Jews in Great Britain

JEWS

IN

GREAT BRITAIN

by Clemens N Nathan

A short history of the Jewish people in the United Kingdom

Petition of the Marranos to Oliver Cromwell, 24 March 1656, by Menasseh Ben Israel (inset)

Jews arrived in this country in a series of migrations.

Firstly they came mainly during Norman times from medieval Europe, secondly at the time of the Spanish Inquisition, in the 16th Century, and thirdly, by far the largest group arrived during the 19th Century from Eastern Europe, fleeing from the terrible persecutions there. Then in the 1930s they found a haven here from Central Europe and avoided total annihilation during the period of the Third Reich. Recently small numbers have come from Arab countries, especially Egypt, Iraq and Iran. Each group has brought its own unique national and theological traditions, some more traditional, others more an amalgam of 19th and 20th Century Western European attitudes towards a philosophy of life, religion and science. Each kind had to adjust and to re-orientate itself to survive in a new environment among Gentiles and Jews whose patterns and attitudes to life were quite different. Some of these migrations were parallel with others fleeing or seeking a new home here; at other times their arrival was quite separate.

I have selected a few particular and general examples from these movements from the medieval and Puritan periods, prior to the total integration of Jews into the fabric of this country. I thought that a few illustrations of the causes and effects in the struggle to become emancipated would be interesting as would the consequences and effects of this emancipation. Perhaps we can then discuss the lessons which could be learned from these different phases as they apply to the different strains making up this country.

In early medieval times Jews were by and large living as unabsorbed communities in most European countries, with their own highly developed laws and traditions. The writing and

completion of extremely important books took place.

The Babylonian Talmud is an example. It is a vast work which today translated covers in English 35 volumes and contains a very thorough analysis and discussion of every aspect of Jewish oral and written law, religion, health, social life, biblical criticism and stories.

The Talmud was interlinked with other major works. All these works were types of ‘Hansard’ of Rabbinical debates and Extract from the Talmud Government ‘White Papers’, extracted from the many records of academic discussions of generations of scholars and jurists in many academies over many countries and covering several hundred years of work.

The discussions in these books went up to 500 CE. Many thousands of books have been published subsequently and have been used for interpretations as theological codes and responsa.

The Talmud is nevertheless, still by far the most important source book and is the foundation stone of religious education amongst Orthodox Jews, who may spend their lives studying this.

This biblical tradition had an impact on Western thought, in carrying forward biblical concepts to many Christian and Mohammedan scholars in their desire to improve their

understanding of the Old Testament. Jews were, of course, one of the important medieval links between Christendom, Greek and Arabic thought for centuries. The centres of Jewish learning were also particularly important on the Iberian peninsula where Jewish astronomers, mathematicians and philosophers thrived at Toledo, Cordoba, amongst other places.

When the Venerable Bede wrote his fascinating account of the emerging Church in Saxon England and Celtic Britain, in 731 CE, European Jewish centres of learning had already built up vast libraries of manuscripts. These covered commentaries on the Talmud, some of which had been completed 200 years previously, at the time the Saxons settled in Wessex. No doubt, the early English monasteries and their Abbots were influenced by these works, from Jarrow and Lindisfarne to Canterbury. Rashi Venerable Bede (R Solomon Yitzaki 1040-1105) was one of the later brilliant Jewish commentators living in France in such an enclave. Apart from being known for his famous vineyards in Troyes, he was considered an outstanding medieval scientist and philosopher.

I think it would be sensible to start the influence of Jews in Britain from this period which is well-documented. Rashi lived at the time of the Norman invasion when many Jews

accompanied the King and came over here. Edward the Confessor had previously made them his vassals and they were the private property of the King. Henry III later even assigned and delivered all the Jews to his brother the Earl of Cornwall for repayment of debts. Their close involvement with many towns such as Norwich, York and Bristol, and especially with the Tower of London, is well- documented. The Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, a department of the Great Exchequer of the Realm, especially highlights a multitude of commercial transactions in financing and building monasteries and castles, and raising loans for noblemen. When one of the wealthiest Jews, Aaron of Lincoln, died in 1185, a special branch of the Exchequer was required just to handle his complex financial affairs covering vast loans to a multitude of institutions, monasteries and people. The King wanted all of his estate.

The Jews who came and lived in this country, brought with them a highly complex body of law with large numbers of legal forms and devices which were far more mature than what was known in English law in the 11th and 12th Centuries.

These were based on complex Talmudic interpretations. An example of one of these was the Jewish Gage. This was a form of present and future fixed and moveable lien. These ancient concepts are included in our system of law today, although their origins are little known. When negotiations took place Jews and Gentiles met on equal terms and religious prejudice between them was thrust into the background.

Financing was one of the only businesses permitted to Jews. The Church had restricted the means by which they could earn their living to an extremely narrow range of activities, mostly those forbidden to Christians. The protection and

support of the King were the cornerstone of their survival and even more important than the Church. The King had very real need of their financial skills. He taxed them heavily especially when there were wars or ransoms to be paid. The Norman castles were the centres of gravity and Jews lived nearby. It was here that protection, power and trade most required their economic services.

During the Crusades, Jews were forced to raise large funds and were cruelly treated. The suicidal massacre of the Jewish community in York is well known to most of us. It was one of the many attacks by mobs prior to leaving for the Crusades. On the other hand, Jews from the Iberian Peninsula were often the doctors who went with the Crusaders. Some even became Knights Hospitallers, a military order with special responsibility for pilgrims and the sick which became the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem ultimately. The St John Ambulance Brigade is an off-shoot of this today.

Although the financing of projects by Jews was important, by the time of the reign of Henry III the Lombards on the Italian Peninsula had developed the same skills and people relied on them as well. In 1275, the famous Statutum de Judeismo enacted at Worcester restricted the economic activities of the Jewish community, and they were finally expelled in 1290.

King Edward I no longer needed them. The community had failed to integrate and had been too dependent on too few activities and on too narrow a group of people to support them over difficult times. The Justices itinerant of Kent, however, did convict for murder and subsequently hanged a master and his mariners for stealing the entire treasure of many Jews leaving this country on a large ship at the mouth of the Thames and

drowning them. The law here did apply but was rather late. A few scattered communities and individual Jews did however remain here, as is the tradition in Lord Mancroft’s family in Norwich. The records of the intellectual and religious life at this time are however very scant, apart from the Jewish manuscripts which were brought to this country, and which are still here. A few Hebrew scholars, mostly converts, taught at Oxford in the middle ages.

Another King with an image of a Renaissance Prince hailed as a humanist at first with a desire to rival Francis I and Charles V, and author of a book against Martin Luther, was of course Henry VIII. When seeking to get rid of his wife Catherine of Aragon he apparently sought to obtain a verdict on the basis that their marriage was against biblical law. His emissary went to Italy where he consulted Jacob Mantino, a Jewish translator of Hebrew into Latin living in Venice who later became physician to Pope Paul III. Mantino gave his verdict against Henry VIII and earned himself enemies.

Interest in Hebrew and the Bible however grew when in 1540, Henry VIII created Regius Professorships in Oxford and Cambridge which were to teach Hebrew as well as Latin and Greek. Perhaps Page from Mantino’s dictionary

this was the foundation of new attitudes towards the Old Testament. The return of Jews in the 17th Century under Oliver Cromwell is considered the foundation period for the integration of Jews in this country.

Prior to the Jewish return, Puritan thought had developed in an interesting way throughout the whole of Oliver Cromwell England. It was a time for the growing conscience of the individual and the beginnings of education. Attitudes toward religion were altering again and the nation was fascinated by the Scriptures first printed in the middle of the 16th Century by Tyndale. The Authorised Version was printed in 1611. The commentaries by Rashi and other Jewish scholars were used as the foundation for this translation.

When people discovered that the Hebrews were the Jews whom they had only known through plays like The Merchant of Venice or The Jew of Malta, they were sometimes horrified. (Mostly they did not relate the Hebrews to any type of Jew.) Incidentally, it is believed that neither Shakespeare nor Marlowe actually met a Jew. It was amazing how uncritical Puritans were in reading the Bible. They derived simplistic ideals from it. They were rarely aware of Jewish history or of the Talmud and other theological interpretations. The witchcraft statutes were

repealed only in 1736. The religious awakening probably came about with the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Puritans here believed that they were the chosen people of God among all the people of this earth. The rich poetry of the biblical prophets and the Psalmists was read enthusiastically. The Puritans did not seem to be aware of Micah’s verse, “To do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God”. They did, however, believe in a love of liberty. The rebellions in Jewish biblical history were popular. The sermons of John Knox went even further. Persecution and vengeance were permissible. The Plymouth Brethren at one stage wanted Hebrew and the Talmud to be the language and law of America.

The creation of a haven without persecution became to them, as also for others who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower, a deeply imbedded concept.

To the persecuted Jews escaping from the Inquisition the possibility of coming to England was however their hope for a future. The few baptised Jews living secretly as Jews, and known as Marranos, in England during Elizabethan times had kept very much to themselves. They were fearful that the Inquisition would come here during the reign of Mary. After the defeat of the Armada they revealed themselves publicly as Jewish refugees from the Inquisition. They were not enthusiastic at the idea of larger numbers of Jews coming to this country who could undermine their own delicate position.

This fear has often reappeared in many parts of the world for those Jews who had not been able to integrate into the fabric of the country where they lived. The level of tension created by new Jewish immigrants towards the local Jewish communities has often been a measure of their emancipation.

Oliver Cromwell, however, strongly welcomed the readmission of the Jews. He viewed the Jews as “the people of the Old Testament” but also had not been unaware of their mercantile skills in the Northern Provinces where they had fled from Spain and Portugal. He hoped they would bring these skills here. His special committee dealing with the Council of State was dissolved when he realised that it would not support him on this issue. He did not actually pursue the matter further, but Jews did begin to come over. Though Jews had been expelled in 1290 they had never been forbidden to return.

Under Charles II, Jews were fearful that he would be less tolerant. Yet both he and James II supported Jews in a remarkable way. When prosecutions took place under the Elizabethan Recusancy Laws, James II ordered the AttorneyGeneral to stop all proceedings. William of Orange also deliberately encouraged Dutch Jews to settle here. He had been helped to finance his English and Irish expeditions by Jewish army contractors.

It took nearly 60 years after the return of Jews to this country for them to be confident enough to ask for help from George II and his Government. In 1744 Bohemian Jews were about to be deported by Empress Maria Theresa. London Jews asked for help. Their petition was accepted and the majority of the Bohemian Jews were not deported after the King’s intervention. Later other Jews felt confident enough to ask Parliament to ease the naturalisation of foreign-born Jews living here. An Act was passed by Parliament in 1753, only to be repealed two years later in a vicious attack by the Tories, who used it as a pretext to link the Whigs with the Jews. Some Jews had indeed been important supporters of the Whigs. The

community was helpless and, sadly, religious fanaticism affected the 8,000 Jews living here. The struggle for full Jewish emancipation still took a very long time and came about only after the Catholics and Dissenters had been emancipated.

The majority of Jews meanwhile were far too busy to care about emancipation. They were trying to earn their living.

Life was hard for most people. The education and welfare of the community was well organised. The first schools were opened in 1664. Jewish children mostly went to these schools.

Parents were reluctant to send their children to other schools where missionaries might convert them. Much later the Forster Acts under Gladstone in the 1880s were followed by compulsory education. The Jewish schools generally did not match up to the new educational structure and the majority gradually declined. The old grammar and public schools played an insignificant part in the general education of the Jewish population, although most communal leaders had been educated in them and were keen on emancipation.

The struggle for full integration was opposed by some, especially Rabbis who were theologically frightened that it would lead to spiritual suicide. Rabbis in Northern Europe were scholars and statesmen and responsible for the community.

They were never priests in the Christian sense of the word. The developed liberal climate of England in the 19th Century was strange to some foreign-born and highly educated Rabbis. They had been brought up in European countries, where Jews were living in a far narrower society controlled with communal taxation. Its institutions and community were rigidly interdependent. Jews here were possibly better educated Judaically with outstanding scholars from the large seminaries acting as

stimulus. Economically and spiritually some were very badly off.

Persecution, especially in Russia and later in Romania, Galicia and several other countries forced vast numbers of extremely poor Jews to flee. Some went from Russia to Palestine and the beginning of a national awakening was the only hope for many. Others arrived in this country or travelled through on the way to the United States of America. The liberalism of England and the New World gave them hope that life would be easier. They saw little of the beauties of the English countryside, only the grim factories where they lived out their lives, in the East End, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. Despite this they were able to stand erect, re-train and continue to study and practise their faith. They lived in relative freedom, compared to elsewhere. The Jewish population increased substantially, but was still a very small proportion of the rapidly growing total population. The strain on the Jewish community of absorbing new immigrants created pressures, but the structure to help them already existed and they settled reasonably quickly into the new industrial and commercial worlds.

The older-established wealthier Jewish community wanted an opportunity to participate in politics. Others were influenced by socialist ideals which diverted them from their Jewish origins, such as those of Karl Marx. The second Congress of the “League of the Just�, which developed into the Communist Party, took place in London in 1847. Socialism for Jews in the last century was virtually nonexistent in this country, compared to Germany, Austria, Russia and France.

The Trade Union Movement here also did not build up Jewish

sections as the sweat shop labourers did in the United States and Poland. Jews, however, did care about their oppressed brethren elsewhere. Many Christian Englishmen also supported Jews in their fight for emancipation and to help those in distress abroad.

Among the founders of the Athenaeum* were some supporters of the Reform Acts including a few distinguished Jews.

Isaac Disraeli, an early member, had, however, to withdraw his son’s name from also being a member. Benjamin’s malicious wit and strong party sentiments had made him too many enemies. Later as Leader of the Conservative Party and Chancellor of the Exchequer he was easily elected under Rule 2. The contribution of members like Thomas Macaulay in advocating the removal of Jewish disabilities in the House of Commons in 1833, was deeply moving.

William Ewart Gladstone, on the other hand, was of a different opinion and more complex in his attitudes. He felt for a long time that Jews would erode the Christian structure of Parliament and deeply resented the international appeal of Thomas Macaulay British Jews for help to the Jews of the Balkans. He lost much support from Jewish members in the Club, including Frances Goldsmid, a founder member.

However, Balfour was also a member. Distinguished Jews who were not members like the Rothschilds also switched allegiance.

John Simon, Sergeant-at-Law and a Liberal champion for the

cause of alleviating Jewish persecution, in a famous letter to The Times, deeply criticised Gladstone - “is all sympathy reserved for Christian subject races and none to spare for the unhappy Jewish people?”

Other British Jews went on long visits abroad. The legendary Englishman of the Jewish faith, Sir Moses Montefiore, a Sheriff of the City, visited those living in ghettos and under persecution in lands from Russia to the Ottoman Empire. He made a deep impression on many.

In 1884 the 100th birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore was celebrated throughout Russia where Chaim Weizmann, then 13 years old, lived. It had a profound impact on him. Twenty years later, Weizmann received a teaching post at Manchester University. In his autobiography Weizmann wrote, “nowhere in Europe could a Jew have as good a chance as in England of being free to make his way on his merits. My Zionist views have led me to look upon Moses Montefiore England as the one country which is likely to show a genuine sympathy for a movement like ours.”

The huge impact of 19th Century British politics on Zionism is another subject. It surely was influenced by the Puritan concepts of a haven without persecution.

There were many other British Jews who helped internationally to strengthen this country. Perhaps Lord Reading is one of the most remarkable examples. Others expressed themselves through the arts, science, trade, industry,

the opera and public work. They were all able to succeed in the framework of a society which accepted them and gave them the opportunity to develop as Chaim Weizmann described.

Those who arrived during this century from the horrific persecutions of Hitler, from Iraq, Iran and elsewhere found an easier structure within which their scientific knowledge, scholarship and industrial experience could quickly be of service to this country. Many continue to play an important role today.

The Athenaeum has welcomed some of them.

I have not spoken about the fascinating changing pattern of Jewish belief in this country. What is left today after 900 years? In a recent market survey the symbolism of lighting candles, blessing wine and bread by Jewish mothers and fathers in their home, was shown to be one of the most popular manifestations left, even more so than going to Synagogue.

However, a revival of learning more about Judaism over the last 10 years is showing results. We have several small centres of Rabbinical excellence highly regarded by Jews elsewhere. The children of many of those Jews who fought for emancipation have disappeared from the Jewish scene totally. Our Jewish population of 330,000 today is shrinking at the rate of 2000 a year, though those left are probably more committed and better educated and more aware of their origins than would have been the case a generation earlier.

The relationship between Israel and the Diaspora is unresolved. Despite strong disagreements on Israel’s policies at times, the relationship of this country with Israel is good. This country has nurtured two of Israel’s Presidents: Chaim Weizmann and Chaim Herzog.

Chaim Weizmann and Chaim Herzog

British Jews today are a diverse, loosely-knit group of communities. Anti-Semitism world-wide and the State of Israel are of deep concern for all Jews. There is no monolithic ideology for British Jews any more than for others living here.

Perhaps it is the diversity of thought, the flexible attitudes and the opportunity to be creative which makes living here in this country so worthwhile and stimulating.

Freedom for the individual under our common law has always regarded a man’s race or colour as just as irrelevant in ascertaining his rights and duties as the colour of his hair. As long as this remains so, political and religious refugees will continue to find this country one of the havens where they can prosper.

Produced by the Clemens Nathan Research Centre Flat 10, 3 Cambridge Terrace, London NW1 4JL T: 020 7034 1986 F: 020 7034 1981 www.clemensnathanresearchcentre.org

*

This paper was originally presented at the Athenaeum Club in London, hence the references to the Club’s foundation