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TEACHER NOTES
Diversity Through Time, Bristol (Multiethnic)
Medieval Jewry
The Jewish community in Bristol: from 1100 to 1290
Why was there only a small Jewish community in England?
Britain has never had a large Jewish community, but Bristol has been
home to small communities of Jewish people at different stages in its
history.
The first Jews in England arrived from Normandy in the 11th century. The
monarchy invited rich Jewish merchants and money lenders to come to
England under royal protection. Special rules applied to any Jews coming
to England, and they mainly settled in towns in small groups and traded as
merchants and bankers.
Why did Jewish people stick together?
As with many other minority groups, the early Jewish community tended to
live close together - partly to support each other, and partly because
Jewish worship requires ten men over the age of 13 (a minyan); a ritual
butcher (a shohet) for kosher meat; a communal oven, a ritual bath (a
mikveh); a place of worship; and a school. After 1177 the city also had a
Jewish cemetery, which meant deceased members of the community did
not have to be buried in London.
Do we know how Jews were treated in Medieval Bristol?
Jewish citizens in medieval England were only allowed to earn money
from a small number of trades. This meant that the richer members of the
community mainly worked as merchants, traders and money lenders.
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Other Jewish people were employed within their own community as
workers, labourers and servants.
Bankers and money lenders were very unpopular in medieval times. The
Christian church had forbidden interest charges on loans (usury) because
they said money should only be borrowed or leant for essential spending,
and therefore profiting from these loans would be wrong. [The Islamic faith
still has strict rules that forbid profiting from lending money.]
The king and the barons borrowed large amounts of money from Jewish
money lenders, who then paid large taxes to the king on the interest and
repayments they received. The Jewish community was officially the
property of the king; known as the ‘the Kings Jews’, the community was
meant to get royal protection. This was important because several nobles
seemed to prefer getting rid of the person they had borrowed from instead
of repaying them!
While the English kings were able to exploit the Jewish community and get
a large profit from them, England’s Jews were mostly safe. However, there
was a lot of prejudice and anti-Semitism in medieval Europe.
Relations between the Christian and Jewish communities were not always
good. Although both religions share some beliefs and religious writings,
Jews do not recognise Jesus Christ as the messiah and got blamed by the
Medieval church for the death of Jesus Christ.
Some individuals and kings seem to have had a particularly nasty attitude
to the peaceful Jewish community. Evidence about the Jewish community
in Bristol in the Middle Ages is very limited. But we do have some financial
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TEACHER NOTES
Diversity Through Time, Bristol (Multiethnic)
Medieval Jewry
and legal records which relate to Jewish citizens - produced mainly by
Christians.
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before religious festivals. This lamp symbolises the light, or knowledge and
comfort that faith brings to a family.
Was there a Jewish district in Medieval Bristol?
Local historical sources show two official districts or Jewries which were
lived in by Bristol’s medieval Jews. Christians could also live in the same
streets.
The first Jewry was founded during the peaceful reign of Henry II at the
Quay Head between St John’s Gate (at the end of Broad Street) and
St Giles’ Gate (at the end of Small Street) alongside the city defences,
around what was formerly Jewry Lane.
Why was the Jewish district attacked in 1263?
In 1263, Simon de Montfort's rebellion against the King caused chaos in
Bristol and his supporters attacked the quayside Bristol Jewry district. It
seems that local Jewish citizens then moved to a new Jewry on the north
side of Winch Street (Wine Street today), which was between the town
wall and castle ditch, closer to the gates of the royal castle and therefore
to be safer in times of trouble.
One of the reasons why some nobles stirred up mobs to attack the Jews
was to wipe out debts and destroy official records of their debt.
What was Jewish life like in Medieval Bristol?
Our evidence of medieval life is mostly based on archaeology and a few
written records.
Excavations in 1975-6 in Peter Street uncovered a well-preserved, threewick bronze Sabbath lamp. In Jewish homes a Sabbath lamp is lit on the
table by the woman of the house on Friday evenings, and on the night
Map of Bristol as it was in the later Middle Ages (c1300-1500).
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TEACHER NOTES
Diversity Through Time, Bristol (Multiethnic)
Medieval Jewry
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Jewish communities need to have some facilities to operate. They require
a community council (kehila), a cemetery (bet hayim - a House of Life, or
bet olam - House of Eternity), with its associated place for washing
corpses (bet tohorah) and a synagogue, which functions as a place of
assembly, prayer, and study - although all of these functions can take
place in an ordinary house.
Bristol's Medieval Jewish cemetery was on Brandon Hill. Medieval Jewish
tombstones were found on the north slope of the Hill in 1844, when
construction began on the Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital School, in an area
that was still called ‘the Jews’ churchyard.’ The destruction of the
tombstones soon afterwards is a historian’s nightmare - the site is the only
place in England where early Jewish tombstones have been found.
One of the modern buildings in Jacob’s Well Road, next to Brandon Hill, is
over a small chamber with two stone steps and a wellhead cut into the
bedrock. Archaeologists think that this is a ritual bath, used by medieval
Jews either for purification (mikveh) or to cleanse the dead before burial
(bet tohorah).
Medieval Bristol had three synagogues - the oldest was at the end of the
quay, near the entry gate to Small Street. Later, the new Jewry had two
synagogues. One of these was opposite St Peter’s Church, and a 20-year
lease dated Easter 1285 tells us that the other was on the north side of
Winch Street, next to land owned by a Jewish merchant called Hak.
The well on Jacob’s Well Road.
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