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plemented. The legality of the practice of Judaism in England
at last received indirect parliamentary recognition in the Act
for Suppressing Blasphemy of 1698.
The community henceforth grew in wealth and in importance.
Its numbers were increased by immigrants, principally
from Amsterdam, or else directly from Spain and Portugal.
Its position was consistently favorable, despite certain vexatious
restrictions – e.g., the obligation to support their children
even after conversion to Christianity and the limitation of
the number of “Jew Brokers” in the City of London to 12. The
only other community in the British Isles was a small Sephardi
group in *Dublin. Nevertheless Jews figured in an increasing
proportion in the growing colonial empire – at *Tangier, *New
York, *Bombay, and in the West Indies – especially *Jamaica
and *Barbados. Numbers rapidly grew in the final years of the
17th century, particularly during the period of the close connection
with Holland under William of Orange, when several
families came over from Amsterdam. A new synagogue,
now classified as an historic monument, was erected in Bevis
Marks in London in 1701. The upper class of the community
was composed of brokers and foreign traders; the lucrative
coral trade, for example, was almost entirely in their hands.
Jews entered gradually into various aspects of the country’s
life. Mention may be made of city magnates, such as Samson
*Gideon and Joseph *Salvador, whose financial advice was
sought by successive ministries, and of Jacob de *Castro Sarmento,
a notable physician and scientist, of Moses *Mendes,
the poet, and of Emanuel *Mendes da Costa, clerk and librarian
of the Royal Society and a prolific writer.
Meanwhile, an influx of Ashkenazim had followed upon
the Sephardi pioneers. The forerunners came principally from
Amsterdam and Hamburg, but they were followed by others
from other parts of Germany and elsewhere, and later in increasing
numbers from Eastern Europe. About 1690, a small
Ashkenazi community was formed in London. In 1706, as
the result of a communal dispute, a second was formed, and
in 1761, a third. The newcomers were, for the most part, distinctly
lower in social and commercial status than their Sephardi
precursors. A large number of them were occupied in
itinerant trading in country areas where the Jewish peddler
became a familiar figure. They generally returned to pass the
Sabbath in some provincial center. Thus congregations, several
of which have since disappeared, grew up in the course of the
second half of the 18th century in many country towns – Canterbury,
Norwich, Exeter, and others, as well as ports such as
*Portsmouth, *Liverpool, Bristol, *Plymouth, King’s Lynn,
*Penzance, and Falmouth, and manufacturing centers such as
*Birmingham and *Manchester. London remained, however,
the only considerable center.
The external history of the Jews in England was meanwhile
tranquil. In 1753 the introduction to Parliament of the
Jewish Naturalization Bill (“The Jew Bill”), giving foreign-born
Jews facilities for acquiring the privileges enjoyed by their native-born
children, resulted in an anti-Jewish agitation so virulent
that the government withdrew the measure; but it was
not accompanied by physical violence. Political opposition,
on the other hand, led to greater solidarity among the various
sections of the community. From 1760 representatives of the
Ashkenazi congregations began to act intermittently with the
deputados of the Sephardim as a watch-committee in matters
of common interest. This gradually developed into the London
Committee of Deputies of British Jews (usually known
as the *Board of Deputies), ultimately comprising representatives
also of provincial and (in a minor degree) “colonial”
congregations, which assumed its present form in the middle
of the 19th century.
The 19th Century
The Napoleonic Wars marked an epoch in the history of the
Jews in England. Ashkenazi families, notably the *Goldsmids
and *Rothschilds, began to occupy an increasingly important
place in English finance and society. A generation of nativeborn
Jews had meanwhile grown up, who were stimulated by
the example of Jewish emancipation in France and elsewhere
to desire similar rights for themselves. The civic and political
disabilities from which they suffered did not in fact amount
to very much, for they had enjoyed a great measure of social
emancipation almost from the beginning, and commercial
restrictions were confined to a few galling limitations in the
city of London. In 1829, on the triumph of the movement for
Catholic emancipation, agitation began for similar legislation
on behalf of the Jews. It was championed in the Commons by
Robert Grant and Thomas Babington *Macaulay, the great
Whig historian, and in the Lords by the Duke of Sussex, son
of George III, a keen Hebraist. On its second introduction in
1833, the Jewish Emancipation Bill was passed by the recently
reformed House of Commons, but it was consistently rejected
by the Lords in one session after the other. Meanwhile, the
Jews were admitted to the office of sheriff (1835) and other
municipal offices (1845). Minor disabilities were removed by
the Religious Opinions Relief Bill (1846), which left their exclusion
from Parliament the only serious grievance of which
the English Jews could complain. Lionel de *Rothschild was
elected by the city of London as its parliamentary representative
time after time from 1847, but the continued opposition
of the Lords blocked the legislation which could have enabled
him to take the required oaths. In 1858, however, a compromise
was reached, and each house of Parliament was allowed
to settle its own form of oath. In 1885 Nathaniel de *Rothschild
(Lionel’s son) was raised to the peerage – the first professing
Jew to receive that honor. The example of Benjamin *Disraeli,
one of the most brilliant of modern English statesmen, who
made no effort to disguise his Jewish origin and sympathies,
did much to improve the general social and political position
of the Jews. Sir George *Jessel was made solicitor general in
1871, and several Jews subsequently received government appointments.
Herbert (later Viscount) *Samuel became a cabinet
minister in 1909. Sir David *Salomons, who had been the
first Jewish sheriff in 1835 and the first Jewish alderman in 1847,
became lord mayor of London in 1855 – a position in which
414 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6