The Jews in England: from the expulsion of 1290 to the return under Cromwell

Present in England since the Norman Conquest of 1066, Jews played an important economic role as moneylenders in service of the Crown, but were subjected to crushing taxation, violence (notably the massacre of York in 1190), and the accusation of ritual murder that arose in Norwich. In 1290, King Edward I decreed their expulsion, making England the first kingdom in Western Europe to banish its Jewish population durably. For nearly four centuries, Jewish presence survived only in clandestine or marginal form. Readmission came about in practice under Oliver Cromwell, following the entreaties of the Amsterdam rabbi Menasseh ben Israel in 1655–1656: without formal decree, the practice of Judaism was tolerated and a Sephardic community established itself in London. The Sephardim were succeeded by Ashkenazic immigrants, and political emancipation advanced until Jews gained access to Parliament in the nineteenth century, accompanying the rise of an influential community within the British Empire.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗