Researching the history of synagogues and mikvehs
Jews are mentioned in
English ecclesiastical documents as early as 740 AD and came to England in
significant numbers after the Norman conquest, settling in London and other towns of significant size: Bristol, Cambridge,
Canterbury, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Ipswich, Nottingham, Warwick,
Worcester and York. After outbreaks of anti-Semitism, they were driven from
England in 1290. Wales was under English rule by that time. There was no
persecution of Jews in Scotland, but little to attract them there either at
that date. Urban life was less developed in Scotland than in England. What's
more - England and Scotland were at war. Most English Jews left for France and
Belgium.
After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1496, Jewish refugees made their way from country to country. Some arrived in the south of Ireland. Others settled in Bristol and London between 1590 and 1600. The re-admittance was officially sanctioned in 1656, giving Jews freedom of worship. Subsequently political disturbance and anti-Semitism in Europe at various times caused more Jews to flee to Britain.
In the establishment of a new Jewish community, the rabbis of the Talmud gave top priority to the building of a mikveh - a ritual bath. Jews could congregate in their houses or rented rooms to worship until the community grew large enough and wealthy enough to build a synagogue. Both mikveh and synagogue should ideally be within walking distance, since travelling on the Sabbath is prohibited to Jews.
The earliest recorded synagogue in Ireland was a prayer room established in 1660 opposite Dublin Castle. The first post-medieval, purpose-built synagogue in England was the Bevis Marks, London, consecrated in 1701 and retaining much of its interior from that period. Above is an aquatint of the synagogue in Hounsditch built in 1765-6, designed by George Dance senior.
Studies
Synagogues
- Barnett, Richard D., Bevis Marks Synagogue (1995).
- de Breffny, Brian, The Synagogue (London 1978). Scholarly history, covering the subject world-wide.
- Judaism 101: Synagogues, Shuls and Temples. An illustrated online introduction to form and use.
- Kadish, Sharman, The Synagogues of Britain and Ireland (Yale University Press 2011).
- Kadish, Sharman, Bevis Marks Synagogue: A short history of the building and an appreciation of its architecture (English Heritage 2001).
- Kadish, Sharman (ed.), Building Jerusalem: Jewish architecture in Britain (London 1996). Compilation of scholarly articles.
- Lindsay, Paul, London Synagogues (1993).
- Meek, Harold A., The Synagogue: The complete history of the art and architecture of the synagogue (London 1995). Well-illustrated history of the building type world-wide.
- Renton, Peter, Lost Synagogues of London (2000).
Mikvehs
- Kadish, Sharman, 'Eden in Albion: a history of the Mikveh in Britain' in Sharman Kadish (ed.), Building Jerusalem: Jewish architecture in Britain (London 1996), 101-54. Includes gazetteer for UK and Ireland.
- Blair, I., Hillaby, J., Howell, I., Sermon, R., and Watson, B., The discovery of two medieval Mikva'ot in London and a reinterpretation of the Bristol 'mikveh', Jewish Historical Studies 37, 15-40 (2002).
Gazetteers
- Sharman Kadish, Jewish Heritage in England: An Architectural Guide (English Heritage in association with Jewish Heritage UK 2006) draws on the Survey of the Jewish Built Heritage of the United Kingdom and Ireland which was launched in 1996. An appendix covers Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
- Kenneth Marks, The Archaeology of Anglo-Jewry in England and Wales 1656-c.1880 (Archaeopress 2014) includes a gazetteer.
- Jewish Heritage UK gives the addresses of Listed synagogues and other Jewish buildings in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, and some details of those at risk.
- The Survey of London includes synagogues.
- See Kadish (above) for Mikvehs.
Primary sources
- The Jewish Chronicle (1841-). Archives searchable online (by subscription). On microfilm in the British Library Newspaper Library but not included in the online British Newspaper Archive. Card index in its own library, Furnival St., EC4, available by appointment. Its archives can also be consulted at
- The University of Southampton Special Collections has more than 850 collections of manuscripts of Anglo-Jewish archives. This makes Southampton an important centre in Western Europe for the study of Anglo-Jewish history in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and for the relations between Jews and non-Jewish worlds.
- See West for urban records.
- General sources for maps and images.
Society
Jewish Historical Society of England, 33 Seymour Place, London W1H 5AP.
The society's library resources are located within the Department of Hebrew and Jewish
Studies at University College London.