes, [[Richard I of England|Richard I]] 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Jews in Medieval Britain: Historical, Literary and Archaeological Perspectives |date=19 July 2012|publisher=[[Boydell & Brewer]]|isbn=9781843837336|editor-last=Skinner|editor-first=Patricia|editor-link=Patricia Skinner (historian)|edition= 1st|location=[[Woodbridge, Suffolk]]|language=en}}</ref> 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]] 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.<ref name=":0" /> So, while the [[First Crusade|First]] and [[Second Crusade]]s increased [[Antisemitism in the United Kingdom|anti-Jewish]] 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 [[History of the Jews under Muslim rule|Jews under Muslim rule]] did, the Jews of England's population and prosperity increased under the protection of the king.<ref name=":0" />

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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Exchequer of the Jews of England in the Middle Ages: A Lecture Delivered at the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition, Royal Albert Hall, 1887|last=Gross|first=Charles|publisher=Sagwan Press|year=2013|isbn=978-1376595949}}</ref> External pressures such as the circulating myth of the [[blood libel]], the religious tensions in light of the [[Crusades]], and the interference of [[Pope Innocent III]] in the late 12th century created an increasingly violent environment for English Jews. [[Pogrom|Mob violence]] increased against the Jews in London, [[Norwich]], and [[King's Lynn|Lynn]]. Entire Jewries were murdered in [[York]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage|title=Beginnings of a Particular Hatred Myth: The Blood Libel|website=Oxford Jewish Heritage|access-date=March 1, 2018|archive-date=October 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004224810/http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Because of their financial utility, however, English Jews were still offered royal protection, and [[Richard I of England|Richard I]] continued to renew orders to protect the Jews, formalizing the Exchequer and designating "[[Archa (document store)|archae]]", or centralized record chests monitored by panels of local Christian and Jewish key holders to better protect records of all Jewish transactions.<ref name=":1" />

The incompetence of [[John, King of England|King John]] in the early 13th century depleted even the wealthiest Jews, and though they had more than a decade to recover, [[Henry III of England|Henry III]]'s equally mismanaged finances pressed roughly 70,000 pounds out of a population of only 5,000.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage|title=Countdown: the Reigns of Henry III and his son Edward I|website=Oxford Jewish History|access-date=March 1, 2018|archive-date=October 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004224810/http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage/|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 of England|Edward I]], 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage|title=The End of the English Jewry, and the Medieval Tsarfatic Community|website=Oxford Jewish History|access-date=March 1, 2018|archive-date=October 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004224810/http://www.oxfordjewishheritage.co.uk/english-jewish-heritage/68-english-jewish-heritage/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Attitudes of the kings and the church=== [[File:Brockhaus and Efron Jewish Encyclopedia e2 505-0.jpg|thumb|Jewish communities in [[Medieval England]].]]

[[Gentile]]-Jewish relations in England were disturbed under [[Stephen of England|King Stephen]], who burned down the house of a Jew in [[Oxford]] (some accounts say with a Jew in it) because he refused to pay a contribution to the king's expenses{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}. In 1144, came the first report in history of the [[blood libel]] against Jews; it came up in the case of [[William of Norwich]] (1144).<ref name="jewishencyclopedia" /> [[Anthony Julius]] finds that the English were endlessly imaginative in inventing antisemitic allegations against the Jews. He contends that England became the "principal promoter, and indeed in some sense the inventor of literary anti-Semitism."<ref>[[Julius, Anthony]] (2010) ''[[Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England]]''. p. 153. {{ISBN|0199297053}}.</ref> In his 2010 book, Julius argues that [[blood libel]] 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]]rs were killing Jews in [[Germany]], outbursts against Jews in England were, according to Jewish chroniclers, prevented by King Stephen.<ref>"Hebräische Berichte," p. 64</ref>

With the restoration of order under [[Henry II of England|Henry II]], Jews renewed their activity. Within five years of his accession Jews were found at [[London]], [[Oxford]], [[Cambridge]], [[Norwich]], [[Thetford]], [[Bungay]], [[Canterbury]], [[Winchester, Hampshire|Winchester]], [[Stafford]], [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]], and [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]]. 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|pipe rolls]] (see [[Aaron of Lincoln]]). [[Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke|Strongbow]]'s conquest of [[Ireland]] (1170) was in part financed by Josce, a Jew of Gloucester; and the king accordingly fined Josce, five pounds, for having lent money to those under his displeasure, pipe rolls also indicate Strongbow borrowed monies from Aaron of Lincoln.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Flanagan |first=Marie Therese |date=2021-01-01 |title=Financing Conquest and Colonization in Angevin Ireland: A Jewish role? |url=https://www.academia.edu/95238267 |journal=Approaches to History}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Keydates - Gloucester - Trails - Anglo-Jewish History - JTrails.org.uk |url=http://www.jtrails.org.uk/trails/gloucester/keydates |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=www.jtrails.org.uk}}</ref> 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]] by [[Philip Augustus]] in 1182, among them probably being [[Judah Sir Leon of Paris]].<ref name="jewishencyclopedia" />

In 1168, when concluding an alliance with [[Frederick Barbarossa]], Henry II seized the chief representatives of the Jews and sent them to [[Normandy]], and imposed a [[tallage]] on the rest of the community of 5,000 marks.<ref>[[Gervase of Canterbury]], ed. Stubbs, i. 205</ref> When, however, he asked the rest of the country to pay a [[tithe]] for the Crusade against [[Saladin]] in 1188, he demanded a quarter of all Jewish [[Personal property|chattel]]s. The so-called "[[Saladin tithe]]" 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]], arrears were demanded from the recalcitrant Jews.<ref name="jewishencyclopedia" />

[[Aaron of Lincoln]] 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chazan |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Chazan |title=The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom: 1000–1500 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=New York |year=2006 |page=159 |isbn=978-0-521-84666-0}}</ref> 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]]",<ref name="jewishencyclopedia" /> 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]]s and [[monasteries]] 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 and began to be reflected in official policy.

During the thirteenth century, English monarchs were increasingly careless and finally actively hostile in their policies. This was in part due to changes in church policy, which was becoming increasingly hostile after the [[Fourth Lateran Council]]. The church demanded the separation of Jews and Christians as a means of arresting the spread of heretical ideas and interfaith sexual relations. To this end, as a means of identification, Jews were mandated to wear [[Jewish badges]] or the [[Jewish hat]], as depicted in the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre in Winchester Cathedral.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://samgrubersjewishartmonuments.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-visit-to-medieval-jewish-winchester.html | title=Samuel Gruber's Jewish Art & Monuments: A Visit to Medieval Jewish Winchester | date=17 December 2019 }}</ref> [[File:Jewish man in hat chapel of sepulchre 2.jpg|thumb|Jew of England, Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, Winchester Cathedral]]

John and Henry III both overtaxed the Jews, regarding them as an easy source of income. The result was that Jews were forced by the crown to pull in all overdue debts, and as debt was generally secured against land, this meant dispossessing members of the middling gentry of the source of their feudal status, land. The crown's immediate allies, in their inner circle and court, benefited from these sales as they picked up these assets cheaply; Jews could not by law hold onto land holdings. This repeated cycle bred resentment and anti-Jewish sentiment, but monarchs continued this process until Jewish assets had in essence run out.

Henry III's official attitudes moved from protection to hostility when he became the first monarch to lend credence to a [[blood libel]], when he ordered investigations and arrests of Jews concerning the death of a child, [[Little Saint Hugh|Hugh, in Lincoln]]. He was locally venerated, and stories about him this clearly circulated widely, including in prose and folk songs.

===Persecution and expulsion=== [[File:Medieval Artefacts from Jewish Homes in London on display at the Jewish Museum London.jpg|thumb|right|Artefacts from Jewish houses in medieval London, in display at the Jewish Museum London.]] {{Main|Edict of Expulsion|Statute of the Jewry|History of the Jews in England (1066–1290)#Edward I and the Expulsion}}

{{External media | float = left | audio1 = [https://omny.fm/shows/speaking-with-shadows/episode-3-the-medieval-massacre-of-the-jews-of-yor The Medieval Massacre of the Jews of York], ''Speaking with Shadows'', published by English Heritage, retrieved 10 November 2019 }}The persecution of England's Jews built up from the late twelfth century, and was brutal. Massacres were recorded&nbsp;in London,<ref name="fordham london massacre">{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/hoveden1189b.asp |title=The Persecution of Jews, 1189 |publisher=[[Fordham University]] |work=[[Medieval Sourcebook]] |access-date=2 January 2012 |author=[[Roger of Hoveden]]}}</ref> Northampton<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Dan |author-link=Dan Jones (writer)|title=[[The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England]] |publisher=[[HarperCollins Publishers]] |date=2012-05-10 |isbn=978-0-00-745749-6 |language=en}}</ref> and [[York]]<ref>{{cite conference |url=http://www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/york-1190/about-york-1190-massacre-conference.html |title=York 1190: Jews and Others in the Wake of Massacre |access-date=December 29, 2011 |date=March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117173923/http://www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/york-1190/about-york-1190-massacre-conference.html |archive-date=January 17, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> during the crusades in 1189 and 1190. The massacre at York was mentioned by [[William of Newburgh]] that it was carried out less for religious reasons, but instead for greed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tuchman |first=Barbara Wertheim |author-link=Barbara Tuchman|url=http://archive.org/details/distantmirrorcal00tuch |title=A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th century |publisher=[[Knopf]] |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-394-40026-6 |location=New York |pages=112 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1269, [[Henry III of England|Henry III]] made blasphemy by Jews a hanging offence, and when Edward returned from Crusade, he passed the [[Statute of the Jewry]] in 1275.

The number of Jews were around 2,000–3,000 in England by the 1270s.{{sfn|Rokéah|1988|p=97}} They were much less capable of generating income for the Crown, as they had been overtaxed and their capital was much eroded. Overtaxation inevitably led to overdue debts being foreclosed, meaning that the lands of middling Knights and gentry being bought up by the biggest landowners, notoriously including Queen Eleanor and other members of the court. This process had fuelled anti-Semitism among the forces opposing the crown centred around [[Simon de Montfort]] during Henry III's time. During the [[Second Barons' War]] in the 1260s, de Montfort's forces led a series of pogroms in many English cities where Jewish communities were attacked, and debt records captured and destroyed.

During Edward's reign, anti-Semitism moved from being used by opponents of the crown, to being "deliberately deployed and developed in the interests of the English state".{{sfn|Stacey|2001|p=177}} While financial considerations may have played a part in his actions leading to the expulsion of the Jews, it is important to note Edward's "sincere religious bigotry".{{sfn|Hyams|1974|p=288}} Shortly after Edward returned from the Crusades, in order to assuage concerns among the landed classes and in Parliament, he passed the [[Statute of the Jewry]] in 1275.

To finance his [[Conquest of Wales by Edward I|war against Wales]] in 1276, [[Edward I]] of England [[Taxation of the Jews in Europe|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.

On 17 November 1278, the heads of households of the Jews of England, believed to have numbered around 600 out of a population of 2-3,000, were arrested on suspicion of [[Methods of coin debasement|coin clipping]] and counterfeiting, and Jewish homes in England were searched. At the time, coin clipping was a widespread practice, which both Jews and Christians were involved in. A financial crisis had resulted in pressure to act against coin clippers. In 1275, coin clipping was made a capital offence, and in 1278, raids on suspected [[Coin clipping|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 600 were detained in the [[Tower of London]]. More than 300 are known to have been executed in 1279, with 298 being killed in London alone. Some of those who could afford to buy a pardon and had a patron at the royal court escaped punishment.{{sfn|Rokéah|1988|p=99}}{{sfn|Mundill|2003|pp=61-62}}

[[Edward I of England|Edward I]] increasingly showed [[antisemitism]] as, in 1280, he granted a right to levy a toll on the rivulet bridge at [[Brentford]] "for the passage of goods over it, with a special tax at the rate of 1[[penny (British pre-decimal coin)|d]]. each for Jews and Jewesses on horse, ½d. each on foot; other travellers were exempt".<ref>{{cite book|last=Robbins|first=Michael|title=Middlesex|orig-year=1953|year=2003|publisher=[[William Phillimore Watts Phillimore#Legacy|Phillimore]]|location=[[Chichester]]|isbn=9781860772696|page=77|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VSegAAAAMAAJ&q=%22were%20exempt%22|via=[[Indiana University]]}}</ref> 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. A monk, [[Gregory of Huntingdon]], purchased all the Jewish texts he could to begin translating them, ensuring that at least some of what they had written and created was preserved.<ref name="jewishencyclopedia" />

From then until 1655, there is no official record of Jews in England outside the [[Domus Conversorum]], with a few exceptions such as [[Jacob Barnet affair|Jacob Barnet]], who was ultimately arrested and exiled.<ref name=Strange>{{cite web|title=The strange story of Jacob Barnet|author-first=Marcus |author-last=Roberts |url=http://www.jtrails.org.uk/trails/Oxford/stories/c-230/the-strange-story-of-jacob-barnet/|access-date=2010-04-28}}</ref><ref name=Sketch>{{cite web|title=A Sketch Map of a Lost Continent: The Republic of Letters|author-first=Anthony |author-last=Grafton |author-link=Anthony Grafton|url=http://arcade.stanford.edu/journals/rofl/articles/sketch-map-lost-continent-republic-letters-by-anthony-grafton|access-date=2010-04-28}}</ref>

==Resettlement period, 1290 to 1800== Between the expulsion of Jews in 1290 and their [[Resettlement of the Jews in England|formal return]] in 1655, there are records of Jews in the ''[[Domus Conversorum]]'' up to 1551 and even later. An attempt was made to obtain a revocation of the edict of expulsion as early as 1310, but in vain. Notwithstanding, a certain number of Jews appeared to have returned; four complaints were made to the king in 1376 that some of those trading as [[Lombard banking|Lombards]] were actually Jews.<ref>''[[Rolls of Parliament|Rotuli Parliamentorum]]'' ii. 332a.</ref>

Occasionally permits were given to individuals to visit England, as in the case of Elias Sabot (an eminent physician from [[Bologna]] summoned to attend [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]]) in 1410, but it was not until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497 that any considerable number of [[Sephardic Jew]]s found refuge in England. In 1542, many were arrested on the suspicion of being Jews, and, throughout the sixteenth century, a number of persons named Lopez, possibly all of the same family, took refuge in England, the best known of them being [[Rodrigo López (physician)|Rodrigo López]], physician to [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]], and who is said by some commentators to have been the inspiration for [[Shylock]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Greenblatt|first=S. |author-link=Stephen Greenblatt|year=2004|title=Will In The World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare|location=New York|publisher=[[W.W. Norton]]|isbn=0393050572|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/willinworldhows00gree}}</ref>

England also saw converts such as [[Immanuel Tremellius]] and [[Philip Ferdinand]]. Jewish visitors included [[Joachim Gaunse]], who introduced new methods of mining into England and there are records of visits from Jews named Alonzo de Herrera and Simon Palache in 1614. The writings of [[John Weemes]] in the 1630s provided a positive view of the [[resettlement of the Jews in England]], effected in 1657.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bowman|first=John|date=April 1949|title=A Seventeenth Century Bill of 'Rights' for Jews|jstor=1453260|journal=[[The Jewish Quarterly Review]]|volume=39|issue=4|pages=379–389|doi=10.2307/1453260|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]|issn=0021-6682}}</ref>

=== Henry VIII and Judaism === Over the course of his reign, [[Henry VIII]] showed interest in Judaism. During his attempt to [[Wives of Henry VIII|annul his marriage]] to [[Catherine of Aragon]], Henry's representatives consulted with notable Italian Jews, and he attempted to justify his annulment using laws from the Old Testament.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Katz |first=David S. |author-link=David S. Katz |title=The Jews in the history of England, 1485-1850 |date=1996 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-820667-4 |edition=[Pbk. ed.] |location=Oxford |oclc=36489013}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Lapide |first=Pinchas E. |author-link=Pinchas Lapide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F_mUvs91FxEC |title=Hebrew in the Church: The Foundations of Jewish-Christian Dialogue |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]|year=1984 |isbn=978-0-8028-4917-5 |pages=73 |language=en}}</ref>

===Hidden Jews in England=== {{Main|History of the Marranos in England}} From the beginning of the 16th century, in the wake of the [[Spanish Inquisition]], 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wolf |first=Lucien |author-link=Lucien Wolf|date=1924 |title=Jews in Elizabethan England |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29777765 |journal=Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England) |volume=11 |pages=1–91 |jstor=29777765 |issn=2047-2331}}</ref> Many hidden Jews made names for themselves while in England. One [[Marrano]] from Spain, Hector Nunes, played a vital role in English espionage by relaying intelligence from Spain to [[Elizabeth I|Queen Elizabeth]]'s spymaster, [[Francis Walsingham|Sir Francis Walsingham]], on his merchant vessels. This information was instrumental in England's defeat of the [[Spanish Armada]] in 1588.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Seton-Rogers |first=Cynthia |date=2018 |title=The Exceptions to the Rule: Jews in Shakespeare's England |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48586988 |journal=[[European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe]] |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=6–12 |jstor=48586988 |issn=0014-3006}}</ref> Another Jew who made a name for himself in England was [[Joachim Gans|Joachim Gaunse]] of Bohemia, who came to England as a metallurgist and metal engineer to aid in their defeat of Spain. Because of his work, [[Walter Raleigh|Sir Walter Raleigh]] invited Gaunse to sail with him on an [[Roanoke Colony|expedition to North America]], where he became the first Jew to set foot on North American soil.<ref name=":4" />

Another Marrano gained attention in England for less patriotic reasons. [[Roderigo Lopes|Roderigo Lopez]], who became personal physician to Elizabeth I, was allegedly bribed by the Spanish Crown to poison the Queen, and subsequently executed. 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]]'s ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' and [[Christopher Marlowe]]'s ''[[The Jew of Malta]]'' were written, both of which depict Jews in negative, stereotypical manners.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hessayon |first=Ariel |date=March 2011 |title=Jews and crypto-Jews in sixteenth and seventeenth century England |url=http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/16_2011/hessayon_jews.html |journal=Cromohs: Cyber Review of Modern Historiography |volume=16 |pages=1–26}}</ref>

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]] and [[Samuel Maylott]], a French merchant, who has many descendants in England. They conducted a large business with the [[Levant]], [[East Indies|East]] and [[West Indies]], [[Canary Islands]], and [[Brazil]], and above all with the [[Netherlands]] and [[Spain]].

[[Francis Drake]]'s quartermaster in his [[Francis Drake's circumnavigation|circumnavigation of the globe]] was named as "Moses the Jew". There is evidence of Jews resident in [[Plymouth]] in the 17th century.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Fry |author-first=Helen |author-link=Helen Fry |title=The Jews of Plymouth |publisher=Halsgrove |isbn=9780857042538|date=2015 |page=7}}</ref>

===Resettlement, 1655=== {{Main|Resettlement of the Jews in England}}Prior to their resettlement, a growing [[Philosemitism|philo-Semitism]] in England had turned the environment there into a more hospitable one for Jews. In the wake of the [[English Reformation]], it became more popular for Anglicans to identify their practices and traditions with Jewish ones over Catholic ones. In 1607, [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] received its first rabbi to teach Hebrew to students, and many of these students went on to translate the [[King James Version|King James Bible]]. 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]] to sound more like the Hebrew pronunciation. Many [[Puritans]] showed great appreciation for these Old Testament names, and Puritan children were often named using the new Hebrew spellings.<ref name=":3" /> Puritans furthered the English appreciation of Judaism by adopting Jewish practices like strict observation of the Sabbath.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Katz |first=David S. |date=1994 |title=Christian and Jew in Early Modern English Perspective |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20101191 |journal=Jewish History |volume=8 |issue=1/2 |pages=55–72 |doi=10.1007/BF01915908 |jstor=20101191 |s2cid=161265256 |issn=0334-701X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> When they challenged Anglican practices as being too similar to Catholic ones, [[Richard Hooker]], 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.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |author-last=Rabb |first=Theodore K. |author-link=Theodore K. Rabb |date=1974 |title=The Stirrings of the 1590s and the Return of the Jews to England |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29778865 |journal=Transactions & Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England) |volume=26 |pages=26–33 |jstor=29778865 |issn=0962-9688}}</ref> At the turn of the 17th century, Englishmen like [[Edwin Sandys (died 1629)|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.<ref name=":5" /> [[Oliver Cromwell]] believed the English to be one of the [[Ten Lost Tribes|Ten Lost Tribes of Israel]], and therefore entitled to the blessings promised in the Old Testament.<ref name=":3" /> Under his rule after the [[English Civil War]], philo-Semitism flourished, making the climate right for Jews to propose their official readmission.[[File:Bevis Marks Synagogue P6110044.JPG|thumb|[[Bevis Marks Synagogue]], the first synagogue of Spanish-Portuguese Jews, completed in 1701, oldest synagogue in the UK, was built by the first generation of readmitted Jews to England.]] In the 1650s, [[Menasseh Ben Israel]], a rabbi and leader of the [[Dutch Jews|Dutch Jewish]] 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 wars|pamphlet war]]. The issue divided religious radicals and more [[Conservatism in the United Kingdom|conservative]] elements within society. The [[Puritan]] [[William Prynne]] was vehemently opposed to permitting Jews to return, the [[Quaker]] [[Margaret Fell]] no less passionately in favour, like [[John Wemyss (minister)|John Wemyss]], a minister of the [[Church of Scotland]]. In the end, Jews were readmitted in 1655, and, by 1690, about 400 Jews had settled in England.<ref name="The Virtual Jewish History Tour of England">{{cite web |url=https://www.algemeiner.com/2026/04/22/england-was-the-first-european-country-to-expel-jews-heres-the-full-story/ |title=England Was the First European Country to Expel Jews; Here's the Full Story |access-date= |author-first=Rabbi Menachem |author-last=Levine|website=The Algemeiner}}</ref> Emblematic of the progress in the social status of Jews was the [[knighted|knighting]] by [[William III of England]] in 1700 of [[Solomon de Medina]], the first Jew to be so honoured.<ref name="bh.org.il">{{cite web |title=The Jews of the United Kingdom |url=https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/united-kingdom |publisher=[[The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot]] |access-date=25 June 2018 |archive-date=25 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625160957/https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/united-kingdom |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===18th century=== The [[Jewish Naturalisation Act 1753]] 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.<ref name="Cassell's Chronology">{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Hywel |title=Cassell's Chronology of World History |url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will |url-access=registration |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-304-35730-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will/page/316 316]}}</ref>

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 (British political party)|Tories]] made a great outcry against this "abandonment of [[Christianity]]", 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 royal assent ([[26 Geo. 2]]. c. 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 Jew]]s" from around 1750.

In the 1780s and '90s, English boxer [[Daniel Mendoza]] was an active prizefighter; Mendoza was of [[Sephardi]]c or [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews|Portuguese Jewish]] descent.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Fighting Jew: The Life and Times of Daniel Mendoza, Champion Boxer |author-first=Wynn |author-last=Wheldon |publisher=[[Amberley Publishing]] |date=2019 |page=16 |isbn=9781445685731}}</ref><ref name="ancestry2">{{cite book |last=Siegman |first=Joseph M. |title=The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame |date=1992 |publisher=S.P.I. Books|isbn=9781561710287}}</ref><ref name="JBHOF2">{{cite book |title=The Jewish Boxers Hall of Fame |author-last=Blady |author-first=Ken |date=1988 |publisher=Shapolsky Publishers |location=New York City |pages=6–15 |isbn=9780933503878}}</ref>

==19th century== ===Emancipation and personalities === {{Main|Emancipation of the Jews in England}} [[File:nathan rothschild.jpg|thumb|[[Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild]] (1840–1915).]] 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]], 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. He was very proud of his Jewish heritage and published novels celebrating that heritage.<ref>Benjamin Jaffe "A Reassessment of Benjamin Disraeli's Jewish Aspects." ''Transactions & Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England)'' 27 (1978): 115-123. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/29778900 online]</ref>

Anglo-Jewish leaders such as Chief Rabbi [[Nathan Adler]] sought to unify diverse congregations under institutional authority, organizing education, charity, and religious life through the [[United Synagogue]] (founded 1870). Sunday schools, benevolent societies, and burial clubs reflected both internal cohesion and adaptation to Victorian social norms. The Victorian Jewish community emphasized respectability, philanthropy, and education as routes to acceptance in broader British society.<ref>Steven Singer, "Jewish Religious Thought in Early Victorian London." ''AJS Review'' 10#2 (1985): 181-210. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0364009400001343</ref> The very rich [[Rothschild]], [[Moses Montefiore|Montefiore]], and [[Mocatta]] families played prominent roles as financiers and philanthropists, supporting hospitals, schools, and civic institutions. Typically the diverse Jewish communities sponsored numerous philanthropic efforts.<ref>Alysa Levene, ''Jews in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Charity, Community and Religion, 1830–1880'' (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020) pp.3–17.</ref> See [[Jewish Board of Guardians (United Kingdom)|Jewish Board of Guardians]] and [[Jewish Care]]. Jewish participation in finance, commerce and clothing manufacturing contributed to the economy’s modernization and to widespread favourable perceptions of Jews as industrious citizens. Cultural leaders like novelists Disraeli and [[Grace Aguilar]] and poet [[Amy Levy]] engaged with questions of faith, gender, and national belonging.<ref>Nadia Valman, ed. ''Jewish women writers in Britain'' (Wayne State University Press, 2014) pp.1–9 [https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=t0RwBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=%5B%5BGrace+Aguilar%5D%5D+and+poet+%5B%5BAmy+Levy%5D%5D+engaged+with+questions+of+faith,+gender,+and+national+belonging.+&ots=3iGgzzY8Hy&sig=vfWRpRNDmk3ForFIxHEUrhazQcU online]</ref>

===Community development=== [[Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom|Emancipation from political restrictions]] began in the 18th century and progressed steadily with no reversals. By the mid-19th century, Jews in England had largely achieved legal emancipation. The process culminated in the admission of [[Lionel de Rothschild]] to Parliament in 1858 after a successful struggle for the right to affirm rather than swear Christian oaths. Jewish emancipation symbolized the liberalizing spirit of the Victorian state and affirmed Britain’s self-image as a tolerant, constitutional monarchy. By 1890, Jewish emancipation was complete in every walk of life. The Jewish community enjoyed broad-scale acceptance, fully equal status, and historic barriers and limitations were gone.<ref>Polly Pinsker, "English Opinion and Jewish Emancipation (1830-1860)." ''Jewish Social Studies'' (1952): 51-94.</ref><ref>W.D. Rubenstein, ''A History of the Jews in the English-Speaking World: Great Britain'' (St. Martin's Press. 1996).</ref>

By 1882, 46,000 Jews lived in England. The Jewish community was largely based in London with a presence in a few other major cities.<ref>Vivian D. Lipman, "A survey of Anglo-Jewry in 1851." ''Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England)'' 17 (1951): 171–188 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/29777900 online].</ref> There was some immigration from Germany. After the Russian anti-Jewish [[pogrom]]s began in 1881, there was an influx of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe. (The great majority of refugees went to New York City.) From the 1840s to 1900, Anglo-Jewry grew from about 20,000 to over 100,000.<ref>Lloyd P. Gartner, ''The Jewish Migration in England: 1870-1914'' (Allen & Unwin, 1960).</ref>

Victorian Jewry was religiously pluralistic. Reform Judaism, influenced by German and Enlightenment ideals, emerged alongside the much larger Orthodox practice.<ref>Robert Liberles, "The origins of the Jewish Reform movement in England." AJS review 1 (1976): 121-150.</ref> By 1880, the flourishing Jewish community in [[Birmingham]] 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]].<ref>{{cite journal|author-first=Dick |author-last=Malcolm |title=Birmingham Anglo-Jewry c. 1780 to c. 1880: Origins, Experiences and Representations|journal=[[Midland History]]|year=2011 |volume= 36|issue=2 |pages=195–214|doi=10.1179/004772911x13074595849031|s2cid=162019163}}</ref>

From 1858 to the 21st century, 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]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol10/pp145-148|title=Hackney: Judaism &#124; British History Online|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref>

Several synagogues were built 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]].

===Antisemitism=== There was some antisemitism, but far less than in other major European countries such as Russia, Germany and France.<ref>David Vital, ''A people apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789 –1939'' (Oxford UP, 1999) pp.177–182.</ref> Historians have explored how [[antisemitism|antisemitic stereotypes]] persisted in Victorian popular culture and literature.<ref>Vital, pp.183–189.</ref> Jews were sometimes caricatured as morally suspect in newspapers and novels, reflecting anxieties about immigration and capitalism. The depiction of Shylock in theatrical revivals and the social disquiet surrounding East End immigrants in the 1880s revealed some prejudice existed within the framework of tolerance. Sustained Jewish participation in civic life gradually challenged and reshaped public attitudes toward religious minorities.<ref>Richard S. Levy, ed., ''Antisemitism: A historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution'' (2005) 1:83-85, 180-182, 204-206 2:623-626.</ref><ref>Anthony Julius, ''Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-semitism in England'' (Oxford UP, 2010) pp.242–275.</ref>

==Modern times==

===1880s to 1920=== [[File:Immigrant Jews in the Transit Shed at Tilbury.jpg|thumb|Immigrant Jews in the transit shed at [[Tilbury]] (c. 1891). This illustration is captioned "The Alien Invasion".]] From the 1880s to 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&nbsp;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.<ref>Godley, Andrew (2001) ''Enterprise and Culture''. New York: Palgrave. Ch. 1. {{ISBN|0333960459}}.</ref> These [[Ashkenazi Jews]] were funnelled by the [[Rail transport in Europe|railways of Europe]] to its [[North Sea]] and [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] ports,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Evans|first=Nicholas J.|date=2001|title=Work in progress: Indirect passage from Europe Transmigration via the UK, 1836–1914|journal=Journal for Maritime Research|language=en|volume=3|issue=1|pages=70–84|doi=10.1080/21533369.2001.9668313|issn=2153-3369|doi-access=free}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Irving|last=Howe|author-link=Irving Howe|title=World of our Fathers|date=1976|publisher=[[New York University Press]]|isbn=978-0-8147-3685-2|oclc=62709825}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Finestein|first=Israel|author-link=Israel Finestein|date=1996|title=The Jews in Hull, between 1766 and 1880|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29779979|journal=Jewish Historical Studies|volume=35|pages=33–91|jstor=29779979 |issn=0962-9696}}</ref>

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]], [[Manchester]] and [[Leeds]]. Until the late 20th century, East London was the main centre of Jewish life in England, with settlement heavily focused on an area in and around [[Whitechapel]], extending from [[Bishopsgate]] to [[Cable Street]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Mapping Society: The Spatial Dimensions of Social Cartography |author-first=Laura |author-last=Vaughan |author-link=Laura Vaughan |isbn=9781787353077 |url=https://ucldigitalpress.co.uk/Book/Article/67/91/5048/ |publisher=[[University College London Press]] |date=2018}}</ref> The area was chosen because of its cheap rents and the independent trades, [[East End of London#Weaving and mulberries|notably weaving and textiles, known colloquially as "the rag trade"]].<ref>{{cite journal |journal=East London Papers: A Journal of History, Social Sciences and the Arts |volume=6 |number=2 |date=December 1963 |issn=0012-8465 |title=unknown title}}</ref> The district of [[Spitalfields]] lay within this area and gained the nickname ''Little Jerusalem''.<ref>Brewer's Dictionary of London Phrase and Fable, Russ Willey, 2010, {{ISBN|978-0550-10031-3}}, p292</ref>

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]].

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.

====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.<ref name="Frances Donaldson 2011 51">{{cite book|author-first=Frances |author-last=Donaldson|author-link=Frances Donaldson|title=The Marconi Scandal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_JKMamWMSbAC&pg=PT51|year=2011|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]|page=51|isbn=9781448205547}}</ref> 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|backward-looking Catholicism]], and their 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 Radical wing of the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]], against the growing visibility of successful businessmen in national life and their challenge to what were seen as traditional English values."<ref>{{cite book|author-first=Todd M. |author-last=Endelman|title=The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMOQkrUtqkwC&pg=PR9|year=2002|page=155|publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520227194}}</ref>

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."<ref name="Frances Donaldson 2011 51"/><ref>{{cite journal |author-first=Dean |author-last=Rapp |title=The Jewish response to G.K. Chesterton's antisemitism, 1911–33 |journal=[[Patterns of Prejudice]] |volume=24 |number=2–4 |date=1990 |pages=75–86 |doi=10.1080/0031322X.1990.9970052 |issn=0031-322X}}</ref>

====World War I and Balfour Declaration==== {{Main|Balfour Declaration}} [[File:Britain has been all she could be to Jews. Jews will be all they can be to Britain. Enlist at once in any regiment. Apply at the nearest recruiting office LCCN2003668175.jpg|thumb|[[First World War]] recruitment poster, encouraging Jews to join the Armed Forces, saying that "Britain has been all she could be to Jews."]] About 50,000 Jews served in the [[British Armed Forces]] during [[World War I]], and around 10,000 died on the battlefield. 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]], marking 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.<ref>William M. Mathew, "The Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate, 1917–1923: British Imperialist Imperatives." ''British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies'' 40.3 (2013): 231-250. https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2013.791133</ref>

====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.<ref>Godley, Andrew (2001) ''Enterprise and Culture''. New York: Palgrave. Ch. 2. {{ISBN|0333960459}}.</ref>

====Sports==== [[File:Harold Abrahams 1924.jpg|thumb|Harold Abrahams, gold medal winner at the 1924 Olympics.]]

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.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Schaffer, Gavin|title=Unmasking the 'muscle Jew': the Jewish soldier in British war service, 1899–1945|doi=10.1080/0031322X.2012.701809|journal=Patterns of Prejudice|year=2012|volume= 46|issue=3 |pages=375–396|s2cid=143893052}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite journal|author-last=Berkowitz |author-first=Michael |author-link=Michael Berkowitz |title=Jewish Fighters in Britain in Historical Context: Repugnance, Requiem, Reconsideration|journal=Sport in History|year=2011|volume= 31|issue=4 |pages=423–443|doi=10.1080/17460263.2011.645334|s2cid=162088795}}</ref> Their high visibility in a prestigious sport among the [[British working class]] helped reduce antisemitism and increased their acceptance in British society.<ref>{{cite journal|author-last=Dee |author-first=David |title='The Hefty Hebrew': Boxing and British-Jewish Identity, 1890–1960|journal=Sport in History|year=2012|volume= 32|issue=3|pages= 361–381|doi=10.1080/17460263.2012.720273|s2cid=143524467}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|author-last=Dee |author-first=David |title='The Sunshine of Manly Sports and Pastimes': Sport and the Integration of Jewish Refugees in Britain, 1895–1914|journal=Immigrants & Minorities|year=2012|volume= 30|issue=2 |pages= 318–342|doi=10.1080/02619288.2010.502722|s2cid=145690246}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite journal|author-last=Dee |author-first=David |title='Too Semitic' or 'Thoroughly Anglicised'? The Life and Career of Harold Abrahams|journal=[[International Journal of the History of Sport]]|year=2012|volume= 29|issue=6|pages=868–886|doi=10.1080/09523367.2011.631006|s2cid=144548144 |issn=0172-7249}}</ref>

===Before and during World War II=== {{See also|Jewish refugees from German-occupied Europe in the United Kingdom}}[[File:Kindertransport-Meisler.jpg|thumb|left|180px|''[[Kindertransport – The Arrival]]'' sculpture in central London marks the ''[[Kindertransport]]'' when the UK took in nearly 10,000 Jewish children prior to WWII. Dubbed the "British Schindler", [[Nicholas Winton]] was a notable member of the operation.]] 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]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=2020-01-27|title=Holocaust memorials remember Channel Islands' victims|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-51265559|access-date=2021-11-04}}</ref>

[[File:Allied Forces Celebrate Jewish New Year- Religious Celebrations at the Balfour Service Club, London, UK, 1943 D16288.jpg|thumbnail|Allied forces celebrate [[Rosh Hashanah]] in London, 1943.]] With the declaration of war, 74,000 German, Austrian and Italian citizens in the UK were interned as [[enemy alien]]s. 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]].<ref>{{cite news |author-last=Klieger |author-first=Noah |author-link=Noah Klieger |date=11 September 2006 |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3302233,00.html |title=Army was Polish, soldiers were Jews |work=[[Ynet]]}}</ref> All of them were eligible to settle in the UK after the [[Polish Resettlement Act 1947]], Britain's first mass immigration law.

== 21st century == In May 2026, the [[Board of Deputies of British Jews]] launched the United Kingdom's first nationwide [[Jewish Culture Month]], a month-long programme of more than 150 events focused on Jewish food, music, literature, comedy, heritage and contemporary culture.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mohdin |first=Aamna |date=2026-05-16 |title=Giant green pickle tells us UK's Jewish culture month has begun |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/16/jewish-culture-month-festival-uk-green-pickle |access-date=2026-05-16 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Participating institutions included the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]], the [[British Library]], [[the National Portrait Gallery]], and [[JW3]]. Organisers described the initiative as an effort to present Jewish life in Britain beyond narratives primarily centred on antisemitism and security concerns following the aftermath of the [[October 7 attacks|7 October attacks]] and subsequent rise in [[Antisemitism in Europe|antisemitic incidents in the UK]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC marks Jewish Culture Month |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2026/bbc-marks-jewish-culture-month/ |access-date=2026-05-16 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>

== Mythical history of the Jews in England == {{Main|British Israelism|Assyria and Germany in Anglo-Israelism}}

==See also== {{Portal|Judaism|England}} {{div col}} *[[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 North East England]] *[[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 {{div col end}}

==References== {{Reflist}} * {{Jewish Encyclopedia|title=England|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5764-england}}

==Further reading== * Abrahams, B. Lionel. (1894) “The Expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.” ''The Jewish Quarterly Review'' 7#1, pp.&nbsp;75–100. and 428-458 [https://doi.org/10.2307/1450332 online] and [https://doi.org/10.2307/1449926 part 2 online] * Barkey, Karen, and Ira Katznelson. (2011) “States, Regimes, and Decisions: Why Jews Were Expelled from Medieval England and France.” ''Theory and Society'' 40#5, pp.&nbsp;475–503. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/41475705 online] * Brand, Paul. (2000) “Jews and the Law in England, 1275-90.” ''English Historical Review'' 115#464, pp.&nbsp;1138–58. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/578927 online] * {{cite journal |author1-last=Carlos |author1-first=Ann M. |author2-first=Karen |author2-last=Maguire |author3-first=Larry |author3-last=Neal |title='A knavish people...': London Jewry and the stock market during the South Sea Bubble |journal=[[Business History]] |date=2008 |volume=50 |number=6 |pages=728–748 |doi=10.1080/00076790802420039 |issn=0007-6791 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00076790802420039 |url-access=subscription}} * {{cite book |date=2012-11-12 |orig-date=1990 |first=David |last=Cesarani |editor-first1=Tony |editor-first2=Kenneth |editor-last1=Kushner |editor-last2=Lunn |author-link=David Cesarani |publisher=Routledge |chapter=An 9. Embattled Minority: The Jews in Britain During the First World War |title=The Politics of Marginality: Race, the Radical Right and Minorities in Twentieth Century Britain |edition=1st |isbn=9780203043653 |doi=10.4324/9780203043653 |location=London}} * {{cite journal |author-last=Crome |author-first=Andrew |title=The 1753 'Jew Bill' Controversy: Jewish Restoration to Palestine, Biblical Prophecy, and English National Identity |journal=[[The English Historical Review]] |volume=130 |issue=547 |date=December 2015 |pages=1449–1478 |url=https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/619584/1/EHR%20REVISION%20-%20Submission%20May%2014.pdf |issn=0013-8266 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/ehr/cev339}} * {{cite journal |author-last=Davis |author-first=Richard W. |title=Disraeli, the Rothschilds, and anti-Semitism |journal=Jewish History |publisher=[[Springer Nature]] |volume=10 |number=2|date=Fall 1996 |pages=9–19 |doi=10.1007/BF01650958 |jstor=20101265 |issn=0334-701X}} * {{cite web |author-last=Diniejko |author-first=Andrzej |title=Benjamin Disraeli and the Jewish Question in Victorian England |date=2020 |url=https://victorianweb.org/authors/disraeli/judaism.html |website=[[Victorian Web]]}} * {{cite journal|last= Endelman |first= Todd M | author-link=Todd Endelman |title= Disraeli's Jewishness Reconsidered |journal=[[Modern Judaism]] |volume= 5 |issue= 2 |date=May 1985 | pages= 109–123 | doi=10.1093/mj/5.2.109 |publisher=Oxford University Press |issn=0276-1114}} * Endelman. Todd M. (1979) ''The Jews of Georgian England, 1714-1830: Tradition and Change in a Liberal Society'' (The Jewish Publication Society of America) * {{cite book |author-last=Endelman |author-first=Todd M. |title=The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |date=2002 |isbn=9780520227200}} * {{cite book |author-last=Feldman |author-first=David |author-link=David Feldman (historian) |title=Englishmen and Jews: Social Relations and Political Culture, 1840–1914 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |date=1994 |isbn=9780300055016}} * {{cite book |author-last=Gartner |author-first=Lloyd P. |title=The Jewish Immigrant in England, 1870-1914 |edition=Third |place=London |publisher=[[Vallentine Mitchell]] |date=2001 |isbn=9780853034100}} * {{cite book |author-last=Godley |author-first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Godley |title=Jewish Immigrant Entrepreneurship in New York and London, 1880–1914 |date=2001 |isbn=9781349427130 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan UK]]}} * Graham, David, and Jonathan Boyd. (2023) "Conflict in Israel and Gaza: Heightened feelings of insecurity among Jews in the UK." (London: Institute for Jewish Policy Research). [https://www.jpr.org.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/The%20impact%20of%20the%202021%20Gaza%20war%20on%20Jews%20in%20UK%20-%20JPR%20report%20Sep%202023.pdf online] * Graham, David, and Jonathan Boyd. (2024) "Jews in the UK today: Key findings from the JPR National Jewish Identity Survey." [https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-3737 online] * {{cite book |author-last=Green |author-first=Joseph |title=A Social History of the Jewish East End in London, 1914–1939: A Study of Life, Labour, and Liturgy |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |via=[[University of Michigan Press]] |date=1991 |isbn=9780773497702}} * {{cite journal |author-last=Hirsch |author-first=Brett D. |title=Jewish Questions in Robert Wilson's The Three Ladies of London |journal=[[Early Theatre]] |publisher=[[Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies]] |volume=19 |number=1 |date=2016 |pages=37–56 |issn=1206-9078 |jstor=90018270 |doi=}} **See [[The Three Ladies of London]] (1584). [https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/105796/1/3LL-jews.pdf online] * {{cite book |author-last=Holmes |author-first=Colin |title=Anti-Semitism in British Society, 1876–1939 |date=1979 |publisher=[[Edward Arnold (publisher)|Edward Arnold]] |isbn=9780713161892}} * {{cite journal |last1=Hyams |first1=Paul |title=The Jewish Minority in Medieval England, 1066-1290 |journal=[[Journal of Jewish Studies]] |issn=0022-2097 |date=1974 |volume=xxv |issue=2 |pages=270–293 |doi=10.18647/682/JJS-1974 |url=https://www.academia.edu/20041328}} * {{cite book |author-last=Julius |author-first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Julius |title=[[Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England]] |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2010 |isbn=9780199297054}} 811 pages; Examines four distinct versions of English anti-Semitism, from the medieval era (including the [[Edict of Expulsion|expulsion of Jews in 1290]]) to what is argued is [[New antisemitism|anti-Semitism in the guise of anti-Zionism today]]. * {{cite book |author-last=Katz |author-first=David S. |author-link=David S. Katz |title=The Jews in the History of England, 1485–1850 |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1994 |isbn=9780198229124}} [https://archive.org/details/jewsinhistoryofe0000katz online] * {{cite book |author-last=Katz |author-first=David S. |title=Philo-Semitism and the Readmission of the Jews to England, 1603–1655 |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1982 |isbn=9780198218852}} * {{cite book |author-last=Kent |author-first=Aaron M. |title=Identity, Migration and Belonging: The Jewish Community of Leeds, 1890-1920 |publisher=[[Cambridge Scholars Publishing]] |date=2015 |isbn=9781443874656}} * {{cite journal |author-last=Knepper |author-first=Paul |title=The British Empire and Jews in Nineteenth Century Malta |journal=Journal of Modern Jewish Studies |publisher=[[Routledge]] |volume=9 |number=1 |date=19 March 2010 |pages=49–69 |issn=1472-5886 |oclc=50924672 |doi=10.1080/14725880903549269}} * {{cite book |editor-last=Endelman |editor-first=Todd M |editor-link=Todd Endelman |author-first=Jeremy |author-last=Kushner |title=Disraeli's Jewishness |date=2002 |isbn=9780853033660 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]]}} * {{cite book |author-last=Langham |author-first=Frank Raphael |title=The Jews in Britain: A Chronology |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |date=22 November 2005 |isbn=9781403995971}} * {{cite book |author-last=Lipman |author-first=Vivian David |title=Social History of the Jews in England: 1850–1950 |date=1954}} * Meyer, Hannah. 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==Primary sources== * {{Citation |publisher=[[J. G. S. B. Bohn|James Bohn]] |ol=24872893M |location=London |title=The chronicle of Richard of Devizes concerning the deeds of Richard the First, King of England |url=https://archive.org/details/chronicleofricha00rich |author=[[Richard of Devizes]] |date=1841 |oclc=4692428}}

==External links== *[https://archive.org/details/jewsangevinengl00jacogoog The Jews of Angevin England; documents and records, from the Latin and Hebrew sources, printed and manuscript by Joseph Jacobs, 1854-1916] *{{cite web|title=Jews and Jewish communities in Great Britain 18th–20th centuries|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/anglo-jewish-history-18th-20th.htm|publisher=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]]}} *[http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/cms/york-1190/ York 1190: Jews and Others in the Wake of the Massacre (academic conference, March 2010)] *[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/England.html Virtual History Tour of Jewish England] *[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/search_results.jsp?searchType=1&pageNum=1&search=england&searchOpt=0 England related articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926204524/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/search_results.jsp?searchType=1&pageNum=1&search=england&searchOpt=0 |date=2011-09-26 }} *[http://www.oztorah.com/category/british-jewry/ Articles on British Jewish history] *[http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/england-index.html Jews in England 1066–1290, 1553–1970] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080602085422/http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/england-index.html |date=2008-06-02 }} (from ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' 1971) *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20071029021949/http://www.zehut.net/English/English_Philosopher.htm Words of English Thinkers on the Jewish People]}} *[http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/ Jewish Communities & Records – United Kingdom] *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5338942.stm Tracing the First Jews of Britain] *[http://www.chabad.org/centers/default.asp?country=England Chabad-Lubavitch Centers in England] *[http://www.thejc.com ''The Jewish Chronicle'' (UK)] *[http://librivox.org/the-king-of-schnorrers-by-israel-zangwill/ A reading of Israel Zangwill's historical satire] ''[[The King of Schnorrers]] (1894)'' *{{cite news|title=Immigration and Emigration – The world in a city: East End Jews|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/england/london/article_2.shtml|publisher=BBC|date=February 2004}}

{{History of the Jews in Europe}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The Jews In England}} [[Category:Jewish English history| ]] [[Category:Antisemitism in England|History]] [[Category:Massacres in England|jews]]