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{{short description|British citizens who are Jewish}}
{{Ethnic group
{{Infobox ethnic group
|group = British Jews
| group = British Jews
|image = ] ] <br> ] ]<br>] ] ] <small>
| flag =
] • ] • ] • ] • ] <br> ] • ] • ]</small>
| pop = {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} '''United Kingdom: 277,613 – 0.4% (])'''<br/>{{Flagicon|ENG}} ]: 269,283 – 0.5% (2021)<ref name=2021census>{{cite web|url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021|title=Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021
|pop = '''266,740''' (by religion) (])<br>'''292,000''' (2010 estimate by the ])<ref name=JVL/>
|publisher=]|access-date=29 November 2022}}</ref><br>{{Flagicon|SCO}} ]: 5,847 – 0.1% (2022)<ref name="2022census_Scot">{{cite web |url=https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/media/trbdxzme/scotland-s-census-2022-ethnic-group-national-identity-language-and-religion-chart-data.xlsx |title=Scotland's Census 2022 - Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion - Chart data |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=21 May 2024 |website=Scotland's Census |publisher=] |access-date=21 May 2024 }} 'Search data by location' > 'All of Scotland' > 'Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion' > 'Religion'</ref><br/>{{Flagicon|WAL}} ]: 2,044 – 0.07% (2021)<ref name=2021census/><br/>{{Flagicon|UK}} ]: 439 – 0.02% (2021)<ref name=NICensus2021>{{cite web|url=https://www.nisra.gov.uk/system/files/statistics/census-2021-ms-b21.xlsx|title=MS-B21: Religion|publisher=]|date= 22 September 2022|accessdate=7 January 2023}}</ref><br>'''Other estimates:''' <br />Core Jewish population: 290,000 (2018)<ref name=":2">{{Citation |last=DellaPergola |first=Sergio |chapter=World Jewish Population, 2018 |date=2019 |volume=118 |pages=361–449|editor-last=Dashefsky |editor-first=Arnold |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-03907-3_8 |isbn=9783030039066 |editor2-last=Sheskin |editor2-first=Ira M.|title=American Jewish Year Book 2018 |s2cid=146549764 }}</ref><br />Enlarged Jewish population <small>(includes non-Jewish relatives of Jews)</small>: 370,000 (2018)<ref name=":2"/>
|regions = ], ], south-west ], ], ], ], ]
| regions = ], ], ], ], ], ], ]; also ], ] and ]
|langs = ], ], ], ], ]
| langs = Primarily ]; also ], largely spoken by ]; historically ] and ] among ]; immigrant languages include or have included ], ], ] and ] amongst many others
|rels = ]
| rels = ] or ]
|related-c =
| related-c = ] and other ]<!-- parameter is for ethnic group, not nationality -->
}} }}
{{Jews and Judaism sidebar}} {{Jews and Judaism sidebar}}


'''British Jews''' (often referred to collectively as '''British Jewry''' or '''Anglo-Jewry''') are ] who are ]. The number of people who identified as Jews in the ] rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021.
'''British Jews''' (often referred to collectively as '''Anglo-Jewry''') are ] who live in, or are ] of, the ]. In the ], 266,740 people listed their religion as Jewish. The UK is home to the second largest ] in ], and has the ].<ref name=JVL>. Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref> The population has a substantially older profile than that of the general population. Most British Jews adhere to ], although there are an increasing number of ].


==History== ==History==
{{Main|History of the Jews in the United Kingdom|History of the Jews in England|History of the Jews in Scotland|History of the Jews in Wales|History of the Jews in Northern Ireland}} {{Main | History of the Jews in England (1066–1290) | History of the Jews in England | History of the Jews in Scotland | History of the Jews in Wales|History of the Jews in Northern Ireland}}
The first recorded Jewish community in ] was brought to ] in 1070 by King ], who believed that their commercial skills and incoming capital would make England more prosperous. This community was ] in 1290 by King ], and emigrated to countries such as ] ]. A small community persisted in hiding despite the expulsion. Jews were not banned from Scotland though in this period as Scotland was an independent nation with different laws than England. In 1656 ] made it clear that the ban on Jewish settlement would no longer be enforced. At the insistence of Irish leader ], in 1846, the British law "De Judaismo", which prescribed a special dress for Jews, was repealed.<ref>http://www.jewishireland.org/history_2.html</ref> In 2006, the Jewish community celebrated the 350th anniversary of the resettlement in England.<ref>. European Jewish Press. 30 October 2005. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref> Benjamin Disraeli, a British Prime Minister, was of Jewish origin, however he was baptized an Anglican (lived 21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881); he was also a parliamentarian, conservative politician and literary figure. He served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister.


The first recorded Jewish community in ] was brought to ] in 1070 by King ] who believed the Jewish population's commercial skills would make his newly won country more prosperous. At the end of the 12th century, a series of ] and fatal ] were perpetrated in England, particularly on the east coast. Notably, on 16 March 1190, during the run up to the ], the Jewish population of York was massacred at the site where ] now stands,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/norman/the-1190-massacre|title=The 1190 Massacre: History of York|first=SUMO|last=Design}}</ref> and King ] passed the ] (''Statutum de Judaismo'') in 1275, restricting the community's activities, most notably outlawing the practice of ] (charging interest).<ref name="Prestwich">Prestwich, Michael. Edward I p 345 (1997) Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-07157-4}}.</ref> Fifteen years later when Edward found that many of these provisions were ignored, he ]. The Jewish population emigrated to countries such as ] ]. ] despite the expulsion. Jews were not banned from ], which was an independent kingdom until 1707; however, there is no record of a Jewish presence in Scotland before the 18th century. Jews were also not banned in Wales at the time, but England eventually annexed Wales under ]. When Henry VIII's England annexed Wales, the English ban on Jews extended to Wales. There is only one known record of a Jew in Wales between 1290 and the annexation, but it is possible individuals did persist there after 1290.
==Demographics==
===Population===


A small community of ] was identified in Bristol in 1609 and banished. In 1656, ] made it clear that the ban on Jewish settlement in England and Wales would no longer be enforced, but when Rabbi ] brought a petition to allow Jews to return, the majority of ] turned it down. Despite the Protectorate government's rejection of the Rabbi's petition, the community considers 1656 to mark the readmission of the Jews to England and Wales. In mid-nineteenth century British-ruled Ireland, ], known as "The Liberator" for his work on ], worked successfully for ], which prescribed a special ] for Jews.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.jewishireland.org/history_2.html | title = Jewish Ireland | contribution = History | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100222092245/http://www.jewishireland.org/history_2.html | archive-date = 2010-02-22 }}.</ref> ] (1804–1881), of Jewish birth although he joined the ], served in government for three decades, twice as ].
The ] included a (voluntary) religion question ("What is your religion?") for the first time in its history;{{#tag:ref|The question had appeared in the past several censuses in Northern Ireland.<ref>”Jews in Britain”, p. 18.</ref> In Scotland there were two questions: "What religion, religious
denomination or body do you belong to?" and "What religion, religious denomination or body were you brought up in?".<ref name=GrahamWaterman>Graham, David; Waterman, Stanley. {{subscription required}}. '']'' '''12''' (2): 89–102. March/April 2005. {{doi|10.1002/psp.362}}.</ref>|group= n}} 266,740 people listed their religion as "Jewish".<ref name=jib3>"Jews in Britain", p. 3.</ref> However, the subject of "]" is complex, and the religion question did not record people who may be Jewish through other means, such as ethnically and culturally.<ref>”Jews in Britain”, pp. 12–13.</ref> Ninety-seven percent of people who chose Jewish as their religion put White as their ethnic group; however, a report by the ] (JPR) suggests that, although there was an apparent option to write down "Jewish" for this question, it did not occur to many, because of "skin colour" and nationality bias; and that if "Jewish" was an explicit option, the results—only 2594 respondents were Jewish solely by ethnicity—would have been different.<ref>"Jews in Britain", pp. 20–21.</ref> The religion question appeared in the ], but there was still no explicit option for "Jewish" in the ethnic-group question. The Board of Deputies had encouraged all Jews to indicate they were Jewish, either through the religion question or the ethnicity one.<ref>. ]. Accessed 10 August 2011.</ref>


The oldest Jewish community in Britain is the ], which traces back to the 1630s when it existed clandestinely in London before the readmission and was unofficially legitimised in 1656, which is the date counted by the Jewish community as the re-admittance of the Jews to England (which at the time included Wales). A trickle of Ashkenazi immigration primarily from German countries continued from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. As for the second wave of Ashkenazi immigration, a large wave of ] Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in the ] due to ] and the ] between 1880 and the imposition of tighter ] in 1905 sought their way to the Isles. Many German and Polish Jews seeking to escape the ] ] arrived in Britain before and after the ].<ref>]</ref>{{better source needed|date=November 2019}} Around 80-90% of British Jews today are Ashkenazi.
The figure of 266,740 recorded by the Census is considered an undercount. David Graham and Stanley Waterman give several reasons: the underenumeration for censuses in general; the question did not record secular Jews; the voluntary nature of the question; suspicion by Jews of such questions; and the high non-response rate for large numbers of Haredi Jews.<ref name=GrahamWaterman/>


Following de-colonisation, the late twentieth century saw ] ] and ] settle in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/05/iraqi-refugee-edwin-shuker-british-jews-first-leader-arab-origin|title=Iraq-born refugee could become first Arabic speaker to head Britain's Jews|last=Sherwood|first=Harriet|date=2018-05-05|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-07-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/objects-in-focus-jewish-immigrant-family-from-india|title=The Jewish Museum|website=www.jewishmuseum.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-07-18|archive-date=2018-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718205401/http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/objects-in-focus-jewish-immigrant-family-from-india|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d58QQocrWVkC&q=Aden+Jews+immigration+britain&pg=PA75|title=The Jews of the British Crown Colony of Aden: History, Culture, and Ethnic Relations|last=Ahroni|first=Reuben|date=1994|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-9004101104|language=en}}</ref> A multicultural community, in 2006, British Jews celebrated the 350th anniversary of the resettlement in England.<ref>{{Citation | type = in-depth article | url = http://www.ejpress.org/article/in_depth/on_anglo_jewry/3808 | title = On Anglo Jewry | contribution = EJP looks back on 350 years of history of Jews in the UK | publisher = European Jewish Press | date = 30 October 2005 | access-date = 1 April 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110503225850/http://ejpress.org/article/in_depth/on_anglo_jewry/3808 | archive-date = 3 May 2011 | url-status = dead }}.</ref>
From 1990 to 2006, the Jewish population showed a decrease from 340,000 Jews to 270,000. According to the 1996 Jewish Policy Review, nearly one in two are marrying people who do not share their faith.<ref> November 26, 2006</ref> From 2005 to 2008, the Jewish population increased from 275,000 to 280,000, attributed largely to the high birth rates of ].<ref name=Pigott>Pigott, Robert. . ]. 21 May 2008. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref> Research by the ] in 2007 showed that 75 percent of British Jewish births were to the Haredi community.<ref name="UofM">. ]. 23 July 2007. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref> Ultra orthodox women have an average of 6.9 children, and secular Jewish women 1.65.<ref>Butt, Riazat. . '']''. 21 May 2008. Accessed 10 August 2011.</ref>


==Demographics==
About two-thirds of the UK's Jews live in ] or contiguous parts of ] and south-west ]. Substantial communities outside the London area include ], home to some 30,000 Jews, and ], where now fewer than 9,000 Jews live. Other substantial communities include ], ] and ], as well as other former industrial cities. Barnet and Hertsmere councils in the London borders polled as the first and second most Jewish local authorities in England, with Jews composing one in five and nine residents respectively.


===Population size===
The British Jewish population has a substantially older profile than that of the general population. In England and Wales, the median age of male Jews is 41.2, while the figure for all males is 36.1; Jewish females have a median age of 44.3, while the figure for all females is 38.1.<ref name=jib3/> A high proportion (83.2 percent) of Jews in England and Wales were born in the UK.<ref>"Jews in Britain", p. 5.</ref> About 24 percent of the community are over the age of 65 (compared to 16 percent of the general population of England and Wales). In the 2001 census Jews were the only group in which the number of persons in the 75-plus cohorts outnumbered those in the 65–74 cohort.<!-- unsourced -->
{{Historical populations
|title=Historical British Jewish population
|type=Ireland
|1734|6,000
|1800|17,500
|1881|60,000
|1900|250,000
|1933|300,000
|1938|370,000
|1945|450,000
|1980|330,000
|]|266,740
|]|269,568
|]|277,613
|source =
Data from 2001 onwards derived from the UK Census
*Data prior to 2001 based on estimates; these come from the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906, the US Holocaust Museum, and Jews in Britain-Origin and Growth of Anglo Jewry (1943)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish Population of Europe in 1933 |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-population-of-europe-in-1933-population-data-by-country |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=www.encyclopedia.ushmm.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A summary history of immigration to Britain |url=https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefing-paper/48/a-summary-history-of-immigration-to-britain |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=www.migrationwatchuk.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Britain: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/britain-nineteenth-and-twentieth-centuries |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=www.jwa.org}}</ref>}}


According to the ], there were 271,327 Jews in ], or 0.5% of the overall population,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021 |access-date=2022-11-29 |website=www.ons.gov.uk}}</ref> whilst in the 2021 Northern Irish census, there were 439 self-identified Jews comprising just 0.02% of the population, but marking a 31% increase in numbers since the census of 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/census-2021-main-statistics-religion-tables |access-date=2023-10-31 |website=www.nisra.gov.uk|date=7 September 2022 }}</ref> According to the 2011 census, 5,887 ] for a total of 277,653 self-identified Jews in the United Kingdom. This does not include much smaller communities in the ] and ]; notably, there are Jewish communities in ], ] and ], amongst others. However, this final figure is considered an undercount. Demographers David Graham and Stanley Waterman give several reasons as for why: the underenumeration for censuses in general; the question did not record secular Jews; the voluntary nature of the question; suspicion by Jews of such questions; and the high non-response rate for large numbers of Haredi Jews.<ref name=GrahamWaterman /> By comparison, the ] estimated a Jewish population of 291,000 (] to adherents of Judaism) in 2012, making Britain's Jewish community the fifth ]<ref name=JVL>. Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref> This equates to 0.43% of the population of the United Kingdom. The absolute number of Jews has been gradually rising since records began; in the ], 263,346 people in England and Wales answered "Jewish" to the voluntary question on religion, compared with 259,927 in of 2001.
===Religion===
There are some 409 ], and it is estimated that 74 percent of the country's Jews are affiliated with one.<ref>"Synagogue membership in the United Kingdom in 2010", p. 9.</ref> Of those affiliated, the affiliations are distributed across the following groupings:
* Central Orthodox ("consisting of the ], the ] and independent Orthodox synagogues") – 54.7%
* ] (] and ] and ]) – 19.4%
* ] ("synagogues aligned with the ] and others of a similar ethos") – 10.9%
* ] (Liberal Judaism and ]) – 8.7%
* ] – 3.5%
* ] (]) – 2.7%<ref>"Synagogue membership in the United Kingdom in 2010", pp. 12–13. Other affiliations were not considered in the JPR report.</ref>


The ] included a (voluntary) religion question ("What is your religion?") for the first time in its history;{{#tag:ref|The question had appeared in the past several censuses in Northern Ireland.{{Sfn | Graham | Schmool | Waterman | 2007 |p = 18}} In Scotland there were two questions: "What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?" and "What religion, religious denomination or body were you brought up in?".<ref name=GrahamWaterman>Graham, David; Waterman, Stanley. {{subscription required}}. '']'' '''12''' (2): 89–102. March/April 2005. {{doi|10.1002/psp.362}}.</ref>|group= n}} 266,740 people listed their religion as "Jewish".{{Sfn | Graham | Schmool | Waterman | 2007 | p = 3}} However, the subject of ] is complex, and the religion question did not record people who may be Jewish through other means, such as ethnically and culturally.{{Sfn | Graham | Schmool | Waterman | 2007 | pp = 12–13}} Of people who chose Jewish as their religion, 97% put White as their ethnic group. However, a report by the ] (JPR) suggests that, although there was an apparent option to write down "Jewish" for this question, it did not occur to many, because of "skin colour" and nationality bias, and that if "Jewish" was an explicit option, the results—only 2,594 respondents were Jewish solely by ethnicity—would have been different.{{Sfn | Graham | Schmool | Waterman | 2007 |pp = 20–21}} The religion question appeared in the ], but there was still no explicit option for "Jewish" in the ethnic-group question. The Board of Deputies had encouraged all Jews to indicate they were Jewish, either through the religion question or the ethnicity one.<ref>. ]. Accessed 10 August 2011.</ref>
==Communal institutions==
===Cross-communal organisations===
British Jewish communal organisations include:
*] - founded in 1760, represents the community at a national and international level. All synagogues and communal organisations are entitled to elect deputies to the Board.
*] - the representative body of all of the Jewish communities in Scotland.
*] - comprises the chairpeople of the major organisations in each sector of communal life, together with key individual leaders of the community.
*] - works to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish community in Britain.
*] - supports Jewish students at university.
*].


From 2005 to 2008, the Jewish population increased from 275,000 to 280,000, attributed largely to the high birth rates of ].<ref name = Pigott>Pigott, Robert. . ]. 21 May 2008. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref> Research by the ] in 2007 showed that 75% of British Jewish births were to the Haredi community.<ref name="UofM"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017102513/http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/archive/list/item/?id=2932&year=2007&month=07 |date=2013-10-17 }}. ]. 23 July 2007. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref> Ultra-Orthodox women have an average of 6.9 children, and secular Jewish women 1.65.<ref>Butt, Riazat. . '']''. 21 May 2008. Accessed 10 August 2011.</ref> In 2015, the ] reported that in England the orthodox community was growing by nearly 5% per year, while the non-haredi community was decreasing by 0.3% per year.<ref name=jp-20151120>{{cite news |url=https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Israel-emigration-to-UK-outstrips-aliya-says-report-434751 |title=Israel emigration to UK outstrips aliya, says report |last=Sokol |first=Sam |newspaper=Jerusalem Post |date=20 November 2015 |access-date=7 September 2018}}</ref> It has been also documented that in terms of births, between 2007 and 2015, the estimated number of Strictly Orthodox births per annum increased by 35%, rising from 1,431 to 1,932. Meanwhile, the estimated number of ‘Mainstream’ (non-Strictly Orthodox) births per annum increased to a lesser extent over the same period, going from 1,844 to 1,889 (+2.4%).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.jpr.org.uk/documents/JPR.2018.Vital_statistics.Births_and_deaths.pdf|title=Vital statistics of the UK Jewish population: births and deaths|last=Casale Mashiah|first=Donatella|publisher=Institute for Jewish Policy Research & Board of Deputies of British Jews|year=2018|access-date=2019-01-06|archive-date=2019-01-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106204610/https://www.jpr.org.uk/documents/JPR.2018.Vital_statistics.Births_and_deaths.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Education==
About 60 percent of school-age Jewish children attend Jewish schools.<ref>"The Future of Jewish Schools", p. 7.</ref> Jewish day schools and ]s are found throughout the country. Jewish cultural studies and Hebrew language instruction is commonly offered at synagogues in the form of supplementary Hebrew schools or Sunday schools. The majority of Jewish schools in Britain are funded by the government. Jewish educational centres are plentiful, large-scale projects. One of the country's most famous Jewish schools is the state-funded ] in London which opened in 1732 and has about 2100 students. It is heavily over-subscribed and applies strict rules on admissions, which led to a ] in 2009.<ref>. ]. 25 June 2009. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref> In 2011, another large government funded school opened in North London named ], the first cross-denomination Jewish secondary school in the UK.<ref>Kessler, Sarah. . '']''. 21 January 2009. Accessed 3 April 2011. 2 April 2011.</ref>


===Historical population===
The ] is an umbrella organisation that represents Jewish students at university. There are over 50 Jewish Societies.<ref>. ]. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref>


Going into the 19th century, the Jewish population was small, likely no more than 20,000 individuals. However, the population quadrupled in just a few decades after 1881 as a large number of Jews fled oppression in the Russian Empire. The population increased by as much as 50% between 1933 and 1945, with the United Kingdom admitting around 70,000 Jews between 1933 and 1938, and a further 80,000 between 1938 and 1945. The late 1940s and early 1950s proved to be the high point, numerically speaking, for British Jewry. A decline followed, as many of the new arrivals moved to Israel, moved back to Europe, or emigrated elsewhere, and many other individuals assimilated. The decline continued into the 1990s, but has since reversed. The estimates given before the 2001 Census are likely not directly comparable to the Census, as the Census is based purely on self-identification, whereas the estimates are based on community membership, and it is probably the decline from 450,000 to 266,740 is more like a decline from 450,000 to somewhere between 300,000 and 350,000 going by the metrics of the estimators. Contemporary Jewish demographers like Sergio DellaPergola give figures around 300,000 for the British Jewish population in the early 2010s, since when it has grown.
British Jews generally have high levels of educational achievement. Compared to the general population, they are 40 percent less likely to have no qualifications, and 80 percent more likely to have "higher-level" qualifications. With the exception of under-25s, younger Jews tend to be better educated than older ones.<ref>"Jews in Britain", pp. 79–80. See p. 79 for the definition of "higher-level" qualifications.</ref>


===Limmud=== ====Migration====
The great majority (83.2%) of Jews in England and Wales were born in the UK.{{Sfn | Graham | Schmool | Waterman | 2007 | p = 5}} In 2015, about 6% of Jews in England held an Israeli passport.<ref name=jp-20151120/> In 2019, the ] estimated that 21,000 people resident in the UK were born in Israel, up from 11,890 in 2001. Of the 21,000, 8,000 had Israeli nationality.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/new-figures-show-near-doubling-of-israeli-born-uk-residents-since-2001/|title=New figures show near-doubling of Israeli-born UK residents since 2001|date=29 November 2019|access-date=3 December 2019|work=Jewish News}}</ref> In 2013, it was reported that ] led to an exodus of ] to the UK. This has resulted in some synagogues establishing French-language ].<ref>. '']''. February 21, 2013. Accessed January 23, 2014.</ref>
The annual ] winter conference is a high-profile educational event of the British Jewish community, attracting a wide range of international presenters.<ref>Gringras, Robbie. . '']''. 8 January 2010. Accessed 1 April 2011. 1 April 2011.</ref>


In 2018, 534 Britons ], representing the third consecutive annual decline. The figure was one third down on 2015 and was the lowest for five years. Meanwhile, immigration of Jews from Israel is consistently higher than emigration of Jews to Israel, at a ratio of about 3:2, meaning the British Jewish community has a net gain of Jewish immigrants, to the point Israelis now represent around 6% of the British Jewish community.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/aliyah-from-britain-falls-for-third-year-in-a-row-1.481698|title=Aliyah from Britain falls for third year in a row|last=Rocker|first=Simon|date=19 March 2019|work=The Jewish Chronicle}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/aliyah-from-uk-close-to-lowest-level-as-just-534-made-the-move-in-2018/|title=Aliyah from UK close to lowest level as just 534 made the move in 2018|date=20 March 2019|work=Jewish News}}</ref>
==Employment==
The 2001 Census showed that 30.5 percent of economically active Jews were self-employed, compared to a figure of 14.2 percent for the general population. Jews aged 16–24 were more likely to be economically inactive than their counterparts in the general population; 89.2 percent of these were students.<ref>"Jews in Britain", p. 87.</ref>


==Media== ====Ethnicity====

There are a number of ]s, magazines and websites published on a national level and more regional levels. The most famous of these is '']'', which was founded in 1841 and is the world's oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper.<ref>. ]. Accessed 3 April 2011.</ref> Other media include ''The Jewish Chronicle North'' (for the North of the country), the Jewish News newspaper, ], The ], JLifestyle magazine, ] website and ] website.
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|+Jews in England and Wales by ethnic group and nationality
!rowspan="2"|Ethnic group
!colspan="2"|]
!colspan="2"|]
!colspan="2"|]
|-
!Number
!%
!Number
!%
!Number
!%
|-
||||||||||||
|-
!align=left|White|| 249,483 || 96.82 || 241,356 || 92.37 || 230,399 || 85.56
|-
|align=left| – ]|| 216,403 || 84.00 || 200,934 || 76.90 || 180,325 || 66.96
|-
|align=left| – ]|| 1,134 || 0.44 || 1,116 || 0.43 || 927 || 0.34
|-
|align=left| – ]|||| || 241 || 0.09 || 161 || 0.06
|-
|align=left| – ]|||| || || || 178 || 0.07
|-
|align=left| – ]|| 31,946 || 12.40 || 39,065 || 14.95 || 48,808 || 18.12
|-
!align=left|Mixed|| 3,038 || 1.18 || 4,209 || 1.61 || 6,029 || 2.24
|-
|align=left| – White and Asian|| 828 || 0.32 || 1,229 || 0.47 || 1,190 || 0.44
|-
|align=left| – White and Black Caribbean|| 379 || 0.15 || 778 || 0.30 || 780 || 0.29
|-
|align=left| – White and Black African|| 181 || 0.07 || 424 || 0.16 || 442 || 0.16
|-
|align=left| – Other Mixed|| 1,650 || 0.64 || 1,778 || 0.86 || 3,617 || 1.34
|-
!align=left|Asian|| 1,968 || 0.76 || 2,750 || 1.05 || 1,526 || 0.57
|-
|align=left| – ]|| 663 || 0.26 || 816 || 0.31 || 557 || 0.21
|-
|align=left| – ]|| 104 || 0.04 || 324 || 0.12 || 159 || 0.06
|-
|align=left| – ]|| 353 || 0.14 || 433 || 0.17 || 261 || 0.10
|-
|align=left| – ]|| 124 || 0.05 || 222 || 0.08 || 83 || 0.03
|-
|align=left| – Other Asian|| 724 || 0.28 || 955 || 0.37 || 466 || 0.17
|-
!align=left|Black|| 893 || 0.35 || 1,591 || 0.61 || 1,611 || 0.60
|-
|align=left| – ]|| 535 || 0.21 || 611 || 0.23 || 649 || 0.24
|-
|align=left| – African|| 236 || 0.09 || 499 || 0.19 || 709 || 0.26
|-
|align=left| – Other Black|| 122 || 0.05 || 481 || 0.18 || 253 || 0.09
|-
!align=left|Other || || 11,376 || || 29,719 || ||
|-
|align=left| – ]|| || || 564 || 0.22 || 422 || 0.16
|-
|align=left| – Other Ethnic group|| 2,289 || 0.89 || 10,812 || 4.14 || 29,297 || 10.88
|-
||||||||||||
|-
!align=left| TOTAL || 257,671 || 100.0 || 261,282 || 100.0 || 269,293 || 100.0
|}

===Geographic distribution===
The majority of the Jews in the UK live in southeastern England, particularly in and around ]. Around 145,480 Jews live in London itself - more than half the Jewish population of the entire country - notably the North London boroughs of ] (56,620), ] (17,430), ] (10,080), ] (9,400), ] (7,300), ] (6,410), ] (5,630), ] (3,720), ] (3,710), ] (2,710) and ] (2,680). There are also 30,220 Jews living in districts that are not quite London, but are outside the boundaries of London itself, of which 21,270 are in southern Hertfordshire and 4,930 are in southwestern Essex, giving a total population of 175,690 Jews in London and the districts and boroughs immediately surrounding it, as compared to 95,640 in the rest of England and Wales combined.

In total, including communities some distance from London, just under 46,000 Jews live in the six counties bordering Greater London, of which two-thirds live in areas immediately adjacent to London. There are, in total, more than 26,400 Jews in ], of which 18,350 are in the borough of ] in southwestern Hertfordshire adjacent to Jewish areas in ] and ]. Towns and villages in Hertsmere with large Jewish populations include ] (6,160), ] (5,590), and ] (2,980). Some 30% of Radlett's population is Jewish, as is 20% of Bushey's and 17% of Borehamwood's, 21% of neighbouring ]'s and 36% of nearby ], which has a Jewish plurality. Further afield from London, there is also a significant community in ], as well as other smaller communities throughout the county.<ref name="theguardian.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jan/21/britishidentity7|title = London by religion: Analysis|website = ]|date = 21 January 2005}}</ref> There are over 10,300 Jews in ], of which 4,380 live in the district of ], in the county's southwest. There is also a significant community in ]. In total, London and the counties around it are host to 70.56% of England and Wales' Jewish population, as of 2021.

The next most significant population is in Greater Manchester, a community of more than 28,000, mostly in Bury (10,730), Salford (10,370), Manchester (2,630), and Trafford (2,410).<ref name="ons.gov.uk">{{cite web | url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021 | title=Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics }}</ref> There are also significant communities in Leeds (6,270),<ref name="ons.gov.uk"/> Gateshead (2,910),<ref name="ons.gov.uk"/> Brighton (2,460),<ref name="ons.gov.uk"/> St Albans (2,240),<ref name="ons.gov.uk"/> and ] (2,060).<ref name="ons.gov.uk"/> Some historically sizeable communities like ], ] and ] have experienced a steady decline and now number fewer than 2,000 self-identifying Jews each; conversely, there are small but growing communities in places like ], ] and ].

The most Jewish county in the UK is Hertfordshire, which is 2.23% Jewish; this is followed by the ], at 2.06%, and then Greater London at 1.63%. Greater Manchester is 1.00% Jewish, Essex is 0.70% and East Sussex is 0.65%. No other county is as much as 0.50% Jewish. The least Jewish county or principal area in England and Wales is ], which is less than 0.01% Jewish despite once having had a significant community. ] and ] councils are the most Jewish local authorities in England, with Jews composing one in six and seven residents respectively. ] is the political constituency with the largest Jewish population in the UK.<ref name="jpr.org.uk">{{Cite web |url=https://www.jpr.org.uk/documents/JPR.Where_Jewish_votes_may_matter_most.Guide_to_2015_General_Election.pdf |title=Where Jewish Votes May Matter Most: The Institute for Jewish Policy Research Guide to the 2015 General Election in the UK |date=May 2015 |last=Boyd |first=Jonathan |website=jpr.org.uk |access-date=2020-11-08 |archive-date=2020-11-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112024901/https://www.jpr.org.uk/documents/JPR.Where_Jewish_votes_may_matter_most.Guide_to_2015_General_Election.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Scottish population is concentrated in ], which counts around 2,500 Jews. Around 30% of the ] population, or around 1,510 people, resides in East Renfrewshire, largely in or around the Glasgow suburb of ]. Glasgow itself has around 970 Jews. ] counts 1,270 Jews; the remaining 35% of Scottish Jewry is scattered throughout the country. The largest ] community is in ], with almost 700 Jews, comprising about a third of the Welsh Jewish population and 0.19% of the population of Cardiff itself. The only synagogue in Northern Ireland is in ], where the community has fewer than 100 active members,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/Belfast/index.htm | title=JCR-UK: Belfast Jewish Community & Synagogues (Hebrew Congregations), Northern Ireland }}</ref> although 439 people recorded their religion as Jewish in the Northern Irish census of 2021; despite remarkable growth since the previous census in 2011, this still leaves the Northern Irish community as the smallest of the four ] both in overall numbers and percentage terms. There are small communities throughout the Channel Islands, and there is an active synagogue in ], ], although the Jewish population of the island is only 49.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/Chislands.htm | title=JCR-UK: The Channel Islands Jewish Community }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.jta.org/2020/07/24/global/there-are-49-jews-left-on-the-british-island-of-jersey-the-pandemic-has-pushed-their-one-synagogue-to-the-brink | title=There are 49 Jews left on the British island of Jersey. The pandemic has pushed their one synagogue to the brink | date=24 July 2020 }}</ref> There is only a small number of Jews on the Isle of Man, with no synagogue.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/IOM.htm | title=JCR-UK: Isle of Man Jewish Community }}</ref>

===Age profile===
] at a bus stop in ], north London]]
The British Jewish population has an older profile than the general population. In England and Wales, the median age of male Jews is 41.2, while the figure for all males is 36.1; Jewish females have a median age of 44.3, while the figure for all females is 38.1.{{Sfn | Graham | Schmool | Waterman | 2007 |p = 3}} About 24% of the community are over the age of 65 (compared to 16% of the general population of England and Wales). In the 2001 census, Jews were the only group in which the number of persons in the 75-plus cohorts outnumbered those in the 65–74 cohort.{{Citation needed |date=January 2013}}

===Education===
About 60% of school-age Jewish children attend Jewish schools.<ref>"The Future of Jewish Schools", p. 7.</ref> ]s and ]s are found throughout the country. ] and Hebrew language instruction are commonly offered at synagogues in the form of supplementary Hebrew schools or Sunday schools.

The majority of Jewish schools in Britain are funded by the government. Jewish educational centres are plentiful, large-scale projects. One of the country's most famous Jewish schools is the state-funded ] in London which opened in 1732 and has about 2100 students. It is heavily over-subscribed and applies strict rules on admissions, which led to a discrimination court case, '']'', in 2009.<ref>. ]. 25 June 2009. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref> In 2011, another large state-funded school opened in North London named ], the first cross-denomination Jewish secondary school in the UK.<ref>Kessler, Sarah. . '']''. 21 January 2009. Accessed 3 April 2011. 2 April 2011.</ref>

The ] is an umbrella organisation that represents Jewish students at university. In 2011 there were over 50 Jewish Societies.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515073644/http://www.ujs.org.uk/about-us/ |date=2011-05-15 }}. ]. Accessed 1 April 2011.</ref>

British Jews generally have high levels of educational achievement. Compared to the general population, they are 40% less likely to have no qualifications, and 80% more likely to have "higher-level" qualifications.{{Sfn | Graham | Schmool | Waterman | 2007 | p = 79}} With the exception of under-25s, younger Jews tend to be better educated than older ones.{{Sfn | Graham | Schmool | Waterman | 2007 | pp = 79–80}} However, dozens of the all-day educational establishments in the Haredi community of ], which are accused of neglecting secular skills such as English and maths, claim not to be schools under the meaning of the Department for Education.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Titheradge|first1=Noel|title=Should a school be in a place like this?|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43170447|access-date=3 April 2018|work=BBC News|date=27 February 2018}}</ref>

The annual ] festival is a high-profile educational event of the British Jewish community, attracting a wide range of international presenters.<ref>Gringras, Robbie. . '']''. 8 January 2010. Accessed 1 April 2011. 1 April 2011.</ref>

===Economics===
The 2001 UK Census showed that 30.5% of economically active Jews were self-employed, compared to a figure of 14.2% for the general population. Jews aged 16–24 were less likely to be economically active than their counterparts in the general population; 89.2% of these were students.{{Sfn | Graham | Schmool | Waterman | 2007 | p = 87}} In a 2010 study, average income per working adult was £15.44 an hour. Median income and wealth were significantly higher than other religious groups.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brin.ac.uk/economic-inequality-and-religion//|title=Economic Inequality and Religion|last=Field|first=Clive|date=27 April 2010|access-date=9 July 2019}}</ref> In a 2015 study, poverty has risen the fastest per generation than other religious groups.<ref>Heath, A. and Li, Y. (2015) Review of the relationship between religion and poverty; an analysis for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. CSI Working paper 2015-01. Page 16. Downloaded from http://csi.nuff.ox.ac.uk/</ref>

The 2021 census for England and Wales recorded 72.3% of Jews either owning their home with a mortgage (32.5%) or outright (39.8%). 20.9% rent privately or live rent free and the remaining 6.8% live in ].<ref>{{cite web |title=Religion and tenure of household |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/RM134/editions/2021/versions/1/filter-outputs/a3171dc1-9548-4b7b-b0ac-48ef1b3c5394#get-data |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=28 March 2023}}</ref>

===Marriage===
In 2016, the ] reported that the ] rate for the Jewish community in the UK was 26%. This was less than half of the US rate of 58% and showed little change from the rate in the early 1980s of 23%, though more than twice the 11% level of the end of the 1960s. Around one third of the children of mixed marriages are brought up in the Jewish faith.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/intermarriage-at-record-high-but-rate-of-increase-slows-1.60147|title=Intermarriage at record high – but rate of increase slows|last=Rocker|first=Simon|date=7 July 2016|access-date=22 May 2020|work=Jewish Chronicle}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.jpr.org.uk/publication?id=4582|title=Jews in couples: Marriage, intermarriage, cohabitation and divorce in Britain|last=Graham|first=David|date=5 July 2016|access-date=22 May 2020|work=IJPR}}</ref>

==Religion==
There are around 454 ], and it is estimated that 56.3% of all households across the UK with at least one Jew living within them held ] membership in 2016.<ref name = "Casale2016">{{Cite book|url=https://www.jpr.org.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Synagogue_membership_in_the_United_Kingdom_in_2016.pdf|title=Synagogue membership in the United Kingdom in 2016|last=Casale Mashiah|first=Donatella|publisher=Institute for Jewish Policy Research & Board of Deputies of British Jews|year=2017}}</ref>{{rp|6}} The percentage of households adhering to specific denominations is as follows:
* ] ("consisting of the ], the ] and independent Orthodox synagogues") – 42.8%
* ] ("synagogues aligned with the ] and others of a similar ethos") – 23.5%
* ] (] and ] and Chaim V'Tikvah and Hastings and District Jewish Society) – 19.3%
* ] (Liberal Judaism and ]) – 8.2%
* ] (Assembly of Masorti Synagogues) – 3.3%
* ] – 2.9%

Those in the United Kingdom who consider themselves Jews identify as follows:
* 34% Secular
* 18% Ultra Orthodox
* 14% Modern Orthodox
* 14% Reform
* 10% Traditional, but not very religious
* 6% Liberal
* 2% Conservative
* 2% Sephardi <ref name = "Casale2016"/>{{rp|11–12}}

The ] in the ] said in 2015 that it had the largest membership of any single Orthodox synagogue in Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/welcome-to-our-shul-this-week-stanmore-and-canons-park/|title = Welcome to our shul! This week: Stanmore and Canons Park}}</ref>

==Culture==

=== Media ===
There are a number of ]s, magazines and other media published in Britain on a national or regional level. The most well known is '']'', founded in 1841 and the world's oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper.<ref>. ]. Accessed 3 April 2011.</ref> Other publications include the '']'', '']'', '']'', the '']'' and '']''. In April 2020, ''The Jewish Chronicle'' and the ''Jewish News'', which had announced plans to merge in February and later announced plans for a joint liquidation, continued as separate entities after the former was acquired by a consortium.

=== Food ===
Cookbooks grew in popularity in Britain during the mid-1800s and shaped the overall cuisine that British Jews experienced by teaching and inspiring housewives how to cook. The shaping of Jewish food overtime told the story of their frequent migration throughout Europe. There was a lot of influence from Eastern European and Ashkenazi food. This resulted in the common staples of Anglo-Jewish women to keep bread, bagels, and potatoes consistently in their homes. Since, they had a history filled with ], dishes varied heavily and included fish, meat, spaghetti, pudding, or soup.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Panayi |first=Panikos |date=2011-12-19 |title=Migration, Cuisine And Integration: The Anglo-Jewish Cookbook From The Lady To The Princess |url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/10.3898/NewF.74.06.2011 |journal=New Formations |language=en |volume=74 |issue=74 |pages=108–121 |doi=10.3898/NewF.74.06.2011 |issn=0950-2378}}</ref> A distinctly British Jewish dish is fried ] balls, rather than the more common poached variety in aspic.<ref>https://www.thejc.com/life-and-culture/cooking-my-way-back-to-the-faith-with-gefilte-fish-ueo9bhas</ref>

==Politics==
] in 1878, the only Prime Minister who was Jewish by birth; he was otherwise a practicing Christian.]]
Before the ], 69% of British Jews surveyed were planning to vote for the ], while 22% would vote for the ].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://survation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/General-Election-Poll-Tables.pdf |title=General Election Poll |website=survation.com |date=2015-04-07}}</ref> A May 2016 poll of British Jews showed 77% would vote Conservative, 13.4% Labour, and 7.3% Liberal Democrat.<ref name=jc-20170530>{{cite news |url=https://www.thejc.com/news/the-diary/jewish-chronicle-survey-results-may-2016-1.439363?highlight=conservative%7Epoll |title=Jewish Chronicle survey results - May 2016 |newspaper=The Jewish Chronicle |date=30 May 2017 |access-date=7 September 2018}}</ref> An October 2019 poll of British Jews showed 64% would vote Conservative, 24% Liberal Democrat, and only 6% Labour.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/election-poll-2019-survation-jn/ |title=EXCLUSIVE – ELECTION POLL: One quarter of UK Jews set to vote Lib Dem |newspaper=Jewish News|date=30 October 2019 |access-date=26 November 2019}}</ref>

Jews are typically seen as predominantly middle-class, though historically many Jews lived in working-class communities of London. According to polling in 2015, politicians' attitudes towards ] influence the vote of three out of four British Jews.<ref>"". ''The JC'', 7 April 2015</ref><ref>" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412011658/http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/218262/how-ed-miliband-lost-britains-jewish-voters |date=2015-04-12 }}". ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', 8 April 2015</ref>

As per a 2023 survey, four out of five British Jews identify as ].<ref name=":0" />

In London, most of the top constituencies with the largest Jewish populations voted Conservative in the ] - these are namely, ], ], ], ], ], and ] in Hertfordshire. The exceptions were ] and ], which both voted Labour in the election. Outside the region, large Jewish constituencies voted for Labour, namely ] and ].<ref name="jpr.org.uk"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="vertical-align:top"
|-
! colspan="7" |Jewish MPs by election<br />1945–1992<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=22iwFNfIWMwC|title=Studies in Contemporary Jewry: XI: Values, Interests, and Identity: Jews and Politics in a Changing World|first=Peter Y.|last=Medding|date=1 January 1995|publisher=OUP USA/Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem|via=Google Books|isbn=9780195103311}}</ref><ref>''''</ref>{{full citation needed|date=July 2018}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Nm9CgAAQBAJ|title=The Politics of Race|first=Ivor|last=Crewe|date=16 October 2015|publisher=Routledge|via=Google Books|isbn=9781317382973}}</ref>
|-
! Election
! colspan=1 style="text-align:center"|Labour
! Conservative
! Liberal/Alliance
! Other
! Total
! % of Parliament
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
|
| ]
|
| '''1'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''0.2'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
|
| 3
|
| '''3'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''0.5'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
|
|
|
| '''6'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''0.9'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
| ]
|
|
|
|
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
| ]
| 4
|
| '''5'''
|
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
| 3
| 6
|
| '''9'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''1.3'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
|
|
|
| '''9'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''1.3'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
|
| 7
| 2
|
| '''9'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''1.3'''
|-
| colspan="7"|
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 26
| 0
| 0
| 2
| '''28'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''4.4'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 23
| 0
| 0
| 0
| '''23'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''3.7'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 17
| 0
| 0
| 0
| '''17'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''2.7'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 17
| 1
| 0
| 0
| '''18'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''2.9'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 20
| 2
| 0
| 0
| '''22'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''3.5'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 34
| 2
| 0
| 0
| '''36'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''5.7'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 38
| 2
| 0
| 0
| '''40'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''6.3'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 31
| 9
| 0
| 0
| '''40'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''6.3'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 33
| 12
| ]
| 0
| '''45'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''7.2'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 35
| 10
| ]
| 0
| '''45'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''7.2'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 21
| 11
| ]
| 0
| '''32'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''5.0'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 11
| 17
| 2
| 0
| '''30'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''4.6'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| style="text-align:left"|]
| 7
| 16
| ]
| 0
| '''24'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''3.7'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| align=left|]
| 8
| 11
| ]
| 0
| '''20'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''3.1'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| align=left|]<ref name=jc-20170616>{{cite news |url=https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/election-2017-winners-and-losers-on-a-night-of-drama-1.440165?highlight=conservative%7Evoting |title=Election 2017: Winners and losers on a night of drama |newspaper=The Jewish Chronicle |date=16 June 2017 |access-date=7 September 2018}}</ref>
| 8
| 11
| 0
| 0
| '''19'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''2.9'''
|- style="text-align:center"
| align=left|]
| 5
| 11
| 0
| 0
| '''16'''
| style="text-align:center"|'''2.5'''
|}

Some MPs, such as ] and ], while not Jewish themselves, are married to Jews and have Jewish children.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/communities-minister-robert-jenrick-vows-to-tackle-parts-of-local-government-corrupted-by-antisemi-1.488598|title=Communities minister Robert Jenrick vows to tackle parts of local Government 'corrupted' by antisemitism|last=Harpin|first=Lee|date=15 September 2019|access-date=15 September 2019|work=The Jewish Chronicle}}</ref><ref>, AFP/''Times of Israel'' staff (April 4, 2020).</ref>


==Antisemitism== ==Antisemitism==
{{main|Antisemitism in the United Kingdom}}
In 2005, the ] commissioned an inquiry into ], publishing its findings in 2006. The inquiry stated that "until recently, the prevailing opinion both within the Jewish community and beyond that antisemitism had receded to the point that it existed only on the margins of society", and found a reversal of this progress since 2000.<ref>"Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism", summary.</ref>
The earliest Jewish settlement was recorded in 1070, soon after the ]. Jews living in England at this time experienced religious discrimination and it is thought that the ] which accused Jews of ritual murder originated in Northern England, leading to ] and increasing discrimination.<sup>]]</sup> The Jewish presence continued until ]'s ] in 1290.<sup>]]</sup>


Jews were readmitted into the ] by ] in 1655, though it is believed that ] lived in England during the expulsion.<sup>]]</sup> Jews were regularly subjected to discrimination and humiliation which waxed and waned over the centuries, gradually declining.<sup>]]</sup>
], the chief rabbi, said in 2009 that increased globalisation was allowing a ] to permeate into the UK.<ref>Thomson, Alice; Sylvester, Rachel. . '']''. 20 June 2009. Accessed 4 April 2011. 3 April 2011.</ref> He said in 2010 that UK universities were failing to deal with "inflammatory public speeches" taking place on campus.<ref>Paul, Jonny. . '']''. 15 December 2010. Accessed 1 April 2011. 1 April 2011.</ref>


In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the number of Jews in Britain greatly increased due to the exodus from ], which resulted in a large community forming in the ].<sup>]]</sup> Popular sentiment against immigration was used by the ] to incite hatred against Jews, leading to the ] in 1936, when the fascists were forced to abandon their march through an area with a large Jewish population when the police clearing the way were unable to remove barricades defended by trade unionists, left wing groups and residents.<sup>]]</sup>
The ], a charity to ensure the protection of Jews in the UK, publishes an annual "Antisemitic Incidents Report".<ref>. ]. Accessed 1 April 2011. For the latest report, see {{PDFlink||2.75 MB}}.</ref>

In the aftermath of the ], undisguised racial hatred of ] became unacceptable in ]. Outbursts of antisemitism emanating from ] continued, however, leading to the formation of the ] led by Jewish ex-servicemen which broke up fascist meetings from 1945 to early 1950.

Records of antisemitic incidents have been compiled since 1984, although changing reporting practices and levels of reporting make comparison over time difficult. The ] (CST) was formed in 1994 to " British Jews from antisemitism and related threats".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cst.org.uk/about-cst|title=About CST – CST – Protecting Our Jewish Community|website=cst.org.uk|access-date=2019-07-31}}</ref> It works in conjunction with the police and other authorities to protect Jewish schools, Synagogues, and other community institutions.

Polling data from the ] reveals that almost half of British Jews have contemplated leaving the UK since the ] due to rising antisemitism.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2023-12-18 |title=Nearly half of UK Jews considered leaving due to antisemitism - poll |url=https://www.jpost.com/international/article-778447 |access-date=2023-12-18 |website=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Communal institutions==
<!--more specific inclusion criteria useful: include only Jewish orgs based in UK that have articles (no redlinks or EXT), sorted alphabetically, these can be found in ]
] (and sub cats), and other cats-->
British Jewish communal organisations include:
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* ]
* ]
* ] (1760)
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thejlc.org/members|title=Members}}</ref>
* ] – a London venue
* ]
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==See also== ==See also==
{{Portal|United Kingdom|Judaism}}
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==Notes and references== ==Notes and references==

;Notes
===Notes===
{{reflist|group= n}} {{reflist|group= n}}


;References ===References===
{{Reflist|30em}}
<div class="references-small">
</div>

{{Reflist}}


==Sources== ==Sources==
*{{PDFlink||430&nbsp;KB}}. ]. September 2006. Accessed 1 April 2011. 24 November 2010. See . * {{cite web |url= http://www.antisemitism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/All-Party-Parliamentary-Inquiry-into-Antisemitism-REPORT.pdf |title= Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130822190807/http://www.antisemitism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/All-Party-Parliamentary-Inquiry-into-Antisemitism-REPORT.pdf |archive-date= 22 August 2013 }}&nbsp;{{small|(430&nbsp;KB)}}. ]. September 2006. Accessed 1 April 2011. 24 November 2010. See {{usurped|1=}}.
* {{cite web|url= http://www.boardofdeputies.org.uk/file/CoJSReport.pdf |title=The Future of Jewish Schools }}&nbsp;{{small|(995&nbsp;KB)}}. ]. 2008. Accessed 4 April 2011.
*Graham, David; Schmool, Marlena; Waterman; Stanley. {{PDFlink||4.93&nbsp;MB}}. ]. 18 May 2007. Accessed 22 July 2011. 22 July 2011. See .
* {{Citation |last1=Graham |first1=David |last2=Schmool |first2=Marlena |last3=Waterman |first3=Stanley |url=http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/2001_census.pdf |title=Jews in Britain: A Snapshot from the 2001 Census |publisher=] |date=18 May 2007 |access-date=22 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726035312/http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/2001_census.pdf |archive-date=26 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}, 4.93&nbsp;MiB. See {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180403003530/http://www.jpr.org.uk/publications/publication.php?id=195 |date=2018-04-03 }}.
*{{PDFlink||995&nbsp;KB}}. ]. 2008. Accessed 4 April 2011.
*Graham, David; Vulkan, Daniel. {{PDFlink||2.68 MB}}. ]. 13 May 2010. Accessed 3 April 2011. 22 July 2011. See . * {{Citation |last1=Graham |first1=David |last2=Vulkan |first2=Daniel |url=http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/Synagogue%20membership.pdf |title=Synagogue membership in the United Kingdom in 2010 |publisher=] |date=13 May 2010 |access-date=3 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726035352/http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/Synagogue%20membership.pdf |archive-date=26 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}, 2.68 MiB. See {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201052906/http://www.jpr.org.uk/publications/publication.php?id=233 |date=2017-12-01 }}.
* Casale Mashiah, Donatella; Boyd, Jonathan (14 July 2017), ,


==Further reading== ==Further reading==
{{refbegin|2}} {{refbegin|2}}
*. ]. Distributed by the ]. pp. 125–135. * . ]. Distributed by the ]. pp.&nbsp;125–135.
*] (1994). . ]. * ] (1994). . ].
*]. "British Jews". Liedtke, Rainer; Wendehorst, Stephan. (eds) (1999). . ]. pp. 33–55. * ]. "British Jews". Liedtke, Rainer; Wendehorst, Stephan. (eds) (1999). . ]. pp.&nbsp;33–55.
*Endelman, Todd M. (2002). . ]. * Endelman, Todd M. (2002). . ].
*Spector, Sheila A. (ed) (2002). . ]. * Spector, Sheila A. (ed) (2002). . ].
*Valins, Oliver; Kosmin, Barry; Goldberg, Jacqueline. . ]. 31 December 2002. Accessed 4 April 2011. * Valins, Oliver; Kosmin, Barry; Goldberg, Jacqueline. . ]. 31 December 2002. Accessed 4 April 2011.
*London, Louise (2003). . ]. * London, Louise (2003). . ].
*Schreiber, Mordecai; Schiff, Alvin I.; Klenicki, Leon. (2003). (3rd edition). ]. pp. 79–80. * Schreiber, Mordecai; Schiff, Alvin I.; Klenicki, Leon. (2003). (3rd edition). ]. pp.&nbsp;79–80.
*Wynne-Jones, Jonathan; additional reporting by Jeffay, Nathan. . '']''. 26 November 2006. Accessed 1 April 2011. * Wynne-Jones, Jonathan; additional reporting by Jeffay, Nathan. . '']''. 26 November 2006. Accessed 1 April 2011.
*Shindler, Colin. "The Reflection of Israel Within British Jewry". Ben-Moshe, Danny; Segev, Zohar (eds) (2007). . ]. pp. 227–234. * Shindler, Colin. "The Reflection of Israel Within British Jewry". Ben-Moshe, Danny; Segev, Zohar (eds) (2007). . ]. pp.&nbsp;227–234.
*Butt, Riazat. . '']''. 20 November 2007. Accessed 4 April 2011. * Butt, Riazat. . '']''. 20 November 2007. Accessed 4 April 2011.
*Lawless, Jill. . ] via '']''. 17 March 2010. Accessed 1 April 2011. * Lawless, Jill. . ] via '']''. 17 March 2010. Accessed 1 April 2011.
*Graham, David; Boyd, Jonathan. {{PDFlink||1.64 MB}}. ]. 15 July 2010. Accessed 4 April 2011. 22 July 2011. See . * Graham, David; Boyd, Jonathan. {{cite web |url= http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/JPR%20Israel%20survey%20report%2015.pdf |title= Committed, concerned and conciliatory: The attitudes of Jews in Britain towards Israel |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110606073450/http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/JPR%20Israel%20survey%20report%2015.pdf |archive-date= 6 June 2011 }}&nbsp;{{small|(1.64 MB)}}. ]. 15 July 2010. Accessed 4 April 2011. 22 July 2011. See .
*Brown, Mick. . '']''. 25 February 2011. Accessed 1 April 2011. * Brown, Mick. . '']''. 25 February 2011. Accessed 1 April 2011.
*. * .
{{refend}} {{refend}}


== External links ==
{{EuropeansinUK}}
* . University of Southampton
{{British Jewry}}
{{AsiansinUK}} {{AsiansinUK}}


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Latest revision as of 18:08, 24 December 2024

British citizens who are Jewish Ethnic group
British Jews
Total population
United Kingdom United Kingdom: 277,613 – 0.4% (2021/22 Census)
England England: 269,283 – 0.5% (2021)
Scotland Scotland: 5,847 – 0.1% (2022)
Wales Wales: 2,044 – 0.07% (2021)
United Kingdom Northern Ireland: 439 – 0.02% (2021)
Other estimates:
Core Jewish population: 290,000 (2018)
Enlarged Jewish population (includes non-Jewish relatives of Jews): 370,000 (2018)
Regions with significant populations
London, Greater Manchester, Leeds, Gateshead, Brighton, St Albans, Southend; also Hertsmere, Epping Forest and East Renfrewshire
Languages
Primarily English; also Yiddish, largely spoken by Hassidic Jews; historically Spanish and Portuguese among Sephardim; immigrant languages include or have included Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and French amongst many others
Religion
Judaism or irreligion
Related ethnic groups
Anglo-Israelis and other Jews
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British Jews (often referred to collectively as British Jewry or Anglo-Jewry) are British citizens who are Jewish. The number of people who identified as Jews in the United Kingdom rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021.

History

Main articles: History of the Jews in England (1066–1290), History of the Jews in England, History of the Jews in Scotland, History of the Jews in Wales, and History of the Jews in Northern Ireland

The first recorded Jewish community in Britain was brought to England in 1070 by King William the Conqueror who believed the Jewish population's commercial skills would make his newly won country more prosperous. At the end of the 12th century, a series of blood libels and fatal pogroms were perpetrated in England, particularly on the east coast. Notably, on 16 March 1190, during the run up to the Third Crusade, the Jewish population of York was massacred at the site where Clifford's Tower now stands, and King Edward I of England passed the Statute of the Jewry (Statutum de Judaismo) in 1275, restricting the community's activities, most notably outlawing the practice of usury (charging interest). Fifteen years later when Edward found that many of these provisions were ignored, he expelled the Jews from England. The Jewish population emigrated to countries such as Poland which protected them by law. A small English community persisted in hiding despite the expulsion. Jews were not banned from Scotland, which was an independent kingdom until 1707; however, there is no record of a Jewish presence in Scotland before the 18th century. Jews were also not banned in Wales at the time, but England eventually annexed Wales under Henry VIII. When Henry VIII's England annexed Wales, the English ban on Jews extended to Wales. There is only one known record of a Jew in Wales between 1290 and the annexation, but it is possible individuals did persist there after 1290.

A small community of conversos was identified in Bristol in 1609 and banished. In 1656, Oliver Cromwell made it clear that the ban on Jewish settlement in England and Wales would no longer be enforced, but when Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel brought a petition to allow Jews to return, the majority of the Protectorate Government turned it down. Despite the Protectorate government's rejection of the Rabbi's petition, the community considers 1656 to mark the readmission of the Jews to England and Wales. In mid-nineteenth century British-ruled Ireland, Daniel O'Connell, known as "The Liberator" for his work on Catholic Emancipation, worked successfully for the repeal of the "De Judaismo" law, which prescribed a special yellow badge for Jews. Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881), of Jewish birth although he joined the Church of England, served in government for three decades, twice as prime minister.

The oldest Jewish community in Britain is the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community, which traces back to the 1630s when it existed clandestinely in London before the readmission and was unofficially legitimised in 1656, which is the date counted by the Jewish community as the re-admittance of the Jews to England (which at the time included Wales). A trickle of Ashkenazi immigration primarily from German countries continued from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. As for the second wave of Ashkenazi immigration, a large wave of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in the Russian Empire due to pogroms and the May Laws between 1880 and the imposition of tighter immigration restrictions in 1905 sought their way to the Isles. Many German and Polish Jews seeking to escape the Nazi Holocaust arrived in Britain before and after the Second World War. Around 80-90% of British Jews today are Ashkenazi.

Following de-colonisation, the late twentieth century saw Yemeni Jews Iraqi Jews and Baghdadi Jews settle in the United Kingdom. A multicultural community, in 2006, British Jews celebrated the 350th anniversary of the resettlement in England.

Demographics

Population size

Historical British Jewish population
YearPop.±%
17346,000—    
180017,500+191.7%
188160,000+242.9%
1900250,000+316.7%
1933300,000+20.0%
1938370,000+23.3%
1945450,000+21.6%
1980330,000−26.7%
2001266,740−19.2%
2011269,568+1.1%
2021277,613+3.0%
Source: Data from 2001 onwards derived from the UK Census
  • Data prior to 2001 based on estimates; these come from the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906, the US Holocaust Museum, and Jews in Britain-Origin and Growth of Anglo Jewry (1943)

According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, there were 271,327 Jews in England and Wales, or 0.5% of the overall population, whilst in the 2021 Northern Irish census, there were 439 self-identified Jews comprising just 0.02% of the population, but marking a 31% increase in numbers since the census of 2011. According to the 2011 census, 5,887 Jews lived in Scotland for a total of 277,653 self-identified Jews in the United Kingdom. This does not include much smaller communities in the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories; notably, there are Jewish communities in Gibraltar, Jersey and Bermuda, amongst others. However, this final figure is considered an undercount. Demographers David Graham and Stanley Waterman give several reasons as for why: the underenumeration for censuses in general; the question did not record secular Jews; the voluntary nature of the question; suspicion by Jews of such questions; and the high non-response rate for large numbers of Haredi Jews. By comparison, the Jewish Virtual Library estimated a Jewish population of 291,000 (not limited to adherents of Judaism) in 2012, making Britain's Jewish community the fifth largest in the world. This equates to 0.43% of the population of the United Kingdom. The absolute number of Jews has been gradually rising since records began; in the 2011 census, 263,346 people in England and Wales answered "Jewish" to the voluntary question on religion, compared with 259,927 in of 2001.

The 2001 Census included a (voluntary) religion question ("What is your religion?") for the first time in its history; 266,740 people listed their religion as "Jewish". However, the subject of who is a Jew is complex, and the religion question did not record people who may be Jewish through other means, such as ethnically and culturally. Of people who chose Jewish as their religion, 97% put White as their ethnic group. However, a report by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) suggests that, although there was an apparent option to write down "Jewish" for this question, it did not occur to many, because of "skin colour" and nationality bias, and that if "Jewish" was an explicit option, the results—only 2,594 respondents were Jewish solely by ethnicity—would have been different. The religion question appeared in the 2011 Census, but there was still no explicit option for "Jewish" in the ethnic-group question. The Board of Deputies had encouraged all Jews to indicate they were Jewish, either through the religion question or the ethnicity one.

From 2005 to 2008, the Jewish population increased from 275,000 to 280,000, attributed largely to the high birth rates of Haredi (or ultra-Orthodox) Jews. Research by the University of Manchester in 2007 showed that 75% of British Jewish births were to the Haredi community. Ultra-Orthodox women have an average of 6.9 children, and secular Jewish women 1.65. In 2015, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research reported that in England the orthodox community was growing by nearly 5% per year, while the non-haredi community was decreasing by 0.3% per year. It has been also documented that in terms of births, between 2007 and 2015, the estimated number of Strictly Orthodox births per annum increased by 35%, rising from 1,431 to 1,932. Meanwhile, the estimated number of ‘Mainstream’ (non-Strictly Orthodox) births per annum increased to a lesser extent over the same period, going from 1,844 to 1,889 (+2.4%).

Historical population

Going into the 19th century, the Jewish population was small, likely no more than 20,000 individuals. However, the population quadrupled in just a few decades after 1881 as a large number of Jews fled oppression in the Russian Empire. The population increased by as much as 50% between 1933 and 1945, with the United Kingdom admitting around 70,000 Jews between 1933 and 1938, and a further 80,000 between 1938 and 1945. The late 1940s and early 1950s proved to be the high point, numerically speaking, for British Jewry. A decline followed, as many of the new arrivals moved to Israel, moved back to Europe, or emigrated elsewhere, and many other individuals assimilated. The decline continued into the 1990s, but has since reversed. The estimates given before the 2001 Census are likely not directly comparable to the Census, as the Census is based purely on self-identification, whereas the estimates are based on community membership, and it is probably the decline from 450,000 to 266,740 is more like a decline from 450,000 to somewhere between 300,000 and 350,000 going by the metrics of the estimators. Contemporary Jewish demographers like Sergio DellaPergola give figures around 300,000 for the British Jewish population in the early 2010s, since when it has grown.

Migration

The great majority (83.2%) of Jews in England and Wales were born in the UK. In 2015, about 6% of Jews in England held an Israeli passport. In 2019, the Office for National Statistics estimated that 21,000 people resident in the UK were born in Israel, up from 11,890 in 2001. Of the 21,000, 8,000 had Israeli nationality. In 2013, it was reported that antisemitic attacks in France led to an exodus of French Jews to the UK. This has resulted in some synagogues establishing French-language Shabbat services.

In 2018, 534 Britons emigrated to Israel, representing the third consecutive annual decline. The figure was one third down on 2015 and was the lowest for five years. Meanwhile, immigration of Jews from Israel is consistently higher than emigration of Jews to Israel, at a ratio of about 3:2, meaning the British Jewish community has a net gain of Jewish immigrants, to the point Israelis now represent around 6% of the British Jewish community.

Ethnicity

Jews in England and Wales by ethnic group and nationality
Ethnic group 2001 2011 2021
Number % Number % Number %
White 249,483 96.82 241,356 92.37 230,399 85.56
British 216,403 84.00 200,934 76.90 180,325 66.96
Irish 1,134 0.44 1,116 0.43 927 0.34
Irish Traveller 241 0.09 161 0.06
Roma 178 0.07
Other White 31,946 12.40 39,065 14.95 48,808 18.12
Mixed 3,038 1.18 4,209 1.61 6,029 2.24
– White and Asian 828 0.32 1,229 0.47 1,190 0.44
– White and Black Caribbean 379 0.15 778 0.30 780 0.29
– White and Black African 181 0.07 424 0.16 442 0.16
– Other Mixed 1,650 0.64 1,778 0.86 3,617 1.34
Asian 1,968 0.76 2,750 1.05 1,526 0.57
Indian 663 0.26 816 0.31 557 0.21
Chinese 104 0.04 324 0.12 159 0.06
Pakistani 353 0.14 433 0.17 261 0.10
Bangladeshi 124 0.05 222 0.08 83 0.03
– Other Asian 724 0.28 955 0.37 466 0.17
Black 893 0.35 1,591 0.61 1,611 0.60
Caribbean 535 0.21 611 0.23 649 0.24
– African 236 0.09 499 0.19 709 0.26
– Other Black 122 0.05 481 0.18 253 0.09
Other 11,376 29,719
Arab 564 0.22 422 0.16
– Other Ethnic group 2,289 0.89 10,812 4.14 29,297 10.88
TOTAL 257,671 100.0 261,282 100.0 269,293 100.0

Geographic distribution

The majority of the Jews in the UK live in southeastern England, particularly in and around London. Around 145,480 Jews live in London itself - more than half the Jewish population of the entire country - notably the North London boroughs of Barnet (56,620), Hackney (17,430), Camden (10,080), Haringey (9,400), Harrow (7,300), Redbridge (6,410), Westminster (5,630), Brent (3,720), Enfield (3,710), Islington (2,710) and Kensington and Chelsea (2,680). There are also 30,220 Jews living in districts that are not quite London, but are outside the boundaries of London itself, of which 21,270 are in southern Hertfordshire and 4,930 are in southwestern Essex, giving a total population of 175,690 Jews in London and the districts and boroughs immediately surrounding it, as compared to 95,640 in the rest of England and Wales combined.

In total, including communities some distance from London, just under 46,000 Jews live in the six counties bordering Greater London, of which two-thirds live in areas immediately adjacent to London. There are, in total, more than 26,400 Jews in Hertfordshire, of which 18,350 are in the borough of Hertsmere in southwestern Hertfordshire adjacent to Jewish areas in Barnet and Harrow. Towns and villages in Hertsmere with large Jewish populations include Borehamwood (6,160), Bushey (5,590), and Radlett (2,980). Some 30% of Radlett's population is Jewish, as is 20% of Bushey's and 17% of Borehamwood's, 21% of neighbouring Shenley's and 36% of nearby Elstree, which has a Jewish plurality. Further afield from London, there is also a significant community in St Albans, as well as other smaller communities throughout the county. There are over 10,300 Jews in Essex, of which 4,380 live in the district of Epping Forest, in the county's southwest. There is also a significant community in Southend. In total, London and the counties around it are host to 70.56% of England and Wales' Jewish population, as of 2021.

The next most significant population is in Greater Manchester, a community of more than 28,000, mostly in Bury (10,730), Salford (10,370), Manchester (2,630), and Trafford (2,410). There are also significant communities in Leeds (6,270), Gateshead (2,910), Brighton (2,460), St Albans (2,240), and Southend (2,060). Some historically sizeable communities like Liverpool, Bournemouth and Birmingham have experienced a steady decline and now number fewer than 2,000 self-identifying Jews each; conversely, there are small but growing communities in places like Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge.

The most Jewish county in the UK is Hertfordshire, which is 2.23% Jewish; this is followed by the City of London, at 2.06%, and then Greater London at 1.63%. Greater Manchester is 1.00% Jewish, Essex is 0.70% and East Sussex is 0.65%. No other county is as much as 0.50% Jewish. The least Jewish county or principal area in England and Wales is Merthyr Tydfil, which is less than 0.01% Jewish despite once having had a significant community. Hertsmere and Barnet councils are the most Jewish local authorities in England, with Jews composing one in six and seven residents respectively. Finchley and Golders Green is the political constituency with the largest Jewish population in the UK.

The Scottish population is concentrated in Greater Glasgow, which counts around 2,500 Jews. Around 30% of the Scottish Jewish population, or around 1,510 people, resides in East Renfrewshire, largely in or around the Glasgow suburb of Newton Mearns. Glasgow itself has around 970 Jews. Edinburgh counts 1,270 Jews; the remaining 35% of Scottish Jewry is scattered throughout the country. The largest Welsh community is in Cardiff, with almost 700 Jews, comprising about a third of the Welsh Jewish population and 0.19% of the population of Cardiff itself. The only synagogue in Northern Ireland is in Belfast, where the community has fewer than 100 active members, although 439 people recorded their religion as Jewish in the Northern Irish census of 2021; despite remarkable growth since the previous census in 2011, this still leaves the Northern Irish community as the smallest of the four Home Nations both in overall numbers and percentage terms. There are small communities throughout the Channel Islands, and there is an active synagogue in St Brelade, Jersey, although the Jewish population of the island is only 49. There is only a small number of Jews on the Isle of Man, with no synagogue.

Age profile

Two boys with kippot at a bus stop in Hendon, north London

The British Jewish population has an older profile than the general population. In England and Wales, the median age of male Jews is 41.2, while the figure for all males is 36.1; Jewish females have a median age of 44.3, while the figure for all females is 38.1. About 24% of the community are over the age of 65 (compared to 16% of the general population of England and Wales). In the 2001 census, Jews were the only group in which the number of persons in the 75-plus cohorts outnumbered those in the 65–74 cohort.

Education

About 60% of school-age Jewish children attend Jewish schools. Jewish day schools and yeshivas are found throughout the country. Jewish cultural studies and Hebrew language instruction are commonly offered at synagogues in the form of supplementary Hebrew schools or Sunday schools.

The majority of Jewish schools in Britain are funded by the government. Jewish educational centres are plentiful, large-scale projects. One of the country's most famous Jewish schools is the state-funded JFS in London which opened in 1732 and has about 2100 students. It is heavily over-subscribed and applies strict rules on admissions, which led to a discrimination court case, R (E) v Governing Body of JFS, in 2009. In 2011, another large state-funded school opened in North London named JCoSS, the first cross-denomination Jewish secondary school in the UK.

The Union of Jewish Students is an umbrella organisation that represents Jewish students at university. In 2011 there were over 50 Jewish Societies.

British Jews generally have high levels of educational achievement. Compared to the general population, they are 40% less likely to have no qualifications, and 80% more likely to have "higher-level" qualifications. With the exception of under-25s, younger Jews tend to be better educated than older ones. However, dozens of the all-day educational establishments in the Haredi community of Stamford Hill, which are accused of neglecting secular skills such as English and maths, claim not to be schools under the meaning of the Department for Education.

The annual Limmud festival is a high-profile educational event of the British Jewish community, attracting a wide range of international presenters.

Economics

The 2001 UK Census showed that 30.5% of economically active Jews were self-employed, compared to a figure of 14.2% for the general population. Jews aged 16–24 were less likely to be economically active than their counterparts in the general population; 89.2% of these were students. In a 2010 study, average income per working adult was £15.44 an hour. Median income and wealth were significantly higher than other religious groups. In a 2015 study, poverty has risen the fastest per generation than other religious groups.

The 2021 census for England and Wales recorded 72.3% of Jews either owning their home with a mortgage (32.5%) or outright (39.8%). 20.9% rent privately or live rent free and the remaining 6.8% live in social housing.

Marriage

In 2016, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research reported that the intermarriage rate for the Jewish community in the UK was 26%. This was less than half of the US rate of 58% and showed little change from the rate in the early 1980s of 23%, though more than twice the 11% level of the end of the 1960s. Around one third of the children of mixed marriages are brought up in the Jewish faith.

Religion

There are around 454 synagogues in the country, and it is estimated that 56.3% of all households across the UK with at least one Jew living within them held synagogue membership in 2016. The percentage of households adhering to specific denominations is as follows:

Those in the United Kingdom who consider themselves Jews identify as follows:

  • 34% Secular
  • 18% Ultra Orthodox
  • 14% Modern Orthodox
  • 14% Reform
  • 10% Traditional, but not very religious
  • 6% Liberal
  • 2% Conservative
  • 2% Sephardi

The Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue in the London Borough of Harrow said in 2015 that it had the largest membership of any single Orthodox synagogue in Europe.

Culture

Media

There are a number of Jewish newspapers, magazines and other media published in Britain on a national or regional level. The most well known is The Jewish Chronicle, founded in 1841 and the world's oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper. Other publications include the Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph, Hamodia, the Jewish Tribune and Jewish Renaissance. In April 2020, The Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News, which had announced plans to merge in February and later announced plans for a joint liquidation, continued as separate entities after the former was acquired by a consortium.

Food

Cookbooks grew in popularity in Britain during the mid-1800s and shaped the overall cuisine that British Jews experienced by teaching and inspiring housewives how to cook. The shaping of Jewish food overtime told the story of their frequent migration throughout Europe. There was a lot of influence from Eastern European and Ashkenazi food. This resulted in the common staples of Anglo-Jewish women to keep bread, bagels, and potatoes consistently in their homes. Since, they had a history filled with Diaspora, dishes varied heavily and included fish, meat, spaghetti, pudding, or soup. A distinctly British Jewish dish is fried gefilte fish balls, rather than the more common poached variety in aspic.

Politics

Benjamin Disraeli in 1878, the only Prime Minister who was Jewish by birth; he was otherwise a practicing Christian.

Before the 2015 general election, 69% of British Jews surveyed were planning to vote for the Conservative Party, while 22% would vote for the Labour Party. A May 2016 poll of British Jews showed 77% would vote Conservative, 13.4% Labour, and 7.3% Liberal Democrat. An October 2019 poll of British Jews showed 64% would vote Conservative, 24% Liberal Democrat, and only 6% Labour.

Jews are typically seen as predominantly middle-class, though historically many Jews lived in working-class communities of London. According to polling in 2015, politicians' attitudes towards Israel influence the vote of three out of four British Jews.

As per a 2023 survey, four out of five British Jews identify as Zionists.

In London, most of the top constituencies with the largest Jewish populations voted Conservative in the 2010 general election - these are namely, Finchley and Golders Green, Hendon, Harrow East, Chipping Barnet, Ilford North, and Hertsmere in Hertfordshire. The exceptions were Hackney North and Stoke Newington and Hampstead and Kilburn, which both voted Labour in the election. Outside the region, large Jewish constituencies voted for Labour, namely Bury South and Blackley and Broughton.

Jewish MPs by election
1945–1992
Election Labour Conservative Liberal/Alliance Other Total % of Parliament
1857 1 1 0.2
1859 3 3 0.5
1865 6 0.9
1868
1874 1
1880 1 4 5
1885 3 6 9 1.3
1886 9 1.3
1892
1895
1900 7 2 9 1.3
1945 26 0 0 2 28 4.4
1950 23 0 0 0 23 3.7
1951 17 0 0 0 17 2.7
1955 17 1 0 0 18 2.9
1959 20 2 0 0 22 3.5
1964 34 2 0 0 36 5.7
1966 38 2 0 0 40 6.3
1970 31 9 0 0 40 6.3
1974 Feb 33 12 1 0 45 7.2
1974 Oct 35 10 1 0 45 7.2
1979 21 11 1 0 32 5.0
1983 11 17 2 0 30 4.6
1987 7 16 1 0 24 3.7
1992 8 11 1 0 20 3.1
2017 8 11 0 0 19 2.9
2019 5 11 0 0 16 2.5

Some MPs, such as Robert Jenrick and Keir Starmer, while not Jewish themselves, are married to Jews and have Jewish children.

Antisemitism

Main article: Antisemitism in the United Kingdom

The earliest Jewish settlement was recorded in 1070, soon after the Norman Conquest. Jews living in England at this time experienced religious discrimination and it is thought that the blood libel which accused Jews of ritual murder originated in Northern England, leading to massacres and increasing discrimination. The Jewish presence continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290.

Jews were readmitted into the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland by Oliver Cromwell in 1655, though it is believed that crypto-Jews lived in England during the expulsion. Jews were regularly subjected to discrimination and humiliation which waxed and waned over the centuries, gradually declining.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the number of Jews in Britain greatly increased due to the exodus from Russia, which resulted in a large community forming in the East End of London. Popular sentiment against immigration was used by the British Union of Fascists to incite hatred against Jews, leading to the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, when the fascists were forced to abandon their march through an area with a large Jewish population when the police clearing the way were unable to remove barricades defended by trade unionists, left wing groups and residents.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, undisguised racial hatred of Jews became unacceptable in British society. Outbursts of antisemitism emanating from far right groups continued, however, leading to the formation of the 43 Group led by Jewish ex-servicemen which broke up fascist meetings from 1945 to early 1950.

Records of antisemitic incidents have been compiled since 1984, although changing reporting practices and levels of reporting make comparison over time difficult. The Community Security Trust (CST) was formed in 1994 to " British Jews from antisemitism and related threats". It works in conjunction with the police and other authorities to protect Jewish schools, Synagogues, and other community institutions.

Polling data from the Campaign Against Antisemitism reveals that almost half of British Jews have contemplated leaving the UK since the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel due to rising antisemitism.

Communal institutions

British Jewish communal organisations include:

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. The question had appeared in the past several censuses in Northern Ireland. In Scotland there were two questions: "What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?" and "What religion, religious denomination or body were you brought up in?".

References

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Sources

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