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The contributions of Jewish refugees were prominently featured in the results of a Britain Thinks poll that were released to coincide with the launch of Refugee Week 2013 according to London's Evening Standard newspaper. The nationwide festival celebrates the positive influence that refugees have had on British society.

The Austrian-Jewish founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud topped the national poll with 50% of the vote as the refugee who has made the most significant contribution to British life.

In second place was Max Born who garnered 21% of the vote. The German who was of Jewish descent is famous for his work in the field of physics and mathematics, and was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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The poll also asked respondents for their opinion on the 20th century inventions that had made the greatest contribution to British life. Notably, the popular British dish fish and chips which was introduced to the United Kingdom by French Protestant refugees and Jewish settlers from Portugal, received 17% of the vote.

In second place came high street department store Marks and Spencer, co-founded by Russian-Jewish refugee Michael Marks, with 11% of the vote.

"An overwhelming majority (94%) believed that the full history of Britain, including the role the country has played in protecting refugees, should be taught in schools," the Standard reported.

Commenting on the contributions of refugees who fled to Britain, Chairman of Refugee Week Maurice Wren said: "From as early as the arrival of the Armenians who settled in this country during the 12th century, the UK has enjoyed a proud tradition of welcome for those seeking sanctuary. The results of the survey show the valuable contribution that refugees have made to British history and heritage. It is interesting to see that the great British public consistently rank science and technology inventions more highly than the equally positive contributions to British cultural and sporting life made more recently by refugees."

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Psychoanalysis, Fish and Chips Among Jewish Contributions to Top British Refugee Poll

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The contributions of Jewish refugees were prominently featured in the results of a Britain Thinks poll that were released to coincide with the launch of Refugee Week 2013 according to London's Evening Standard newspaper. The nationwide festival celebrates the positive influence that refugees have had on British society.

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Jewish London Walking Tours - Old Jewish Quarter

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Discover the rich heritage and fascinating story of Jewish London on an enthralling walking tour with Stephen Burstin - For more information please visit http://jewishlondonwalkingtours.co.uk/

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The Oldest Synagogue in GB: the Bevis Mark Synagogue (1701)

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The Oldest Synagogue in GB: the Bevis Mark Synagogue (1701)

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Bevis Mark Synagogue - More than 300 Years of Prayers & Judaism

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Antisemitism has been present in Great Britain for almost a thousand years of recorded history. In the twelfth century, Catholic medieval Britain was a persecutory society, particularly when it came to Jews. It pioneered the blood libel and the church was a leader in instituting cruel legislation and discriminatory conduct toward Jews.

English literature and culture are drenched in antisemitic stereotypes. Major British authors throughout the centuries transmitted culturally embedded antisemitism to future generations. Although they did not do so deliberately, it was absorbed and has had a long-term, major impact on British society.

In the new century the United Kingdom is a European leader in several areas of antisemitism. It holds a pioneering position in promoting academic boycotts of Israel. The same is true for trade-union efforts at economic boycotts. There is also no other Western society where jihadiradicalism has proved as violent and dangerous as in the UK.

In the UK the anti-Zionist narrative probably has greater legitimacy than in any other Western society. Antisemitism of the "anti-Zionist" variety has achieved such resonance, particularly in elite opinion, that various British media are leaders in this field. Successive British governments neither share nor have encouraged such attitudes-least of all Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. They have shown concern over antisemitism and the boycott movement and tried to counteract them. However, Trotskyites who infiltrated the Labour Party and the trade unions in the 1980s have been an important factor in spreading poisonous attitudes. The BBC has also played a role in stimulating pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli attitudes over the years.

"The United Kingdom has been a European leader in several areas of antisemitism in the new century. It holds a pioneering position in promoting academic boycotts of Israel. The same is true for trade-union efforts at economic boycotts.

"Although the anti-Zionist narrative is worldwide and widespread in the European Union, this discourse in the UK probably exceeds that of most other Western societies. Thus antisemitism has achieved a degree of resonance, particularly in elite opinion, that makes the country a leader in encouraging discriminatory attitudes. Trotskyites who infiltrated the Labour Party and the trade unions back in the 1980s are an important factor in spreading this poison."

Prof. Robert Wistrich holds the Neuberger Chair for Modern European and Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since 2002 he has been director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at that university and has been vigorously involved in the struggle against its inroads.

He adds: "There is also no other Western society where jihadiradicalism has proved as violent and dangerous as in the UK. Although antisemitism is not the determining factor in this extremism, it plays a role. This Islamist radicalism has helped shape the direction of overall antisemitism in the UK.

"Another pioneering role of the UK, especially in the area of anti-Israelism is the longstanding bias in BBC reporting and commentary about the Jewish world and Israel in particular. Double standards have long been a defining characteristic of its Middle East coverage. This has had debilitating consequences. The BBC plays a special role owing to its long-established prestige as a news source widely considered to be objective. It carries a weight beyond that of any other Western media institution.

"One characteristic of English antisemitism has been its often understated nature, in keeping with British tradition. That makes it more effective because one does not become aware of it so easily. One example among many is the British journalist Richard Ingrams, who was editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye for twenty-three years starting in the 1960s. He once wrote in the Observer that he threw away unread all correspondence he received from people with Jewish names regarding the Middle East because, he thought, they must be biased on the subject. If someone were to tell him he is an antisemite he would, of course, reject that. But would he publicly write the same thing about Arab correspondents?"

Medieval England: A Leader in Antisemitism

Wistrich observes that analyzing current antisemitism requires looking back in time. The present motifs often resemble ancient ones and have their roots there. "Nothing is ever as new as it appears. Antisemitism in Great Britain has been around for almost a thousand years of recorded history. Medieval England was already a leader in antisemitism.

"In the Middle Ages, England pioneered the blood libel. The Norwich case in 1144 marked the first time Jews were accused of using the blood of Christian children for their Passover matzot. In the twelfth century, medieval Britain was a persecutory Catholic society, particularly when it came to Jews. In this environment the English church was a leader in instituting cruel legislation and discriminatory conduct toward Jews, unparalleled in the rest of Europe.

"From the Norman Conquest of 1066 onward there was a steady process-particularly during the thirteenth century-of persecution, forced conversion, extortion, and expropriation of Jews. This culminated in the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 under Edward I. It was the first ejection of a major Jewish community in Europe. It is important to bear this in mind because it is not widely known, least of all in England. I grew up there and went to grammar school and to Cambridge University and do not recall that this was ever mentioned. On the contrary, we were taught at school about the chivalry of Richard the Lionheart, not the massacres of Jews by Crusader kings.

"Britain was not only the first country in medieval Europe to expel Jews but also one of the last to take them back. It took slightly more than 350 years for this to happen. The return of the Jews to the British Isles began very quietly and informally in 1656 under Oliver Cromwell. This was the beginning-drop by drop-of the formation a new community that over time would contribute a great deal to British society."

Antisemitism without Jews

"The long absence of Jews from the shores of the British Isles did not mean that in the intervening period, antisemitism disappeared. This is an instructive early example of how society does not need the physical presence of Jews for the potency of the anti-Jewish stereotypes to penetrate the culture.

"I grew up on English literature. When I was sixteen we had to prepare for the advanced-level certificate. In our syllabus were several of the classic English works. They included Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from the late fourteenth century; Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta from the late sixteenth century;and William Shakespeare' s The Merchant of Venice of the same period, which until today has remained one of the most popular plays of the English theater.

"One interesting question is how could Shakespeare draw such a portrait of Shylock probably without ever encountering a real flesh-and-blood Jew? There are many theories about that. Yet he and Marlowe before him managed to portray the Jews as major villains whom the populace would instantly recognize as the 'antitype.' I am not, of course, saying Shakespeare was an antisemite in the ideological sense (his portrait of Shylock is more complex than that). But the force of the anti-Jewish stereotype is so powerful that this is what is ultimately retained in the 'collective unconscious' of English culture.

"This Shylock image influenced the entire West because it fits so well with the evolution of market capitalism from its early days. Shakespeare portrayed the subject in a way that is to a certain extent realistic, reflecting the rise of a commercial society in Venice and of economic competition. But Shylock has come to embody an image of the vengeful, tribal, and bloodthirsty Jew, who will never give up his pound of flesh. Rightly or wrongly, this is what most people remember. Shylock is the English archetype of the villainous Jew. Those who talk about how humanistic, universal, and empathetic his portrait is, are ignoring not only how it was perceived at the time but its historical consequences."

Literature Drenched in Antisemitism

"We also studied Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, from the Victorian era, in which a Jew is again the archetype of the villain. In addition, there were modern twentieth-century authors who portrayed their characters in a partly antisemitic way. Among them were Edwardian writers like John Galsworthy, H. G. Wells, and Nobel Prize winner T. S. Eliot. The latter was the major twentieth-century poet whose work we had to study. There were few authors devoid of any antisemitism. One exception was George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), an eccentric though remarkable woman who understood the Jewish plight. Her book Daniel Deronda can be considered a pro-Zionist work, as well as being a classic Victorian novel.

"From my experience with this syllabus, all these authors, however admirable their contribution to English and world literature, were unintentionally transmitting culturally embedded antisemitism to future generations. The influence of such a process should not be underestimated. It is difficult to neutralize antisemitic images like that of Judas-the betrayer of Christ-in the Gospels.

"English literature and culture are drenched in anti-Jewish images, perhaps even more than many of the great literary traditions of Europe. Obviously, though, there are analogies in France, Spain, Germany, Romania, and Russia. One cannot understand attitudes toward Jews in Britain today without taking into account the antisemitism embedded in the national culture. It exists without even being noticed and is often silently soaked up. Many well-educated and well-meaning people fail to understand the long-term impact of such a cultural factor on their society, and are not even aware of their own latent prejudices. That was my experience during the thirty years I lived in Britain and it has got much worse because of anti-Israeli sentiment."

The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

During the nineteenth century, matters evolved more favorably for the English Jews. Says Wistrich: "The British Empire reached its pinnacle of power and influence. England had become a relatively liberal society. Jews could feel proud and self-confident in proclaiming that they were British citizens. In the Middle East, Britain was even considered a protector of the Jews. It was more tolerant than most of its rivals and more open to intervening and trying to correct the disabilities of Jews in other parts of the world. So this was a kind of 'golden age.'

"Yet here, too, the picture is more ambivalent than is often assumed. This was particularly so in the late nineteenth century with the immigration of Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe into Britain. At that time there was strong xenophobia. This dislike of foreigners has always been a factor in the insular British mentality. There was a conservative antisemitism resistant to the Jew as an alien who could never be fully English. The Aliens Bill of 1905, directed at halting the immigration of Russian Jews, was a case in point.

"In the twentieth century, after the Russian Revolution, a linkage between Jews and communism that was intertwined with antisemitism became a pronounced theme in British public discourse. There was considerable publicity around the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This ended when Philip Graves, a London Times correspondent, exposed it as a forgery. Until then, one could read editorials in The Times that were based on the belief that Britain had spilled much blood in the First World War only to fall into the hands of a world Jewish conspiracy-a Pax Judaica!

"Similar accusations had been made before that, during the Boer War in South Africa. There were insinuations that a small clique of cosmopolitan Jewish financiers had dragged the British Empire into a futile, useless, expensive, and wholly destructive war for their own narrow financial interests. It was stressed that these 'foreign Jews' were well-connected in the upper echelons of British politics. Such claims could also be heard from leading figures in the emerging British Labour Party and trade unions, which were promoting an antiwar sentiment resonant with anti-Semitism.

"In the literature around 1900, one often finds examples of a full-fledged left-wing conspiracy theory in which British imperialism is being manipulated and controlled by 'Anglo-Hebraic' financiers. The entire issue was connected to the discovery of gold in South Africa. This theory was promoted by distinguished English intellectuals, enlightened journalists and writers, as well as the prominent liberal economist John Hobson.

"The entire episode shows striking similarities with trends in left-wing political circles in recent years. The radical Left asserts that former prime minister Tony Blair was led by the nose into a disastrous, neo-imperialist war in Iraq by a clique of rich British and American Jews. The so-called American neoconservative conspiracy had spilled over to Britain, serving Ariel Sharon and the Likud government that was then in power in Israel. British trade unionists, then and now, proved susceptible to this kind of conspiracy theory."

Right-Wing Antisemitism

"The theme of 'warmongering Jews' became especially popular in the 1930s with the rise of British fascism under its aristocratic leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, who came originally from the Left. British fascism was stopped by active mobilization against it. Contrary to what would happen a few years later, the communists were among the most militant antifascists in the East End. The Jewish community, which included many working-class Jews, had a kind of unwritten alliance with the Left to stop fascism. That tradition unfortunately seems to be dead and buried today.

"In the Second World War, Britain was not willing to attempt to rescue the Jews of Europe in any meaningful way. It was not only imperial Realpolitik that made the British close the gates of Palestine. We know that officials in the Colonial and Foreign offices and people in the administration in Palestine were far from immune to antisemitic sentiment while supporting an Arab state after the 1939 White Paper.

"During the war the British government was obsessed by the fear that their fight against Hitler could be construed as a war on behalf of the Jews. To avoid 'fighting a Jewish war' became a kind of alibi for the British authorities to do almost nothing for the Jews. Britain's solemn commitment to create a Jewish National Home in Palestine was in fact betrayed in the hour of greatest need for European Jewry. This is a serious stain on the British record, which until then had many positive sides."

Toward Israel's Creation

"After 1945-in the three years before the creation of the state of Israel-relations between Britain and the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine, reached their lowest point. For example, in 1946 the commander of British Forces in Palestine, Lt. Gen. Evelyn Barker, ordered his men to avoid fraternization with Palestinian Jews and to 'punish the Jews in the manner this race dislikes as much as any, by hitting them in the pocket, which will demonstrate our disgust for them.'[1] Antisemitism was also very virulent in Britain at that time.

"After the Mandatory Government in Palestine executed members of the Irgun, a Jewish underground organization, the latter reacted by hanging two British sergeants. This led to anti-Jewish riots in 1947 in a number of British cities including Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and London. No lives were lost, but it was a very nasty time. Britain was far from immune in this postwar period to the kind of antisemitism that existed elsewhere on the European Continent, in the Americas, or the Middle East.

"Ernest Bevin, the foreign secretary in the Labour government of Clement Attlee, was convinced that a Jewish conspiracy existed, supposedly in alliance with the Soviet Union. A commonly held view, both in London and Washington at that time, was that 'the Jews' were determined to bring down the British Empire. The empire did indeed crumble, though it was not due to any Jewish conspiracy but to more mundane economic and political factors. The war against Hitler had sapped British strength.

"Bevin made a number of antisemitic statements. He made remarks about Jews trying to jump to the head of the queue even after Auschwitz and the Holocaust. His attitude was also recorded by people who knew him well. The young Labour MP Richard Crossman, who was close to Bevin, emphasized that he was 'obsessed by the Jews' and wanted to teach them a lesson they would never forget.

"Another eyewitness testimony was that of James McDonald, the first American ambassador to Israel, who had been actively involved in the refugee issue in the 1930s. In London, on his way to Israel in August 1948, he had a conversation with Bevin. McDonald mentions in his diaries how shocked he was by the antisemitism emanating from the British foreign secretary. It was hatred of Israel, of the United States and, in particular, of the Jews.[2]

"Winston Churchill's record on Zionism was, of course, far more positive. But it was not as unequivocal as we often assume. There is a discrepancy between his wonderful rhetoric and what Churchill-as a lifelong Zionist-actually did for the Jews when he was in power. He was very intransigent on key issues. The gates of Palestine were kept shut under his premiership.

"During the Second World War, Churchill was in favor of the White Paper and kept it in place, despite his strong condemnation of it in 1939 when in opposition. His wartime actions regarding the Jews were no better than those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which is to say, unimpressive. Nor, after becoming prime minister again in 1951, was Churchill's record on Israel particularly brilliant, though he had the historical vision to understand that Israel's re-creation was a major event in modern history. In expressing its meaning Churchill was at his best."

The British Roots of "Zionism Is Nazism"

"It is important to remember that in the 1940s the 'Zionism is Nazism' libel was rather popular among highly placed Englishmen. True, the Nazi-Zionist equation was predominantly a Soviet contribution to postwar antisemitism. But it did not originate there. Indeed, a number of Britishers can claim first-class honors in this field. An example is Sir John Glubb Pasha, who was commander of the Arab Jordanian Legion fighting against Israel in 1948. He was an upper-class conservative Englishman and a lifelong Arabophile, with a special love for desert Arabs. He was also a convinced antisemite.

"Glubb was obsessed with the idea that Jews had anticipated Hitler's master race theory. Nazism, in his view, was a pale copy of the Hebrew original as revealed in Old Testament sources. In memos he sent to London he branded Jews as Nazis who combined their East European fanaticism with a narrow Hebraic cast of mind, based on biblical vengeance and hatred. He described Israel from the outset as a Nazi state, as the historian Benny Morris has demonstrated.

"Glubb was not alone. One can find in British documents similar statements from high-ranking officials in the Palestine administration. Most probably when all the papers of the High Commissioner for Palestine from the last years of the Mandate are revealed, further statements of this kind will come to light. One figure high up in the Palestine administration was Sir Edward Grigg, later Lord Altrincham. He referred to what he called the National Socialist character of what became the Israeli Labor Party (Mapai) and of the Hagana (the core of the Israeli army). He saw in the Zionist youth movements a copy of the Hitler Youth.

"The perverse theory that the Jews were not 'Semites' or connected to Palestine but descendants of the Khazars in Asia was also very popular among important people such as Sir Edward Spears, who headed the Committee for Arab Affairs in Britain in the late 1940s.[3] Even today one can hear this theory cropping up in conversations with certain members of the British elite after a few glasses of port."

Toynbee

"In the 1950s and 1960s Arnold Toynbee, the renowned British philosopher of history, was immensely popular. I had to read him at school and as an undergraduate at Cambridge University. He came to shockingly anti-Zionist conclusions presented in the grand style of historical generalization. As an Englishman he felt superior to the German Gentile barbarians who had infamously inflicted the Holocaust on the Jews. But he also claimed that the Jews were worse than the Nazis because they had knowingly imitated their evil deeds and become ruthless persecutors. Today, a disturbingly large number of English people-misguided, intoxicated, and half-brainwashed by parts of the media-would probably agree with Toynbee.

"Toynbee ranted on about the 'expulsion' of the Palestinians, which he considered a crime of a greater order than that committed by the German Nazis! Israeli ambassador Yaacov Herzog demolished his arguments in a debate in the early 1960s in Montreal. But the mud stuck. After all Toynbee was an elite figure of the British establishment. He promoted these ideas before they became fashionable. The Left only fully embraced these distorted views after 1967.

"In the 1970s, I was actively involved in such debates when I wrote my doctorate at University College, London. The campus war had heated up and was at full blast in 1975 after the UN 'Zionism is racism' resolution. There were efforts to ban all Jewish societies on British campuses. This was stopped by a militant and determined campaign. The time was not yet ripe for the brazen antisemitism of the kind we find today in Britain and much of Europe, but it was certainly there beneath the surface.

"In the 1970s, the anti-Zionists in Britain-some of them Jews and expatriate Israelis-were already vilifying Israel as an 'ethnic cleansing' and 'racist' state. Even then there were claims that Zionism equals apartheid. Among the most extreme demagogues were Jewish Trotskyites, who were the most vitriolic in their loathing for Zionism."

Trotskyites

"It is a curious fact that Trotskyites have been influential in left-wing circles in the UK-at least in comparison to other European countries. Only in France does one find anything equivalent. There seems to be no obvious reason connected to British society or culture. Perhaps it is related to the weakness of the Communist Party, which faded quickly in the 1950s in Britain. Unlike in France and Italy, communism was never very powerful on the British Left. Trotskyism could therefore fill the vacuum. It is an alternative form of communism that bears many parallels with the Stalinism that the Trotskyites love to hate and vilify. Of course, the Trotskyites were hunted down in the Soviet Union and eliminated by Stalinist communists. This persecution had antisemitic undertones.

"Trotskyites have been characterized by an intense polemical energy and have often been in the forefront of the 'anti-imperialist struggle.' With the collapse of official communism after 1990 in most parts of the world, they saw a chance for themselves to become what they call a 'revolutionary vanguard.'

"In their concept of the world, Zionism has for decades been inextricably linked with global capitalism and American imperialism. These were also the hackneyed phrases of Soviet propaganda. The communist empire has collapsed, of course, but the Trotskyites are still running with the ball. Their numbers are small but they have tenacity, ideological discipline, and use clever tactics of infiltration. They have practiced these more effectively in recent decades in the UK than perhaps anywhere else. Trotskyites infiltrated the Labour Party and the trade unions in the pre-Blair era. We see the bitter fruits in boycott actions today against Israel, sparked by people who went through this anti-Zionist indoctrination and have passed it on.

"Trotskyites are organized in the Socialist Workers Party, which was very active in the 1970s. It has become a larger political factor in recent decades. I watched the huge antiwar demonstration in London in February 2003. The two main organizers were the Muslim Association of Britain-close to the Muslim Brotherhood-and the Socialist Workers Party. They formed a Marxist-Islamist alliance against the war in Iraq and on the issue of Palestine-which was a major unifying factor. In my forthcoming book on global antisemitism since 1945 I analyze this 'Red-Green Axis' at considerable length.

"In the demonstration there were antisemitic insinuations and intonations in the slogans and catchwords used. The protest came at the time when the 'cabal' theory that the Jews had seized control of American and British foreign policy was being widely advanced. It was crudely asserted in Britain, Europe, the Middle East-and to a lesser degree in the United States-that Bush's war in Iraq was being fought on Israel's behalf. This echoes the antisemitic notions of the late 1930s about 'warmongering Jews' pushing the West into an unnecessary conflict with Nazism."

The Respect Party

"There is also a relatively new party called Respect led by MP George Galloway from Scotland. He was on the left of the Labour Party before he went independent. Galloway at one time received generous assistance from Saddam Hussein and defended him regularly on British television. He has always been a militant anti-Zionist, an antiglobalist, and is ferociously anti-American. The actual name of his Islamist-Marxist movement is a complete misnomer. The Respect Party shows no respect for anyone, much less for Jews or Israel, which it constantly vilifies.

"Galloway is an intellectual lightweight and rabble-rouser. He sees a revolutionary potential in the Muslim immigrants in Britain, a kind of 'substitute proletariat' that could help revive the lost dreams of international socialism. Being against Israel and America is what brings the far Left and radical Islamists together. They have very little in common on issues such as feminism, attitudes toward homosexuals, or secularism."

Muslim Antisemitism

"Then there is the more general Muslim contribution to antisemitism in Britain, which is growing all the time and has become a significant factor. The exploration of Muslim attitudes in the UK is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, it appears that close to half of British Muslims believe in a Jewish conspiracy that dominates UK media and politics.[4] The percentage of Muslim perpetrators of violent antisemitic acts is nearly ten times greater than the Muslim percentage of the general population. Muslims from Britain have been involved in a series of high-profile cases. One leading terrorist was Omar Sheikh, the alleged mastermind of the beheading of the American Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi. The horrific video emphasized Pearl's Jewish origins. Sheikh, an Anglo-Pakistani, was born and bred in Britain and educated at the London School of Economics.

"In 2003 Abdullah al-Faisal, a black Jamaican who had converted to Islam was tried on charges of racial hatred and incitement to murder Jews in a London criminal court. His videotapes included statements about the need to kill 'filthy Jews.' He also called for the murder of Hindus, another target of Muslim extremists in Britain.

"Al-Faisal encouraged British Muslims to carry out bombings in Israel. One of his cassettes was prophetic. He called upon British citizens to fly into Israel and carry out mass murder as a contribution to the global jihad and to Allah. Not long afterward, two British Muslims executed a suicide bombing at Mike's Place, a bar on the Tel Aviv waterfront. I was the historical adviser for a British TV documentary that dealt with this topic in 2003.

"At the other extreme, the far-Right British National Party sees a climate emerging where it might do better than in the past. The fascists would frankly like to see a Britain without Muslims. On the other hand, they also see eye to eye with many Muslim extremists on issues concerning Israel and the Jews. These British fascists admire Osama bin Laden."

The BBC and Other Media

"Since the Second Intifada, the BBC as well as some major British newspapers have reported daily on Israel in an often tendentious, biased, and one-sided fashion. Under no circumstances will the BBC refer to any act of Hamas or other Palestinian terrorist organizations as terrorism. These killers are always referred to as militants, which has trade-union connotations in Britain. It is the term used when, for instance, shop stewards advocate a factory strike.

"Within the distorted BBC system, the reporting of Israeli civilian fatalities and Palestinian suicide attacks made them seem no more than minor pinpricks compared to the retaliations by Israel, the definitive 'rogue state.' The BBC invariably disconnects jihadi terrorism from any notion that it is part of a hate culture and the result of ideological indoctrination. The explanation is that these murderous deeds are driven by the relentless, 'racist actions' of the Israeli government. It is Palestinian misery and oppression that allegedly brings about suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks. I believe this is a false, simplistic, and one-sided account. Terrorism is mentioned without connection to an ideology and the issue of antisemitism in the Arab or Islamic world is virtually nonexistent."

The Jewish Lobby

"Another favorite topic of the British media is the power of the Jewish lobby. One well-publicized example occurred when the veteran Labour MP Tom Dalyell said in a 2003 interview in Vanity Fair that Tony Blair was surrounded by a 'cabal' of Jewish advisers. Of the three people he mentioned, only one was Jewish, Lord Levy.

"A second exemplar, Peter Mandelson, did have a Jewish ancestor but never claimed to be a Jew; while the third was Foreign Minister Jack Straw, whom many Jews consider anti-Israeli. Straw, it turned out, did have a Jewish grandfather but had never advertised the fact. Dalyell claimed these people were linked up with the neocons in Washington in a pro-Israeli Jewish world conspiracy. Many others on the British Left have held virulently anti-Israeli views, including former minister Claire Short who, at one point, blamed the Jewish state for global warming!

"There are exceptions to the anti-Israeli attitude. The most important was former prime minister Tony Blair, who was as sympathetic to Israel as one can reasonably be under the circumstances. The paradox is that, while Blair and his successor Gordon Brown have been pro-Israeli and pro-Jewish, Britain is still one of the leaders of current European antisemitism. That is the sobering reality and it needs to be honestly addressed.

"There is much to be said for the claim that Blair's support for Israel during the Second Lebanon War was the straw that broke the camel's back and brought him down as prime minister. He was undefeated in elections yet had to resign under pressure from his own party. Blair and Brown fit into a line of statesmen who came out of the British Christian tradition, which has a historic affinity with Zionism. These leaders include Arthur Balfour, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, and Margaret Thatcher-individuals of vision and great political talent. In my opinion they represent the best in the British political tradition.

"Britain can also pride itself on the publication of the Report of the All-Party Inquiry into Anti-Semitism, which did a fair and thorough-though not perfect-job of investigating the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment in the UK. I gave extensive evidence to that inquiry, though for some reason the recording equipment did not function properly and hence there was only a brief summary in the final document. The Report does not contradict anything I have been saying, though it was too soft on Muslim antisemitism and lacked any historical perspective."[5]

Ken Livingstone

"Among those who have contributed to the current hostile mood is Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London until May 2008. In the 1970s, he knocked on my door to ask for my vote in a local North London election. It turned out he was a passionate admirer of Leon Trotsky and was enthused to learn that I had just written a book on the Bolshevik leader-the kind of Jew he could empathize with-a radical leftist, an international socialist, and an 'anti-Zionist.'

"A few years later he became a coeditor of the Labour Herald, the Labour Party's paper in London. In 1982, during the First Lebanon War it published on its front page a caricature of then-Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin in full SS uniform with the skull-and-bones insignia on his head. He was standing atop a mountain of skulls. The caption was in big, black Gothic script: 'The Final Solution.' Underneath it Begin was saying: 'Who needs shalom when you have Reagan behind you?' This cartoon could have come straight out of Pravda.

"Livingstone always presents himself as an antiracist. He claims to be against any form of discrimination that affects minorities and outsiders. Supposedly he was the friend of gays, lesbians, new immigrants, Afro-Caribbeans, and Muslims. Yet Livingstone has often related to Anglo-Jewry as a kind of Israeli fifth column in Britain and as accomplices of its 'racist' policy.

"Livingstone not long ago gratuitously insulted a Jewish reporter of the Evening Standard by likening him to a concentration-camp guard. Even though then-prime minister Tony Blair asked him to apologize to the Jewish community for his offensive remarks, he consistently refused to do so. On the contrary, he insisted on attacking Ariel Sharon as a 'war criminal' and it didn't hurt him with the general public in Britain.

"Another case concerned his remarks about the Reuben brothers, who are property developers in London. They are of Iraqi Jewish origin and have lived in Britain for forty years. Livingstone was apparently exasperated by the prices they charged. He accused them of parasitic behavior and told them to 'go back to the Iran of the ayatollahs.' At that time Iran's president was already threatening to wipe Israel off the map.

"On two occasions Livingstone gave red-carpet treatment to Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi whom he invited to London. This Egyptian sheikh lives in Qatar and has supported suicide bombings as being consistent with Islam. He was presented by Livingstone as a 'progressive' and the kind of moderate who could positively influence British Muslims. In reality, Qaradawi is a bigot and a homophobe as well as being a blatant antisemite.

"What is interesting is that in Britain, as in much of Europe, the proclaimed antiracism of the left-wing variety often feeds the new antisemitism-which is primarily directed against Israel. Of course, if one suggests that such leftists are antisemites in disguise, they are likely to become enraged and retort that one is 'playing the antisemitic card.' This has become a codeword for saying, as it were, 'You are a dishonest, deceitful, manipulative Jew' or a 'lover of Jews.' Zionists supposedly use the 'accusation of antisemitism' to distort and silence the fully justified criticism of Israel and its human rights abuses. The word 'criticism' in this context is misplaced. It is a euphemism or license for the demonization of Israel. And that in turn is a major form of antisemitism in our time."

Interview by Manfred Gerstenfeld

* * *

Notes

[1] Sidney Sugarman, The Unrelenting Conflict: Britain, Balfour, and Bevin (Sussex: Book Guild, 2000), 200.

[2] James G. McDonald, My Mission in Israel, 1948-1951 (London: Gollancz, 1951), 22-24.

[3] See Rory Miller, Divided against Zion (London: Frank Cass, 2000), 23-54.

[4] The Times, 7 February 2006.

[5] Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism (London: HM Stationery Office, Ltd., September 2005).

* * *

Prof. Robert Solomon Wistrich has held the Neuberger Chair for Modern European and Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for almost twenty years. Since 2002 he has been director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University and is editor of its journal Antisemitism International. He is the author and editor of many prize-winning books and over three hundred academic articles. His most recent published book, Laboratory for World Destruction: Germans and Jews in Central Europe (University of Nebraska Press), appeared in May 2007. Prof. Wistrich has just completed a book on global antisemitism to be published by Random House at the end of 2008.

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Antisemitism Embedded in British Culture

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Antisemitism has been present in Great Britain for almost a thousand years of recorded history. In the twelfth century, Catholic medieval Britain was a persecutory society, particularly when it came to Jews. It pioneered the blood libel and the church was a leader in instituting cruel legislation and discriminatory conduct toward Jews.

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Who is Sigmund Freud? Everything You Need to Know

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Sigmund Freud was a 19th century neurologist who is hailed as the father of 'psychoanalysis'. Explore this biography to learn more about his profile, childhood, life and timeline.

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Fish and chips are a national institution - and now chippies across the country are preparing to celebrate the 150th birthday of our most famous fast food.
Winston Churchill called them "the good companions". John Lennon smothered his in tomato ketchup. Michael Jackson liked them with mushy peas.

They sustained morale through two world wars and helped fuel Britain's industrial prime.

For generations, fish and chips have fed millions of memories - eaten with greasy fingers on a seaside holiday, a pay-day treat at the end of the working week or a late-night supper on the way home from the pub.

Few can resist the mouth-watering combination - moist white fish in crisp golden batter, served with a generous portion of hot, fluffy chips.

Everyone has their own preferences and tastes vary from one part of the country to another. Cod or haddock? Salt and vinegar? Pickled onion? Scraps?

Like Morecambe and Wise or Wallace and Gromit, fish and chips are a classic double act - and yet they started life as solo performers. And their roots are not as British as you might think.

The story of the humble chip goes back to the 17th Century to either Belgium or France, depending who you believe.

Oddly enough, the chip may have been invented as a substitute for fish, rather than an accompaniment. When the rivers froze over and nothing could be caught, resourceful housewives began cutting potatoes into fishy shapes and frying them as an alternative.

Around the same time, fried fish was introduced into Britain by Jewish refugees from Portugal and Spain.

The fish was usually sold by street sellers from large trays hung round their necks. Charles Dickens refers to an early fish shop or "fried fish warehouse" in Oliver Twist (1839) where the fish generally came with bread or baked potatoes.
North or south?
Who first had the bright idea to marry fish with chips remains the subject of fierce controversy and we will probably never know for sure. It is safe to say it was somewhere in England but arguments rage over whether it was up north or down south.

Some credit a northern entrepreneur called John Lees. As early as 1863, it is believed he was selling fish and chips out of a wooden hut at Mossley market in industrial Lancashire.

Others claim the first combined fish 'n' chip shop was actually opened by a Jewish immigrant, Joseph Malin, within the sound of Bow Bells in East London around 1860.

However it came about, the marriage quickly caught on. At a time when working-class diets were bleak and unvaried, fish and chips were a tasty break from the norm.

Outlets sprung up across the country and soon they were as much a part of Victorian England as steam trains and smog.

Italian migrants passing through English towns and cities saw the growing queues and sensed a business opportunity, setting up shops in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

To keep prices down, portions were often wrapped in old newspaper - a practice that survived as late as the 1980s when it was ruled unsafe for food to come into contact with newspaper ink without grease-proof paper in between.
Morale booster
It has even been suggested that fish and chips helped win World War I.

According to Professor John Walton, author of Fish and Chips and the British Working Class, the government made safeguarding supplies a priority.

"The cabinet knew it was vital to keep families on the home front in good heart," says Professor Walton. "Unlike the German regime that failed to keep its people well fed and that was one reason why Germany was defeated.

"Historians can sometimes be a bit snooty about these things but fish and chips played a big part in bringing contentment and staving off disaffection."

George Orwell in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) put fish and chips first among the home comforts that helped keep the masses happy and "averted revolution".

During World War II, ministers bent over backwards to make sure fish and chips were one of the few foods that were never rationed.

These days, fish and chips are no longer king of the takeaway. Burgers, fried chicken, pizza, Indian and Chinese dishes all now outsell fried fish.

Cost is part of the problem. Strains on stocks of cod and haddock have pushed prices up, while health concerns about deep-fried food have turned many consumers away.

But - despite the recession - sales are rising, according to Seafish, the official authority on all things seafood. Their researchers reckon fish and chips are not as bad for us as many other takeaways, containing fewer calories and less fat.
'Tricks of the trade'
At the Leeds headquarters of the National Federation of Fish Friers, they say the downturn has boosted business as people seek "comfort food" in tough times.

The three-day course it runs for newcomers keen to join the profession has seen a doubling in demand for places. Here trainees can learn the tricks of the trade.

Among them is Bill Bradbury, who has travelled from Canada just to come on this course and get hands-on experience.

Under the tutor's careful gaze, Bill tentatively lowers a carefully-battered fish into the hot chrome fryer. As it touches the bubbling oil, it sizzles furiously.

Bill was recently made redundant from a steel company in Alberta and is planning to sink his savings into a fish and chip shop back home.

"There's definitely a market for it. There's a big British army base nearby and loads of ex-pats who are desperate for a good chippy.

"Friends were all offering me money to come. They were saying 'please, it would be great if someone could make proper fish and chips.'"

The pupils break for lunch. No prizes for guessing what is on the menu.

There are smiles all round as super-sized bottles of salt and vinegar are passed from one student to another.

Bill grabs a small plastic fork and grins as he spears a hunk of golden haddock and a piping hot chip. A burst of steam rises as he tucks in: "Delicious."

A century and a half on, this great British staple still goes down a treat.
Below is a selection of your comments.
I live in a fresh fish port and I have to say that I now stick to the old adage of "never eat fish and chips when you can't see the sea". Having lived in inland Reading for a few years, I can attest to the truth in that. It's British food at its non-diet friendly best.
Kate, Scarborough

There used to be a fish & chip restaurant in Pahrump, Nevada (about 70 miles from Las Vegas) and the owner had imported a genuine fish frying range from Yorkshire. Although the fish & chips were excellent (admittedly we took our own pickled onions & mushy peas), they failed to catch on with the local population and although the restaurant survives it no longer sells fish & chips.
Mike Smith, Huntingdon, UK

I hail from Grimsby and all my late uncles etc were fishermen, and I do believe that Grimsby was the largest fishing port in the world, until various sanctions came into place and killed off what was a living for most residents. However, I do believe the chippies that remain in Grimsby and neighbouring town Cleethorpes do take a lot of beating when it comes to this wonderful dish, complete with mushy peas. Excellent, do try on your travels.
Patricia Hallard, Rochdale

Memories of mum sending us to the chippy on a Saturday for "one of each and a bag of chips with scraps". Why do they taste better outdoors? I love the regional variations. Mushy peas, fritters, black peas, saveloy. Nobody does it better than the north though.
Charlotte, York

Why can't you get fried batter bits in the South? It's like there's a line across the country and they stop being available somewhere in the Midlands. They liven up a chip butty brilliantly.
John C, London, UK

Obviously fish 'n' chips was created in the north. Just suppose what the name of said dish would have been had it been created in the south: Gently Fried Fish With an accompaniment of equally gently Fried Sliced Potatoes (with an optional seasoning of various condiments and/or sauces of varying colours, flavours and textures. Doesn't quite roll of the tongue does it?
Northerner, Yorkshire

I don't rate the fish 'n' chips in the UK. Everything sits around in the warmer for too long. In NZ, you place your order and it's cooked while you wait. No under-done chips, either. Best ever? From a caravan parked by a beach on the West Coast of the South Island, cooking what they'd hooked out the waves in front of you.
Ellen, Wellington, NZ

I don't know where it originated, but I live in London and it is practically impossible to get decent fish and chips. Even the supposed 'quality' end of the market is poor in my estimation. And they leave the skin on in the south, it's just wrong.
Philip Nichols, London

I live in Northampton, and like the gentleman who lives in London, you just can't get decent fish and chips here now, it's all soggy batter and grease. The best chips are sold at our local Chinese takeaway. The chip shop owner gets a bit grumpy about it when you just buy his fish and nip the the shop over the road to fetch the chips.
Janet, Northampton UK

The secret to good fish and chips is to cook them in beef dripping like some of the Yorkshire fish and chip shops still do. The problem with southern fish and chips is there's no passion, it's all cooked in vegetable oil and usually sold with pizzas, fried chicken even curry on the menu... jack of all trades, master of none...the taste is often bland and greasy.
Jack Hawthorne, Shrewsbury

I was once told by an old Mossley resident that initially potato chips were used to cool the fat in solid fuel powered fryers. They were given away with the fish. It was only when people started to want just chips that it was realised that they had value.
Alan Crook, Manchester

This article brings back memories of my times in the Royal Navy. When in the UK, some of the lads would go ashore and nine times out of 10 they would come rolling back to the mess deck with either fish & chips or pie & chips. One could be sound asleep - it was not the noise that woke you, but the aroma and the cry of "give us a chip". There is nothing else like the taste and aroma of fish and chips out of newspaper, which helps the aroma linger on.
Peter, Slough

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Fish and chips are a national institution - and now chippies across the country are preparing to celebrate the 150th birthday of our most famous fast food. Winston Churchill called them "the good companions". John Lennon smothered his in tomato ketchup. Michael Jackson liked them with mushy peas.

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Also known as

born

April 28, 1854

Portsea, England

died

August 26, 1923 (aged 69)

North Lancing, England

View Biographies Related To Categories Dates

Hertha Marks Ayrton , original name in full Phoebe Sarah Marks (born April 28, 1854, Portsea, Eng.-died Aug. 26, 1923, North Lancing, Sussex), British physicist who was the first woman nominated to become a fellow of the Royal Society .

In 1861 Marks's father died, and two years later she went to live with her aunt, author Marion Moss Hartog, who ran a school in London. When she was a teenager, Marks changed her first name to Hertha, after the German earth goddess of Algernon Swinburne 's poem " Hertha" (1869), and renounced Judaism to become an agnostic .

In 1876 Marks entered Girton College at the University of Cambridge , where she studied mathematics. There she became a friend of Barbara Bodichon , who had cofounded Girton College, and the writer George Eliot , who based the character of Mirah Cohen in her novel Daniel Deronda (1876) on Marks. Cambridge did not offer degrees to women, but Marks did complete her education by taking Cambridge's mathematics examinations, the tripos, in 1881. She then became a teacher of mathematics at high schools in London. In 1884 she invented a type of line divider for use in drafting .

Marks in 1884 attended classes in electricity at Finsbury Technical College that were taught by electrical engineer William Ayrton. They married in 1885. Aside from a series of lectures on electricity to women in 1888, she did not return to science until 1891. In 1893 William was attending a meeting on electricity in Chicago, and in his absence she continued her husband's experiments with the electric arc , which was then used as a lighting source in arc lamps . Electric arcs had a tendency to hiss and sputter before settling down and delivering a consistent light. Ayrton discovered the origin of the hissing in the oxidation of the positive carbon electrode and proposed changes in the shape of the carbon electrodes that greatly reduced the period of hissing.

In 1899 Ayrton read her paper on the hissing of the electric arc to the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). She was the first woman to do so and also became the first woman member of the IEE. That same year she demonstrated her arc experiments at the Conversazione, a public event sponsored by the Royal Society. In 1901, when William was recovering from exhaustion at the seaside town of Margate, Ayrton became interested in the patterns formed by ripples in the sand. She conducted experiments in hydrodynamics to explain the formation of sand ripples. She was nominated to become a fellow of the Royal Society in 1902; however, lawyers advised the Royal Society that its charter would not allow the admission of married women members. Ayrton became the first woman to read a scientific paper (" The Origin and Growth of Ripple-mark ") before the Royal Society in 1904. In 1906 the Royal Society awarded her the Hughes Medal, which is awarded for distinguished work in the physical sciences, for her arc and sand-ripple experiments.

Ayrton became active in the woman suffrage movement, and she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1907. She became one of the WSPU's largest contributors; in some years she donated more than £1,000. Suffragettes, such as Emmeline Pankhurst , who had gone on hunger strikes often recuperated at her home. In 1912 Ayrton received £7,000 from the WSPU to forestall government seizure of the WSPU's account. That same year her friend Polish-born French physicist Marie Curie stayed with her as Curie recovered from a kidney operation.

During World War I Ayrton's interest in hydrodynamics led her to invent a cotton fan that would disperse poison gas from trenches. About 100,000 of the "Ayrton fans" were produced, but they proved ineffective in actual combat conditions. After the war she worked on modified versions of the fan for use by workers in mines and sewers.
Erik Gregersen

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Also known as born April 28, 1854 Portsea, England died August 26, 1923 (aged 69) North Lancing, England View Biographies Related To Categories Dates Hertha Marks Ayrton , original name in full Phoebe Sarah Marks (born April 28, 1854, Portsea, Eng.-died Aug.

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The past British Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks said: "Soul touched soul across the boundaries of faith, and there was a blessed moment of healing". Photo.

Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, a prior chief rabbi, was awarded the world's richest religious prize, the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, in 1991.

The position of chief rabbi in the United Kingdom emerged in the 18th and early 19th centuries among the Ashkenazi Jews of London as a form of representation to English authorities-the Jewish equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
List of chief rabbis of the United Kingdom UK Ashkenazi Chief Rabbis and Sephardi Hahamim

Jacob ben Aaron Sasportas (1664-1665)

Yehoshua Da Silva (1670-1679)

Jacob Abendana (1681-1684)

Solomon Ayllon (1689-1700)

Moshe Gomes de Mesquita (1744-1751)

Moshe Cohen d'Azevedo (1761-1784)

Raphael Meldola (1806-1828)

Benjamin Artom (1866-1879)

Moses Gaster (1887-1918)

Shem Tob Gaguine (1920-1953) (officially the "Ecclesiastical Chief of the Spanish & Portuguese Jews' Congregation," not the Haham)

Solomon Gaon (1949-1995)

Abraham Levy (1995-2012) (officially the Communal Rabbi and Spiritual Head of the Spanish & Portuguese Jews' Congregation, not the Haham)

Joseph Dweck (2013-) (elected Senior Rabbi of the Spanish & Portuguese Jews' Congregation, not the Haham)

[To be completed]

[To be completed]

Presbyters & First Jewish Communities

Jews may have come to Britain in Roman times, but the first organized Jewish community started soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066. In the succeeding two centuries, the community included a number of significant rabbis, including

Rabbi Elijah Menachem of London

Rabbi Jacob ben Judah the Chazan who published "Etz Chaim" the prayerbook of the community in 1280,

Yomtov of Joigny, a poet, and Rabbi of the York community at the time of the massacre in 1190.

Originally, at the head of the Jewish community was placed a Chief Rabbi, known as "the presbyter of all the Jews of England" ; he appears to have been selected by the Jews themselves, who were granted a congé d'élire by the king. The latter claimed, however, the right of confirmation, as in the case of bishops. The Jewish presbyter was indeed in a measure a royal official, holding the position of adviser, as regards Jewish law, to the Exchequer of the Jews. For the English legal system admitted the validity of Jewish law in its proper sphere as much as it did that of the canon law.

Six Presbyters are known through the: Thirteenth century. Between the expulsion of the Jews in 1290 and their formal return in 1655 there is no official trace of Jews as such on English soil.

Spanish / Sephardic Leading British Families

The prominent members of the Jewish community were Sephardic such as the ▪ Aguilars, ▪ Bassevis ▪ Bernals, ▪ Disraelis, ▪ Lopezes, ▪ Ricardos, ▪ Samudas,

However these families gradually severed their connection with the synagogue and allowed their children to grow up either without any religion or in the Established Church, which gave them an open career in all the professions

Rise of German Jewish community

In the meanwhile the lead among the English Jews was passing from the Spanish to the German section of the community. The provincial communities generally affiliated themselves with the Great Synagogue in London and the Rabbi of The Great was acknowledged as their spiritual head. When Hart Lyon became Rabbi of the Great in 1758 it was agreed that henceforward the Rabbi of the Great would be recognized by all Ashkenazi communities as the Chief Rabbi of Jews throughout Britain, and in due course the Empire as well.

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United Kingdom & Commonwealth: Chief Rabbis and Famous British Jewish Leaders genealogy project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The past British Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks said: "Soul touched soul across the boundaries of faith, and there was a blessed moment of healing". Photo. Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, a prior chief rabbi, was awarded the world's richest religious prize, the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, in 1991.

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©Jewish Museum London

The re-emergence of the Jewish community in England under Oliver Cromwell in 1656 may be seen as a landmark in the development of multicultural Britain.

The history of the Jews in Britain, like the history of Britain itself, is a story of successive waves of migration, of people from diverse countries with different languages and skills.

By allowing the open practice of Judaism in England, Cromwell helped to create an environment in which minority communities could become integrated into society while maintaining their own faith and traditions.

As one of the oldest minority groups in the country, the Jewish community has played a historic part in the evolution of our culturally diverse society.

Want to know more? Visit London's Jewish Museum

The Medieval Community

©Jewish Museum London

After the Norman Conquest of 1066, William the Conqueror encouraged the Jewish population of Normandy to come to England. Relations were initially peaceful, but in the 12 th and 13 th centuries Jews suffered increasing persecution, culminating in their expulsion in 1290.

Clustering first in London, Jewish settlers soon spread to other towns across England and Wales. They were granted freedom of movement, but the king had the right to tax them as part of his personal income whenever he wished. The early years of settlement were fairly peaceful. Jews and Christians lived side-by-side and developed business and social contacts. Jewish people worked as traders, moneylenders, scribes, clerks and doctors. Religious life thrived, and learned rabbis contributed to Jewish scholarship.

However, relations between the Jewish and Christian communities gradually worsened. In the 12 th century the preaching of the Crusades against the 'Infidel' led to attacks on Jews in most Western countries.

In 1189, King Richard I refused to receive Jewish delegates at his Coronation. This sign of hostility led to brutal attacks on Jewish quarters in London and other cities. Amongst the worst of these was the siege of Clifford's Tower in York in 1190, where Jews committed mass suicide to avoid falling into the hands of the mob.

During the 13 th century, Christian guilds gained control over trades and crafts. Jews were increasingly forced into money lending, which the Church banned Christians from undertaking.

After the Lateran Council of 1215, English Jews were forced to wear a white cloth badge called a 'tabula', shaped like the 10 commandments. A series of expulsions from different towns followed in 1233, and Jews were attacked even in places where relations had once been friendly.

Persecution increased under Edward I. He arrested and imprisoned 600 Jews from all over England in the Tower of London. 270 were hanged, and their property was confiscated. Finally, on 18 July 1290, an Edict of Expulsion was issued, giving Jews three months to leave the country. The medieval Jewish community came to an end, as the refugees from England were absorbed into the greater numbers of the Jews of Europe.

13th century stone mikveh discovered during excavations in Milk Street, City of London, 2001

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The Readmission - 1656

©Jewish Museum London

In 1655, Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam came to England to petition Oliver Cromwell to readmit the Jews. After heated debate, it was eventually ruled that the Edict of Expulsion had only applied to Jews living in England in 1290, and from 1656 Jewish people were once again allowed to worship openly.

Although no Jews resided legally in England between 1290 and 1656, by the mid 16 th century there was in fact a small population of Sephardim - Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent - taking refuge from persecution in their home countries. These 'secret Jews' worshipped outwardly as Christians, but continued to practise Judaism in private.

In the 17 th century the political and religious climate changed as England was divided by the Civil War. The influence of Puritan and non-conformist groups grew, generating interest in the Old Testament. Domestic Bible reading became popular, leading to increased interest in Judaism.

In 1653, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector. The following year, war broke out between England and Spain, and many secret Jews thought it would be safer to reveal their religion rather than be regarded as Spanish.

In 1650, Menasseh ben Israel had written a pamphlet called The Hope of Israel arguing that in order for the Messianic Age to come, there must be Jews in all parts of the world, including England. The book was translated into English in 1652, and in 1655 Menasseh came to England to put his argument to Cromwell and the Council of State in person.

Cromwell was in favour of religious freedom, and may have been influenced by Menasseh's religious arguments. He was also keen to improve trade and knew Jewish merchants had made an important contribution to Holland's increased prosperity. However, his Council of State could not agree on the conditions under which Jews should be readmitted, and no conclusion was reached. In March 1656, Menasseh joined some of London's secret Jews in signing a less ambitious petition, asking Cromwell to allow them to meet in their houses for prayer, and to establish a burial ground.

This was granted, and after nearly four centuries of exile Jewish people were permitted to form congregations for worship.

Menasseh ben Israel Portrait thought to show the respected rabbi and scholar, Menasseh ben Israel, after an original by Rembrandt, 17th century.

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Growth of a New Community

©Jewish Museum London

The newly formed Sephardi community flourished, as immigrants arrived from Holland and southern Europe. They were soon joined by Ashkenazi Jews, who came originally from Germany, and later from Eastern Europe.

The first Sephardi synagogue was founded in 1656 at Creechurch Lane in the City of London, and a burial ground was leased at Mile End, further to the east. In 1701 Bevis Marks, a new larger synagogue with seats for 400 men and 160 women, was constructed near the old one. This continues in use as the oldest active synagogue in Britain.

Sephardi Jews worked as physicians, jewellers, engravers, confectioners and street traders. One of the most successful was Sampson Gideon, who became a wealthy financier and lent money to the government to assist in funding enterprises such as the Seven Years' War.

Among the most famous 18 th century Sephardi Jews was Daniel Mendoza, a popular hero and champion boxer of England for most years between 1788 and 1795. He did much to provide a positive image of Jewish people amongst the general public.

Soon after the Readmission, the Sephardim were joined by Ashkenazi Jews from central Europe. The first Ashkenazi synagogue, the Great Synagogue, was founded in 1692 in Duke's Place in the City of London, and two further major synagogues, the Hambro and the New, opened nearby in the next 70 years.

Among the most notable Ashkenazi immigrants was Nathan Mayer Rothschild, founder of one of the world's greatest banking empires, who set up a business in Manchester in 1798 and moved to London in 1805. Others were very poor, and scratched a living selling ribbons, watches, jewellery, or old clothes. The Jewish pedlar became a familiar figure throughout the country.

Wars with France and the expansion of the Royal Navy enabled some Jews to become established as marine store dealers, optical instrume nt dealers and tailors in the West Country seaports.

The famous English boxers Daniel Mendoza (1763-1836) and Humphreys fighting

Want to know more? Visit London's Jewish Museum

©Jewish Museum London

In 1753, the Jews' Naturalisation Act, popularly known as the 'Jew Bill', was passed. It proved so controversial that it was repealed the following year. This encouraged the community to take a more active approach to political life, with the establishment of a Committee of Deputies of British Jews in 1760.

The Jews' Naturalisation Act allowed Jewish immigrants to become naturalised as British citizens by applying to Parliament, without having to take the Christian oath that was normally required. It was passed by Henry Pelham's Whig government despite opposition from the Tory party in the House of Commons.

This caused a great public outcry. There were demonstrations in the streets demanding that the Jew Bill be repealed, although in fact only a very small number of Jewish immigrants had sufficient resources to apply to Parliament for naturalisation on an individual basis.

In 1754 the Jew Bill was repealed, and it was not until 1835 that Jewish immigrants were finally permitted to become naturalised without taking a Christian oath.

The events surrounding the Jew Bill encouraged the Jewish community to engage more actively in political life. This led the Sephardi community to establish the London Committee of Deputies of British Jews to pay homage to George III on his accession to the throne, in 1760. Deputies had previously been appointed for special occasions, but this became the first standing committee.

In the same year, the Ashkenazi community appointed their own committee. In 1817 the two were combined as one body, which became the Board of Deputies of British Jews, with the aim of protecting, supporting and defending the interests, religious rights and customs of Jews in Britain. It continues to serve as a representative body of the Jewish community today.

Bill for Naturalization of Jews, 1753

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©Jewish Museum London

During the late 18 th and 19 th centuries, the Jewish community of Britain increased in size and gained growing acceptance in British society. Many of the major charitable and communal organisations that underpin the community today have their origins in this period.

By the end of the 18 th century, the Jewish population of Britain had increased to more than 20,000. London remained the largest community, but there were also well established communities in county towns and seaports across the country.

The community's leaders were increasingly drawn from the Ashkenazim, generally from a handful of influential families. Whilst considerable variations in wealth and status remained, the community was gradually becoming increasingly prosperous, well educated and integrated into British life.

One particularly important figure in the community was Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885), a successful Sephardi businessman who retired at the age of 40 and devoted himself to charitable and diplomatic work on behalf of Jewish people in Britain and across the world.

In 1817 the Jews' Free School was founded, with the initial aims of providing apprenticeships, and countering missionary activity and crime among Jewish youth.

The establishment of the West London Synagogue in 1840 reflected a desire by some Jews to move to a form of worship more in keeping with modern life. This marked the start of Reform Judaism in Britain, a movement that gained further support in the 20th century.

Among the many philanthropic organisations of the period, one of the most important was the Jewish Board of Guardians, established in 1859 to give assistance to the Jewish poor. It was one of the main constituents of what is now Jewish Care.

In 1866, Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler suggested to the Great, Hambro and New synagogues that they should form a closer union, along with the newer Central and Bayswater synagogues.This was formalised by Act of Parliament in 1870,leading to the establishment of the United Synagogue, an alliance of orthodox Ashkenazi synagogues which today includes 65 congregations.

Framed portrait in oils of Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler (1803-1890)

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©Jewish Museum London

Since the Civil War, political debate in Britain had focused on the barriers faced by those who were not members of the Church of England. The Jews were one of the religious minorities seeking to achieve civil and political equality.

Catholics could not enter Parliament until 1829, when a special form of the parliamentary oath was introduced for Catholic peers and MPs. Quakers, whose religion forbids them from swearing oaths, could not enter Parliament until 1833, when they were given special permission to make an affirmation instead of swearing an oath. However, the restrictions on Jews were not lifted until several years later.

In 1835, more than 80 years after the passing and swift repeal of the Jews' Naturalisation Act, Jewish immigrants were finally permitted to become British citizens without being required to take a Christian oath. This was just the first stage in a long process of political and social emancipation.

David Salomons, an active campaigner for Jewish emancipation, was elected Sheriff of the City of London in 1835. Fifty years later, he was to become the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London.

In 1847 Lionel de Rothschild was elected MP for the City of London, but he was unable to take his seat as he would not make his statutory declaration 'on the true faith of a Christian'. David Salomons was also returned to Parliament in 1851, facing the same problem.

It was not until 1858, after Rothschild had won four successive election victories, that he was permitted to take an amended form of the oath, finally allowing him to become the first practising Jew to serve as a Member of Parliament. This was followed by the Promissory Oaths Act of 1866, which allowed all non-Christians to take their seats in Parliament.

Other restrictions were also lifted in the mid-19th century. For example, Jews were admitted to municipal office in 1845, allowing the election of Jewish mayors. They were permitted to take degrees at Cambridge University in 1856, and at Oxford in 1871.

With the removal of these disabilities, Jews were able to play an active role in political life. The first Jew to hold ministerial office was George Jessel, who was made Solicitor General in 1871; he later became Master of the Rolls. By the end of the century Nathaniel de Rothschild had been appointed to the peerage, and in 1908 Herbert Samuel joined the Cabinet. Rufus Isaacs was appointed Lord Chief Justice in 1913, and later became Viceroy of India.

Vanity Fair caricature of Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1806-1879). He was the first Jewish MP.

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The Great Migration

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During the late 19th century the Jewish population of Eastern Europe was facing increased persecution and economic hardship. Huge numbers of Russian and Polish Jews fled in search of a better life, and many of them settled in Britain.

Jewish residence in Russia was confined to an area called the Pale of Settlement, and only certain occupations were permitted. Following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, Jewish communities were subject to widespread pogroms - violent mass attacks, often officially instigated.

Between 1881 and 1914 over 2 million Jewish people left Russia, Poland and the Hapsburg Empire. While the majority went to the United States, around 150,000 settled in Britain, mainly in areas near the docks where they had arrived, in the East End of London and in regional centres such as Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Liverpool.

The new immigrants found employment in low wage, labour-intensive industries such as tailoring and cabinet-making, and their presence had a dramatic impact on the Jewish community in Britain.

They generated a vibrant culture based on their native Yiddish, a language derived from Hebrew and German. Yiddish newspapers and literature were widely available and Yiddish theatre flourished.

As boatloads of new immigrants arrived, conditions in London's East End became increasingly overcrowded. Whole families lived in one room, and sometimes worked there as well.

In response, the established Jewish community set up many charities to assist those in need. Notable institutions included the Jews' Hospital and Orphan Asylum in Norwood, formed from the amalgamation of two older institutions, and the Jews' Temporary Shelter, giving short-term assistance to new arrivals.

The number of pupils at the Jews' Free School grew rapidly, and by 1900 the school roll had increased to 4,250, making it the largest school in Europe. It educated boys and girls in both secular and religious studies, anglicising the children of immigrants and helping them integrate into British so ciety.

Numerous small synagogues, hevrot, were founded in all types of premises. In 1887, Samuel Montagu founded the Federation of Synagogues to unify these new communities and give them a recognised communal voice.

The Fox family at their Passover Seder c.1900

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©Jewish Museum London

Throughout the history of Jewish life in Britain, there have always been thriving communities outside London. At the turn of the 20 th century, the largest of these were in great industrial cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.

Earlier Jewish communities had mostly been located in ports and county towns, as these offered the best opportunities for traders and merchants. Outposts were often established by travelling pedlars, who gradually saved enough capital to open shops.

In 1800 there were about 20 organised communities outside London, and this number had doubled by the mid-19 th century. They included fashionable resorts such as Bath and Brighton, ports such as Plymouth, Exeter and Great Yarmouth, and regional centres such as Gloucester, Bedford and Canterbury.

In the second half of the 19 th century, the northern manufacturing towns became dominant, and many of the earlier, more rural communities faded away. The period of the Great Migration saw the growth of large Jewish populations in Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, Hull, Bradford and Sheffield. There were also clusters of smaller communities in the mining areas of South Wales, and in the shipbuilding area of the north-east coast.

Ireland's small Jewish community, probably dating originally from the 16 th century, also peaked in size in the late 19 th century.

Although the majority of these new arrivals were Ashkenazim from Russia and Poland, there was also a new settlement of Sephardi Jews from North Africa, Turkey and the Middle East in Manchester. They were involved in the city's textile trade, and opened their first synagogue in 1873.

There was generally more factory working in the regional centres than in London, although small workshops were also common. The predominant trades were very similar in all the largest Jewish communities: tailoring, boot and shoe making, and cabinet-making.

Samuels Sisters playing Tennis in Tredegar, Wales c.1906

A view of the exterior of New Synagogue, Liverpool, erected in 1856.

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©Jewish Museum London

The large numbers of Eastern European Jews arriving in Britain faced hostility in some quarters, and there were calls to curb immigration. In 1905 the Aliens Act was passed in ord

er to restrict Jewish entry to Britain, and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought immigration to a halt.

The Aliens Act was the result of a sustained campaign to restrict the immigration of 'pauper aliens' to Britain. New immigrants frequently faced hostility and prejudice, and were blamed for a range of social problems. They were accused of causing overcrowding in the inner-city areas where they lived, and of taking jobs from English workers by accepting lower wages and poor conditions.

Significant anti-alien support in Parliament led to the appointment of a Royal Commission, reporting in 1903, to consider the 'evil' of unrestricted immigration, and how it could be controlled.

The Royal Commission's findings led to the passing of the Aliens Act, the first peacetime law restricting the entry of immigrants to Britain. It was targeted primarily at Britain's most visible minority community - Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.

The Act allowed Britain to refuse entry to immigrants with no visible means of financial support or ability to earn a living. The Aliens Act set the template for increasing government control of immigration, defining it as a problem to be dealt with by law.

The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 brought general immigration to a halt and dramatically increased government control over immigrants. All foreign citizens had to register with the police, and 'enemy nationals' were interned, even if they had been British residents for many years.

Satire on the Aliens Act, drawing of Britannia turning away a group of refugees who have just disembarked at a port (1906).

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World War I

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Young Jewish men signed up in large numbers to fight with the British forces in World War I. Yet, after the war, government controls on immigrants living in Britain were extended.

Jewish men fought for Britain in all parts of the armed forces. 27-year-old Lieutenant Frank de Pass became the first Jewish recipient of the Victoria Cross after losing his life in action near Festubert, France, in November 1914.

At the same time, Italian and German citizens resident in Britain, including many Jews, were interned on the Isle of Man and at Alexandra Palace as 'enemy nationals'.

In November 1917 the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, sent a letter to Lord Rothschild pledging the government's support for the establishment of 'a National homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine'. This letter became known as the Balfour Declaration. The support was given a more concrete basis at the end of the war when Palestine, as a part of the former Turkish Empire, was placed under British Mandate. However, it would be another 30 years before the creation of an autonomous Jewish state.

The 1919 Aliens Restriction Act and the 1920 Aliens Order confirmed and extended the British government's wartime controls on immigration. In addition to registering with the police and providing proof of financial support, 'aliens' now needed work permits, and were subje ct to deportation for causing unrest.

Crucially, the right of admission for refugees fleeing persecution, which had been incorporated in the 1905 Aliens Act and suspended during World War I, was not included in the newlegislation. This meant that there would be no automatic right of asylum for Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe in the 1930s, or for any other refugees, until the Geneva Convention of 1951.

Cecil, Percy and Lawrie Levy in military uniform whilst serving in World War I, 1915

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Refugees from Nazism

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Before the outbreak of World War II, about 60,000 refugees came to Britain from Germany and other countries under Nazi control. They faced restrictive immigration laws, prejudice and even internment, but they worked hard to build new lives for themselves.

In 1933, the Nazi party came to power in Germany with an openly anti-semitic policy. The Nazi government encouraged violence against Jewish people, their homes and property, and removed their civil rights. Fearing for their lives, many German Jews wanted to emigrate, but few countries were prepared to receive them.

Many would-be emigrants were highly educated, from professional or artistic backgrounds. However, in order to be admitted to Britain

under the increased restrictions on alien immigration, they had to find jobs or guarantors before leaving Germany. In their search for safety, many took positions as domestic servants.

About 10,000 unaccompanied children also came to Britain, in a series of specially arranged journeys known as the Kindertransport. They arrived between December 1938 and September 1939. Some were guaranteed by private sponsors, and others were looked after by organisations such as the Refugee Children's Movement. After a few weeks in reception camps, they were taken to Jewish and non-Jewish foster homes or hostels throughout the country. Many were destined never to see their parents again.

Anti-semitism was also present on the streets of Britain. The British Union of Fascists was active from 1932, engaging in acts of violence against Jewish people and buildings, particularly in the East End of London. This culminated with Oswald Mosley and his 'blackshirts' attempting to march through East London on October 4th 1936. Under the slogan 'They Shall Not Pass,' a crowd estimated at 10,000 turned out to block the streets, and the resultant violent clashes became known as the Battle of Cable Street. Fascism never took root in Britain, and the BUF was disbanded in 1940.

Inter-Aid Committee for Children ID card of Grete Glauber, 1939

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©Jewish Museum London

Both British Jews and the new refugees from central Europe played important roles in Britain's war effort, at home and in the armed forces. At the end of the war, as the devastating reality of the concentration camps was exposed, a number of camp survivors also came to live in Britain.

At the start of World War II, many of the recent refugees were interned as 'enemy aliens'. Although they had fled from Nazi-occupied Europe, they were still not considered above suspicion. Even some older children who had come on the Kindertransport were sent to internment camps.

Following public protest, most were released by late 1940, and many of them joined the Pioneer Corps and fought courageously for the British armed forces. They also contributed to the war effort in other ways, on the home front and later as camp liberators and relief workers.

Meanwhile, British Jews were also playing their part in the war. About 60,000 Jewish men and women served in the armed forces. Jewish people were equally involved in all aspects of the war effort at home.

The East End of London was among the worst damaged areas in the Blitz, and many people were evacuated to the countryside. In som e places, such as Bedford, this flight from the city re-established Jewish life in communities that had declined in the late 19 th century.

After the war, the British government agreed to admit 1,000 young survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, but only 732 could be found. They included many who would contribute substantially to British life, such as Hugo Gryn. This group of teenage survivors became known as 'the Boys', although there were girls among them. Through their comradeship they helped one another to build new lives.

Dedication of Synagogue at RAF Mildenhall, 1944

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Britain and Israel

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In 1948, the British Government withdrew from Mandate Palestine and the State of Israel was established. This had important consequences for Jewish people across the world - many migrated to Israel, and others suffered from antagonism sparked by anti-Israel hostility.

Zionism had begun to develop in Britain in the late 19 th century, rooted in sympathy for the plight of the Jews of Eastern Europe, and small numbers of British Jews emigrated to Palestine in the early part of the 20 th century.

After World War II, partly in response to the Holocaust, the creation of an autonomous Jewish state received more general support in Britain, among both Jews and non-Jews. On November 29 th, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed its resolution on the partition of Palestine, and the State of Israel came into being the following year. Several thousand British Jews emigrated to Israel soon after its establishment.

The first President of Israel was Chaim Weizmann, a Russian scientist who had settled in Manchester in 1904, and had spearheaded the movement to achieve official British recognition of the Zionist cause.

The declaration of the State of Israel sparked anti-Jewish manifestations, particularly in Arab lands, and the situation of Jews in those communities deteriorated markedly. As a result, in the years that followed, Jews left places such as Yemen, Aden, Iran, Iraq and North Africa, often in very difficult circumstances. While most went to Israel, some came to Britain.

There was also an exodus of Jews from India, which had been granted independence by the British in 1947. Although there was no history of anti-semitism in India, many Jews left in the 1950s and 1960s. While the majority wished to make a new life in Israel, others came to Britain.

Each of these groups has brought its own distinctive customs and traditions to enrich British Jewish life and culture.

Solly Irving, a young Holocaust survivor who settled in Britain but went on to volunteer for the army in Israel, 1949

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©Jewish Museum London

In the decades after World War II, the Jewish community changed in many ways. Its economic profile altered, as more people joined the professions, and the centres of population moved from the inner cities to increasingly distant suburbs. The religious profile of the community also became more diverse.

The movement of the Jewish population away from traditional occupations such as tailoring and cabinet-making began in the 1930s, and accelerated after World War II. Jobs such as hairdressing, taxi-driving and retail became increasingly common. The numbers of Jews entering the professions expanded enormously following the introduction of state-funded further and higher education from the 1940s.

Like other new immigrant groups, Eastern European Jewish immigrants had mostly settled in inner city areas. However, by the 1920s, as they became able to afford it, Jewish people began to leave the inner city and move to the suburbs in search of a more peaceful and spacious lifestyle.

In London, the main movement was north, along the new Underground lines to the newly established suburbs of Golders Green and Edgware, as well as east to Redbridge and Ilford. By the 1970s, settlement had extended as far north as the green belt area of Radlett.

A similar process took place in other cities. For example, in Manchester, the original centre of settlement was in Red Bank, and later Cheetham Hill. By the end of World War II, the Jewish population had mostly moved north to Prestwich, and in the 1960s and 70s there was extensive settlement to the south of the city, from Didsbury to Cheshire.

The religious structure of the community also changed. The Reform movement, founded in the mid-19 th century, grew in strength. Increasing numbers of synagogues were affiliated to Liberal Judaism, a movement founded in 1902 aiming to offer a less traditional, more inclusiv

e form of worship. In 1962, the Masorti movement was founded by Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs, who argued that religious tradition was open to new interpretation, drawing on the resources of modern scholarship. In parallel with these new developments, there was also an expansion of the ultra-orthodox community.

While in the early 20 th century the concern of the established community was to anglicise the immigrants and their children, in more recent decades there has been a change of emphasis towards the retention of a strong Jewish identity. This has contributed to the growing popularity of Jewish schools.

Jack Winstock, with friends from the Brady Club playing tennis in Edgware, north London, where he travelled from the East End to play

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©Jewish Museum London

In the 21 st century, British society is more diverse than ever before. The Jewish community continues to play an important role in this changing society.

The Jewish community is itself diverse, including a wide range of ethnic backgrounds and religious viewpoints. Jewish society in Britain today is lively with a vibrant array of cultural and educational activities.

Although they have always been a small minority, Jewish people are active in contributing to public life. They are well represented in all parts of society, from politics and the arts to business and the professions. They have been able to integrate fully into British life while maintaining their Jewish identity and traditions.

Family at Jewish Museum London, 2011

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©Jewish Museum London The re-emergence of the Jewish community in England under Oliver Cromwell in 1656 may be seen as a landmark in the development of multicultural Britain. The history of the Jews in Britain, like the history of Britain itself, is a story of successive waves of migration, of people from diverse countries with different languages and skills.

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The Oliver Cromwell website is jointly maintained by the Cromwell Association and the Cromwell Museum Huntingdon.

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British Jewish history timeline - The Jewish Museum London

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Jews are blamed for the murder of a boy called William in Norwich, although there is no evidence, and the sheriff does not think the accusation even justifies a trial. William is hailed as a martyr by the monks of Norwich cathedral, and the story incites attacks against Jewish communities.