History of the Jews in Wales

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Welsh Jews
Iddewon Cymreig
יהודים וולשים
Total population
2,064 (2011)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Cardiff
Languages
English, Welsh, Hebrew, Yiddish
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
British Jews, English Jews, Scottish Jews, Irish Jews, Northern Irish Jews, Ashkenazi Jews

The history of the Jews in Wales begins in the Middle Ages. In the 13th century, shortly after the English conquest of Wales, Edward I issued the 1290 Edict of Expulsion expelling the Jews from England. Except for one exceptional record, between 1290 and the formal return of the Jews to England in 1655, there is no official trace of Jews on Welsh soil.

Major Jewish settlement in Wales dates from the 19th century, although there are also records of Jewish communities in the 18th century.

Middle Ages

Like the rest of Western Europe, medieval Wales was a Christian country.

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. In his account of that journey, the Itinerarium Cambriae (1191), he provides an obviously allegorical narrative concerning a Jew and a Christian priest travelling in Shropshire, England, but makes no reference to Jews in Wales.[2]

During the thirteenth century there are records of Jews in Abergavenny, Caerleon and Chepstow, all of which were in the Marcher Lordships of south Wales.[3]

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.[4] But there is a remarkable record of an unnamed Jew in the commote of Manor Deilo in Carmarthenshire (outside the Marcher Lordships) in 1386/7.[3]

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."[5]

Modern period

The former Cardiff Synagogue on Cathedral Road. This synagogue is now an office block

The rapid expansion of the coal mining industry in the 19th century lead to major economic growth and a vast increase in immigration to Wales. The Jews were one group who immigrated to Wales in large numbers during this period, leading to the founding of new Jewish communities, particularly in the heavily industrialised South Wales Valleys. A synagogue was founded in Merthyr Tydfil in 1875, and by the end of the century, most towns in the Valleys were home to small Jewish communities and trading stations.[6] 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.[7] 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.

Jews continue to flourish in Wales, being augmented by refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe in the late 1930s. The modern community in South Wales is centred in the Cardiff Reform Synagogue and the Cardiff United Synagogue. 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 originally listed by the ex chief of Welsh Judaism Lara Gowing .

Notable people

Notable people of Welsh-Jewish Jewish background include:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Gerald of Wales. The Itinerary through Wales and the Description of Wales, trans. Richard Colt Hoare (Everyman's Library), p. 137.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Thomas Jones (ed.), Brut y Tywysogion, Peniarth MS. 20 (Cardiff, 1941), p. 229b.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

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 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
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Cardiff Jewish Roll of Honour WW1, based on 1919 Western Mail
  • Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen & Women (AJEX) consecration and unveiling of War Memorial 1939–1945 at Cathedral Road Synagogue

External links

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