ENGLAND

King Edward I expelled the Jews from England in 1290, one of many notable expulsions across the continent. These measures virtually emptied Western and Central Europe of Jews. After this expulsion from England Jews did business there, and later in British colonies, as foreigners.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries European rulers began inviting Jewish merchants into their polities in the hope of stimulating commerce and filling state coffers. Jews were eventually allowed to resettle in England without a special charter for doing business, and they began to test their rights on an ad hoc basis. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they acquired most civil rights: freedom of residence, occupation, worship, and property ownership, as well as juridical standing. In 1739 they acquired the right of naturalization in the colonies, and in the nineteenth century (1830–58) they successfully campaigned to gain political rights.

Edward Nicholas
An apology for the honorable nation of the Jews and all the sons of Israel
London: John Field, 1648
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

This “apology” calls for England to make amends for her former maltreatment of the Jews by readmitting them to the country and “repeal[ing] those severe Laws made against [them].” Edward Nicholas may be a pseudonym for Menasseh ben Israel, who later publicly urged England to readmit the Jews.

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William Prynne
A Short Demurrer to the Jewes long discontinued Remitter into England

London: Printed for Edward Thomas, 1656
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Republic, favored readmission while Prynne, a member of Parliament and prolific pamphleteer, argued against it, citing Scripture, English law, and “the best Historians and Records.” Cromwell assembled notable statesmen, lawyers, and theologians to discuss the issue. Prynne bolstered the opposition, and Cromwell dismissed his conference when it seemed likely to render a negative decision. In the absence of a charter or statute, Jews were allowed to settle on an ad hoc basis.

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Menasseh ben Israel
Vindiciae Judæorum: or, A letter in answer to certain questions propounded by a noble and learned gentleman, touching the reproaches cast on the nation of the Jewes

London: Roger Daniel, 1656
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

Menasseh ben Israel arrived in London
in November 1655, intent on convincing Cromwell to readmit Jews nearly 350 years after their expulsion. Vindiciae Judæorum is a strong refutation of Prynne’s Short Demurrer and profoundly influenced the emancipation movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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Listen to Sid Lapidus's thoughts on this groundbreaking volume, one of the first in his collection.

William Hughes
Anglo-Judæus, or the History of the Jews, Whilst here in England. ... Occasioned by a Book ... by Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel

London: Printed by T. N. for Thomas Heath, 1656 Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

In Anglo-Judæus William Hughes uses pseudohistorical arguments to rebut Menasseh ben Israel’s argument for the readmission of Jews to England. Hughes hurls blood libel allegations and strongly refutes Ben Israel’s argument that Jews must be scattered to the four corners of the earth to hasten redemption.

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Sir Richard Baker
The Jews charter, or, An historical account of the priviledges granted them by the several kings and parliaments of England

London: Ann Baldwin, 1702
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

This anti-Jewish pamphlet offers a brief history of the legal and economic status of the Jews prior to their expulsion in 1290. Baker laments: “’Tis pity indeed this little island, unfortunate in nothing ... should thus put itself under the probability of being so unhappy ... if the resort thus of the Jews is permitted among us.”

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About Emancipation

In American culture the word "emancipation" is often identified with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which declared that in seceded states not already under Union control, "all persons held as slaves within said designated States ... are, and henceforward shall be free." While emancipation meant freedom, it guaranteed neither citizenship nor the franchise.

In Europe emancipation signified the release of religious minorities from an inferior legal status, as in the Catholic emancipation in England (1829). For Europe's Jews emancipation also meant the attainment of equal civil and political rights. Enacted in royal decrees or parliamentary legislation, these rights enabled Jews to participate in the larger society.

Isaac Abendana
Discourses of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews ...

London: Samuel Ballard, 1706
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

Jewish scholar Isaac Abendana studied medicine in Hamburg and Leyden before settling in England and becoming a Hebrew professor at Oxford. From 1692 to 1699 he published a series of annual Jewish almanacs for Christian use, with supplements that his friends collected and republished later in this single volume.

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Samuel Collet
A Treatise on the Future Restoration of the Jews and Israelites to their Own Land ...

London: Printed for J. Highmore, 1747
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

Collet suggested that England could allow the return of Jews, assuming their eventual conversion to Christianity. This treatise is dedicated to the Jews themselves: “you, who are now dispersed among the nations, will,
in a short time, with the rest of the Israelites, be restored to your own land, and enjoy there the greatest prosperity.”

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The Expediency of a general naturalization of foreign Protestants and others

London: William for Owen, 1751
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

Anonymously published two years before Britain’s “Jew Bill” of 1753, this tract advances a number of arguments for the naturalization of foreign Protestants and Jews. Notably, it argues that the absence of a Jewish state would mean that Jews had no dual loyalty to England and another nation.

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Josiah Tucker
Reflections on the Expediency of a Law for the Naturalization of Foreign Protestants: In Two Parts

London: Thomas Trye, 1751
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

Clergyman and writer Josiah Tucker was known for his treatises tackling contemporary issues. Tucker believed in expanding the English population to include dissenting Protestants and Jews, in support of building a greater economy. Not all his countrymen agreed: Tucker and this book were burned in effigy at Bristol.

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Joseph Priestley
Letters to the Jews; part II: occasioned by Mr. David Levi’s reply to the former letters

Birmingham: Printed for the author by Pearson and Rollason and sold by J. Johnson, 1787

Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

English theologian Joseph Priestley and Anglo-Jewish scholar David Levi engaged in a war of printed words over Christian (mis)conceptions about Jewish practice. Priestley urged Jews to convert, prompting Levi to publish his Dissertation on the Prophesies of the Old Testament.

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Special Circumstances

By 1648, following the Reformation and the wars of religion, European countries needed to repopulate and rebuild cities and economies. Governments invited foreigners, including Jews, to conduct business in their territories.

The Plantation Act of 1740 allowed small groups of Jewish settlers to gain equality ("naturalization") in the British colonies. The bill aimed to attract white colonists, including Jews, Quakers, and other Protestant dissenters, prioritizing race over religious difference. The "Jew Bill" (1753) responded to the petition of a small number of Sephardi Jewish merchants seeking relief from the excessive tariffs they paid as foreigners. Both bills afforded Jews aspects of emancipation, while the Crown benefited from increased economic activity.

Act for Naturalizing Such Foreign Protestants, and other therein mentioned, as are settled, or shall settle in any of His Majesty’s colonies in America

London: John Baskett, 1739
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

Known as the Plantation Act, this law enabled settlers in the British colonies to become naturalized subjects if they had lived in the colonies for seven continuous years and swore a (non-Christian) oath. The largest colonial Jewish community to pursue this path to naturalization was in Jamaica. Notably, Jews won economic rights but did not gain political rights through this act, and in fact paid increased taxes— Parliament’s plan all along.

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Some thoughts upon a bill for General Naturalization: Addressed to Those of all Denominations who act upon Whig-principles

London: Printed for M. Cooper, 1751
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

Here an anonymous author (perhaps aware of Josiah Tucker’s unpopular opinions) also argues in favor of the bill to naturalize foreign Protestants and Jews. The author proposes that a more populous nation breeds economic strength, for “all trade in its rise and in its progress proceeds from numbers.”

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Listen to Sid Lapidus explain how English Jews became
naturalized, along with foreign Protestants.

An Act to permit persons of the Jewish Religion to be naturalized by Parliament

London: Thomas Baskett, 1753
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

This is the earliest printing of the “Jew Bill,” passed by Parliament in 1753. This act marked Parliament’s first attempt to grant citizenship
to Jews residing in England; it resulted from
the lobbying of London’s Sephardi Jewish merchants—“persons of considerable substance professing the Jewish religion.”

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An Act to Repeal ... An Act to Permit Persons Professing the Jewish Religion, to be Naturalized by Parliament; and for other purposes therein mentioned

London: Thomas Baskett, 1753
Center for Jewish History, Gift of Sid Lapidus

The bill’s initial printing set off a heated debate
in Parliament. Anti-immigrant Tories cited the preservation of the Anglican Church and riled up the City of London with fear for their livelihood. With an election looming, Whigs favoring immigration repealed their own act.

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FRANCE

ENGLAND

About Emancipation

“And so hereupon were the jews banished out of all the kings
dominions: And never since could they obtain any priviledge to return hither again.”
- William Prynne, 1656, On the time of King Edward's reign

Special Circumstances

“The common objection to all attempts of naturalizing foreigners, that it would bring the useless outcasts of other countries among us, is false and trifling. Who fly from oppression, but the lovers of liberty?”
- Some thoughts upon a bill for General Naturalization, 1751

ENGLAND

About Emancipation

“And so hereupon were the jews banished out of all the kingsdominions: And never since could they obtain any priviledge to return hither again.” - William Prynne, 1656, On the time of King Edward's reign

Special Circumstances

“The common objection to all attempts of naturalizing foreigners, that it would bring the useless outcasts of other countries among us, is false and trifling. Who fly from oppression, but the lovers of liberty?” - Some thoughts upon a bill for General Naturalization, 1751

“And so hereupon were the jews banished out of all the kings
dominions: And never since could they obtain any priviledge to return hither again.”
- William Prynne, 1656, On the time of King Edward's reign

“The common objection to all attempts of naturalizing foreigners, that it would bring the useless outcasts of other countries among us, is false and trifling. Who fly from oppression, but the lovers of liberty?”
- Some thoughts upon a bill for General Naturalization, 1751