Jewish history in Britain until 1880

Jews have lived in England at least from the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066. The medieval settlement came to an end in 1290 when Jews were banished by Edward I.

		Little material remains from that period other than the documents preserved in the National Archive; the Museum is fortunate to own two 13th century wooden tallies used to record payments of tax.

Despite the presence of a handful of Jews at different times during the Tudor and Jacobean periods, there was no official community in England until after 1655, when a Dutch rabbi called Manasseh ben Israel petitioned Oliver Cromwell to allow Jews to return to England. The Spanish and Portuguese Jews who came from Amsterdam founded the Bevis Marks Synagogue (built 1701) in the City of London. To safeguard their position, every year they presented a magnificent piece of silver to the Lord Mayor.

One of the best-known members of the Sephardi community was Daniel Mendoza, boxing champion of England for most years between 1788 and 1795. Many jugs, medals and prints of the time bear his image, as a national hero. Ashkenazi Jews from Germany and Poland arriving in the 18th century soon outnumbered the Spanish and Portuguese. They built large synagogues in the City, including the Great and Hambro Synagogues, from which many items can be seen in the Museum's Judaica collection. The community varied greatly in wealth and status. Some prosperous families commissioned coats-of-arms and used them on their possessions.

However, many Jews were artisans or craftsmen and ran small businesses with varying degrees of success. A common sight in London and the countryside was the Jewish old-clothes man or pedlar with his tray of haberdashery and small goods. Many provincial communities owed their origins to a pedlar who settled permanently in a town and attracted others to join him.

The 19th century saw the Jewish community gaining increasing civil rights. In 1855, Sir David Salomons became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London. In 1858, the first Jewish MP, Lionel de Rothschild was finally admitted to Parliament after being elected four times. Educational restrictions were lifted and Jews were admitted to universities and to practice law. The Rothschilds became a household name and Sir Moses Montefiore was a figure of international repute. The situation was to change completely between 1880 and 1914 when some 150,000 Jewish immigrants arrived in Britain from Eastern Europe.