ENGLAND

The British Isles were unknown to the Jews until a late date, and the settlement of the Jews in medieval England was among the latest in Europe. It is possible that a small nucleus was to be found there under the Romans and that in the Saxon period, isolated Jews extended their commercial activities as far as the British Isles. But the slender evidence formerly adduced in support of this (e.g., the references in the Liber Poenitentialis ascribed to Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury, 669) has no validity. -The Medieval Period Jews were settled in some numbers in the continental possessions of William the Conqueror. With the Norman Conquest in 1066, it was inevitable that some should follow him to England, even if (as sometimes reported) he did not specifically invite them. The new community thus had a comparatively artificial origin, and possessed a remarkable homogeneity, being composed almost entirely of financiers and their dependents. It may thus be regarded as a type of late medieval Jewry in composition and in occupation as well as in its close subjection to royal control. The community originated in the main in northern France, of which it was to some extent a cultural, linguistic, and economic offshoot. A minority came from Germany, Italy, and Spain, while one or two came even from Russia and the Muslim countries. By the mid-12th century, communities were to be found in most of the greater cities of the country, in lincoln , winchester , york , oxford , norwich , and bristol . However, the london community was always the most important. Until 1177 the only cemetery allowed was in London. No communities were found west of exeter or north of York. The Jews were treated tolerantly by the Norman monarchs. William Rufus (1087–1100) is even said to have encouraged them to enter into disputations with Christian clerics. Under Henry I (1100–35), an exemplary charter of liberties, the text of which is no longer preserved, was probably granted to the Jews. In the course of the 12th century, anti-Jewish feeling began to manifest itself. In 1130 the Jews of London were fined the then enormous sum of £2,000 on the charge that one of their number had killed a sick man. The first recorded blood libel took place at Norwich in 1144 and was imitated at gloucester in 1168, before the precedent came to be followed outside England. Similar accusations were made before the end of the century at bury st. edmunds (1181), Bristol (before 1183), and Winchester (1192). Nevertheless, the community grew in wealth and numbers, and its financial importance became increasingly recognized and exploited by the Crown. In 1168 a tallage (an arbitrary tax, theoretically levied only in emergency) of 5,000 marks (a mark was two-thirds of a £) was imposed by Henry II. In 1188 a tax of one-fourth of the value of their movable property was levied upon London Jewry. The amount raised, according to the rough contemporary estimate, was £60,000, as against only £70,000 raised from the general population. The annual revenue obtained by the state from the Jews is conjectured to have averaged at this time £3,000. aaron of lincoln (c. 1125–1186) was the greatest English capitalist of his day. His financial aid made possible the completion of several English monasteries and abbeys, besides secular buildings. On his death, his property and credits were claimed by the Exchequer, where a special department was set up to deal with them. The period of relative tranquility ended with the spread of crusading enthusiasm under Richard I. At his coronation, a riot began at the doors of Westminster Hall, which ended   in the sack of London's Jewry and the murder of many of its inhabitants (September 1189). The example spread throughout the country in the following spring. The leaders were in many cases members of the lesser baronage whose religious ardor was heightened by their financial indebtedness to the Jews. At Dunstable, the handful of Jews saved themselves by accepting Christianity. At Lynn (later King's Lynn ), foreign sailors exterminated the entire little community. At stamford and Norwich, all who did not take refuge in the royal castle perished. The most tragic episode occurred in York. There, the community, headed by R. Yom-Tov b. Isaac of Joigny, escaped massacre by voluntary death (March 16–17, 1190). These outrages had been accompanied everywhere by the burning of the deeds of debts due to the Jews. The Crown, which derived much revenue from the profits of the moneylenders, thus suffered considerable loss. Accordingly, after his return from captivity (to supply ransom the Jews of the country had been made to contribute three times as much as the citizens of London) Richard, by his "Ordinance of the Jewry" (1194), ordered the establishment of an archa or chirograph chest in principal cities, under the charge of Jewish and Christian "chirographers," in which duplicate records of all debts contracted with the Jews were to be deposited. Thus, whatever disorders might occur, the Crown's dues were henceforth secure. As coordinating authority over these provincial centers, ultimately some 26 in number, there came into being the Scaccarium Judaeorum or "Exchequer of the Jews" – an institution with both judicial and financial functions. Closely connected with it was the office of Presbyter Judaeorum or archpresbyter – not a chief rabbi, as once believed, but official representative and expert on Jewish matters appointed by the Crown. Of the occupants of this post, the names of Jacob of London (appointed 1199), Josce (1207), aaron (fil' (i.e., son of) Josce) of York (1236), elias le eveske (1243), Hagin (Ḥayyim) fil' Moses of Lincoln (1258), and Cok Hagin fil' Deulecresse (1281) are known. In the Exchequer, the Jews of England had an organization acting in the royal interest equaled in no other European country. Its records, preserved in unparalleled completeness, yield minute information as to their condition. The English communities never fully recovered from the blow they received at the time of the accession of Richard I. John indeed favored them at first and in 1201 confirmed their charter of liberties. However, later in his reign he began to squeeze money out of them by a succession of desperate expedients culminating in 1210 in the harshly-exacted Bristol Tallage of 60,000 or 66,000 marks (though this figure may have been used merely to describe a vast sum) which reduced them to the verge of ruin. Nevertheless, the barons viewed the Jews with aversion, as instruments of royal oppression; in the course of armed baronial resistance to the Crown, the Jewry of London was sacked. A clause in the Magna Carta (omitted in subsequent reconfirmations) restricted the claims of Jewish creditors against the estates of landowners who had died in their debt. During the minority of Henry III, the Jews recovered some degree of prosperity. This was, however, counterbalanced by the introduction at the Council of Oxford (1222) of the discriminatory legislation of the Fourth lateran council of 1215, which was enforced in England earlier and more consistently than in any other part of Europe. The most important of these provisions was the wearing of the jewish badge which here took the form of the two tablets of stone. From the beginning of the personal rule of Henry III in 1232, the condition of the Jews rapidly deteriorated. Tallage succeeded tallage with disastrous regularity. A "Parliament of Jews," consisting of six representatives from each of the major communities and two from the smaller centers, was held at worcester in 1241 in order to apportion one such levy. When nothing further could be extorted from the Jews directly, Henry exercised his rights as suzerain by mortgaging them to his brother, Richard of Cornwall. They were subsequently made over to Edward, the heir to the throne, who in turn consigned them to their competitors, the Cahorsins. The Crown, however, resumed its rights before the expiration of the period. Meanwhile, ecclesiastical enactments against the Jews were enforced with unprecedented severity. A new synagogue built at London was confiscated on a frivolous pretext (1232). There was a whole series of ritual murder accusations, culminating in the classical case of Hugh of lincoln in 1255. In 1253 a decree was issued forbidding the Jews to live henceforward except in towns with established communities. With the outbreak of the Barons' Wars in 1263, the Jews found themselves exposed to the animosity of the insurgents who regarded them as the instruments of royal oppression. From 1263 to 1266, one Jewish community after another was sacked, with considerable loss of life, including those of London (which suffered twice, in 1263 and 1264), cambridge , canterbury , Worcester, and Lincoln. -The Expulsion On his accession in 1272, Edward I found the Jews so impoverished that their importance to the treasury had become negligible. Moreover, foreign bankers who enjoyed a higher patronage had begun to render the services for which the Jews had formerly been indispensable. By the Statutum de Judaismo of 1275, the king endeavored to effect a radical change in the occupations and mode of life of his Jewish subjects. The practice of usury was forbidden. On the other hand, they were empowered to engage in commerce and (for an experimental period) to rent farms on short leases. They were not, however, permitted to enter the Gild Merchant, without which the privilege to engage in trade was virtually useless; nor were they given the security of tenure necessary for agricultural pursuits. The Statutum failed in its purpose. A few of the wealthier began to trade in wool and corn (though this was in many cases a mask for moneylending) but others continued to carry on clandestinely the petty usury now prohibited by law; while some eked out a living from their capital by clipping the coinage. This led   Jewish settlement in Britain before the expulsion of 1290, and communities existing in the late 20th century. Jewish settlement in Britain before the expulsion of 1290, and communities existing in the late 20th century.   in 1278 to widespread arrests and hangings, in many cases on the flimsiest pretexts. Edward may have contemplated a relaxation of the situation by permitting a resumption of usury but for a variety of economic and political reasons, and from sheer rapacity, he finally decided to resolve the problem drastically. On July 18, 1290, he issued an edict for the banishment of the Jews from England – the first of the great general expulsions of the Middle Ages – by All Saints' Day (November 1). Most of the refugees made their way to France, Flanders, and Germany. The English Jews of the Middle Ages perhaps numbered fewer than 4,000, though contemporary chroniclers put the   figure far higher. They formed, intellectually as well as politically, an offshoot of the neighboring Franco-German center, even speaking French among themselves. Their interests were accordingly halakhic rather than literary, though no name of the first importance figures among them. Outstanding scholars included jacob b. judah of London, author of the ritual compendium Eẓ Ḥayyim; the grammarian Benjamin of cambridge ; Isaac b. Perez of Northampton; moses b. Ha-Nesi'ah of London who wrote the grammatical work Sefer ha-Shoham; meir of Norwich, a liturgical poet; moses b. yom-tov of London, halakhist and grammarian; and his sons benedict of Lincoln (Berechiah of Nicole) and elijah Menahem of London, physician, scholar, and financier, the greatest luminary of medieval English Jewry. Their expulsion in 1290 cleared England of the Jews more completely than was the case in any other European country. The domus conversorum founded by Henry III in London in 1232 continued indeed to function until the beginning of the 17th century, but ultimately its few inmates were in every case foreigners. The only professing Jews known to have come to the country were half a dozen individuals in 1310 (perhaps to negotiate conditions for readmission), one or two physicians who were invited professionally, and occasional wandering adventurers. -The Resettlement Period This almost absolute isolation was broken by the repercussions of the expulsions from Spain and Portugal and of the activities of the Inquisition in the Iberian Peninsula, which drove refugees throughout Western Europe. A small marrano settlement was established in London in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI but broke up on the accession of Mary in 1553 and the Catholic reaction which ensued. In the reign of Elizabeth, a semi-overt congregation existed for some years in London and Bristol, comprising among others Dr. Hector Nunez whose commercial connections were found useful by the government in Spanish affairs, and roderigo lopez , the queen's physician, who was executed in 1594 on a charge of having plotted against her life. The latter was connected by marriage with Alvaro Mendes (solomon abenaes ), duke of Mytilene, who sent diplomatic missions to the English court on more than one occasion. Although this Marrano community at one time numbered approximately 100 persons, it had no legal guarantee of existence. With a change in political and economic conditions in 1609, it disappeared. Toward the middle of the 17th century, a new Marrano colony grew up in London, partly of refugees who had been settled for a time at Rouen and the Canary Islands. The revolution and the spread of extreme Puritan doctrine among the English people led to the development of a spirit more favorable to the Jews, which increased proportionately with the importance attached to the Old Testament. sir henry finch , Roger Williams, edward nicholas , and John Sadler were among the notables who joined in the agitation for the formal readmission of the Jews into England, whether as a measure of humanity or in the hopes of securing their conversion. The economic revival under cromwell , coupled with his anti-Spanish policy, combined to create an atmosphere more and more favorable to the Marrano merchants, some of whom, such as Antonio Fernandez carvajal , rendered the government valuable service in obtaining intelligence from the continent. Meanwhile, the reported discovery of Jews in America by Antonio (Aaron) de Montezinos had led manasseh ben israel , the Amsterdam rabbi and mystic, to look forward to the millennium which would be ushered in by the completion of the dispersion through the official introduction of the Jews to the "end of the earth" (Keẓeh ha-Areẓ = Angle-Terre). Negotiations with him, which had been going on fitfully since 1650, came to a head with his arrival in England in the autumn of 1655. A petition presented on behalf of the Jews was backed up by his eloquent plea in the "Humble Addresses" (Amsterdam, 1655), presented to the Lord Protector. On December 4, 1655, a conference of notables met at Whitehall to consider the whole question. The judges present decided that there was no statute which excluded the Jews from the country. On the other hand, a large body of theological and mercantile opinion manifested itself, which would consent to readmission only on the severest terms. After four sessions, Cromwell dissolved the conference before it arrived at a positive conclusion. In the following March, the London Marranos presented a fresh petition, merely asking for permission to have their own burial ground and to be protected from disturbance in the performance of their religious ceremonies. Their position was meanwhile strengthened by a judicial ruling which restored the property of antonio robles (seized on the outbreak of war with Spain because of his Spanish nationality), mainly on the grounds that he was a Jew. In July, as it seems, the petition of the previous March was at last taken into consideration and assented to by the Council of State. Although the relevant pages were subsequently torn out of the minute book, the settlement of the Jews in England was never thereafter seriously questioned. This was far from the formal recall for which Manasseh Ben Israel had hoped, but its very informality secured its continuance even after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and saved English Jewry from that special and inferior status which was the rule elsewhere in Europe. The easygoing King Charles II was indeed little disposed, on his return to England, to reverse the arrangement which had become established under the Protectorate, in spite of anti-Jewish agitation fostered by Thomas Violet and embodied in a petition by the City of London. In 1664, in consequence of an attempt at blackmail made by the Earl of Berkshire and Paul Ricaut, the community received from the Crown a formal promise of protection, and in 1673, after another petty persecution, a guarantee of freedom of worship, which was confirmed in similar circumstances in 1685. This pragmatic policy of protection for the Jews was continued throughout the reigns of the later Stuarts. Suggestions for special taxation (which must inevitably have led to special status) were not implemented.   The legality of the practice of Judaism in England at last received indirect parliamentary recognition in the Act for Suppressing Blasphemy of 1698. The community henceforth grew in wealth and in importance. Its numbers were increased by immigrants, principally from Amsterdam, or else directly from Spain and Portugal. Its position was consistently favorable, despite certain vexatious restrictions – e.g., the obligation to support their children even after conversion to Christianity and the limitation of the number of "Jew Brokers" in the City of London to 12. The only other community in the British Isles was a small Sephardi group in dublin . Nevertheless Jews figured in an increasing proportion in the growing colonial empire – at tangier , new york , bombay , and in the West Indies – especially jamaica and barbados . Numbers rapidly grew in the final years of the 17th century, particularly during the period of the close connection with Holland under William of Orange, when several families came over from Amsterdam. A new synagogue, now classified as an historic monument, was erected in Bevis Marks in London in 1701. The upper class of the community was composed of brokers and foreign traders; the lucrative coral trade, for example, was almost entirely in their hands. Jews entered gradually into various aspects of the country's life. Mention may be made of city magnates, such as samson gideon and joseph salvador , whose financial advice was sought by successive ministries, and of jacob de castro sarmento , a notable physician and scientist, of Moses mendes , the poet, and of emanuel mendes da costa , clerk and librarian of the Royal Society and a prolific writer. Meanwhile, an influx of Ashkenazim had followed upon the Sephardi pioneers. The forerunners came principally from Amsterdam and Hamburg, but they were followed by others from other parts of Germany and elsewhere, and later in increasing numbers from Eastern Europe. About 1690, a small Ashkenazi community was formed in London. In 1706, as the result of a communal dispute, a second was formed, and in 1761, a third. The newcomers were, for the most part, distinctly lower in social and commercial status than their Sephardi precursors. A large number of them were occupied in itinerant trading in country areas where the Jewish peddler became a familiar figure. They generally returned to pass the Sabbath in some provincial center. Thus congregations, several of which have since disappeared, grew up in the course of the second half of the 18th century in many country towns – Canterbury, Norwich, Exeter, and others, as well as ports such as portsmouth , liverpool , Bristol, plymouth , King's Lynn, penzance , and Falmouth, and manufacturing centers such as birmingham and manchester . London remained, however, the only considerable center. The external history of the Jews in England was meanwhile tranquil. In 1753 the introduction to Parliament of the Jewish Naturalization Bill ("The Jew Bill"), giving foreign-born Jews facilities for acquiring the privileges enjoyed by their native-born children, resulted in an anti-Jewish agitation so virulent that the government withdrew the measure; but it was not accompanied by physical violence. Political opposition, on the other hand, led to greater solidarity among the various sections of the community. From 1760 representatives of the Ashkenazi congregations began to act intermittently with the deputados of the Sephardim as a watch-committee in matters of common interest. This gradually developed into the London Committee of Deputies of British Jews (usually known as the board of deputies ), ultimately comprising representatives also of provincial and (in a minor degree) "colonial" congregations, which assumed its present form in the middle of the 19th century. -The 19th Century The Napoleonic Wars marked an epoch in the history of the Jews in England. Ashkenazi families, notably the goldsmids and rothschilds , began to occupy an increasingly important place in English finance and society. A generation of native-born Jews had meanwhile grown up, who were stimulated by the example of Jewish emancipation in France and elsewhere to desire similar rights for themselves. The civic and political disabilities from which they suffered did not in fact amount to very much, for they had enjoyed a great measure of social emancipation almost from the beginning, and commercial restrictions were confined to a few galling limitations in the city of London. In 1829, on the triumph of the movement for Catholic emancipation, agitation began for similar legislation on behalf of the Jews. It was championed in the Commons by Robert Grant and thomas babington macaulay , the great Whig historian, and in the Lords by the Duke of Sussex, son of George III, a keen Hebraist. On its second introduction in 1833, the Jewish Emancipation Bill was passed by the recently reformed House of Commons, but it was consistently rejected by the Lords in one session after the other. Meanwhile, the Jews were admitted to the office of sheriff (1835) and other municipal offices (1845). Minor disabilities were removed by the Religious Opinions Relief Bill (1846), which left their exclusion from Parliament the only serious grievance of which the English Jews could complain. Lionel de rothschild was elected by the city of London as its parliamentary representative time after time from 1847, but the continued opposition of the Lords blocked the legislation which could have enabled him to take the required oaths. In 1858, however, a compromise was reached, and each house of Parliament was allowed to settle its own form of oath. In 1885 Nathaniel de rothschild (Lionel's son) was raised to the peerage – the first professing Jew to receive that honor. The example of benjamin disraeli , one of the most brilliant of modern English statesmen, who made no effort to disguise his Jewish origin and sympathies, did much to improve the general social and political position of the Jews. sir george jessel was made solicitor general in 1871, and several Jews subsequently received government appointments. Herbert (later Viscount) samuel became a cabinet minister in 1909. sir david salomons , who had been the first Jewish sheriff in 1835 and the first Jewish alderman in 1847, became lord mayor of London in 1855 – a position in which   several Jews have since followed him. In 1890 religious restrictions on virtually every political position and dignity were removed and Jewish emancipation became complete. Considerable changes had meanwhile been taking place within the community. There was a gradual movement toward greater cohesion. The Sephardi community had to yield pride of place to the Ashkenazim before the end of the 18th century. solomon hirschel , son of R. Hirschel Levin (Hart Lyon), was appointed rabbi of the Great Synagogue in London in 1802, in succession to david tevele schiff of Frankfurt. His authority was recognized by the other Ashkenazi congregations in London, who were induced by him to enter into a closer union. His successor, nathan marcus adler , who was elected to office by the delegates of the London congregations in association with those of the major provincial communities, may be considered the first chief rabbi. The extension of his authority is indicated in the Laws and Regulations for all the Synagogues in the British Empire which he issued in 1847. He was followed as chief rabbi in 1891 by his son, hermann adler , who had been acting as his father's delegate for some years. He was succeeded by joseph herman hertz . COMMUNAL EXPANSION During the 19th century Anglo-Jewry took the lead in measures for the protection of the Jews and the amelioration of their position in every part of the world. In this they were assured of the assistance of the British government, which was now identified with a strikingly protective policy toward the Jews, especially of Palestine and the Muslim countries of the Middle East – partly because of the absence of closely allied Christian bodies on whose behalf the exertion of political influence could ostensibly be based, as was the case with the rival Russian and French governments. The Board of Deputies increased in scope of activity and in importance. sir moses montefiore , backed up by the British government, acted as the ambassador for the whole of Jewry, in the event of persecution, from the damascus affair of 1840 onward. In 1871 the anglo-jewish association was founded to collaborate in the work of the Alliance Israélite Universelle , prejudiced by the enmities aroused through the Franco-Prussian War; and in 1878 the Joint (Conjoint) Foreign Committee, which it formed in conjunction with the Board of Deputies, came into being as an agency for safeguarding Jewish interests abroad. The jewish chronicle , the first permanent Anglo-Jewish periodical (now the oldest continuing Jewish publication in the world), was established in 1841. In 1855 Jews' College was founded in London – the first theological seminary for the training of Anglo-Jewish ministers of religion. It was followed four years later by the Jewish Board of Guardians (since 1964 known as the Jewish Welfare Board), a model London organization for the relief of the poor, which was widely imitated in provincial centers. The loose union for certain charitable and other purposes of the Ashkenazi synagogues in London, which had been in existence since the beginning of the century, became consolidated in 1870 by the establishment, under authority of an act of Parliament, of the United Synagogue which is today one of the most powerful Jewish religious organizations of its sort in the world. The basis of the community had meanwhile been broadening, though it remained overwhelmingly centered in London. The industrial developments of the 19th century led to a widening of the area of Jewish settlement, important communities based largely on German immigration being formed or expanded in provincial centers such as Manchester, bradford , etc. All were Ashkenazi, except at Manchester, where a Sephardi community was also organized in the second half of the century, mostly composed of newcomers from the Levant. With the recrudescence of persecution in Russia in 1881, immigration increased immensely. A majority of the refugees settled in London; the communities of Manchester, Birmingham, and other places were similarly reinforced while that of leeds , wholly based on the tailoring industry, proportionately attracted the greatest number of all. The congregations in all the more important industrial towns and seaports throughout the country – including scotland , wales , and ireland – now grew to important dimensions. However, at the same time, some of the older country centers, such as Canterbury or Penzance, were decaying. The newcomers largely settled in urban districts and entered one or two specific trades; the ready-made clothing industry was virtually created as a result of their efforts. The characteristically English Trade Union and Friendly Society movements rapidly acquired a stronghold. The tide of immigration was, however, checked by the Aliens Immigration Act of 1905, passed after a long agitation which at one time assumed something of an antisemitic complexion. The Federation of Synagogues was established in London by the first Lord Swaythling in 1887 to coordinate the many small congregations set up by the Russian-Polish immigrant elements – partly in rivalry with the "aristocratic" United Synagogue. The Reform movement had been introduced into England, in spite of strenuous opposition, in 1840, when the West London Synagogue of British Jews was founded. It was long confined almost entirely to the capital. Branch congregations were set up before the end of the 19th century only in Manchester and in Bradford. A more radical movement was begun by the foundation at the beginning of the 20th century, under the auspices of C.G. Montefiore , of the Jewish Religious Union, which in 1910 established the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. This also showed in the mid-century a considerable measure of expansion. The vast mass of English Jewry, however, remained attached to the compromising Orthodoxy represented by the United Synagogue. SCHOLARSHIP AND CULTURE The most eminent Jewish scholars associated with England have been immigrants from abroad, such as david nieto , ephraim luzzatto , michael friedlaender , solomon schechter , and adolf buechler . The most eminent native-born scholars have been humanists rather than talmudists, such as david levi , an able polemicist and translator of the liturgy, and (in more recent years)   israel abrahams , H.M.J. Loewe , and C.G. Montefiore. On the other hand, through the building up of the superb collections of Hebrew printed books and manuscripts at the British Museum, the bodleian library at Oxford, and the Library of the University of Cambridge (the last predominating in the genizah Mss.), England has become in many ways the Mecca of the Jewish student throughout the world. The disraelis , father and son, are noteworthy figures in the English literature of the 19th century. grace aguilar and amy levy are among the earliest names in a series of Anglo-Jewish novelists which culminated with israel zangwill , louis golding , etc. joseph jacobs was an eminent figure in English as well as in Jewish letters. sir sidney lee , editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and the foremost Shakespearian scholar of his day, and sir israel gollancz , secretary of the British Academy, illustrated the Jewish contribution to English literary studies. In art, simeon solomon , solomon j. solomon , sir jacob epstein , and sir william rothenstein were notable figures. Sir Landon Ronald occupied an important position in the world of music. alfred sutro was among the most popular English dramatists of the Edwardian era, while in the middle of the 20th century arnold wesker , harold pinter , wolf mankowitz , peter shaffer and others have attracted considerable attention. In politics, the Jewish representation in Parliament is considerable. Jews have been identified with all parties (since World War II, especially the Labour Party), and individuals have risen to high rank under governments of every complexion. (Cecil Roth) -Modern Period MASS IMMIGRATION The mass immigration from Eastern Europe that began in 1881 opened a new epoch in Anglo-Jewish history. The Anglo-Jewish community was affected not only by the sheer size of the migration, which increased the population of the community from 65,000 in 1880 to 300,000 in 1914, but also by the differences it imposed on the character of the community. The immigration injected into what was by then an increasingly middle-class, anglicized, mainly latitudinarian body, a mass of proletarian, Yiddish-speaking, predominantly Orthodox immigrants. Whereas the existing community had begun to disperse from the old Jewish quarters into the suburbs, the immigrants formed compact, overcrowded ghettos in East London, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Furthermore, while the earlier English Jews had tended to seek an increasing diversity of occupations in the 19th century, the immigrants were concentrated in a limited number of trades: in 1901, about 40% of the gainfully employed Russo-Polish immigrant males were tailors, about 12–13% were in the boot and shoe trade, and about 10% were in the furniture trade, mainly as cabinetmakers. The immigrants created a network of institutions such as Yiddish and a few Hebrew newspapers and fraternal societies and trade unions, although the Jewish trade-union movement had no lasting history in Britain. They also created many small synagogues (ḥevrot) and joined in the London Federation of Synagogues – albeit under the leadership of English Jews – headed by Sir Samuel Montagu, later Lord Swaythling. The communal leadership sought to "anglicize" the immigrants by encouraging their participation in classes in English, the state-aided Jewish schools, such as the Jews' Free School, and clubs and youth movements, like the jewish lads brigade . The London united synagogue tried to found a large synagogue in the Jewish quarter with associated community services (the "East End Scheme"), but this plan was frustrated largely by opposition from the ḥevrot it was intended to replace. The immigrants themselves generally sought anglicization, as British prestige was high in the world and the British libertarian tradition was appreciated among Jews. While some stalwarts, such as the Machzike Hadath community, remained aloof, many immigrants joined the United Synagogue, since its rite was broadly traditional. The instance of social mobility was high among the immigrants: they sought economic independence, moved to the suburbs, and joined the Anglo-Jewish middle class. Leaving aside minorities of Orthodox, secularists, Yiddishists, socialists, and anarchists, the Anglo-Jewish community that evolved was probably more integrated than any other in the western lands of immigration. The influx of so many aliens, at a time when there was no effective control over immigration, produced considerable reaction among the native population. Charges were made that aliens working for low wages on piecework in small workshops would depress wages generally and cause unemployment; pressure on housing accommodation would cause overcrowding, raise rents, and introduce "key money" (premiums for grant of tenancies); the English or "Christian" character of whole neighborhoods would be altered, and immigrants would bring disease and crime. Strong sections of the trade unions were hostile to immigration. Organizations such as the British Brothers' League were formed to combat it, and, unfortunately, the peak years of immigration occurred during a period of economic depression. The charges against the aliens were investigated by several official inquiries, culminating in the Royal Commission on Aliens in 1903, which declared all the charges unfounded, except, in part, that relating to overcrowded housing conditions. A majority of the commission recommended measures to prevent the concentration of immigrants in particular areas. This move proved impracticable, but the government reacted by introducing the 1905 Aliens Act to restrict immigration. The act had some effect at first, but, since it contained appeal provisions for genuine refugees from racial or religious persecution, the number of immigrants increased again to the former annual average. Many opponents of immigration sought to distinguish between the immigrant population and the established Jewish community. The latter had at first displayed an ambivalent attitude toward the immigrants. Although they recognized the humanitarian problem, some leaders feared that the communal institutions would be swamped by the helpless, and at first it was not generally appreciated that   Russian persecution was more than a temporary check on the progress of liberalization. In the earlier years, therefore, attempts were made to dissuade immigrants from coming to England and even to "repatriate" them to Eastern Europe. After the 1903–04 pogroms, however, there was no longer any doubt about the nature of the situation in Eastern Europe and the support of the Jewish communal leadership for immigration was unquestioned. PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC LIFE Meanwhile, political emancipation for British Jews reached its climax when the first peerage was conferred upon a Jew, Lord rothschild (1885). The attainment of social acceptance was expressed by the presence of a number of Jews in the "Marlborough House set" centered around the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII); Lord Rothschild and his brothers, Alfred and Leopold, the Reuben brothers, Arthur and Albert sassoon , sir ernest cassel , baron de hirsch , and others, were members of this group. Jews had also become prominent in politics as Conservative members of Parliament (such as the communal leaders Lionel Louis and benjamin cohen ), although as a group they still belonged primarily to the Liberal Party which had fostered Jewish emancipation. Notable in the Asquith administration, which began in 1906, were Sir Rufus Isaacs (who became lord chief justice as Lord reading in 1913) and the young Herbert Samuel. The prominence of Jews in Liberal politics, the Marconi case (in which both Isaacs and Samuel were, however unfairly, involved), the wealth of Jewish financiers, and even the friendship of Jews with royalty were all ingredients in the literary antisemitism of the Edwardian period, in which Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, and Rudyard Kipling all attacked the allegedly alien influences in high places. WORLD WAR I The outbreak of World War I (1914) ended the great immigration, although the refugees from Belgium included a considerable number of Jews of East European origin. The high-strung xenophobia of the early war years, in which everything related to Germany was attacked, created some antisemitism and some curious anti-German reactions in the Anglo-Jewish community. The demand for uniform clothing produced an economic boom which benefited small Jewish entrepreneurs. On the other hand, because their civilian occupations were generally not essential enough to defer them from military service in the national interest, the proportion of Jews in the armed forces was higher than in the general population. Genuine loyalty, however, was also responsible for this factor: there were 10,000 casualties among the 50,000 Jews serving, and 1,596 were decorated (including six recipients of the highest award, the Victoria Cross), which was also probably above the general average. Of special significance was the raising of Jewish battalions of the Royal Fusiliers to serve in the campaign to liberate Palestine from the Turks. The outstanding event of the war, however, was the attainment of the balfour declaration in 1917. Zionism in England originated with the Ḥovevei Zion in 1887, led by Elim d'Avigdor and Colonel albert goldsmid . Although some of the older members of Anglo-Jewry were interested in the Jewish national movement, the recent immigrants provided the mass of support, particularly after the development of political Zionism in 1897. herzl visited England on a number of occasions and the offer of uganda was made to him by joseph chamberlain , then colonial secretary. Although Sir Francis Montefiore became president of the English Zionist Federation, formed in 1899, many leading figures of the established community, notably the first Lord Rothschild, sir samuel montagu (Lord Swaythling), and hermann adler , the chief rabbi, opposed it. The turmoil World War I brought to the Middle East and the desire to influence American Jewry on behalf of the Western allies provided chaim weizmann with the opportunity to persuade the British government to issue the Balfour Declaration. To some extent, Weizmann had been anticipated by Herbert Samuel, a member of the government until 1916, in a pro-Zionist memorandum to the prime minister. The official leadership of the community was now much more disposed to Zionism: the new chief rabbi, Joseph Hertz, the Haham of the Sephardim, moses gaster , and the second Lord Rothschild (who succeeded his father in 1915) were all actively associated with Zionism. The issue of the declaration had been preceded by a letter to the Times from the presidents of the Board of Deputies (D.L. Alexander) and the Anglo-Jewish Association (Claude Montefiore) dissociating themselves from Jewish nationalism. The declaration precipitated the resignation of Alexander and the victory of the pro-Zionists, whose views were henceforth the official policy of the Anglo-Jewish establishment. The events of 1917 thus served as a catalyst within the Anglo-Jewish community and promoted it into a new role in world Jewry, since Britain was to become the administering power for the Jewish National Home. RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL TRENDS Although Russo-Jewish immigrants had exercised a decisive influence in the religious and intellectual spheres, they were not alone. A group of British- or Empire-born scholars and writers grew up in the 1880s with the Romanian-born solomon schechter as their mentor. The Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition of 1887 (with whose organization the art connoisseur Sir Isidore Spielmann was associated) was visited by heinrich graetz , who urged the formation of a body to study Anglo-Jewish history. This suggestion was implemented in 1893 by the foundation of the jewish historical society of England, with whose work lucien wolf , equally celebrated as an expert on international affairs, was associated for over 35 years. Apart from the continuation of historical studies, the specifically Anglo-Jewish renaissance was short; Schechter and Jacobs moved to America, as did the jewish quarterly review (begun by Claude Montefiore and Israel Abrahams in 1888). The main body of religious Anglo-Jewry continued its latitudinarian way. While small congregations of German or East European origin maintained a separate existence on the extreme right of the religious spectrum, the immigrants increasingly joined the United Synagogue in London and its   provincial counterparts. Some changes in liturgical usage had been sanctioned by the aged chief rabbi, Nathan Marcus Adler, in 1880 and may have led to his retirement from active office. His son, Hermann, who succeeded him sanctioned further changes in 1892. But these changes were in detail rather than substance and followed what the United Synagogue then described as its principle of progressive Conservatism, an attitude confirmed by the next chief rabbi, Hertz. In contrast to this trend was a movement in the 1890s for more radical change that soon broke from the Orthodox ranks, although several of those originally concerned, such as simeon singer , the translator of the prayer book, remained in the Orthodox community. As a result, in 1902, Claude Montefiore formed the Jewish Religious Union, which soon developed into the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. The 1920s was a period of deceptive political calm and relative intellectual stagnation for Anglo-Jewry. Socially, the decade saw the progressive anglicization of the community and its increasing upward mobility from the working to the middle class. Small businesses prospered; the new generation turned to professional callings as lawyers, doctors, dentists, and accountants; and university education, even in the established institutions, began to be the practice for the middle class, instead of the prerogative of virtually the upper class alone. Social change was reflected in the steady exodus from the crowded Jewish quarters in London and the main provincial centers as middle-class families acquired a house and garden in the expanding residential suburbs. A distinctively Anglo-Jewish, middle-class way of life began to develop there, and Golders Green became as characteristic a milieu of interwar Anglo-Jewry as Maida Vale had been in the 1880s. An attempt to finance a massive education renaissance as the Jewish memorial to World War I fell far short of achievement, but the United Synagogue, under the effective paternalism of the industrialist sir robert waley-cohen , continued to expand as an efficiently run religious organization and founded new synagogues in the developing districts of London. During this period, the Board of Deputies was led by Sir Osmond d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, a founder of the "mixed" jewish agency , on which both Zionists and non-Zionists served. Although the Zionist victory of 1917 had changed the community's political trend, it had not yet effected a social revolution and removed control from members of the older establishment. THE SHADOW OF NAZISM The 1930s were overshadowed by the rise of fascism, which produced an immigration of 90,000 refugees (73,000 from Germany and Austria, 10,000 from Czechoslovakia, 4,000–5,000 from Poland, and 2,000 from Italy and elsewhere). Of this number, 10,000–12,000 left Britain in 1940, 2,000–2,500 were transferred as internees to Australia and Canada and did not return, and 15,000–20,000 left after 1945 or died during the period, so that some 40,000–55,000 prewar refugees, mostly but not exclusively Jewish, were counted in Britain by 1950. Quantitatively, this was a substantial intake for a community of between 300,000 and 400,000, though a much smaller one than the Russo-Jewish immigration of 1881–1914. Qualitatively, its impact was almost as great. The Central European immigrants were essentially from the middle class, unlike the originally proletarian Russo-Jewish ones. Before drastic restrictions were imposed on the export of property from Germany, the refugees of the 1930s brought considerable capital: it is estimated that up to mid-1938, £12,000,000 were transferred from Germany to Britain. The immigrants created or transplanted many businesses, particularly in the fashion trades, pharmaceutical production, and light engineering, and made London the European center of the fur trade in place of Leipzig. Equally important was the influence of the many professionals, intellectuals, and artists upon British scientific, literary, and cultural life. The effect of this immigration upon Anglo-Jewry was even more dramatic. Both branches of religious life were strengthened. Ministers and scholars trained in the German Reform movement revitalized progressive Judaism; the Frankfurt-inspired Orthodox expanded the separatist Orthodox movement in England and also produced a shift to the right in the United Synagogue. The Jewish day-school movement, the gateshead yeshivah (founded in 1927) and associated institutions and, after 1945, a number of other educational institutions (especially in North and North-West London) were strengthened by German and Hungarian Jews. The Central European immigrants virtually created a cultural revival in the academic sphere. They took part in every aspect of activity from rabbinic studies to Anglo-Jewish historiography, and postwar institutions like the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College, London, would have been unthinkable without them. Continental fascism was imitated in England on a smaller scale and fostered by the economic depression of the early 1930s. Attacks on Jews and Jewish property by the "black-shirts" led by the English fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, provocative processions through the Jewish areas, and street clashes with left-wing elements followed, but were checked by the 1936 Public Order Act, which, inter alia, banned the wearing of political uniforms. The need to defend the community against these attacks induced a feeling of solidarity that was intensified by the need to raise funds for the relief of refugees and the work of settlement in Palestine. Fund raising again became a primary communal commitment that served as a unifying force as well as an engrossing organizational and social activity. WORLD WAR II The outbreak of war in 1939 had a centrifugal effect on Anglo-Jewry. At first schoolchildren and some mothers were evacuated from London and other large centers of population; the heavy bombing which began in the autumn of 1940 brought about a more general dispersal. Service in the armed forces took away women as well as men, and in 1940 refugees were subjected to large-scale, though temporary, internment. Religious and communal life in London continued   on a smaller scale, and the dispersal of the population was followed by a regrouping in new communities in the evacuation areas. The countryside and small towns, which had hardly known a Jew, became the homes of thriving communities for the duration of the war, and some of these new communities maintained their existence even after the war. The main effect of the war on the distribution of the Jewish population, however, is seen in the East End of London and in some of the other Jewish quarters in the main provincial cities, where the bombing destroyed the physical environment. The Ashkenazi Great Synagogue in Duke's Place, London, was only one of the Jewish monuments and institutions that was lost. In the East End of London, the old Jewish residential area was never rebuilt though some of the older people remained or returned and many others continued to come in daily to work. ENGLAND AND PALESTINE The relations of the developing Jewish community in Palestine with the British government as a mandatory power increasingly concerned the Anglo-Jewish community, which expressed opposition to the policy set down in the White Paper of 1939, limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine. Support for a Jewish state was the policy of the Zionist bodies and the world jewish congress , but not of the anglo-jewish association nor of its splinter group, the anti-Zionist Jewish Fellowship, headed by Sir Basil henriques (which dissolved in 1948). The Anglo-Jewish Association enjoyed great prestige for its distinguished membership and 70 years of concern with foreign affairs. The wish to mobilize the support in the representative body of Anglo-Jewry for Zionist policies was combined with a desire to make its leadership reflect the changing character of the community as a whole. These aspirations were symbolized by the 1939 election of selig brodetsky , a first generation Russo-Jewish immigrant, educated in Britain, as president of the Board of Deputies. They were realized in 1943 by a carefully planned campaign to secure the election to the board of a majority committed to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. The newly elected board dissolved its joint Foreign Committee with the Anglo-Jewish Association. As in World War I, the problems of Palestine effected a polarization in the Anglo-Jewish community between those who put primary emphasis on Jewish national ideals and those who stressed the overriding claims of British citizenship. Although this dichotomy was unrealistic in many respects, it sharpened communal tensions. After the creation of the State of Israel, the Anglo-Jewish Association adopted a policy of goodwill toward the new state, but stressed the responsibilities of Anglo-Jews as citizens of Britain who were identified with its national life. Communal tensions were also heightened by some antisemitism, which resulted from the conflict between the mandatory administration and the yishuv, beginning with the assassination of Lord Moyne in 1944 and culminating in the hanging of two British army sergeants in August 1947. The latter was followed by minor disorders in some provincial cities and some attacks on Jewish property. Normalcy was restored after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the British government and the new state. EDUCATION The need to provide for the education of children dispersed in the 1939–45 evacuation led to the formation of a joint emergency organization. In 1945 Jewish education was substantially reorganized on this basis with a central council for the whole country and an executive board for London, representing the United Synagogue and other Orthodox institutions. Jewish education during the evacuation had been limited to an average of one hour a week, and improvement of standards after the war was slow. The new organization was responsible for the reconstitution of the Jews' Free School and two other of the prewar private schools that were closed during the war, one of which was a secondary comprehensive school in a central location with a planned complement of 1,500 pupils. As Jewish education regained importance, the schools took various forms: the Jewish secondary schools movement, begun in 1929 by Victor Schonfeld; the day schools begun in the 1950s under Zionist auspices; independent Orthodox day schools with Yiddish as a language of instruction; the long-standing provincial day schools; and Carmel College, a private school in the country, founded by Kopul Rosen. -Early Postwar Period Chief Rabbi Hertz died in January 1946 and israel brodie succeeded him in May 1948. The first chief rabbi to be both born and educated in Britain, Brodie found the religious spectrum of Anglo-Jewry not only growing stronger at either end but also tending to disintegrate in the middle. Orthodoxy, combining strict observance and exact learning with secular culture, had been strengthened by the Central European refugees of the Frankfurt school and, particularly after 1945, was also increased by refugees from Poland and Hungary, many of whom were Hasidim. The Reform and Liberal congregations, while still a minority, probably increased their membership at a greater rate than the United Synagogue, opening numerous new congregations and founding the Leo Baeck College to train their own ministers. Although their leadership was clearly strengthened by the Central European immigration of 1933–39, much of their postwar membership could only have come from the ranks of the nominally Orthodox. The Spanish and Portuguese Congregation also increased with the immigration of Jews from Egypt, Iraq, and Aden. In 1956, Anglo-Jewry celebrated the tercentenary of the resettlement, with a more or less united service at the historic Bevis Marks Synagogue and a dinner at London's Guildhall, in the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh. But the sentiments of communal solidarity – and of self-congratulation on communal self-discipline – engendered by these celebrations were short-lived. There had already been considerable changes within the main synagogal bodies. The character of the Federation of Synagogues changed as its membership, while hardly increasing, moved from the small ḥevrot of the   East End to live in the suburbs. There they often attended local synagogues but retained membership in the federation for sentiment and burial rights. The old-fashioned minister (and even his clerical collar) had disappeared in the United Synagogue in favor of younger rabbis, often pupils of Jews' College under the direction of isidore epstein , who strove to remodel it as a rabbinical seminary. The bet din, under the influence above all of the great scholar yehezkel abramsky , steadily kept the religious orientation of the United Synagogue to the right; at the same time, however, the old lay leadership, under the presidency of Frank Samuel and Ewen Montagu, tended toward religious flexibility. The influence of members of the older families must not be exaggerated, however. As early as the 1950s, a new generation of laymen – second-generation citizens, Zionist, and traditionally Orthodox – was maturing in the United Synagogue. In all these changes lay the seeds of conflict, which crystallized around louis jacobs , a rabbi of Orthodox practice who held certain modernist views. Minister of the fashionable New West End Synagogue (London), Jacobs was appointed tutor of Jews' College in 1959 with the consent of the chief rabbi. The latter, however, vetoed Jacobs' appointment as college principal and then in 1964 his reappointment to his former synagogue, because he held that Jacobs maintained parts of the Torah were not of divine origin and human reason should select which parts were divine. The local management of the synagogue persisted in their desire to have Jacobs as minister and permitted him to preach, although the requisite certificate or special sanction had not been issued by the chief rabbi. The central body of the United Synagogue then constitutionally deposed Jacobs' supporters, who founded a new congregation in another area with Jacobs as minister. The "Jacobs Affair" received wide publicity in the non-Jewish press, but its significance may have been exaggerated. Since the formation of the Reform Synagogue in 1840, Anglo-Jewry has not been very interested in theology or biblical criticism, as distinct from ritual or liturgy. There were personal and social factors underlying the controversy, and a shift took place in the leadership of the United Synagogue in 1962, when the presidency was first filled from outside the circle of older families by the financier and industrialist sir isaac wolfson . The incident that led to the formation of a new synagogue was over a disciplinary issue, not a theological one (preaching without the chief rabbi's certificate), and the new congregation has not yet inspired a wider movement. The issues involved in the "Jacobs Affair" and its consequences could, however, be regarded as marginal to the much more important problem of Jewish religious life, i.e., the progressive alienation of growing sections of the Anglo-Jewish community from Jewish religious affiliation of any kind. The main countervailing factor to the trend away from Jewish identification was the influence of the State of Israel. Mobilizing support for Israel was a major communal and social activity and, to some extent, a substitute for the organized religious life of earlier times. But it actively affected only a minority of the community until the six-day war (1967), when the danger to and triumph of Israel produced an emotional reaction unprecedented in intensity and affecting even many who were previously estranged from Jewish life. It was not clear, however, how lasting the effect would be or whether it might weaken Anglo-Jewry still further by adding to those numbers, previously inconsiderable, who have gone to settle in Israel. Anglo-Jewry made little impact on world scholarship in the second third of the 20th century. (Vivian David Lipman) DEMOGRAPHY The number of Jews in Britain, which was estimated to be 410,000 in 1967, is declining in absolute terms. World Jewish population figures show that during the 1960s Britain's Jewish community has slipped numerically from fourth to sixth place. This decline is being felt acutely in the provinces, in both very small communities and larger centers. Greater London, on the other hand, has maintained its level of 280,000 Jewish inhabitants (61% of the total Jewish population of the country). Close to 75% of the Jewish population of Britain is concentrated in the country's five largest cities. The most significant trend in the last two decades has been the migration of the Jewish population from the urban central areas – the old ghetto quarters – to the new suburban districts surrounding big conurbations. The exodus from the older districts has not, however, been characterized as a transplantation of old communities in new areas. A concomitant phenomenon has been the wider distribution of the Jewish population in places more distant from urban centers and settlement in a more scattered fashion among a predominantly non-Jewish population. In these areas Jews lack effective community organization and are isolated from the more developed forms of Jewish life found nearer the cities, exposing them to the potent forces of assimilation. The influence of assimilation must be regarded as one of the factors contributing to the numerical decline of the community. In purely demographic terms, the most visible symptom of this decline, and one reflecting the speed with which it is taking place, is the drop in Jewish marriages, and the intermarriage rate has been estimated to be between 12% and 25%. The drastic change can be seen when the synagogue marriage rate of 4.0 per thousand in the period 1961–65 is compared with the marriage rate in the general population, which was 7.5 in the same period. This very substantial difference may be attributed to two main causes: (a) the rise in the number of Jews who marry by civil ceremony only, a phenomenon which might also signify a rise in the rate of intermarriage; the decline in the Jewish birthrate over the last few decades. In the second half of the 20th century a strong tendency had set in among Jews in Britain not to go through a religious ceremony in the synagogue, the causal factor for which might be the increase in the intermarriage rate. OCCUPATIONS The occupational trends in the second quarter of the 20th century (up to the 1960s) have been as follows:   large numbers have abandoned the semi-skilled and manual occupations; increasing proportions have entered occupations with opportunities for self-employment, such as shopkeeping, hairdressing, and taxi driving; and there has been a continuous rise in the number of Jews entering the professions. The number of economically active persons in the community has declined, but one explanation for this turn is the greater number of Jewish students who remain in school after age 15 and proceed into the professions. The disproportionate Jewish interest in finance has drastically decreased and preoccupation with manufacturing has increased substantially. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the predominance of Jewish-owned merchant banks has declined, while Jews have become more prominent in enterprises of large-scale production, particularly of consumer goods. On the whole, information concerning industrial distribution shows that remarkable similarities exist between Jews in Britain, the United States, Canada, and continental Europe. In all cases large concentrations of Jews are found in the clothing and textile trades, distributive trades, and light industries, and to an increasing degree in professional and administrative services. There is an under-representation of Jews, however, in agriculture and heavy industries. The fact that the younger generation has largely avoided the traditional Jewish industrial setting of tailoring and furniture making in the last three decades has resulted in a decline of the Jewish labor and trade-union movements that flourished at the turn of the century. The Jewish worker in the 1950s exhibited a strong tendency to leave the ranks of the working class and become self-employed. It has been estimated that Jewish students compose 3% of the total student population of Britain, whereas Jews account for less than 1% of the population of the country. In addition, only 11.4% of the Jewish women were economically active, compared to 33.9% in the general population. COMMUNITY LIFE Organization life in Britain boasts a wide array of charitable, religious, educational, recreational, and political groups. These often overlap both in function and membership, which makes it difficult to estimate the proportions of Jews associated with particular types of organizations. Some figures are available, however; in London 61% of the Jews are members of synagogues, as are 75% in Liverpool; in Leeds more than 43% contribute to charitable organizations, and over 63% contribute to the jewish national fund ; in the Willesden district of London, 72% of the boys and 53% of the girls are members of Jewish youth groups. Youth organizations are divided into the following categories: various clubs offering social and sports activities, the best example of which is maccabi ; Zionist organizations offering educational and recreational programs and strengthening cultural and personal ties with Israel, such as habonim and bnei akiva ; organizations providing study courses and the Jewish Youth Study Group movement; and societies for Jewish students at universities and colleges. The larger representative youth organizations are the Jewish Youth Council, on which nearly 40 organizations are represented; the Association of Jewish Youth, with some 15,000 members; and the Inter-University Jewish Federation, with some 30 affiliated societies in most universities and in many other higher educational establishments. Some of the basic constituents of religious identification seem to have remained stable since the 1930s. Thus, in 1934 there were 310 registered synagogues in England and Wales and 400 in 1962; however, considering that there were fewer than 300,000 Jews in the country in 1934, the number of synagogues per thousand Jews had not changed. In London more than a third of the Jewish population is not affiliated with any synagogue, while in Leeds and Liverpool less than a quarter of the Jews were found to be similarly unaffiliated. All the surveys taken in this area point to the fact that the vast majority of Jews still ascribe to religious burial. Synagogue attendance compared with prewar years has been low, except for the High Holidays; however, fragmentary statistics on this point suggest that attendance runs parallel to church attendance among the general population, i.e., between 13–15% of the population attend services weekly. Some religious practices, such as bar-mitzvahs, are observed by a substantial majority, and other practices, such as circumcision, are almost universally maintained. There can be no doubt, however, that on the whole the influence of religion on Anglo-Jewry has declined. immanuel jakobovits , who was elected chief rabbi in 1966, declared after taking office in 1967 that the survival of Judaism was the primary challenge, in view of "staggering losses by defections, assimilation and intermarriage." He drew particular attention to the estimate that 85% of the students and 90% of the 2,000 academics were outside organized Jewish religious life. EDUCATION AND CULTURE The leadership of the community agrees that the key to the preservation of Jewish identification in general, and religious practice in particular, is education, although Jewish education in and of itself will not insure identification without the maintenance of a Jewish atmosphere in the home. Statistics also reveal a continuing desire on the part of Jews to associate mainly with fellow-Jews. Education has been constantly highlighted, therefore, and in the past 15 years much effort has gone into the establishment of Jewish day schools, especially after it became evident that Jewish education imparted through talmud torah classes after school hours was becoming less and less satisfactory. In 1962 it was estimated that in London and the provinces, at any one time, only about 57% of Jewish children of school age were receiving Jewish instruction. Despite the efforts to extend day-school programs to larger numbers, the achievement is less impressive than it might at first appear. In the whole of Britain in 1963 there were some 8,800 children in the 48 Jewish day schools (of which only 12 were secondary schools), a figure that represented a doubling of students compared with the situation ten years before. Progress since 1963 has been rather slow, although a certain amount of consolidation in   the day-school movement has taken place. (See also education , Great Britain.) Higher Jewish and Hebrew education can be obtained in yeshivot and colleges with specialized departments in these fields. A survey published in 1962 showed that in the eight yeshivot in Britain, there were 392 full-time students (many of whom were from overseas). Jews' College had 31 students in its combined degree and minister's-diploma course during the 1959–60 session. Similarly, the numbers associated with cultural bodies such as the Jewish Historical Society or the Friends of Yiddish are relatively small. The larger Jewish public is reached, however, by the Jewish press, which has a strong influence on the measure of individual identification. The leading position is taken by the Jewish Chronicle, which has the widest circulation in the community. A number of smaller newspapers also cater to some of the provincial towns and to some sections of the community more actively connected with Israel and its specific political parties. Two leading academic journals, The Jewish Journal of Sociology (1959– ) and The Journal of Jewish Studies (1949– ), are published, and two social science units, one at the Board of Deputies and the other at the Institute of Jewish Affairs, are specifically engaged in research on Jews. There is no regular Hebrew publication in the form of a journal or a newspaper, and the almost total decline of Yiddish is reflected in the closing of the last weekly Yiddish newspaper in 1967. The trend in Britain toward an open society and the existence of equal citizenship rights has closed the social distance between the Jewish minority and British society, and in turn has been eroding Jewish identification. There can be no doubt that progressive emancipation has been leading to a greater degree of assimilation. The persistence of prejudice and some degree of discrimination against Jews has worked, however, in the opposite direction. During the 1950s and 1960s Britain was not free of such anti-Jewish prejudices. They have been promoted by tiny antisemitic groups, who in 1959 and again in 1965 engaged in desecration and arson against synagogues and have spasmodically disseminated virulent antisemitic literature. Less extreme or overt prejudice has also been evident in the business world; for example, in some insurance firms and other commercial enterprises. Quotas exist for Jewish pupils in some elite schools, and Jews have been excluded from the membership of some recreational clubs. At the same time forces more favorable to gentile-Jewish relations have been growing in the postwar period. Special efforts made by the Council of Christians and Jews, established in 1942 and functioning through its 20 branches, have succeeded in fostering better Jewish-gentile relations in the 1960s. (Ernest Krausz) -Later Developments DEMOGRAPHY A conference in March 1977, organized by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Institute of Jewish Affairs, surveyed Jewish life in modern Britain and reviewed trends since a previous conference in 1962, basing itself on the social and demographic data produced by the Board's Research Unit, established in 1965. Generally, the conference found a trend towards polarization in Anglo-Jewry: a growing minority were intensifying their commitment to Jewish religion and education, but there was also an increasing general drift towards intermarriage and assimilation. No official estimates of the Jewish population had been published since the estimate of the Research Unit in 1965 of 410,000, but informed observers now put the number of those identified with the Anglo-Jewish community at considerably below 400,000. While between 1960 and 1979 the annual number of burials (and cremations) under Jewish auspices remained in the range between 4,600 and 4,900, the number of persons married under Jewish religious auspices fell from an annual average of 3,664 for 1960–65 to 2,782 for 1975–79 and 2,606 in 1979. Local community surveys carried out indicated households of sizes varying from 2.4 to 2.98 according to the age structure and character of the local Jewish community, and data on children per marriage in the 1970s reinforced the conclusion that Anglo-Jewry was not replacing itself by natural increase: nor was this deficiency being made up by net immigration. The surveys confirmed the picture of organized Anglo-Jewry as consisting of increasingly middle class, and increasingly aging, communities; with a high proportion of home- and car-ownership, and a wide range of occupations; and with a tendency well above the national average towards self-employment. Geographically, there remained pockets of elderly and often poorer residents in the inner cities but the trends were towards dispersal from the larger conurbations into the suburbs and countryside, combined with the decline or extinction of established smaller provincial communities. Synagogue affiliation showed 110,000 members of synagogues in 1977, a decline of 6% since 1970; the Central Orthodox (e.g., United Synagogue and Federation of Synagogues) appeared to be losing ground to the Progressives (Reform and Liberal) with over 20% of the membership and to the small but growing right-wing Orthodox (3.5%). This apparent trend towards religious polarization was also found in the marriage figures for 1979, with the Progressives responsible for 22.5% (compared with 18.6% in 1960–65) and the right-wing Orthodox for 8.4% of the total number of synagogue marriages. The overall decline in synagogue affiliation continued into the 21st century, dropping to a membership of 88,000 in 362 congregations in 2001. The United Synagogue and Federation of Synagogues accounted for half the congregations, with the United Synagogue accounting for 57 percent of overall membership, the Progressives next with 25,000 members (28 percent), and the Ḥaredim with 7,500 (8.5 percent). The Jewish population continued to decline in the 1980s, from 336,000 (plus or minus 10%) in 1983 to around 300,000 in 1990, a level which it maintained into the 21st century, making it the fifth largest Jewish community in the world. The percentage of Jews who were members of synagogues in the central Orthodox stream fell from 70.5% in 1983 to 64% in 1990. The percentage of those affiliated to the right-wing Orthodox community increased from 4.4% in 1983 to 10% in 1984, falling   to 6.9% in 1990. Only the Progressive movements showed signs of consistent growth. In 1983, 22.4% of Jews affiliated to synagogues belonged to Reform and Liberal congregations. According to 1990 figures, the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain accounted for 17%, the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues claimed 7%, with the Masorti movement taking a small, but growing share. The Sephardi community held steady at just under 3% of the total. The geographical and social distribution of British Jews barely altered. Two-thirds continued to inhabit the capital. The only growth areas were the "sun-belt" towns on the South Coast such as Brighton, the largest with 10,000. Manchester Jewry maintained its numbers at around 30,000, but Leeds had seen a fall from around 14,000 to about 11,000. A similar drop was estimated for Glasgow. Within each metropolitan center, Jews remain concentrated in a small number of prosperous, suburban, middle-class districts: Bury in Manchester, Moor-town in Leeds, northwest London and Redbridge, an eastern suburb of the capital. The first centers of settlement are now almost bereft of Jewish residents or institutions. In the mid-1990s the Board of Deputies Community Research Unit estimated the total number of Israelis in the UK to be at least 27,000. Their distribution reflected that of the Jewish population. Over two-thirds live in Greater London, with the majority concentrated in the northwestern boroughs. The highest concentration of Israelis outside London, 7% of the total, is in the northwest of England. The Israelis had a different age profile than British Jews. Over 25% were aged under 16 and only 2% were over 65 years, as compared to 17% and 25% respectively for British Jews. There have been no significant changes in the geographical or occupational distribution of British Jews. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS The General Election of 1979 returned to the new House of Commons 21 Labour and 11 Conservative Jewish members. The new Conservative Government included one Jewish cabinet minister, Sir Keith Joseph, responsible for industry and regarded as a strong influence on the economic thinking of Prime Minister Thatcher, and senior ministers outside the cabinet including Nigel Lawson (Financial Secretary, Treasury), Leon Brittan (Home Office), Mrs. Sally Oppenheim (Consumer Affairs), as well as junior ministers such as Malcolm Rifkind (Scotland) and Geoffrey Finsberg and Lord Bellwin (Environment). In spite of the prime minister's personal commitment to Israel and the strong Jewish vote in her constituency (Finchley), concern was expressed at the pro-Arab record of influential Foreign Office ministers and some evidence of Britain modifying her attitude towards Israel in line with developing EEC policies on the Middle East. In 1980, earlier discussion of the question whether there was a specifically Jewish pattern of voting crystallized in a debate between the political scientist, Dr. Geoffrey Alderman, who maintained that Jews voted according to their communal interests and could exercise a key influence in important marginal constituencies, and Dr. Barry Kosmin, director of the Board of Deputies' Research Unit, who showed that the trend of Jewish voters to support the Conservative Party merely reflected their increasingly middle class status; and even if Jews did vote to support a particular policy, they could not affect the outcome in more than a very few constituencies. A disturbing change during the later 1970s was that of the extreme right-wing National Front from latent to overt antisemitism; and their obtaining 75,000 votes, with some high percentages locally, in the 1976 district council elections. In the 1979 general election, however, when the turnout was much higher, their 301 candidates polled a total of only 191,000 votes with the highest vote for any of their candidates just over 2000; nor did any National Front candidate win even one local council seat. However, in late 1980 Anglo-Jewry shared the unease caused in European Jewry generally by the violence of right-wing movements, notably the Paris synagogue bombing; and the recurrence of anti-Jewish incidents, albeit scattered and unpublicized, combined with deepening economic recession, gave cause for concern. The principal manifestation of anti-Jewish activity was however associated with the Arab and overwhelmingly left-wing propaganda against Israel, particularly on university campuses. With some 12,000 Arab students in British universities and higher technical institutions, outnumbering Jewish students, especially in engineering and other vocational faculties, anti-Israel propaganda in student organizations had been rife for some years, and it developed into overt anti-Jewish discrimination in 1977. The (British) National Union of Students had voted in 1974 to "refuse any assistance (financial or otherwise) to openly racist and fascist organizations … and to prevent, by whatever means are necessary," any members of these organizations from speaking in colleges. The resolution of the UN Assembly in November 1975, equating Zionism with racism, thus gave a welcome opportunity to the Socialist Workers Party and the General Union of Palestinian Students. Student unions at some eight universities and five polytechnics voted to withdraw recognition from local university Jewish societies. Decisions at such meetings are usually taken by a small minority of the total number of students in the institution, and several were subsequently reversed. In 1980, however, the exclusion of Israeli scholars from an Arab-sponsored colloquium at Exeter University was widely criticized as an infringement of academic (and tax-payer supported) freedom of discussion. Support for Israel continued to be possibly the most socially unifying factor in Anglo-Jewry with the organizational framework complementing, even to some extent replacing, more traditional patterns of organization. The advent of the Begin Likud government in 1977 evoked at first a detached, even critical, attitude, from personalities accustomed to dealing with the previous governments in Israel. The peace initiative of Prime Minister Begin and the Camp David agreement which followed, however, produced a much more sympathetic attitude within Anglo-Jewry. The Likud government's settlement   policy in the administered territories, however, evoked controversy within Anglo-Jewry, in which Chief Rabbi Jakobovits became involved, when he argued that the retention of occupied territory in the Holy Land had to be considered in the light of the possibility of advancing the cause of peace and the saving of life. While there was not unqualified support for his views within Anglo-Jewry, there was condemnation of attempts to impugn the integrity of his commitment to the cause of Israel. Organizationally, the union of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain with the Mizrachi as the United Zionists was announced but not consummated as of 1981. The 1980s saw a shift of political allegiances among British Jews from the left to the right. Affluence and self-interest have underpinned the trend, but it was abetted by the perceived anti-Zionism of the Labour Party and the appeal of Mrs. Thatcher, prime minister for most of the period, who was seen as "strong" on Jewish issues. Yet the same period saw manifestations of a stubborn prejudice against Jews within Conservative political circles. In the June 1983 General Election, 28 Jewish MPS were elected of whom 17 were Conservative and 11 Labour. Three Jews were appointed to serve in the new cabinet, rising to four in 1984 and briefly five in 1986. The General Election of June 1987 saw 63 Jewish candidates. Of these, 16 Conservative and 7 Labour candidates were elected. This marked the second highest ever number of Jewish Tory MPS and a big fall in the number of Jewish Labourites. In the June 1992 General Election out of 43 Jewish Parliamentary candidates, 11 Tory, 8 Labour, and 1 Liberal Democrat were successful. The unsuccessful candidates included 4 Jewish Greens, a new phenomenon. Three Jewish Conservative MPS retired and two others were defeated. Among the appointments to the new cabinet made by the prime minister, John Major, were two Jews: Michael Howard, secretary of state for the environment (home secretary in 1993) and Malcolm Rifkind, secretary of state for defense. Unlike the rest of Europe, the far-right has been conspicuously unsuccessful in British electoral politics at either a local or national level. In April 1992, the British National Party obtained a mere 7,000 votes for the 13 candidates it fielded. The National Front did even worse, winning under 5,000 votes in 13 constituencies. A visit to Britain by M. Le Pen in December 1991 was met by Jewish protests and anti-fascist demonstrations. The government's stand on immigration and asylum issues throughout the decade has aroused disquiet among sections of the Jewish population. In February 1992, a delegation from the Jewish Council for Community Relations saw the then home secretary, Kenneth Baker, to protest against the Asylum Bill. The Board of Deputies also expressed its concern. The Jewish historical experience was alluded to several times by Jewish speakers in the debates accompanying the Asylum Bill's passage through Parliament during 1991–93. Another long-running Parliamentary issue of Jewish concern was the punishment of alleged Nazi war criminals and collaborators domiciled in the United Kingdom. An All Party Parliamentary War Crimes Group was formed in November 1986 to press first for a government investigation and, subsequently, for action against suspected war criminals. Intense lobbying and media revelations caused the government to announce an inquiry in February 1988. Its report in July 1989 called for legislation to enable the trial in Britain of men suspected of committing war crimes in Nazi-occupied Europe at a time when they were not of British nationality. Legislation was introduced into Parliament in November 1989, but opposition by a minority of MPS and a majority of Peers delayed its passage into law until May 1991. The debates about the bill exposed the persistence of many negative stereotypes about the Jews. By April 1992, around £10 million had been spent on the investigations being conducted by the Metropolitan War Crimes Unit and its Scottish counterpart. Over 90 cases were being looked into, but there was still no indication of any case coming to trial. In July 1992, Antony Gecas, a former member of the 11th Lithuanian Police Battalion who had lived in Scotland since 1946, lost his libel case against Scottish TV for a program which had accused him of being a war criminal. The hearing lasted four months and cost £650,000. In his ruling, the presiding judge, Lord Milligan, concluded that Gecas had "participated in many operations involving the killing of innocent Soviet citizens including Jews in particular." Despite this, Gecas has not been charged with war crimes under the 1991 Act. Anti-Jewish prejudice surfaced in politics and society. Leon Brittan, the trade and industry secretary who resigned from the cabinet over the "Westland Affair" in 1986, Lord Young, secretary of state for trade and industry who Mrs. Thatcher wanted to take over the chairmanship of the Conservative Party, and Edwina Currie (née Cohen), a junior health minister who resigned in December 1988 over her pronouncements on salmonella in eggs, were all thought to have been victims of a "whispering campaign" among Tory backbenchers. A series of criminal cases involving Jews attracted much attention and discussion during the late 1980s. The Jewishness of those involved was mentioned sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely, and efforts were made to find a link between this and the malfeasance in question. Such commentary could be open and well-intentioned, but at other times it was insidious and malevolent. In August 1990, the first trial in the Guinness fraud case, which had lasted 113 days, resulted in the conviction of Gerald Ronson, Sir Jack Lyons, Anthony Parnes, and Ernest Saunders. Parnes, Ronson, and Lyons were Jews, the last two being notable donors to Jewish causes. Saunders was Viennese-born of Jewish parents, but raised as a Christian. In the two subsequent trials connected with the Guinness affair, none of the defendants was Jewish and none was convicted. This fostered the sense that the defendants in the first case had been at best "fall-guys" or, at worst, victimized.   The sensational death of Robert Maxwell in November 1991 was followed rapidly by the collapse of his business empire and the revelation that he had stolen hundreds of millions of pounds from his employees' pension fund in order to prop up the share value of his companies. His sons were subsequently arrested for abetting this fraud and await trial. Although Maxwell's ostentatious burial on the Mount of Olives could not help but draw attention to his Jewish roots, media commentary was relatively restrained. However, it was widely considered that Maxwell and the Jewish entrepreneurs in the Guinness case were outsiders in the City. This denied them protection by the "old boys" network when their schemes, in no way unique, ran foul of the law. British Jews were, on the whole, spared violent forms of antisemitism. The exception was 1990 when, over a 12-month period there were 29 cases of vandalism against Jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and Holocaust memorials in the London area alone and seven reported cases of physical assault on Jewish persons. This violence is miniscule compared to the assault on non-white minorities, but the attacks provoked media comment and provoked reassuring statements from the prime minister in May 1990. The most prevalent form of anti-Jewish action in Britain has been the distribution of antisemitic literature. In November 1990, Greville Janner, MP, sponsored an early day motion in the House of Commons which attracted the names of 100 MPS in support of suppressing the circulation of Holocaust Denial material. In March 1991, Dowager Lady Birdwood was charged under the Public Order Act (1986) for distributing the ritual murder accusation against the Jews. She was subsequently found guilty and given a two-year unconditional discharge. In December 1992, glossily produced pseudo-Ḥanukkah cards containing doggerel that embraced antisemitic libels were sent to hundreds of Jewish organizations and prominent individuals. Police investigations failed to identify the source of this "hate mail" and the Government has consistently rebuffed pleas by the Board of Deputies, most recently in October 1992, for a community libel law. The announcement that a gathering of Holocaust Denial practitioners would be held in London in November 1991 led to demands that the home secretary ban the entry of Robert Faurrison and Fred Leuchter. Leuchter actually entered the country illegally and was deported after showing up at a "conference" that was heavily-picketed by anti-fascist groups. David irving , sometime British historian and now a propagandist well known for addressing neo-Nazi rallies in Germany, had become a linchpin in this shadowy global network. Jews and the Holocaust figured in several historical controversies. In 1987 Jim Allen's anti-Zionist play Perdition deployed the canard that Zionists collaborated with the Nazis. Production was canceled after expressions of outrage from the Jewish community and intense media scrutiny, but this only inflamed the debate. The War Crimes Bill occasioned many reflections on the Holocaust, often yoked disturbingly to Jewish terrorism in Palestine in 1946–47. In January 1992, when Irving claimed to have discovered new Eichmann papers the press treated him as a right-wing historian whose views merited serious reportage. In July 1992, the Sunday Times caused a storm of controversy by employing him to transcribe and comment on newly revealed portions of Goebbels' diary. Alan Clark, junior defense minister, was widely condemned in December 1991 for attending a party to launch the revised version of Irving's book Hitler's War in which Irving states that Hitler was innocent of the Final Solution and denies the existence of gas chambers for killing Jews. Clark later endorsed a political biography of Churchill by John Charmley, which appeared in January 1993, that suggested Britain should have made peace with Hitler in 1940 or 1941. Clark and Charmley agreed that there was little to choose between Stalinism and Nazism, and that the plight of the Jews under Nazism was a marginal issue. The exposure in the Guardian newspaper in May and December 1992 of war crimes in the Nazi-occupied Channel Islands, and the concurrence of the local authorities in the deportation of Jews, shed a different light on the matter. The Irving affair reached a head when Irving filed a libel suit in 1996 against Deborah Lipstadt and her British publisher, Penguin Books, claiming that Lipstadt's Denying the Holocaust had accused him of being a Nazi apologist, Holocaust denier, racist, and antisemite. Lipstadt contended that this was precisely what he was, and the Court agreed in its 2001 verdict denying his suit. Controversy also surrounded efforts to set up an eruv in the London borough of Barnet. The project was launched by the United Synagogue "Eruv Committee" in 1987. In June 1992 it was passed by the Public Works Committee of Barnet Council. It was then considered by the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust, which manages this architecturally unique suburban area. At a stormy meeting in September 1992, the Trust's chairman, Lord MacGregor, was censured for approving a letter to Barnet Council advising it to reject the plan and calling the eruv "a very unpleasant exhibition of fundamentalism." He subsequently resigned. This fracas made the eruv into a heated issue locally and in the national newspapers. On February 24, 1993, the council's planning committee defeated the eruv proposal by 11 to 7 votes. Jewish councilors were split and it generated fierce opposition from both Orthodox and "assimilationist" Jews. It was also attacked by non-Jews unable to accept the public expression of Jewish difference. In June 1992 the prime minister, John Major, appointed two Jews to his new government: Michael Howard became secretary of state for the environment and Malcolm Rifkind was appointed secretary of state for defense. After a cabinet reshuffle in March 1993, Howard was made home secretary. In November 2003, however, Howard was elected leader of the British Conservative Party, the first Jewish leader of a government or opposition party in Britain in the 20th century. Howard stepped down after the 2005 elections. Another reshuffle in September 1995 led to Rifkind's appointment as foreign secretary.   He was the first Jew to hold this office since the brief tenure of Rufus Isaacs, the Marquess of Reading, in 1931. After the death of John Smith MP, in April 1994 the Labour Party chose Tony Blair MP, as its new leader. He actively sought to heal the breach between British Jews and the Labour Party so marked in the 1980s. Blair promoted a number of Jewish MPS and political activists. Blair's closest advisers include Peter Mandelson MP, and David Miliband. In October 1995, Barbara Roche MP, a former headgirl of the Jews' Free School, was elevated to the ranks of the Labour shadow government. The veteran Jewish Labour MP, Greville Janner, former president of the Board of Deputies and chairman of the House of Commons Employment Select Committee, announced that he would not stand again for Parliament at the next general election. The far-Right enjoyed a modest revival in September 1993, when Derek Beackon, an unemployed 47-year-old former steward for the neo-Nazi British National Party (BNP), won a local council by-election in the Milwall ward of the Isle of Dogs in London's docklands. However, the election of the first BNP councilor proved to be a local quirk. Beackon took 34% of the vote, winning by seven votes, in a contest with a disorganized Labour Party opposition. The vote was more of a protest gesture than an endorsement of neo-Nazi ideology. The BNP "triumph" was universally deplored by mainstream politicians and triggered the revival of a national anti-racism campaign. In the May 1994 local council elections, Beackon increased his vote by 500. But he polled only 30% of the total vote on a much higher turnout that resulted in a Labour victory. The BNP won over 25% in two other east London constituencies, but failed to elect a single councilor. The Board of Deputies reported that antisemitic incidents numbered 346 in 1993 (as against 292 in 1992) and 327 in 1994. In 2000 the number was 405 and in 2002, 350. Jewish cemeteries were desecrated in Newport in May 1993; Southampton in August 1993; East Ham, London, in December 1993, January 1994 and June 1995; Bournemouth in July 1995. A Manchester synagogue was daubed with swastikas in August 1993 and the following month a Jewish nursery school in Stamford Hill, London, was destroyed in an arson attack. There were mailings of antisemitic literature in September and December 1993. In April 1994, 80-year-old Lady Birdwood was found guilty of distributing material liable to incite racial hatred. Upsurges in antisemitic incidents were generally related to events reflecting the conflict in the Middle East, like 9/11 or the 2002 Israeli military action against Jenin. In this context, in a particularly outrageous act, Britain's 48,000-member Association of University Teachers decided in April 2005 to boycott Israel's Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities. In the face of international pressure it rescinded its decision a month later. Jewish leaders made numerous representations to the government for stronger legislation against racism. In December 1993, the Board of Deputies gave evidence of escalating anti-Jewish activity to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee. The Board assisted the drafting of a private members bill, introduced into the House of Commons by the Conservative MP Hartley Booth, to impose tougher penalties on criminals convicted of racial crimes and outlaw group defamation. In January 1994 the Runnymede Trust published a report, "A Very Light Sleeper: The Persistence and Dangers of Anti-Semitism," charting the increase of anti-Jewish attacks and urging that religious discrimination be outlawed. The Home Affairs Select Committee report in April 1994 recommended making "racial harassment" an offense and tightening the penalties for racial crimes. Michael Howard promised to clamp down on racial violence, but rebuffed calls for tougher legislative action made by a Board delegation in February 1994. The government refused to support Booth's widely backed bill, and in June 1994 rejected the recommendations of the Home Affairs Select Committee. However, in October 1995, the minister of state at the Home Office gave instructions to the police and the courts to be as harsh as possible within the existing legal framework when dealing with racial crimes. Meanwhile, Howard flagged new measures to reduce illegal immigration and curb the number of "bogus" asylum seekers. His proposals were regretted by Jewish representatives. Following the Washington Peace Accords in September 1993, anxiety about communal security focused on militant Islamic groups allowed to operate in the UK. In February 1994 the Board complained to the Home Office about Hizb ut-Tahrir, an association of mainly overseas Muslim students attending British universities. After the March 1994 Hebron massacre, which was condemned by the chief rabbi and president of the Board of Deputies, there were attacks on Jewish targets in London, Birmingham, and Oxford. After the bombing of the Israeli Embassy and JIA offices, in London on July 26–27, 1994 (see below), Jewish organizations reiterated their concern about radical Islamic groups. The Board unsuccessfully called on the Home Office to ban a rally organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir at Wembley Conference Centre in August 1994. After much prevarication, in November 1994, the governing body of the London School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS) banned Hizb ut-Tahrir from holding meetings on SOAS premises. Hizb ut-Tahrir held a mass meeting in Trafalgar Square in August 1995 at which speakers called for the destruction of Israel and denied that the Holocaust had taken place. British Jews have also been concerned by the growing influence of the Chicago-based Nation of Islam among British blacks. In 2002 Sheik Abdullah al-Faisal was arrested for incitement to murder Jews. War crimes cases continued to cause controversy. In February 1994 the Scottish police war crimes unit was wound up and the Crown Office later announced that there was insufficient evidence to charge Antony Gecas, the sole subject of investigations, under the 1991 War Crimes Act. In December 1994, Lord Campbell of Alloway introduced into the House of Lords a bill to stop war crimes trials in England, basing his case on the need to harmonize English with Scottish practice. It was opposed by the government. In July 1995, Simeon Serafimovicz,   an 84-year-old former carpenter, was charged with the murder of four Jews in Belorussia in 1941–42. He is the first person in England ever to be charged with war crimes under the Act. However, British efforts to prosecute war criminals, from the passage of the Act through the early years of the 21st century, have been, on the whole, tepid. The bid by the United Synagogue Eruv Committee, launched in 1987, to establish an eruv with a circumference of 6.5 miles in Golders Green, Hendon, and Hempstead Garden Suburb finally met with success. In February 1992, Barnet Council planning committee had rejected the proposal. An appeal was lodged with the Department of the Environment and a revised plan was put to the planning committee in October 1993. It was again rejected, but the Department of the Environment ordered a public inquiry which took evidence in December 1993. Much of the rhetoric at the inquiry by opponents of the eruv was lurid and inflammatory. In September 1994 the government inspector conducting the inquiry issued his report. It refuted the arguments of eruv protesters and the following month, during Sukkot, John Gummer, Secretary of State for the Environment, gave his sanction for its erection. THE ANGLO-JEWISH HERITAGE The introduction of government aid for historic places of worship in use assisted the restoration of the third oldest surviving synagogue, Exeter, established in 1763/4 and re-opened in October 1980, its use as a synagogue being combined with the provision of a center for Jewish students at Exeter University. This highlighted the problem of architecturally and historically important Jewish buildings no longer viable because of the movement of Jewish population from provincial towns or city centers, which was exemplified by the appeal to convert the former Sephardi synagogue in Manchester established in 1874 to a Jewish museum. A unique commemoration took place on October 31, 1978 when on the initiative of the Jewish Historical Society of England, and in the presence of the chief rabbi and the archbishop of York, the massacre of the Jews of york in 1190 was commemorated by the unveiling of a plaque at Clifford's Tower, the site of the massacre. The inscription in English reads: "On the night of Friday, 16 March 1190, some 150 Jews and Jewesses of York, having sought protection in the royal castle on this site from a mob incited by Richard Malebisse and others, chose to die at each other's hands rather than renounce their faith," and concludes with the verses in Hebrew: "They ascribe glory to the Lord and his praise in the isles" (Isaiah 42:12); the word ha-iy, "the island," being the name used for England in medieval Hebrew. COMMUNITY LIFE In mid-1979, Lord Fisher of Camden retired as president of the Board of Deputies. His six years of office saw the affiliation of the Board to the World Jewish Congress, changes in the organization and representational basis of the board, and the growth of a sense of communal purpose in support for Israel and Soviet Jewry, and in opposition to threats against civil liberties from extremes of the left and right. He was succeeded by Greville Janner, QC, MP, son of a former president (Lord Janner) and, at 50, the Board's youngest president. On taking office, he declared that his policy would be to emphasize working with youth and with provincial communities. The 1980s also saw the first visit of a prime minister, Mr. James Callaghan, to the Board as well as that of the foreign secretary, Lord Carrington, at his own request, to explain British policy in relation to Israel. The community was increasingly concerned with the problems of meeting the welfare needs of its increasingly aging membership. The London Jewish Welfare Board devoted the greater proportion of its expenditure to homes and flat-lets, day centers and home visits to the aged. Coordination of social work was advanced by cooperation between organizations and professional workers, and shared use of accommodation in buildings like the Golders Green Sobell House or the Redbridge Jewish Centre. The Board of Deputies acquired a new chief executive in February 1991 when Neville Nagler, a senior civil servant, succeeded Hayyim Pinner, holder of the position for 14 years. In June 1991, Judge Israel Finestein, QC, won the election for the presidency of the Board of Deputies and succeeded the outgoing Dr. Lionel Kopelowitz who had held office since 1985. Rosalind Preston was elected the first woman vice president of the Board. Finestein announced that he intended to increase democracy in Anglo-Jewry and secure greater participation in communal governance by the young, women, regional communities, and academics. Chief Rabbi Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits was elevated to the House of Lords in January 1988 and in March 1991 was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize for progress in religion. In May 1991 he was criticized by figures in the Joint Israel Appeal because of an interview in the Evening Standard newspaper in which he expressed reservations concerning Israeli conduct in the Administered Territories. He was succeeded in September 1991 by Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks. As principal of Jews' College, in 1989 Sacks organized two important conferences on "traditional alternatives" in Judaism, one on general and another on specifically women's issues. In February 1992, the new chief rabbi unveiled his review of women's role in Jewish life and named Rosalind Preston as its head. This followed a bitter struggle over women's services in Stanmore Synagogue. Although in April 1991 he resigned from a Jewish education "think tank" because it included a Reform rabbi, in April 1992 Chief Rabbi Dr. Sacks led a delegation that embraced Reform and Liberal rabbis (including a woman) to a major interfaith conference. In September 1992 a report on the United Synagogue, conducted under the guidance of Stanley Kalms, found "mistakes, miscalculations, poor management, and financial errors" and revealed a debt of £9 million. The report also noted that a majority of members felt alienated by the rightward trend of the rabbinate and recommended an "inclusivist" position. It precipitated the resignation of Sidney Frosh, the president.   In December 1992, the United Synagogue announced £0.8 million of cuts and a freeze on rabbis' salaries. It wound up its three-year old sheḥitah operation, established as a result of the bitter "sheḥitah wars" in the 1980s, with a loss of £0.7 million. The search for economies underlay the amalgamation of the Jewish Blind Society and the Jewish Welfare Board to form Jewish Care in December 1988. In the recession of the early 1980s and again in the slump of 1990–92, Jewish welfare organizations had to cater for Jewish unemployed persons, too, despite a shrinking income base. The second recession saw many of the fortunes built up by Jewish entrepreneurs in the 1980s crumble. Grodzinski, the kasher baker, went into receivership in February 1991 after trading for 102 years. The famous kasher caterer Schaverin suffered a similar fate in November 1991. In June 1992, the Glasgow Jewish Echo closed down after 64 years of publication. Nor was Anglo-Jewry immune to the social problems afflicting the rest of society. In July 1991 David Rubin, son of an eminent rabbi, absconded after allegedly defrauding fellow-Jews of millions of pounds. A few weeks later, a child-abuse case in the Orthodox community of Stamford Hill led to violent demonstrations by members of the community against the family that had taken the matter to the police. Jewish communal institutions have been dogged by poor finances, while attempts at reorganization have had uneven success. In March 1993 the highly effective and inexpensive Association of Jewish 6th Formers (AJ6), which prepares Jewish teenagers for university, faced closure due to lack of funds. AJ6 received a last-minute reprieve, but the affair showed the need for a strategic funding policy. In April 1993, Lord Young, former Tory cabinet minister and businessman, initiated the Central Council of Jewish Social Services (CCJSS) which he envisaged as a directorate for British Jewry. In July 1993 he was elected chairman of the CCJSS, now embracing over 40 Jewish organizations. Lord Young dismissed the Board of Deputies as inefficient and incapable of providing either policies or leadership. His view appeared to be confirmed when plans for its reform were stymied. In December 1993, the Board failed to give a two-thirds majority to measures to decrease the size of the executive, the number of Deputies, and the frequency of plenary meetings. The election of Eldred Tabachnik, QC, as president in June 1994 revived hopes of reform. The United Synagogue (US), which announced that it had lost £1 million on a disastrous sheḥitah operation in June 1993, pulled itself back into the black by means of draconian economies. A series of institutional reforms failed to placate women who demanded a greater say in its affairs (see below). The Rix Report on Jewish youth in September 1994 called for greater investment in youth work which was met with alacrity by the CJCS and other funding bodies. After a series of poor appeal results, the JIA was relaunched in October 1995. The most important communal initiative was the inauguration of Jewish Continuity in April 1993. Jewish Continuity was intended to raise money to fund new and existing educational projects, invest in people to "champion" Judaism, and provide advice and guidance across the whole Jewish community. However, Continuity immediately aroused the suspicions of Progressive Jews because of the absence of any but Orthodox Jews from its directorate and staff. In May 1994 an allocations board was set up that included members of the Reform and Liberal movements. Continuity hoped to avoid Orthodox criticism of this move by making the allocations board semi-detached, dispensing moneys given it for the purpose by Continuity. In July 1994, Continuity reached an agreement with the JIA that £12 million of the money raised by the JIA in Britain would go to educational projects identified by Continuity. In September 1994 it announced its first grants, totaling £435,000. The largest number and amount of grants went to Orthodox causes. During 1995, critics continued to charge Jewish Continuity with bias and a lack of strategy. In October 1995 it announced a major review of its operations, to determine what its role should be and end the confusion between its functions as grant giver and service provider. The review would also deal with the antagonism which had built up between it and the JIA and Progressive Jews in Britain. The fortunes of Jewish Continuity were inextricably linked with those of its progenitor, Rabbi Dr. Sacks. He appeared increasingly beleaguered by an intractable rabbinate, an assertive Jewish women's movement and confident Masorti, Reform, and Progressive movements. In February 1993 a Jewish women's prayer group held the first women's Sabbath service in a manner authorized by Rabbi Dr. Sacks: in a private house and without use of a Sefer Torah or prayers requiring a male quorum. But there was pressure for more radical, and according to many authorities permissible, steps such as use of a Sefer Torah and praying in a synagogue. In March 1994, a women's prayer group defied Rabbi Dr. Sacks and held a service using a Sefer Torah on a Sunday at Yakar, an independent Orthodox study center in London. In July 1993, Rabbi Dr. Sacks issued guidelines to the US on how to accommodate women's demands for greater involvement. He ruled that women could become members of the US council and sit on synagogue boards of management, but only by co-option not election. This did not satisfy the women of the US. In October 1993, Rabbi Dr. Sacks announced his solution to the problem of agunot. He recommended mandatory prenuptial contracts entitling the wife to support from her husband until divorced by a get, and mutual cooperation to achieve that end. Enforcement of this recommendation was stymied by members of his Beth Din. The inquiry into women in the community, initiated by Rabbi Dr. Sacks and headed by Rosalind Preston, announced its findings in June 1994. It revealed that women wanted more spiritual involvement, more rituals in recognition of female life-cycle events, the right to say kaddish, greater recognition of the needs of single women and single mothers, urgent reform of the get system, and greater sensitivity by Batei Din to   women's issues including domestic violence. Yet Sacks found it difficult to deliver anything meaningful and his hands were still tied even on prenuptial agreements. Acting out of frustration, on October 28, 1995, "chained" Jewish women demonstrated outside the office of the United Synagogue Chief Rabbinate. The debate about Jewish women's rights under halakhah has consistently attracted national press and television coverage. In January 1995 Sacks launched an attack on the Masorti movement in England. The pretext was an article in the Masorti magazine insinuating that he had recognized marriages conducted by Masorti rabbis. He responded with an article in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Tribune in which he declared that the Masorti were guilty of "intellectual dishonesty"; using the term "ganavim" (thieves) to describe them. He stated that a follower of Masorti had "severed his links with the faith of his ancestors." Masorti, Reform, and Liberal rabbis, as well as lay leaders upbraided Sacks for the violence of his outburst. It put the future of Jewish Continuity into doubt since non-Orthodox Jews could not see how a body under Sacks' influence could fund their work or merit their support and Rabbi Dr. Sacks struggled to contain the damage. The cultural agenda has been dominated by the anniversaries connected with World War II and the Holocaust. The 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the liberation of Auschwitz, the liberation of Belsen, and the end of the war were all marked by commemorative events, academic conferences, and a spate of publications. Media coverage of these events was intense and raised public awareness of the Holocaust. In November 1994, the Imperial War Museum announced that it was considering the construction of a permanent exhibit on genocide in the 20th century, focused on the Holocaust. Plans for a Holocaust Museum were unveiled in Manchester, too. Beit Shalom, the first Holocaust Museum in Britain, a private initiative originated, funded, and developed by a non-Jewish family in rural Nottinghamshire, opened in September 1995. The Board of Deputies considered legal action against the Jewish authors, producers, and director of a TV fictional film, "Wall of Silence," about murders in the hasidic community of North London. First screened at the 9th Jewish Film Festival and then transmitted on BBC on October 17, 1993, the film was widely criticized for presenting negative stereotypes of Orthodox Judaism. A Center for Jewish Studies was inaugurated at SOAS in December 1993, for German-Jewish Studies at Sussex University, and Sephardi Studies in London, under the auspices of the Sephardi community, in 1994. In November 1994, Dr. Dovid Katz started the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies, incurring the wrath of the Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, from which he subsequently resigned. New positions in Jewish studies were created at professorial level at Manchester University and at lecturer level at Bristol University. The Institute for Jewish Affairs transferred to a new home in April 1993 and broke away from the World Jewish Congress, forming instead close ties with the American Jewish Committee. Jewish Book Week moved to a new venue and attracted bigger literary figures and audiences than ever before. A specially designed building to house the London Jewish Museum was opened in Camden in 1995. In 1994 the Jewish Quarterly was invigorated by a new editor, Elena Lappin. EDUCATION AND CULTURE While estimates of the Jewish child population (and of those receiving part-time Jewish education) fell with the decline of the general child population in Britain, the number enrolled in Jewish day schools reached some 13,000 at the end of the 1970s, representing over 20% of the estimated Jewish child population. New Jewish day schools continued to be founded and there were positive developments in Jewish adult education in various aspects involving synagogues of different religious affiliation, the Lubavitch movement, and courses for younger Jewish leaders. Enrollment continued to rise through the 1980s and 1990s reaching 30% in 1992 and 51% in 1999. The United Synagogue Agency for Jewish Education operated 14 primary and nursery schools and five secondary schools in the early 2000s and had trained over 150 teachers since 1997. The Leo Baeck College Center for Jewish Education offered an M.A. program in Jewish education from 2002. In 1984, Jews' College moved to new accommodations and the Manor House Sternberg Center for Reform Judaism was set up. Jewish museums were founded in London and Manchester. In 1990–92 there were several conferences and publications on the preservation of the documents, artifacts, and buildings that constitute the Jewish heritage in Britain. Sadly, Bevis Marks synagogue suffered collateral damage from an IRA bomb attack in London in August 1992. In 1991, Immanuel College was opened and the Jewish Chronicle Chair in Modern Jewish History was established at University College London to mark the paper's 150th anniversary and a chair in Modern Jewish Studies was dedicated at the University of Manchester. During 1992–93, lectureships in Modern Jewish History were established at Warwick and Leicester universities. In 1992, Dr. David Paterson was succeeded by Professor Phillip Alexander as head of the Oxford Center for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, having secured its future. Jewish schools topped the national league for the award of "A" Levels in August 1992. Less happy publicity was created by the decision of state-aided Jewish schools in Liverpool and Manchester in September 1991 not to admit Jewish children from a Reform Jewish background. Jewish culture found diverse expression in the courses of the Spiro Institute throughout the decade. There were festivals of Yiddish culture on the South Bank, an annual Jewish Film Festival, and Jewish music festival. In December 1991, Leon the Pig Farmer, an independent film funded largely by Jews and on a Jewish subject, won awards at the Edinburgh and Venice Film Festivals. In 1988, the conference "Remembering for the Future" inquired into the Holocaust. The anniversary of the massacre at Clifford's Tower in York in 1090 occasioned several   solemn events. The 50th anniversary of the 1942 Wannsee Conference was the subject of an international conference in London organized principally by the Wiener Library. During 1992 there were many celebrations of the Sephardi experience to mark the anniversary of the expulsion from Spain. (Vivian David Lipman and David Cesarani) -Relations with Israel Britain's relations with Israel should be viewed in the perspective of half a century, beginning with the closing phases of World War I. In November 1917, with the war against Germany and her allies still at its height, the British government issued a statement of policy, the balfour declaration , favoring the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The near euphoria and sense of gratitude to Britain that this announcement aroused among Jews everywhere was to give way a generation later to an atmosphere of bitterness and mutual recrimination, in which the British Mandate over Palestine finally came to an end (1948). But in the intervening years, despite all the frictions and difficulties, the foundations of Jewish statehood had in fact been laid. The period immediately following Israel's Declaration of Independence in May 1948 was a somber one in the relations between the new state and the former mandatory power. Unlike the United States and the Soviet Union, Britain refused to recognize the newly established state for many months. At the United Nations General Assembly in Paris in the latter part of 1948, the British delegation was the principal, though ultimately unsuccessful, protagonist of the so-called bernadotte Plan, a central feature of which was the proposal to transfer the Negev from Israel to the Arabs. Relations between Britain and what it termed "the Jewish authorities in Tel Aviv" reached an acute point when, on Jan. 7, 1949, in the course of renewed fighting between Israel and Egypt, the Israelis shot down five British planes that had been sent on a reconnaissance mission from the Suez Canal Zone. At this time, however, a strong reaction against the policy of Foreign Secretary Ernest bevin began to assert itself in Britain. The debate in the House of Commons on January 28 was a damaging one to the government. Three days later Bevin announced the de facto recognition of Israel and, shortly thereafter, the appointment of Britain's first diplomatic representative to Israel, Sir Knox Helm. Gradually a new pattern of relations evolved between the two countries. The period of Bevin's influence had not been forgotten by the people of Israel, but Britain's initial role in having made the development of Jewish nationhood in Palestine politically and physically possible was increasingly recalled and recognized. Steady progress was made in day-today contacts through trade, tourism, and cultural relations. But despite these positive developments, British policy toward Israel continued to be markedly reserved, for reasons connected with Britain's interests and commitments in the Arab world. As late as 1955, the British government still harbored ideas about the transfer of at least a part of the Negev to Egypt. This attitude was reflected in Prime Minister Anthony Eden's speech at the Guildhall on Nov. 9, 1955, in which he suggested a compromise on the frontiers set by the Partition Resolution of 1947 and those established under the Armistice Agreements as a way out of the Arab-Israel impasse. This proposal was unequivocally rejected by Israel and eventually abandoned. Less than a year later, Britain and Israel found themselves in unlikely association in military action against Egypt–Israel in Sinai, Britain in Suez. The events leading to this development were President Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal on the one hand, and his active sponsorship of the fedayeen terror gangs, organized on Arab territory for acts of murder and sabotage within Israel, on the other. For more than a century, the preservation of Britain's communications with India, the keystone of her empire, had been a dominant factor in Britain's interest in the Middle East. In 1947, India achieved independence almost contemporaneously with Israel. The strategic and political implications of this event for Britain's status in the world were not immediately obvious. Britain remained the paramount power in the Middle East with military bases in Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan, and with a vital financial stake in the ever-increasing oil wealth that was being uncovered not only in Iran but in the Arab lands bordering on the Gulf, including Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the sheikhdoms. In the mid-1950s a revolutionary change occurred: the collapse of British power and prestige that accompanied the Suez debacle of 1956 was followed two years later by the murder of the king of Iraq and the lynching of his premier, Nuri Said, Britain's faithful friend and ally. The last British base in the Arab Middle East other than one in Aden was now relinquished. By 1968, as Britain's policy of withdrawal from direct military commitment to areas east of Suez began to be extended even to the Persian Gulf; Aden too was abandoned. Middle East oil, so vital to the European economy, continued to flow more or less uninterruptedly because of the mutual interests of the Arab governments on the one hand and of Western purchasers on the other. But the old power relationship, including its implications for Israel, had dissolved. Nevertheless, Britain's role in the area in the 1960s must not be underestimated. As a great world financial and trading community, with the support of experienced and effective diplomats, Britain continued to exert extensive influence. The decline of Britain's authority in the Arab world significantly affected British-Israel relations. Although the traditional sensitivity of the Foreign Office to possible Arab reactions persisted, a more relaxed, less inhibited attitude toward Israel began to assert itself. This was manifested not only in official contacts and public statements, but also in willingness to sell Israel such major items of military equipment as Centurion tanks, naval vessels, and submarines. Within the aggregate of Britain's overseas trade, Israel occupied a modest but increasingly significant place in 1968. The total bilateral trade between the two countries in 1967 amounted to about $215,000,000, an increase of nearly 75% compared with 1957. In fact, the value of Britain's exports to Israel exceeded that to any of the Arab   countries. Britain constituted Israel's most important overseas market, with agricultural products (notably citrus) and polished diamonds predominating. Israel–British economic relations have long been a target of the Arab boycott offices, but, as trade figures reveal, their success has been marginal. The Suez Canal – blocked as a result of the six-day war – remained closed. The resultant loss to British trade and shipping, although eventually much reduced, undoubtedly contributed to Britain's active interest in seeking a solution to the Middle East crisis. British diplomats at the United Nations thus took a leading part in sponsoring and securing the passage of the Security Council resolution of Nov. 22, 1967. The war brought about a rupture in relations between Britain and a number of Arab countries, but these were reestablished, and Britain's policy ostensibly aimed at seeking to maintain a balance of friendship with both the Arab states and Israel. Although there is not always an identity of views between Israel and Britain on the problems of the Middle East, there was a broad base of common understanding in the late 1960s. The interest of the British people in Israel is not a passing phenomenon but rests on deep religious and spiritual foundations and was impressively demonstrated at the time of the Six-Day War. Attitudes and suspicions on the part of both countries survive from a more troubled period in their relationship. But the dominant motive was one of mutual regard that found its expression not only in political and economic spheres, but also in cultural relations and public opinion. (Arthur Lourie) For most of the 1980s British foreign policy was conducted by Sir Geoffrey Howe. Britain urged the PLO to recognize Israel and renounce terrorism, while calling on Israel to halt settlements in the occupied territories as a quid pro quo. Between 1984 and 1987 there were several friendly high-level exchange visits, but British unease about conditions in the Gaza Strip were forcefully expressed by junior Foreign Office Minister David Mellor during a visit in January 1988. After Yasser Arafat announced acceptance of UN resolutions 242 and 338 and renounced the armed struggle, William Waldegrave, Mellor's successor, met with Abu Bassam Sharrif of the PLO. The outbreak of the intifada in 1989 led to the revival of the propaganda war in the media and in student politics. British Government officials repeatedly expressed concern at Israeli handling of the disturbances. In March 1990, the new foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, met with Abu Bassam Sharrif, although the Palestinian terrorist attack on Israel in May 1990 led to demands to sever links with the PLO. Hurd issued a call to the Palestinians to curb terrorism, but contacts with the PLO continued. The situation was transformed by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. The British Government deplored PLO support for Saddam Hussein and rejected any "linkage" between Iraq's invasion and the Palestinian problem, although in October 1990 it said that Israeli policy towards the Palestinians could not go unchanged. In November 1991, Britain resumed diplomatic ties with Syria, severed after the 1988 Lockerbie disaster, which was now a member of the anti-Iraq coalition. When the war started, hundreds of British Jews, including the chief rabbi, went to Israel on solidarity missions. Prime Minister John Major congratulated Israel on its "admirable restraint" following Iraqi missile attacks. Popular attitudes towards Israel and the Palestinians changed radically, although British official policy soon reverted to type. In January 1992 Mr. Major addressed a letter to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain calling on Anglo-Jewish leaders to intervene with the Israel Government against the deportation of 12 Palestinian activists. On July 30, 1992, Mr. Major addressed the annual dinner of the Conservative Friends of Israel. He called the settlements "a major impediment to the peace process," denounced the Arab boycott as "iniquitous" and said it should be ended in return for freezing the settlements. In March 1993, Douglas Hogg, the minister of state at the Foreign Office, met with Faisal Husseini and PLO officials, thus ending the ban on official ministerial contacts with the PLO. On July 2, 1993, the Foreign Secretary met Husseini along with Nabil Shaath and Afif Safieh, the PLO's London representative. Following the White House Accords, which were welcomed by the government and opposition parties, Douglas Hogg visited Yasser Arafat in Tunisia and the status of the PLO office in London was upgraded to a "delegation." The Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, visited Israel during a Middle East tour in December 1994. A visit to London by Israeli prime minister Yiẓḥak Rabin was curtailed by a terrorist bombing in Israel. On October 30, 1994, Prince Philip made the first royal visit to Israel. During his 25-hour stay he attended a ceremony at Yad Vashem to honor his mother for rescuing Jews in Greece during the war, and dined with President Ezer Weizman. In March 1995, Prime Minister John Major became the second serving British premier to go to Israel. The accent of his visit was firmly on strengthening trade links between the two countries. However, British diplomats avoided the Jerusalem 3000 celebrations. The peace accords divided British Jews. While welcomed by Israel Finestein, president of the Board of Deputies, and Chief Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks, they were anathematized by British Mizrachi and Ḥerut, including many rabbis. On December 15, 1993, during an official visit to London, Yasser Arafat met British Jewish leaders including Israel Finestein, Lord Rothschild, Greville Janner MP, and Sir Sigmund Sternberg. But 60 rabbis and prominent dayyanim issued a statement condemning the meeting. On August 6, 1995, businessman and JIA leader Cyril Stein and Rabbi Alan Kimche, the outreach director of Jewish Continuity (see below), joined a demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in London against the peace negotiations. It was organized by the New York Rabbi Avi Weiss. In October 1995, Rabbi Dr. Sacks was again attacked by his own rabbinate for endorsing the peace process and the principle of withdrawal from the West Bank.   The peace process had a more dangerous and tragic impact. On July 26–27, 1994 bombs exploded outside the Israeli Embassy at Palace Green, Kensington, and Balfour House in North Finchley, which houses the offices of the Joint Israel Appeal (JIA) and the Zionist Federation. Nineteen people were injured in the first attack, none seriously, but the embassy was badly damaged. The Jewish community was aggrieved that its warnings to the authorities had been ignored. Armed police guards were subsequently posted at potential Jewish targets and communal security stepped up, but the government refused to help fund the installation of surveillance systems. In December 1994, Israeli police minister Moshe Shahal held talks with Scotland Yard in London to discuss measures to counter the threat posed by radical Islamic groups operating in London. On September 5, 1995, Danny Frei, a former pupil of Hasmonean school in London, was murdered in Israel on the West Bank where he lived. During the Blair years, Israel's relations with England were fairly smooth. Blair himself exhibited warmth and support while maintaining what England considers an evenhanded approach to the Middle East conflict. In a meeting with Shimon Peres in October 2005 he called Israel's disengagement from Gaza a "crucial and courageous act," reaffirming his commitment to a secure Israel as well as a viable Palestinian state. The British media, on the other hand, and particularly the BBC, is perceived as hostile in Israel and in effect as encouraging terrorism through its biased reporting. (Vivian David Lipman and David Ceserani) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: GENERAL: Roth, Mag Bibl; Lehmann, Nova Bibl (include detailed bibliography on Anglo-Jewish history up to 1961); Roth, England; J. Finestein, Short History of Anglo-Jewry (1957); A.M. Hyamson, History of the Jews in England (19282); D.S. Katz, The Jews in the History of England, 1485 – 1850 (1994); H.S.Q. Henriques, Jews and the English Law (1908). MIDDLE AGES: M. Adler, Jews of Medieval England (1939); J. Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England (1893); H.G. Richardson, English Jewry under Angevin Kings (1960); B.L. Abrahams, Expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 (1895); G. Caro, Sozial-und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Juden, 1 (1909), 313–51; 2 (1920), 3–68; Rigg-Jenkinson, Exchequer; M.D. Davis, Hebrew Deeds of English Jews before 1290 (1888). MODERN PERIOD (FROM 17th CENTURY): V.D. Lipman, Social History of the Jews in England 1850 – 1950 (1954); idem (ed.), Three Centuries of Anglo-Jewish History (1961); idem, A Century of Social Service 1859 – 1959 (1959); idem, A History of the Jews in Britain since 1858 (1990); idem, in: JHSET, 21 (1968), 78–103; T. Endelman, The Jews of Georgian England, 1714 – 1830: Tradition in a Liberal Society (1979); D. Englander (ed.), A Documentary History of the Jews in Britain, 1840 – 1920 (1993); G. Alderman, Modern British Jewry (1992); J. Gould and S. Esh (ed.), Jewish Life in Modern Britain (1964); M. Freedman (ed.), A Minority in Britain (1955); A.M. Hyamson, Sephardim of England (1951); L.P. Gartner, The Jewish Immigrant in England, 1870 – 1914 (1960); N. Bentwich, They Found Refuge (1956); C. Roth, Rise of Provincial Jewry (1950); idem, Life of Menasseh ben Israel (1934); idem, Essays and Portraits in Anglo-Jewish History (1962); idem, The Great Synagogue, London 1890 – 1940 (1950); J. Shaftesley (ed.), Remember the Days (1966); L. Wolf, Menasseh ben Israel's Mission to Oliver Cromwell (1901); idem, Essays in Jewish History (1932); C.H.L. Emanuel, A Century and a Half of Jewish History, Extracted from the Minute Books of the London Committee of Deputies of the British Jews (1910); S. Salomon, The Jews of Britain (1938); Gesher, 3 (Oct. 1961); P.H. Emden, Jews of Britain (1943); I. Finestein, A Short History of Anglo-Jewry (1957); E. Krausz, Leeds Jewry: Its History and Social Structure (1964); B. Litvinoff, A Peculiar People (1969), 168–70; Temkin, in: AJYB, 58 (1957), 3–63; Prais and Schmool, in: JJSO, 10 (1968), 5–34; 9 (1967), 149–74; H. Brotz, ibid., 1 (1959), 94–113; Bentwich, ibid., 2 (1960), 16–24; Krausz, ibid., 4 (1962), 82–90; idem, in: In the Dispersion, no. 3 (1963–64), 80–89; N. Cohen, in: Tradition, 8 (1966), 40–57; C. Bermant, Troubled Eden (1969); B. Wasserstein, Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939 – 1945 (1979); V.D. and S. Lipman (eds.), Jewish Life in Britain 1962 – 77 (1981); Jewish Journal of Sociology 19, 228; House of Commons Official Report (November 25, 1977), cols. 2058ff; IJA Research Reports, Western Europe 2, 3 G.B. 7, 8, Western Europe 77/1, 2; August 1980, No. 10; Sunday Telegraph (December 3, 1977); "The Jews of Britain," Jewish Chronicle Supplement (November 24, 1978); Research Unit, Board of Deputies, Steel City Jews (1976); idem, Jews in an Inner London Borough (1975); Social Demography of Redbridge Jewry (1979). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. Endelman, The Jews of Britain, 1656 – 2000 (2002); W.D. Rubinstein, A History of the Jews in the English-Speaking World: Great Britain (1996); AJYB 2003. RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL: W. Eytan, The First Ten Years (1958); E.H. Samuel, British Traditions in Administration of Israel (1957).