Ethnic group
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
[
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]
Like the rest of
Western Europe
,
medieval Wales
was Christian.
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).
It is likely that most, if not all, Jews left Wales after
Edward I
's
act of 1290
although the writ of the English king would not have run in many of the Marcher Lordships. The Welsh chronicle
Brut y Tywysogion
refers to the act but only in the context of the Jews in neighbouring England.
[5]
There is a record of an unnamed Jew in the
commote
of Manor Deilo in
Carmarthenshire
(outside the Marcher Lordships) in 1386/7.
[3]
Early modern period
[
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]
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
[
edit
]
The rapid expansion of the
coal mining
industry in the 19th century led to major economic growth and a vast increase in immigration to Wales. The Jews immigrated to Wales in large numbers, leading to the founding of new Jewish communities, particularly in the heavily industrialized
South Wales Valleys
. While the Cardiff Jewish population was 13 families in 1852, after the influx of Jews fleeing from
Russian
pogroms
in the 1880s the city's Jewish population rose to a peak of 5,500.
[7]
A synagogue was founded in Merthyr Tydfil in 1875, and by the end of the century, most towns in the Valleys had small Jewish communities and trading stations.
[8]
Generally, these communities appear to have been well tolerated, though there were some notable exceptions. In 1911,
antisemitic
sentiment came to a head in the
Tredegar
area, where working-class mobs attacked Jewish-owned businesses, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
[9]
Early 20th-century Welsh Jewish society is featured in the 1999 film
Solomon & Gaenor
, which is set at the time of the Tredegar riots.
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
refugees
from
Nazi
-dominated Europe in the late 1930s.
See also
Jews escaping from Nazi Europe to Britain
.
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
[
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]
Notable people of Welsh-Jewish background include:
Mythical history of the Jews in Wales
[
edit
]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"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.
- ^
a
b
Patricia Skinner
(2003).
The Jews in Medieval Britain: Historical, Literary, and Archaeological Perspectives
. Boydell Press. p. 39.
ISBN
978-0-85115-931-7
.
- ^
Thomas Jones (ed.),
Brut y Tywysogion, Peniarth MS. 20
(Cardiff, 1941), p. 229b.
- ^
"Multicultural Wales"
. British Broadcasting Company
. Retrieved
6 December
2007
.
- ^
"The Jewish Community of Cardiff"
.
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
[
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]
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
1-85411-309-7
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
External links
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Sovereign states
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States with limited
recognition
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Dependencies and
other entities
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