Early British Jewish History

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England's first Jews came from Rouen, the capital of Normandy, in Northern France, when William The Conqueror invited them to settle in London in the wake of his conquest of England in 1066, to help develop commercial contacts between England and France. The early Norman monarchs encouraged Jewish settlement in towns outside of London.


In Medieval England, The Church preached that it was a sin for Christians to be money lenders, so Jews were brought in to provide this service. Most other occupations were closed to them, since they were excluded by the guilds from almost all trades and crafts. The Jews were the servants of The King, who taxed them very heavily. However, they prospered under King Henry II and made contributions to Talmudic scholarship.


In The 12th Century, the preaching of The Crusades led to attacks on Jews in most Western countries. The Crusader king, King Richard I refused to receive Jewish delegates to his coronation in 1189. This sign of hostility led to attacks on Jewish quarters in London and many other cities. The most tragic incident occurred in 1190 in York, where most of the Jews took refuge in Clifford's Tower where they were trapped and besieged by a fanatical mob. Led by their rabbi, Yom Tov Ben Issac of Joigny, they commited suicide rather than being captured and forcibly converted to Christianity. In Lincoln, Bishop Hugh of Avelon (St. Hugh of Lincoln) protected the Jews.


In The 12th and 13th Centuries, blood libels, heightened tax demands, and Crusading fervor hurt the community. King John and his son King Henry III viewed their Jewish subjects as a source of income. They imposed taxes so severe that The Jews begged for permission to leave the country. Permission was refused and even more taxes were imposed. Some Jews were murdered and the rights of others were denied. Persecution worsened under King Edward I. He arrested and imprisoned 600 Jews from all over England in The Tower of London. 270 of them were hanged their property was confiscated. In 1290, when the country's 16,000 Jews had nothing left to tax, Edward expelled them all and seized their houses and goods. He furnised ships so that they could return to France, where their families had originated. On the way, many of them were robbed and some were thrown to their deaths in The English Channel. 

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The first written records of Jewish settlement in England date from the time of the Norman Conquest, mentioning Jews who arrived with William the Conqueror in 1066 although it is believed that there were Jews present in Great Britain since Roman times. The Jewish population lived in England from the Norman Conquest until they were expelled in 1290 by a decree of King Edward I. England had no official Jewish presence, save for isolated individuals who practiced Judaism secretly, until the reign of Oliver Cromwell. While Cromwell never officially readmitted Jews to Britain, the small colony of Sephardic Jews living in London was unmasked in 1656, and, because of Cromwell's need of their financial assistance, they were allowed to stay. While the Jewish community in Britain remained comparatively small until the late nineteenth century, there had long been efforts to legally integrate Jews into British life. The Jew Bill of 1753 was only in force for a few months, and would not have allowed for the naturalization of many, save a few wealthy businessmen. Historians commonly date Jewish Emancipation to 1858, when Jews were finally allowed to sit in Parliament, though a few other minor pieces of legislation continued into the 1890s. Due to the relative lack of anti-Jewish violence in Britain in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it has acquired a reputation for tolerance. A lack of violence, however, did not make for a lack of anti-Semitic sentiments, and, in fact, the accusation of the Blood libel originated in England in the twelfth century. Britain became a haven for some Jews fleeing the Holocaust in the 1930s-40s, and the Jewish community in Britain continues to be vibrant today.


Also it should be noted that
Benjamin Disraeli served twice as Prime Minister, the first time from 27 February to 1 December 1868 and the second, 20 February 1874 to 21 April 1880. Disraeli was born on 21 December 1804 at Bedford Row, London, the eldest son and second of five children born to Isaac D'Israeli and his wife Maria Basevi, the family was Jewish.

In 1835 Disraeli and Daniel O'Connell quarrelled publicly over press reports that O'Connell had been called a 'traitor and incendiary' by Disraeli. The pair were to fight a duel but the police intervened and Disraeli was bound over to keep the peace. This was the first of their confrontations. In a heated debate in parliament, O'Connell referred to Disraeli's Jewish ancestry in disparaging terms to which Disraeli responded:

Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.