historical london continues

Jews in London: Expulsion & Resettlement

One of the places I wanted to visit in London but didn't get a chance to is London's Jewish Museum. It re-opened in March 2010 after having been closed for 2 years for renovations. Nevertheless, I learned a lot about the history of the Jews in England, much of which was completely new to me. Apparently, there are about 300,000 Jews in England now (I'm not entirely sure how this number was arrived at, but it's been repeated in a few reputable places, so I take it at face value). The history of Jews in England goes back to the Norman Conquest and is a history of violent persecution, long-standing struggle and ultimate success.

The first written records of Jewish settlement in England date from the time of William the Conqueror in 1066, but Peter Ackroyd notes that "there were Jews, Africans and representatives of most of the European races, at the time of the Roman settlement." Documentary evidence for a specific Jewish quarter in the City of London emerges in 1128, although Jewish refugees from the pogrom in Rouen, France (the ancient capital of Normandy) arrived in London in 1096. According to Ackroyd's research, Jews were not permitted to engage in ordinary commerce but were allowed to lend money, the "usury" from which Christian merchants were barred. Later Jews came to be blamed or hated for the very trade imposed upon them by the civic authorities.

The Jewish presence in London was marred by violence and brutality from the earliest times. There was an assault upon Jewish quarters in 1189 when, 'the houses were besieged by the roaring people … because the madmen had not tools, fire was thrown on the roof, and a terrible fire quickly broke out’. Many families were burned alive, while others fleeing into the narrow thoroughfares of Old Jewry and Gresham Street were clubbed or beaten to death. This violence was the result of a rumour that spread from Westminster to the City of London. Richard I had taken the cross before his coronation (he would be going on a crusade after the coronation) and a number of the principal Jews of England presented themselves at Westminster to do homage to the new King. There appears to have been some sort of superstition against Jews being admitted to such a holy ceremony and the Jews who came to pay homage were removed during the banquet after the coronation. This removal from the banquet quickly turned into a rumour that the new King had ordered a massacre of the Jews. Attacks on Jews spread outside London and also occurred in a number of other towns and villages throughout England in 1189-1190.

There was another pogrom in 1215, and on certain occasions the Jews took refuge in the Tower in order to escape the depredations of the mob. Jews suffered from the noble families who were indebted to them. And, in awful foreshadowing of later events, Jews were obliged to wear a sign upon their clothes in recognition of their race. It was not the Star of David, but a tabula or depiction of the stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were supposed to have been miraculously inscribed.

The value of the Jewish community to the royal treasury had become considerably lessened during the 13th Century because (1) the king's income from other sources had continually increased, and (2) the contributions of the Jews had decreased both absolutely and relatively. Besides this, the king had found other sources from which to obtain loans. Italian merchants, "pope's usurers" as they were called, supplied him with money, at times on the security of the Jewry. By the middle of the thirteenth century the Jews of England, like those of the Continent, had become chattels of the king. There appeared to be no limit to the exactions he could impose upon them, though it was obviously against his own interest to deprive them entirely of capital, without which they could not gain interest for the King's coffers.

Further prejudice had been raised against the Jews around this time by the revival of the blood libel, a charge of ritual murder. The king had sold the Jewish community to his brother Richard of Cornwall in February 1255 for 5,000 marks, and had lost all rights over it for a year. But in the following August a number of the chief Jews who had assembled at Lincoln to celebrate a marriage were seized on a charge of having murdered a boy named Hugh. Ninety-one were sent to London to the Tower, eighteen were executed for refusal to plead, and the rest were kept in prison till the expiry of Richard's control over their property.

The Jewish presence in England continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290. All Jews were expelled, beaten, spat upon or killed in a mass exodus from the City. After the expulsion, there was no Jewish community in England, apart from isolated individuals who practiced Judaism secretly. Some Jews returned to London, quietly and almost invisibly, over the next two or three centuries under the guise of Christians. Between the expulsion of the Jews in 1290 and their formal return in 1655, there is no official trace of Jews on English soil except in connection with the Domus Conversorum (House of the Converts; built for Jews who had converted to Christianity).

In the 1650s, Menasseh Ben Israel, a rabbi and leader of the Dutch Jewish community, approached Oliver Cromwell with the proposition that Jews should at long-last be readmitted to England. Cromwell agreed, and although he could not compel a council called for the purpose in December 1655 to consent formally to readmission, he made it clear that the ban on Jews would no longer be enforced. In the years 1655–56, the controversy over the readmission of Jews was fought out in a pamphlet war. The issue divided religious radicals and more conservative elements within society. In the end, Jews were readmitted in 1655, and, by 1690, about 3,000 Jews had settled in England.

The Jewish Naturalisation Act of 1753 was an attempt to legalize the Jewish presence in England. This legislation was essentially a way to reward Jews for their loyalty to the government during the Jacobite rising of 1745 (Jacobitism was the political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland. The movement took its name from the Latin form Jacobus of the name of King James II and VII.). The Jews' chief financier, Samson Gideon, had strengthened the stock market, and several of the younger members of the Jewish community 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 naturalized by application to Parliament. It passed the Lords without much opposition, but on being brought down to the House of Commons, the Tories made a great outcry against this "abandonment of Christianity", as they called it. The Whigs, however, persisted in carrying out at least one part of their general policy of religious toleration, and the bill was passed and received the royal assent in July of 1753. It remained in force for only a few months however, as it was repealed in 1754 due to widespread opposition to its provisions.

Historians commonly date Jewish Emancipation to 1858 when Jews were finally allowed to sit in Parliament. Catholic Emancipation took place in 1829 and the first step for the Jews was taken in 1830 when a petition signed by 2,000 people in Liverpool was presented seeking similar emancipation for the Jews. This was followed by a bill presented to Parliament later that year, which was destined to engage Parliament in the issue for the next 30 years or so.

In 1837, Queen Victoria knighted Moses Haim Montefiore. Four years later, Isaac Lyon Goldsmid was made baronet, and he became 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 July 26, 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 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, the 1st Baron Rothschild, became the first Jewish member of the British House of Lords. (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.)

Since 1858, the English Parliament has never been without Jewish members.