History of the Jews in Wales
Iddewon Cymreig יהודים וולשים | |
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Total population | |
2,044 Northern Irish Jews, Ashkenazi Jews |
Part of a series on |
Jews and Judaism |
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History of Wales |
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The history of the Jews in Wales begins in the 13th century. However, after the English conquest of Wales (1287-1283), Edward I issued the 1290 Edict of Expulsion expelling the Jews from England. From then until the formal return of the Jews to England in 1655, there is only one mention of Jews on Welsh soil.
Jewish communities were recorded in the 18th century, while major Jewish settlement dates from the 19th century.
Middle Ages
Like the rest of
The clergyman and author Gerald of Wales (c. 1146 – c. 1223) wrote an account of his journey through Wales in 1188 in order to recruit soldiers for the Third Crusade, the Itinerarium Cambriae (1191). In it, he makes no reference to Jews in Wales but includes an allegorical narrative concerning a Jew and a Christian priest travelling in Shropshire, England.[2]
During the 13th century, there are records of Jews in Abergavenny, Caerleon and Chepstow, all of which were in the Marcher Lordships of South Wales.[3]
When Edward I established new borough towns in North Wales, both before and after 1290, he ensured that the charters banned the presence of Jews. The 1284 town charters of Bere, Caernarfon, Conwy, Criccieth, Flint, Harlech and Rhuddlan stated that "Jews shall not sojourn in the borough at any time". Despite the general expulsion in 1290, the same clauses were used in the charters of Beaumaris (1296) and Overton, (1292).[4]
It is likely that most, if not all, Jews left Wales after
Early modern period
In England, between 1290 and their formal return to that country in 1655, there are no other official traces of Jews as such except in connection with the Domus Conversorum, which kept a number of Jews who had converted to Christianity within its precincts up to 1551 and even later. There is no comparable evidence for Wales.
The BBC notes, "The oldest non-Christian faith [in Wales] to be established was Judaism, with a presence in Swansea dating from around 1730. Jewish communities were formed in the next century in Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd and Tredegar."[6]
Modern period
The rapid expansion of the
Some of these topics were covered in the documentary The Kosher Comedian presented by Jewish-Welsh writer comedian Bennett Arron.
Jewish communities continue to be substantial in Wales, being augmented by
The modern community in South Wales is centred on the Cardiff Reform Synagogue and the Cardiff United Synagogue. There is also a synagogue in Swansea. The synagogue of Merthyr Tydfil, the major one north of Cardiff, ceased to hold regular services in the 1970s and was later sold. It is a listed building and, while there is planning permission to convert it into flats, there are calls for it to be moved to the National Museum of Wales at St Fagans, near Cardiff.[10]
The Welsh Jewish community held numerically steady between the 2011 and 2021 censuses.
Notable people
Notable people of Welsh-Jewish background include:
- Louis Barnett Abrahams
- Dannie Abse
- Leo Abse
- Wilfred Abse
- Bennett Arron
- David Baddiel
- Alex Carlile, Baron Carlile of Berriew
- Isaac Cohen
- Sacha Baron Cohen, father Gerald of Welsh-Jewish origin[11]
- Maurice Edelman
- Raymond Garlick
- David Glick
- Albert Gubay
- Michael Howard
- David Jacobs
- Joe Jacobson
- Barnett Janner
- Greville Janner
- Brian Josephson
- Denise Levertov
- Susan Mendus
- Michael Moritz
- Lucy Owen
- Jon Ronson
- Bernice Rubens
- Norman Solomon
- Lord Stone of Hendon, Dr Sir Joseph Ellis Stone
- Lord Ashdown of Chelwood
- Sara Sugarman
Mythical history of the Jews in Wales
See also
References
- ^ "Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics".
- ^ Gerald of Wales. The Itinerary through Wales and the Description of Wales, trans. Richard Colt Hoare (Everyman's Library), p. 137.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-85115-931-7.
- ^ Hillaby & Hillaby 2013, p. 143.
- ^ Thomas Jones (ed.), Brut y Tywysogion, Peniarth MS. 20 (Cardiff, 1941), p. 229b.
- ^ "Multicultural Wales". British Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 6 December 2007.
- The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
- ^ Endelman, Todd M. (2002). The Jews of Britain, 1656–2000. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. p. 130.
- ^ Endelman, Todd M. (2002). The Jews of Britain, 1656–2000. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. p. 162.
- ^ "Call for permanent Welsh Jewish museum". 16 December 2017.
- ^ "Valley G's wicked Welsh rootz". BBC News. 28 March 2002. Retrieved 22 November 2006.
Further reading
Books
- Bermant, C. (1969) Troubled Eden: an Anatomy of British Jewry; pp. 59–61. London: Vallentine Mitchell
- Davies, G. (ed.) The Chosen People: Wales and the Jews. Seren (March 1, 2002) ISBN 978-1854113092
- Henriques, U. R. Q. (ed.) (1993) The Jews of South Wales: Historical Studies. Cardiff: University of Wales Press
- Parry-Jones, C. (2017) The Jews of Wales: A History. Cardiff: University of Wales Press
- Roth, C. (1950) The Rise of Provincial Jewry, 1950, p. 104 (Susser Archive – available on-line)
- Jordan, G., Heyman, C., Lavine, E., Parry-Jones, C., Soffa, D. & Weedon, C. (eds.) (2012) Hineni: Life Portraits from a Jewish Community. Cardiff: Butetown History & Arts Centre
Articles and miscellanea
- "The Jewish Communities of South Wales". Shemot July 1994 vol. 2/3
- "The Jewish of Merthyr Tydfil". Shemot September 1998 vol. 6/3
- "A Vanished Community – Merthyr Tydfil, 1830–1998" [clarification needed] September 2001 vol. 9/3
- Hillaby, Joe; Hillaby, Caroline (2013). The Palgrave Dictionary of Medieval Anglo-Jewish History. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-23027-816-5.
- Mars, Leonard "Celebrating diverse identities, person, work and place in South Wales"; in Identity and Affect: Experiences in a Globalising World, Campbell, J. R. & Rew, A., eds. London: Pluto, 1999, pp. 251–274 (This is about a Jewish doctor who was a member of the Swansea community)
- Mars, Leonard "Cooperation and Conflict between Veteran and Immigrant Jews in Swansea", in: Religion and Power, Decline and Growth: sociological analyses of religion in Britain, Poland and the Americas, [London]: British Sociological Association, Sociology of Religion Study Group, 1991, by Peter Gee & John Fulton, eds.; pp. 115–130
- Alderman, G. "The Jew as Scapegoat? the settlement and reception of Jews in South Wales before 1914", in: Trans JHSE; XXVI (1977)
- James, E. Wyn, ‘ “A’r Byd i Gyd yn Bapur . . .’ Rhan 3: Dylanwadau Rhyngwladol – Sansgrit a Hebraeg’, Canu Gwerin: Journal of the Welsh Folk-Song Society, 27 (2004), 34–47 ISSN 0967-0599.
- Stephenson, David, 'Jewish presence in, and absence from, Wales in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries', Jewish Historical Studies, 43 (2011), 7–20
- Cardiff Jewish Roll of Honour WW1, based on 1919 Western Mail
- Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX) consecration and unveiling of War Memorial 1939–1945 at Cathedral Road Synagogue