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The history of the Jews in Ireland extends back nearly a thousand years. Although the community has always been small in numbers (1,930 in the Republic according to the census of 2006), it has generally been well-accepted into Irish life.

Early history

The earliest reference to the Jews in Ireland was in the year 1079. The Annals of Inisfallen record "Five Jews came from over sea with gifts to Tairdelbach , and they were sent back again over sea.". They were probably merchants from Normandy. Tairdelbach was the grandson of Brian Boru.

No further reference is found until nearly a century later, in the reign of Henry II of England. That monarch, fearful lest an independent kingdom should be established in Ireland, prohibited a proposed expedition there. Strongbow, however, went in defiance of the king's orders; and, as a result, his estates were confiscated. In his venture Strongbow seems to have been assisted financially by a Jew; for under date of 1170 the following record occurs: "Josce Jew of Gloucester owes 100 shillings for an amerciament for the moneys which he lent to those who against the king's prohibition went over to Ireland".

By 1232, there was probably a Jewish community in Ireland, as a grant of July 28, 1232 by King Henry III to Peter de Rivall gives him the office of Treasurer and Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, the king's ports and coast, and also "the custody of the King's Judaism in Ireland". This grant contains the additional instruction that "all Jews in Ireland shall be intentive and respondent to Peter as their keeper in all things touching the king". The Jews of this period probably resided in or near Dublin. In the Dublin White Book of 1241, there is a grant of land containing various prohibitions against its sale or disposition by the grantee. Part of the prohibition reads "vel in Judaismo ponere". The last mention of Jews in the "Calendar of Documents Relating to Ireland" appears about 1286. When the expulsion from England took place (1290), the Irish Jews had doubtless to go as well.

A permanent settlement of Jews was established, however, in the late fifteenth century. Following their expulsion from Portugal in 1496, some Jews settled on Ireland's south coast. One of them, William Annyas, was elected as mayor of Youghal, County Cork, in 1555. Ireland's first synagogue was founded in 1660 near Dublin Castle, and the first Jewish cemetery was founded in the early eighteenth century in the Fairview district of Dublin.

Eighteenth and nineteenth century

In 1746 a bill was introduced in the Irish House of Commons "for naturalising persons professing the Jewish religion in Ireland". This had been the first reference to Jews in the house of commons at this time. Another was introduced in the following year, agreed to without amendment, and presented to the Lord Lieutenant to be transmitted to England; but it never received the royal assent. These Irish bills, however, had one very important result; namely, the formation of the Committee of Diligence, which was organized by British Jews at this time to watch the progress of the measure. This ultimately led to the organisation of the Board of Deputies, an important body which has continued in existence to the present time. Jews were expressly excepted from the benefit of the Irish Naturalisation Act of 1783. The exceptions in the Naturalisation Act of 1783 were abolished in 1846. The Irish Marriage Act of 1844 expressly made provision for marriages according to Jewish rites.

Daniel O'Connell is best known for the campaign for Catholic Emancipation; he also supported similar efforts for Jews. In 1846, at his insistence, the British law "De Judaismo", which prescribed a special dress for Jews, was repealed. O’Connell said: "Ireland has claims on your ancient race, it is the only country that I know of unsullied by any one act of persecution of the Jews".

Many Irish starved during the Great Hunger. Help came from unexpected sources, such as the Sultan of Turkey, the Choctaw Indian tribe and Jews. A Dublin newspaper, commenting in 1850,, pointed out that Baron Lionel de Rothschild and his family had,

...contributed during the Irish famine of 1847 ... a sum far beyond the joint contributions of the Devonshires, and Herefords, Lansdownes, Fitzwilliams and Herberts, who annually drew so many times that amount from their Irish estates.

In 1874, Lewis Wormser Harris was elected to Dublin Corporation as Alderman for South Dock Ward. Two years later he was elected as Lord Mayor of Dublin, but died August 1 1876 before he took office.

Twentieth century

There was some Jewish immigration to Ireland during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1871, the Jewish population of Ireland was 258; by 1881, it had risen to 453. Most of the immigration at this time came from England or Germany. In the wake of the Russian pogroms there was increased immigration, mostly from Eastern Europe (in particular Lithuania). By 1901, there were an estimated 3,771 Jews in Ireland, over half of them (2,200) residing in Dublin; and by 1904, the total Jewish population had reached an estimated 4,800.

The Jewish population of Ireland reached around 5,500 in the late 1940s, but has since declined to around 1,800, mainly through emigration to larger Jewish communities such as those in England and Israel. Ireland currently has five synagogues: three in Dublin, one in Cork, and one in Belfast.

Limerick Pogrom

The anti-semitic boycott in Limerick in the first decade of the twentieth century is known as the Limerick Pogrom, and caused many Jews to leave the city. It was instigated by an influential intolerant Catholic priest, Fr. John Creagh of the Redemptorist Order. A teenager, John Raleigh, was arrested by the British and briefly imprisoned for attacking the Jews' rebbe, but returned home to a welcoming throng. Limerick's Jews fled. Many went to Cork, where trans-Atlantic passenger ships docked at Cobh. They intended to travel to America. The people of Cork welcomed them into their homes. Church halls were opened to feed and house the refugees. As a result many remained. Gerald Goldberg, a son of this migration, became Lord Mayor of Cork.

Father Creagh was moved by his superiors initially to Belfast and then to an island in the Pacific Ocean. He died in Wellington, New Zealand in 1947.

Joe Briscoe, son of Robert Briscoe, the Dublin Jewish politician, describes the Limerick episode as “an aberration in an otherwise almost perfect history of Ireland and its treatment of the Jews”. Robert Briscoe was a prominent member of the IRA during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. He was sent by Michael Collins to Germany in 1920 to be the chief agent for procuring arms for the IRA. Briscoe proved to be highly successful at this mission and arms arrived into Ireland in spite of the British blockade.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page)..

Irish Government

The Blueshirts were suppressed by the government. However, in Rome, T.J. Kiernan, the Irish Minister to the Vatican, and his wife, Delia Murphy (a noted traditional ballad singer), worked with the Irish priest Hugh O'Flaherty to save many Jews and escaped prisoners of war. Jews conducted religious services in the church of San Clemente of the ‘Collegium Hiberniae Dominicanae’, which had Irish diplomatic protection.

Two Irish Jews, Esther Steinberg and her infant son, are known to have been killed during the Holocaust, which otherwise did not substantially directly affect the Jews actually living in Ireland. The Wannsee Conference listed the Jews of Ireland to be among those marked for killing in the Shoah.

Northern Ireland

A committee organised the Kindertransport. About ten thousand unaccompanied children aged between three and seventeen from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, were permitted entry into Britain without visas. Some of these children were sent to Northern Ireland. Many of them were looked after by foster parents but others went to the Millisle Refugee Farm (Magill's Farm, on the Woburn Road) which took refugees from May 1938 until its closure in 1948.

Recent comment

Ireland's behaviour towards Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust was, in the later words of Justice Minister Michael McDowell "antipathetic, hostile and unfeeling" . Dr. Mervyn O'Driscoll of University College Cork reported on the unofficial and official barriers that prevented Jews from finding refuge in Ireland:

Although overt anti-Semitism was untypical, the Irish were indifferent to the Nazi persecution of the Jews and those fleeing the third Reich....A successful applicant in 1938 was typically wealthy, middle-aged or elderly, single from Austria, Roman Catholic and desiring to retire in peace to Ireland and not engage in employment. Only a few Viennese bankers and industrialists met the strict criterion of being Catholic, although possibly of Jewish descent, capable of supporting themselves comfortably without involvement in the economic life of the country.

It is estimated that Ireland accepted as few as thirty Jewish refugees before and during World War II.

Prominent Irish Jews

• William Annyas, mayor of Youghal.
• Leopold Bloom, fictional protagonist of Ulysses.
• Robert Briscoe, member of the Irish Republican Army during the Anglo-Irish War and twice Lord Mayor of Dublin (1956 and 1961).
• Ben Briscoe (son of Robert Briscoe), former Fianna Fáil T.D. and Lord Mayor of Dublin (1988).
• Daniel Day-Lewis (Irish citizen with Jewish mother), actor.
• Gerald Goldberg, Lord Mayor of Cork in 1977.
• Chaim Herzog, sixth President of Israel.
• Max Eager (son of George Eager), first Chief Rabbi of Ireland.
• Sir Otto Jaffe, Lord Mayor of Belfast (1899 and 1904).
• Immanuel Jakobovits, Chief Rabbi of Ireland between 1949 and 1958, later British Chief Rabbi.
• Louis Lentin, director (documentary films, television, theatre).
• David Marcus, author, editor, broadcaster and lifelong supporter of Irish-language fiction.
• Yaakov Pearlman, Ireland's Chief Rabbi.
• Alan Shatter, Fine Gael TD and former party spokesperson for justice.
• Mervyn Taylor, former Labour Party T.D. and Irish Minister for Equality & Law Reform.
• Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, founder of Harland and Wolff shipbuilders.
• Max Nurok, Israeli Consul-General to Australia, subsequently Israel's first Ambassador to Australia. 

See also

• Little Jerusalem, Dublin
• Chief rabbis of Ireland

References

1. The Annals of Inisfallen, author unknown, translated by Seán Mac Airt 1951
2. Retrieved 5 December 2006.
3. Lewis Wormser Harris Morten Salthe 1998. Retrieved 5 September 2006.
4. Shalom Ireland: a Social History of Jews in Modern Ireland by Ray Rivlin, ISBN 0-7171-3634-5, published by Gill & MacMillan
5. Wherever Green is Worn, Tim Pat Coogan, 2002, ISBN 0-09-995850-3 page 77 & 86
6. Ireland failed to help Jews under threat from Nazis, says minister — Irish Independent, 27 January, 2003
7. Let's do better than the indifference we showed during the Holocaust — Irish Examiner, 20 March 2004

External links

• Official Website of Irish Jewish Community
• The Jews of Ireland — article in Judaism magazine
• The Jews of Ireland Genealogy Page
• JewishEncyclopedia.com - Ireland — 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article
• Dublin and Joyce
• Shabbat in Ireland
• Chabad Lubavitch of Ireland
• The Jewish History Resource Center Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Jews and Judaism in Ireland
• Jewish history by country
• History of Ireland