Total population | |
---|---|
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Core Jewish population: 290,000 (2018) [4] Enlarged Jewish population (includes non-Jewish relatives of Jews): 370,000 (2018) [4] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
London, Greater Manchester, Leeds, Gateshead, Brighton, St Albans, Southend; also Hertsmere, Epping Forest and East Renfrewshire | |
Languages | |
Primarily English; also Yiddish, largely spoken by Hassidic Jews; historically Spanish and Portuguese among Sephardim; immigrant languages include or have included Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and French amongst many others | |
Religion | |
Judaism or irreligion | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Other Jews |
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Jews and Judaism |
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British Jews (often referred to collectively as British Jewry or Anglo-Jewry) are British citizens who are Jewish. The number of people who identified as Jews in the United Kingdom rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021.
The first recorded Jewish community in Britain was brought to England in 1070 by King William the Conqueror who believed the Jewish population's commercial skills would make his newly won country more prosperous. At the end of the 12th century, a series of blood libels and fatal pogroms were perpetrated in England, particularly on the east coast. Notably, on 16 March 1190, during the run up to the Third Crusade, the Jewish population of York was massacred at the site where Clifford's Tower now stands, [5] and King Edward I of England passed the Statute of the Jewry (Statutum de Judaismo) in 1275, restricting the community's activities, most notably outlawing the practice of usury (charging interest). [6] Fifteen years later when Edward found that many of these provisions were ignored, he expelled the Jews from England. The Jewish population emigrated to countries such as Poland which protected them by law. A small English community persisted in hiding despite the expulsion. Jews were not banned from Scotland, which was an independent kingdom until 1707; however, there is no record of a Jewish presence in Scotland before the 18th century. Jews were also not banned in Wales at the time, but England eventually annexed Wales under Henry VIII. When Henry VIII's England annexed Wales, the English ban on Jews extended to Wales. There is only one known record of a Jew in Wales between 1290 and the annexation, but it is possible individuals did persist there after 1290.
A small community of conversos was identified in Bristol in 1609 and banished. In 1656, Oliver Cromwell made it clear that the ban on Jewish settlement in England and Wales would no longer be enforced, but when Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel brought a petition to allow Jews to return, the majority of the Protectorate Government turned it down. Despite the Protectorate government's rejection of the Rabbi's petition, the community considers 1656 to mark the readmission of the Jews to England and Wales. In mid-nineteenth century British-ruled Ireland, Daniel O'Connell, known as "The Liberator" for his work on Catholic Emancipation, worked successfully for the repeal of the "De Judaismo" law, which prescribed a special yellow badge for Jews. [7] Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881), of Jewish birth although he joined the Church of England, served in government for three decades, twice as prime minister.
The oldest Jewish community in Britain is the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community, which traces back to the 1630s when it existed clandestinely in London before the readmission and was unofficially legitimised in 1656, which is the date counted by the Jewish community as the re-admittance of the Jews to England (which at the time included Wales). A trickle of Ashkenazi immigration primarily from German countries continued from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. As for the second wave of Ashkenazi immigration, a large wave of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in the Russian Empire due to pogroms and the May Laws between 1880 and the imposition of tighter immigration restrictions in 1905 sought their way to the Isles. Many German and Polish Jews seeking to escape the Nazi Holocaust arrived in Britain before and after the Second World War. [8] [ better source needed ] Around 80-90% of British Jews today are Ashkenazi.
Following de-colonisation, the late twentieth century saw Yemeni Jews Iraqi Jews and Baghdadi Jews settle in the United Kingdom. [9] [10] [11] A multicultural community, in 2006, British Jews celebrated the 350th anniversary of the resettlement in England. [12]
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
1734 | 6,000 | — |
1800 | 17,500 | +191.7% |
1881 | 60,000 | +242.9% |
1900 | 250,000 | +316.7% |
1933 | 300,000 | +20.0% |
1938 | 370,000 | +23.3% |
1945 | 450,000 | +21.6% |
1980 | 330,000 | −26.7% |
2001 | 266,740 | −19.2% |
2011 | 269,568 | +1.1% |
2021 | 277,613 | +3.0% |
Source: Data from 2001 onwards derived from the UK Census |
According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, there were 271,327 Jews in England and Wales, or 0.5% of the overall population, [16] whilst in the 2021 Northern Irish census, there were 439 self-identified Jews comprising just 0.02% of the population, but marking a 31% increase in numbers since the census of 2011. [17] According to the 2011 census, 5,887 Jews lived in Scotland for a total of 277,653 self-identified Jews in the United Kingdom. This does not include much smaller communities in the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories; notably, there are Jewish communities in Gibraltar, Jersey and Bermuda, amongst others. However, this final figure is considered an undercount. Demographers David Graham and Stanley Waterman give several reasons as for why: the underenumeration for censuses in general; the question did not record secular Jews; the voluntary nature of the question; suspicion by Jews of such questions; and the high non-response rate for large numbers of Haredi Jews. [18] By comparison, the Jewish Virtual Library estimated a Jewish population of 291,000 (not limited to adherents of Judaism) in 2012, making Britain's Jewish community the fifth largest in the world. [19] This equates to 0.43% of the population of the United Kingdom. The absolute number of Jews has been gradually rising since records began; in the 2011 census, 263,346 people in England and Wales answered "Jewish" to the voluntary question on religion, compared with 259,927 in of 2001.
The 2001 Census included a (voluntary) religion question ("What is your religion?") for the first time in its history; [n 1] 266,740 people listed their religion as "Jewish". [21] However, the subject of who is a Jew is complex, and the religion question did not record people who may be Jewish through other means, such as ethnically and culturally. [22] Of people who chose Jewish as their religion, 97% put White as their ethnic group. However, a report by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) suggests that, although there was an apparent option to write down "Jewish" for this question, it did not occur to many, because of "skin colour" and nationality bias, and that if "Jewish" was an explicit option, the results—only 2,594 respondents were Jewish solely by ethnicity—would have been different. [23] The religion question appeared in the 2011 Census, but there was still no explicit option for "Jewish" in the ethnic-group question. The Board of Deputies had encouraged all Jews to indicate they were Jewish, either through the religion question or the ethnicity one. [24]
From 2005 to 2008, the Jewish population increased from 275,000 to 280,000, attributed largely to the high birth rates of Haredi (or ultra-Orthodox) Jews. [25] Research by the University of Manchester in 2007 showed that 75% of British Jewish births were to the Haredi community. [26] Ultra-Orthodox women have an average of 6.9 children, and secular Jewish women 1.65. [27] In 2015, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research reported that in England the orthodox community was growing by nearly 5% per year, while the non-haredi community was decreasing by 0.3% per year. [28] It has been also documented that in terms of births, between 2007 and 2015, the estimated number of Strictly Orthodox births per annum increased by 35%, rising from 1,431 to 1,932. Meanwhile, the estimated number of ‘Mainstream’ (non-Strictly Orthodox) births per annum increased to a lesser extent over the same period, going from 1,844 to 1,889 (+2.4%). [29]
Going into the 19th century, the Jewish population was small, likely no more than 20,000 individuals. However, the population quadrupled in just a few decades after 1881 as a large number of Jews fled oppression in the Russian Empire. The population increased by as much as 50% between 1933 and 1945, with the United Kingdom admitting around 70,000 Jews between 1933 and 1938, and a further 80,000 between 1938 and 1945. The late 1940s and early 1950s proved to be the high point, numerically speaking, for British Jewry. A decline followed, as many of the new arrivals moved to Israel, moved back to Europe, or emigrated elsewhere, and many other individuals assimilated. The decline continued into the 1990s, but has since reversed. The estimates given before the 2001 Census are likely not directly comparable to the Census, as the Census is based purely on self-identification, whereas the estimates are based on community membership, and it is probably the decline from 450,000 to 266,740 is more like a decline from 450,000 to somewhere between 300,000 and 350,000 going by the metrics of the estimators. Contemporary Jewish demographers like Sergio DellaPergola give figures around 300,000 for the British Jewish population in the early 2010s, since when it has grown.
The great majority (83.2%) of Jews in England and Wales were born in the UK. [30] In 2015, about 6% of Jews in England held an Israeli passport. [28] In 2019, the Office for National Statistics estimated that 21,000 people resident in the UK were born in Israel, up from 11,890 in 2001. Of the 21,000, 8,000 had Israeli nationality. [31] In 2013, it was reported that antisemitic attacks in France led to an exodus of French Jews to the UK. This has resulted in some synagogues establishing French-language Shabbat services. [32]
In 2018, 534 Britons emigrated to Israel, representing the third consecutive annual decline. The figure was one third down on 2015 and was the lowest for five years. Meanwhile, immigration of Jews from Israel is consistently higher than emigration of Jews to Israel, at a ratio of about 3:2, meaning the British Jewish community has a net gain of Jewish immigrants, to the point Israelis now represent around 6% of the British Jewish community. [33] [34]
Ethnic group | 2001 | 2011 | 2021 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
White | 249,483 | 96.82 | 241,356 | 92.37 | 230,399 | 85.56 |
– British | 216,403 | 84.00 | 200,934 | 76.90 | 180,325 | 66.96 |
– Irish | 1,134 | 0.44 | 1,116 | 0.43 | 927 | 0.34 |
– Irish Traveller | 241 | 0.09 | 161 | 0.06 | ||
– Roma | 178 | 0.07 | ||||
– Other White | 31,946 | 12.40 | 39,065 | 14.95 | 48,808 | 18.12 |
Mixed | 3,038 | 1.18 | 4,209 | 1.61 | 6,029 | 2.24 |
– White and Asian | 828 | 0.32 | 1,229 | 0.47 | 1,190 | 0.44 |
– White and Black Caribbean | 379 | 0.15 | 778 | 0.30 | 780 | 0.29 |
– White and Black African | 181 | 0.07 | 424 | 0.16 | 442 | 0.16 |
– Other Mixed | 1,650 | 0.64 | 1,778 | 0.86 | 3,617 | 1.34 |
Asian | 1,968 | 0.76 | 2,750 | 1.05 | 1,526 | 0.57 |
– Indian | 663 | 0.26 | 816 | 0.31 | 557 | 0.21 |
– Chinese | 104 | 0.04 | 324 | 0.12 | 159 | 0.06 |
– Pakistani | 353 | 0.14 | 433 | 0.17 | 261 | 0.10 |
– Bangladeshi | 124 | 0.05 | 222 | 0.08 | 83 | 0.03 |
– Other Asian | 724 | 0.28 | 955 | 0.37 | 466 | 0.17 |
Black | 893 | 0.35 | 1,591 | 0.61 | 1,611 | 0.60 |
– Caribbean | 535 | 0.21 | 611 | 0.23 | 649 | 0.24 |
– African | 236 | 0.09 | 499 | 0.19 | 709 | 0.26 |
– Other Black | 122 | 0.05 | 481 | 0.18 | 253 | 0.09 |
Other | 11,376 | 29,719 | ||||
– Arab | 564 | 0.22 | 422 | 0.16 | ||
– Other Ethnic group | 2,289 | 0.89 | 10,812 | 4.14 | 29,297 | 10.88 |
TOTAL | 257,671 | 100.0 | 261,282 | 100.0 | 269,293 | 100.0 |
The majority of the Jews in the UK live in southeastern England, particularly in and around London. Around 145,480 Jews live in London itself - more than half the Jewish population of the entire country - notably the North London boroughs of Barnet (56,620), Hackney (17,430), Camden (10,080), Haringey (9,400), Harrow (7,300), Redbridge (6,410), Westminster (5,630), Brent (3,720), Enfield (3,710), Islington (2,710) and Kensington and Chelsea (2,680). There are also 30,220 Jews living in districts that are not quite London, but are outside the boundaries of London itself, of which 21,270 are in southern Hertfordshire and 4,930 are in southwestern Essex, giving a total population of 175,690 Jews in London and the districts and boroughs immediately surrounding it, as compared to 95,640 in the rest of England and Wales combined.
In total, including communities some distance from London, just under 46,000 Jews live in the six counties bordering Greater London, of which two-thirds live in areas immediately adjacent to London. There are, in total, more than 26,400 Jews in Hertfordshire, of which 18,350 are in the borough of Hertsmere in southwestern Hertfordshire adjacent to Jewish areas in Barnet and Harrow. Towns and villages in Hertsmere with large Jewish populations include Borehamwood (6,160), Bushey (5,590), and Radlett (2,980). Some 30% of Radlett's population is Jewish, as is 20% of Bushey's and 17% of Borehamwood's, 21% of neighbouring Shenley's and 36% of nearby Elstree, which has a Jewish plurality. Further afield from London, there is also a significant community in St Albans, as well as other smaller communities throughout the county. [35] There are over 10,300 Jews in Essex, of which 4,380 live in the district of Epping Forest, in the county's southwest. There is also a significant community in Southend. In total, London and the counties around it are host to 70.56% of England and Wales' Jewish population, as of 2021.
The next most significant population is in Greater Manchester, a community of more than 28,000, mostly in Bury (10,730), Salford (10,370), Manchester (2,630), and Trafford (2,410). [36] There are also significant communities in Leeds (6,270), [36] Gateshead (2,910), [36] Brighton (2,460), [36] St Albans (2,240), [36] and Southend (2,060). [36] Some historically sizeable communities like Liverpool, Bournemouth and Birmingham have experienced a steady decline and now number fewer than 2,000 self-identifying Jews each; conversely, there are small but growing communities in places like Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge.
The most Jewish county in the UK is Hertfordshire, which is 2.23% Jewish; this is followed by the City of London, at 2.06%, and then Greater London at 1.63%. Greater Manchester is 1.00% Jewish, Essex is 0.70% and East Sussex is 0.65%. No other county is as much as 0.50% Jewish. The least Jewish county or principal area in England and Wales is Merthyr Tydfil, which is less than 0.01% Jewish despite once having had a significant community. Hertsmere and Barnet councils are the most Jewish local authorities in England, with Jews composing one in six and seven residents respectively. Finchley and Golders Green is the political constituency with the largest Jewish population in the UK. [37]
The Scottish population is concentrated in Greater Glasgow, which counts around 2,500 Jews. Around 30% of the Scottish Jewish population, or around 1,510 people, resides in East Renfrewshire, largely in or around the Glasgow suburb of Newton Mearns. Glasgow itself has around 970 Jews. Edinburgh counts 1,270 Jews; the remaining 35% of Scottish Jewry is scattered throughout the country. The largest Welsh community is in Cardiff, with almost 700 Jews, comprising about a third of the Welsh Jewish population and 0.19% of the population of Cardiff itself. The only synagogue in Northern Ireland is in Belfast, where the community has fewer than 100 active members, [38] although 439 people recorded their religion as Jewish in the Northern Irish census of 2021; despite remarkable growth since the previous census in 2011, this still leaves the Northern Irish community as the smallest of the four Home Nations both in overall numbers and percentage terms. There are small communities throughout the Channel Islands, and there is an active synagogue in St Brelade, Jersey, although the Jewish population of the island is only 49. [39] [40] There is only a small number of Jews on the Isle of Man, with no synagogue. [41]
The British Jewish population has an older profile than the general population. In England and Wales, the median age of male Jews is 41.2, while the figure for all males is 36.1; Jewish females have a median age of 44.3, while the figure for all females is 38.1. [21] About 24% of the community are over the age of 65 (compared to 16% of the general population of England and Wales). In the 2001 census, Jews were the only group in which the number of persons in the 75-plus cohorts outnumbered those in the 65–74 cohort.[ citation needed ]
About 60% of school-age Jewish children attend Jewish schools. [42] Jewish day schools and yeshivas are found throughout the country. Jewish cultural studies and Hebrew language instruction are commonly offered at synagogues in the form of supplementary Hebrew schools or Sunday schools.
The majority of Jewish schools in Britain are funded by the government. Jewish educational centres are plentiful, large-scale projects. One of the country's most famous Jewish schools is the state-funded JFS in London which opened in 1732 and has about 2100 students. It is heavily over-subscribed and applies strict rules on admissions, which led to a discrimination court case, R (E) v Governing Body of JFS , in 2009. [43] In 2011, another large state-funded school opened in North London named JCoSS, the first cross-denomination Jewish secondary school in the UK. [44]
The Union of Jewish Students is an umbrella organisation that represents Jewish students at university. In 2011 there were over 50 Jewish Societies. [45]
British Jews generally have high levels of educational achievement. Compared to the general population, they are 40% less likely to have no qualifications, and 80% more likely to have "higher-level" qualifications. [46] With the exception of under-25s, younger Jews tend to be better educated than older ones. [47] However, dozens of the all-day educational establishments in the Haredi community of Stamford Hill, which are accused of neglecting secular skills such as English and maths, claim not to be schools under the meaning of the Department for Education. [48]
The annual Limmud festival is a high-profile educational event of the British Jewish community, attracting a wide range of international presenters. [49]
The 2001 UK Census showed that 30.5% of economically active Jews were self-employed, compared to a figure of 14.2% for the general population. Jews aged 16–24 were less likely to be economically active than their counterparts in the general population; 89.2% of these were students. [50] In a 2010 study, average income per working adult was £15.44 an hour. Median income and wealth were significantly higher than other religious groups. [51] In a 2015 study, poverty has risen the fastest per generation than other religious groups. [52]
The 2021 census for England and Wales recorded 72.3% of Jews either owning their home with a mortgage (32.5%) or outright (39.8%). 20.9% rent privately or live rent free and the remaining 6.8% live in social housing. [53]
In 2016, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research reported that the intermarriage rate for the Jewish community in the UK was 26%. This was less than half of the US rate of 58% and showed little change from the rate in the early 1980s of 23%, though more than twice the 11% level of the end of the 1960s. Around one third of the children of mixed marriages are brought up in the Jewish faith. [54] [55]
There are around 454 synagogues in the country, and it is estimated that 56.3% of all households across the UK with at least one Jew living within them held synagogue membership in 2016. [56] : 6 The percentage of households adhering to specific denominations is as follows:
Those in the United Kingdom who consider themselves Jews identify as follows:
The Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue in the London Borough of Harrow said in 2015 that it had the largest membership of any single Orthodox synagogue in Europe. [57]
There are a number of Jewish newspapers, magazines and other media published in Britain on a national or regional level. The most well known is The Jewish Chronicle , founded in 1841 and the world's oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper. [58] Other publications include the Jewish News , Jewish Telegraph , Hamodia , the Jewish Tribune and Jewish Renaissance . In April 2020, The Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News, which had announced plans to merge in February and later announced plans for a joint liquidation, continued as separate entities after the former was acquired by a consortium.
Cookbooks grew in popularity in Britain during the mid-1800s and shaped the overall cuisine that British Jews experienced by teaching and inspiring housewives how to cook. The shaping of Jewish food overtime told the story of their frequent migration throughout Europe. There was a lot of influence from Eastern European and Ashkenazi food. This resulted in the common staples of Anglo-Jewish women to keep bread, bagels, and potatoes consistently in their homes. Since, they had a history filled with Diaspora, dishes varied heavily and included fish, meat, spaghetti, pudding, or soup. [59]
Before the 2015 general election, 69% of British Jews surveyed were planning to vote for the Conservative Party, while 22% would vote for the Labour Party. [60] A May 2016 poll of British Jews showed 77% would vote Conservative, 13.4% Labour, and 7.3% Liberal Democrat. [61] An October 2019 poll of British Jews showed 64% would vote Conservative, 24% Liberal Democrat, and only 6% Labour. [62]
Jews are typically seen as predominantly middle-class, though historically many Jews lived in working-class communities of London. According to polling in 2015, politicians' attitudes towards Israel influence the vote of three out of four British Jews. [63] [64]
As per a 2023 survey, four out of five British Jews identify as Zionists. [65]
In London, most of the top constituencies with the largest Jewish populations voted Conservative in the 2010 general election - these are namely, Finchley and Golders Green, Hendon, Harrow East, Chipping Barnet, Ilford North, and Hertsmere in Hertfordshire. The exceptions were Hackney North and Stoke Newington and Hampstead and Kilburn, which both voted Labour in the election. Outside the region, large Jewish constituencies voted for Labour, namely Bury South and Blackley and Broughton. [37]
Jewish MPs by election 1945–1992 [66] [67] [ full citation needed ] [68] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Election | Labour | Conservative | Liberal/Alliance | Other | Total | % of Parliament |
1857 | 1 | 1 | 0.2 | |||
1859 | 3 | 3 | 0.5 | |||
1865 | 6 | 0.9 | ||||
1868 | ||||||
1874 | 1 | |||||
1880 | 1 | 4 | 5 | |||
1885 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 1.3 | ||
1886 | 9 | 1.3 | ||||
1892 | ||||||
1895 | ||||||
1900 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 1.3 | ||
1945 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 28 | 4.4 |
1950 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 3.7 |
1951 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 2.7 |
1955 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 2.9 |
1959 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 3.5 |
1964 | 34 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 5.7 |
1966 | 38 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 6.3 |
1970 | 31 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 6.3 |
1974 Feb | 33 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 7.2 |
1974 Oct | 35 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 7.2 |
1979 | 21 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 32 | 5.0 |
1983 | 11 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 30 | 4.6 |
1987 | 7 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 3.7 |
1992 | 8 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 3.1 |
2017 [69] | 8 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 2.9 |
2019 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 2.5 |
Some MPs, such as Robert Jenrick and Keir Starmer, while not Jewish themselves, are married to Jews and have Jewish children. [70] [71]
The earliest Jewish settlement was recorded in 1070, soon after the Norman Conquest. Jews living in England at this time experienced religious discrimination and it is thought that the blood libel which accused Jews of ritual murder originated in Northern England, leading to massacres and increasing discrimination. [2] The Jewish presence continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290. [3]
Jews were readmitted into the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland by Oliver Cromwell in 1655, though it is believed that crypto-Jews lived in England during the expulsion. [4] Jews were regularly subjected to discrimination and humiliation which waxed and waned over the centuries, gradually declining. [5]
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the number of Jews in Britain greatly increased due to the exodus from Russia, which resulted in a large community forming in the East End of London. [6] Popular sentiment against immigration was used by the British Union of Fascists to incite hatred against Jews, leading to the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, when the fascists were forced to abandon their march through an area with a large Jewish population when the police clearing the way were unable to remove barricades defended by trade unionists, left wing groups and residents. [7]
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, undisguised racial hatred of Jews became unacceptable in British society. Outbursts of antisemitism emanating from far right groups continued, however, leading to the formation of the 43 Group led by Jewish ex-servicemen which broke up fascist meetings from 1945 to early 1950.
Records of antisemitic incidents have been compiled since 1984, although changing reporting practices and levels of reporting make comparison over time difficult. The Community Security Trust (CST) was formed in 1994 to "[protect] British Jews from antisemitism and related threats". [72] It works in conjunction with the police and other authorities to protect Jewish schools, Synagogues, and other community institutions.
Polling data from the Campaign Against Antisemitism reveals that almost half of British Jews have contemplated leaving the UK since the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel due to rising antisemitism. [65]
British Jewish communal organisations include:
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, commonly referred to as the Board of Deputies, is the largest and second oldest Jewish communal organisation in the United Kingdom, after the Initiation Society which was founded in 1745. Established in 1760 by a group of Sephardic Jews, the board presents itself as a forum for the views of most organisations within the British Jewish community, liaising with the British government on that basis. Notably, while Lord Rothschild was President of the Board of Deputies, the Balfour Declaration was addressed to him and eventually led to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. It is affiliated to the World Jewish Congress and the European Jewish Congress. The current president is Phil Rosenberg.
The history of the Jews in England goes back to the reign of William the Conqueror. Although it is likely that there had been some Jewish presence in the Roman period, there is no definitive evidence, and no reason to suppose that there was any community during Anglo-Saxon times. The first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070. The Jewish settlement continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290.
Religion in the United Kingdom is mainly expressed in Christianity, which dominated the land since the 7th century. Results of the 2021 Census for England and Wales showed that Christianity is the largest religion, followed by Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Among Christians, Anglicanism is the most common denomination, followed by Catholicism, Presbyterianism, Methodism, Unitarianism, and Baptism.
The United Synagogue (US) is a union of British Orthodox Jewish synagogues, representing the central Orthodox movement in Judaism. With 62 congregations, comprising 40,000 members, it is the largest synagogue body in Europe. The spiritual leader of the union is the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth – a title that bears some formal recognition by the Crown, even though his rabbinical authority is recognised by only slightly more than half of British Jews.
The history of Jews in Australia traces the history of Australian Jews from the British settlement of Australia commencing in 1788. Though Europeans had visited Australia before 1788, there is no evidence of any Jewish sailors among the crew. The first Jews known to have come to Australia came as convicts transported to Botany Bay in 1788 aboard the First Fleet that established the first European settlement on the continent, on the site of present-day Sydney.
The history of the Jews in Scotland goes back to at least the 17th century. It is not known when Jews first arrived in Scotland, with the earliest concrete historical references to a Jewish presence in Scotland being from the late 17th century. Most Scottish Jews today are of Ashkenazi background who mainly settled in Edinburgh, then in Glasgow in the mid-19th century. In 2013 the Edinburgh Jewish Studies Network curated an online exhibition based on archival holdings and maps in the National Library of Scotland exploring the influence of the community on the city.
The history of the Jews in Serbia is some two thousand years old. The Jews first arrived in the region during Roman times. The Jewish communities of the Balkans remained small until the late 15th century, when Jews fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions found refuge in the Ottoman-ruled areas, including Serbia.
Religion in England is characterised by a variety of beliefs and practices that has historically been dominated by Christianity. Christianity remains the largest religion, though as of the 2021 census, there is an increasing variety of beliefs, with irreligious people outnumbering each of the religions. The Church of England is the nation's established state church, whose supreme governor is the monarch. Other Christian traditions in England include Roman Catholicism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, Mormonism, and the Baptists. After Christianity, the religions with the most adherents are Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Buddhism, modern paganism, and the Bahá'í Faith. There are also organisations promoting irreligion, including humanism and atheism. According to the 2021 census, Shamanism is the fastest growing religion in England.
The history of the Jews in Brazil begins during the settlement of Europeans in the new world. Although only baptized Christians were subject to the Inquisition, Jews started settling in Brazil when the Inquisition reached Portugal, in the 16th century. They arrived in Brazil during the period of Dutch rule, setting up in Recife the first synagogue in the Americas, the Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, as early as 1636. Most of those Jews were Sephardic Jews who had fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal to the religious freedom of the Netherlands.
Romanians in the United Kingdom refers to Romanian immigrants in the United Kingdom, both citizens and non-citizens, along with British citizens of Romanian ancestry. The number of Romanian-born people resident in the UK has risen from 83,168 at the time of the 2011 United Kingdom census to 557,554 at the time of the 2021 United Kingdom census.
Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Middleton Road, Higher Crumpsall, North Manchester, England, in the United Kingdom. The congregation was founded in 1935 and worships in the Ashkenazi rite.
Judaism is a minority religion in Australia. 99,956 Australians identified as Jewish in the 2021 census, which accounts for about 0.4% of the population. This is a 9.8% increase in numbers from the 2016 census.
Australian Jews, or Jewish Australians, are Jews who are Australian citizens or permanent residents of Australia. In the 2021 census there were 99,956 people who identified Judaism as their religious affiliation and 29,113 Australians who identified as Jewish by ancestry, an increase from 97,355 and 25,716, respectively, from the 2016 census. The actual number is almost certainly higher, because being a Jew is not just about being religious, but the census data is based on religious affiliation, so secular Jews often feel it would be inaccurate to answer with "Judaism". Also, since the question is optional, many practising Holocaust survivors and Haredi Jews are believed to prefer not to disclose their religion in the census. By comparison, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz estimated a Jewish-Australian population of 120,000–150,000, while other estimates based on the death rate in the community estimate the size of the community as 250,000, which would make them 1% of the population. Based on the census data, Jewish citizens make up about 0.4% of the Australian population. The Jewish community of Australia is composed mostly of Ashkenazi Jews, though there are Jews in Australia from many other traditions and levels of religious observance and participation in the Jewish community.
Antony Lerman is a British writer who specialises in the study of antisemitism, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, multiculturalism, and the place of religion in society. From 2006 to early 2009, he was Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, a think tank on issues affecting Jewish communities in Europe. From December 1999 to 2006, he was Chief Executive of the Hanadiv Charitable Foundation, renamed the Rothschild Foundation Europe in 2007. He is a founding member of the Jewish Forum for Justice and Human Rights, and a former editor of Patterns of Prejudice, a quarterly academic journal focusing on the sociology of race and ethnicity.
Laura Naomi Janner-Klausner is a British rabbi and an inclusion and development coach who served as the inaugural Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism from 2011 until 2020. Janner-Klausner grew up in London before studying theology at the University of Cambridge and moving to Israel in 1985, living in Jerusalem for 15 years. She returned to Britain in 1999 and was ordained at Leo Baeck College, serving as rabbi at Alyth Synagogue until 2011. She has been serving as Rabbi at Bromley Reform Synagogue in south-east London since April 2022.
Sir Ephraim Yitzchak Mirvis is an Orthodox rabbi who serves as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. He served as the Chief Rabbi of Ireland between 1985 and 1992.
British Jews have experienced antisemitism - discrimination and persecution as Jews - since a Jewish community was first established in England in 1070. They experienced a series of massacres in the Medieval period, which culminated in their expulsion from England in 1290.
The South African Union for Progressive Judaism (SAUPJ) is an affiliate of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and supports 11 progressive congregations. Rabbi Moses Cyrus Weiler, a founder of Reform Judaism in the country, led the country's first Reform synagogue, Temple Israel in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Weiler is credited with growing the movement, to represent 15-17% of South African Jewry and establishing 25 congregations in the country. A 2020 joint study by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the University of Cape Town showed that 12% of Jews identified as Progressive and that in relative terms the progressive strands are increasing after falling to 7% in 1998 and 2005 studies. In Johannesburg, the community accounts for 7% of the city's Jewry, rising to 18% in Cape Town and 25% in Durban.
Kingston upon Hull, on England's East Coast was, by 1750, a major point of entry into Britain for traders and migrants, second only to London for links to the continent. Around then, a few Jews from German and Dutch cities lodged and settled in Hull. Selling jewelry and dealing goods in the thriving port and market town, they maintained contacts with Europe, London, and many other – particularly Northern – towns. The small community produced its own institutions and leaders, which were tested by anti-Jewish sentiment, and later by an influx of East-European refugees.