Jew Bill of 1753

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History of the Jews in England

Early history (1066-1200)

Statute of the Jewry (1275)

Edict of Expulsion (1290)

Jew Bill of 1753

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History of the Jews in Ireland

History of the Jews in Scotland

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During the Jacobite rising of 1745 the Jews had shown particular loyalty to the government. Their chief financier, Samson Gideon, had strengthened the stock market, and several of the younger members had volunteered in the corps raised to defend London. Possibly as a reward, Pelham in 1753 brought in the Jew Bill of 1753, which allowed Jews to become naturalized by application to Parliament. It passed the Lords without much opposition, but on being brought down to the House of Commons, the Tory party made a great outcry against this "abandonment of Christianity," as they called it. On the other hand, it was contended that the Jews performed a very valuable function in the commercial economy of the nation, providing one-twelfth of the nation's profits and one-twentieth of its foreign trade. The Whigs, however, persisted in carrying out at least one part of their general policy of religious toleration, and the bill was passed and received the royal assent (26 Geo. II., cap. 26).

1 Opposition to the Jew Bill
2 Jews become discouraged
3 Prominent Sephardim abandon Judaism
4 German Jews
5 See also
6 External link

[edit] Opposition to the Jew Bill

Nevertheless, a great clamor was raised against it, and the lord mayor and the corporations of London petitioned Parliament for its repeal. Effigies of Jews were carried about in derision, and placards with the inscription "No Jews, no wooden shoes" were pasted up in the most prominent public resorts. The latter part of the popular cry referred to foreign Protestants, chiefly Huguenots, whom the Pelham ministry had also tried to naturalize as recently as 1751, when the bill for their relief had been petitioned against and dropped. A naturalization bill for foreign Protestants had been passed as early as 1709, but was repealed three years later; and the precedent was now followed in the case of the Jews (Lecky, "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," i. 283). In 1754 the Jew Bill was repealed, and an attempt was even made to obtain the repeal of the act of 1740 permitting the Jews in the colonies to be naturalized. It is difficult to understand the intensity of the popular outburst at the time, since the sons of the very persons whom the populace refused to allow to be naturalized became by mere place of birth subjects of the British crown.

[edit] Jews become discouraged

The influence of the repeal of the Jew Bill on the Sephardic Jews of the UK, who were chiefly affected by it, was deplorable. Samson Gideon, the head of the community, determined to bring up his children as Christians, and his example was followed by many of the chief families during the remainder of the century. A general feeling of insecurity came over the community. With the accession of George III, a Committee of Deputados was formed as a sequel to the Committee of Diligence which had been appointed to supervise the passing of the Jew bills through the Irish Parliament. By this time, the German Jews had become of sufficient importance for a certain number of them to be associated with the deputies in the address of congratulation on the accession of George III, but they did not form a regular part of the Board of Deputies, the only representative body of English Jews. The activity of the board, however, was mainly devoted to helping coreligionists abroad, the wealth of the London community attracting needy applicants from both the Old World and the New. The deputies do not appear to have made a protest even against the Oath of Abjuration Act (6 George III., cap. 52). This fixed the status of the Jews by declaring an oath of abjuration, containing the words "upon the faith of a Christian," to be necessary for all officers, civil or military, under the crown or in the universities, and for all lawyers, voters, and members of Parliament.

[edit] Prominent Sephardim abandon Judaism

At this time a number of the more prominent members of the Sephardic community, as the Bernals, Lopezes, Ricardos, Disraelis, Aguilars, Bassevis, and Samudas, gradually severed their connection with the synagogue and allowed their children to grow up either without any religion or in the Established Church, which gave them an open career in all the professions. Meanwhile the ranks of the British Jewry were being recruited from the downtrodden German and Polish communities of the Continent.

[edit] German Jews

While the Sephardim chiefly congregated in London as the center of international commerce, the German Jews settled for the most part in the seaports of the south and west, such as Falmouth, Plymouth, Liverpool, Bristol, etc., as pawnbrokers and small dealers. From these centers it became their custom to send out hawkers every Monday with packs to the neighboring villages; and in this way connections were made with some of the inland towns, in which they began to settle, as Canterbury, Chatham, and Cambridge, not to mention Manchester and Birmingham. Traders of this type, while not of such prominence as the larger merchants of the capital, came in closer touch with English life; and they doubtless helped to allay some of the prejudice which had been manifested so strongly during 1753.