History of the Jews in England

The history of the Jews in England goes back to the reign of William the Conqueror. Although it is likely that there had been some Jewish presence in the Roman period, there is no definitive evidence, and no reason to suppose that there was any community during Anglo-Saxon times. The first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070. The Jewish settlement continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290.

After the expulsion, there was no overt Jewish community (as opposed to individuals 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 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of Irish leader Daniel O'Connell, in 1846 the British law "De Judaismo", which prescribed a special dress for Jews, was repealed.^[1]

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.^{[2][failed verification]} By the outbreak of World War II, about half a million European Jews fled to England to escape the Nazis, but only about 70,000 (including almost 10,000 children) were granted entry.^[3]

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 British royal family having partial German ethnic origins. This led many Ashkenazi Jewish families to Anglicise their often German-sounding names.^[4]

Jews in the UK now number around 275,000, with over 260,000 of these in England, which contains the second largest Jewish population in Europe (behind France) and the fifth largest Jewish community worldwide.^[5] 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 (10,360),^[6] Salford (7,920),^[7] Manchester itself (2,725),^[8] and Trafford (2,490).^[9] There are also significant communities in Leeds (6,760),^[10] Gateshead (3,000),^[11] Brighton (2,730),^[12] Liverpool (2,330),^[13] Birmingham (2,150),^[14] and Southend (2,080).^[15]