from: Ireland; In: Encyclopaedia
Judaica 1971, vol. 8
<IRELAND,
island W. of Britain comprising the Republic of Ireland (Eire, 26
counties) and Northern Ireland or Ulster (part of the United Kingdom,
six counties).
The
Annals of Inisfallen
record that in 1079 five Jews (apparently a delegation to secure the
admission of Jews) went to Ireland bringing gifts for King Toirdelbach
of Munster, but were sent back. The beginning of a Jewish settlement
dates from the 12th and 13th centuries. The few Jews who established
themselves there as merchants and financiers probably had to leave on
the expulsion from England (1290).
[since 1494: Jewish immigration
from Spain and Portugal]
Some refugees from Spain and Portugal settled in Ireland at the close
of the 15th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries, persons of Jewish
origin held office in Ireland under the English crown. the founding of
Trinity College, in its capital *Dublin, in 1591 witnessed the birth of
Hebrew studies in the city.
[since 1656: Jewish immigration
from Holland]
Five or six Years after the resettlement in England (1656), a handful
of ex-Marranos from Holland, who were engaged in the export trade, went
to Dublin as "foreign Protestants". A synagogue is said to have been
established in 1661. England's "Glorious Revolution" (1688) gave a
considerable impetus to the tiny community of Dublin. In 1690 Isaac
Pereira, a London Sephardi, was appointed commissary general to William
III's expeditionary force and employed in his commissariat other Jews
who later established themselves in Dublin.
[18th century: Jewish immigration
from Central Europe - jewelry trade and pencil-makers - Freemasonry as
mediator between Jews and Protestant minority]
During the second half of the 18th century, further Jewish immigrants
arrived from Germany, Poland, Holland, Bohemia, France, and England,
and the Dublin community increased to approximately 40 families,
engaged largely in the jewelry trade, with a few pencil-makers. Some
richer Jews were accepted into Christian society, while Freemasonry
provided an important sphere for contacts between Jews and the
Protestant minority.
A number of Jews also established themselves outside Dublin. As early
as 1702 a Sephardi Jew was granted the freedom of (col. 1463)
the city of Waterford. A congregation was established in Cork, as an
offshoot of the Dublin community, in about 1725, with its burial ground
in Kempo Street.
[[...]]
Abraham Jacobs (1656-1725?), "priest" of the Dublin Jews, who was
baptized in 1706, translated the Anglican Book of Common Prayer into
Hebrew in 1717.
[[...]]
In the 18th century, Cork Jews imported wines and merchandise from
Spain and Portugal in their own ships, while others exported preserved
meat, certified by the local
shohet
[[butcher controller]] to England and the West Indies.
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Ireland, vol. 8, col. 1465: Trial of 1723
[[...]]
By 1791 the Jewish population [[in Dublin]] had decreased to such an
extent that the synagogue had to be closed.
[[...]]
By 1796 the Cork community was defunct, to be revived only some 60
years later.
In the latter half of the 18th century, an organized community may have
existed in *Belfast where the presence of individual Jews is attested
already in the second half of the 17th century. Throughout the 18th
century, missionaries were active among the Dublin Jews, some of whom
became converted to Christianity.
[18th century: No naturalization
of Jews permitted]
From 1743 to 1748 four bills were introduced in the Irish parliament to
facilitate the naturalization of foreign Jews, but all were rejected
because of the hostility of the peers. Acts of parliament passed in
1780 and 1783, granting aliens the right of naturalization, expressly
excluded the Jews. It was not until 1816, when there were only three
Jewish families in Dublin and a few others in the rest of the country,
that the Irish Naturalization Act of 1783 was repealed.
[since 1881: Immigration of
Russian Jewish refugees - anti-Jewish agitation - 1904-1906:
anti-Jewish boycott in Limerick]
In 1822, with the arrival of Jews from Germany, Poland, and England,
the Jewish community in Dublin was reestablished. By 1881, the number
of Jews in the country had grown from a mere handful to about 450,
rising by 1901 to 3,769, the majority living in Dublin. This increase
was the result of the immigration of Russian Jews after 1881,
reinforcing the Dublin, Belfast, and Cork communities and leading to
the establishment of new ones such as *Limerick, Waterford, and
Londonderry.
In 1901 the Jews of Dublin were mainly occupied as petty traders and
moneylenders, but they have since played a leading role in the
manufacture of clothing, furniture, and jewelry. Apart from some (col.
1464)
anti-Jewish rioting in Limerick in 1884 and in Cork in 1894 (JC, April
11, 1894), the most serious anti-Jewish agitation took place in
Limerick in 1904, when a Catholic priest attacked the local Jews from
the pulpit. This resulted in an economic boycott, which remained in
force until 1906, and led to the decline of the Jewish community there
from 200 to less than 40 people. The anti-Semitic campaign ceased only
with the removal of the priest. During World War I, Limerick had again
a congregation of about 40 families.
Modern Period.
When in 1921 Southern Ireland became independent of Britain, first as
the Irish Free State and later as the Republic of Ireland, the majority
of its Jews became, at least
de jure,
independent of the Anglo-Jewish community, under their own chief rabbi
and with their own representative council (1938). The 1937 Constitution
of the Republic recognized Judaism as a minority faith and guaranteed
Jews complete freedom from discrimination.
[[...]]
The chief rabbinate has (col. 1465)
been held by Isaac *Herzog (1918-37), Immanuel *Jakobovits (1949-58),
and Isaac Cohen (1959- ). Community affairs are coordinated
by the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, which was established
in 1948 and is responsible for the appointment of the chief rabbi and
the
bet din [[court]].The
council represents the views of the Jewish community in government
departments and in the general public. Autonomous bodies in Dublin
administer
shehitah
[[slaughtering]], Hebrew education, welfare, burial, Zionist affairs,
youth activities, and student societies.
[[About the time between 1933 and 1945 is no indication in the
Encyclopaedia Judaica]].
[[...]]
[Situation 1968]
In 1968 the Jewish population numbered 4,000 out of a total population
of 2,800,000, of whom 95% are Roman Catholics. Three main Dublin
congregations, four smaller synagogues, and all other Jewish
institutions are unified under the Orthodox auspices of the chief
rabbi. The Jewish Progressive Congregation of Dublin, comprising about
60 families, functions independently.
[[...]]
In 1968, 400 pupils, constituting 90% of all Jewish school children,
received Hebrew education in Jewish day schools (primary and secondary)
and afternoon classes. In Cork, a rapidly dwindling community of about
50 Jews existed in 1970.
Relations with Israel.
Ireland accorded de facto recognition to Israel on Feb. 12, 1949, but
never established diplomatic or even consular relations with Israel,
probably following the attitude of the Vatican. The official status of
relations between the two states, nevertheless, is friendly, and
Ireland frequently supported Israel at the United Nations. Trade
relations developed satisfactorily; in 1969 Israel exported $800,000
worth of goods to Ireland and imported $700,000 worth.
[since 1921]: Northern Ireland.
By the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 the six northwestern counties of
Ireland (Ulster) became a self-governing province of the British Crown
under the name of Northern Ireland. The Jewish population was mainly
concentrated in its capital, Belfast; a smaller community existed in
Londonderry from the 1880s to World War II. The 1964 census recorded
about 1,200 Jews living in Northern Ireland. The Jewish community
recognizes the authority of the British chief rabbi.
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Ireland, vol. 8, col. 1466: Menorah in
Belfast of 1964: Bronze Ark of the Law and menorah designed by Israel
sculptor Nehemiah Azaz for the Belfast synagogue built in 1964.
Courtesy Yourke Rossenberg Mardall, Architects, London. Photo Henk
Snoek, London
-- B. Shillman: Short History of the Jews in Ireland (1945)
-- idem (with L. wolf), in: HSET, 11 (1924-27), 143-67
-- I. Cohen (ed.): Irish-Jewish Year Book (1951- )
-- C. Roth: The Rise of Provincial Jewry (1950), 56-57
-- C.H.L. Emanuel: A Century and a Half of Jewish History (1910), 119,
160, 164
[L.HY. / IS.C.]> (col. 1466)
Sources
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Irland, vol. 8, col. 1463-1464
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Irland, vol. 8, col. 1465-1466
|
