Jewish Communities

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The United Kingdom contains the second largest Jewish population in Western Europe after France's Jewish community and is the seventh largest community of all world Jewry. British Jews span a range of religious affiliations.

The first recorded Jewish community in the British Isles was brought to England in 1070 by King William the Conqueror, who believed that their commercial skills and incoming capital would make England more prosperous. This community was expelled in 1290 by King Edward I, and emigrated to countries such as Poland which protected them by law. 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 to England. In 1656 Oliver Cromwell made it clear that the ban on Jewish settlement would no longer be enforced. In 2006, the Jewish community celebrated the 350th anniversary of the resettlement in England.

At the start of World War I there were over 500,000 Jews in the United Kingdom, but the Jewish population has steadily declined since then. The Jewish population in the 2001 Census was published as 266,740 people. However, this figure did not include Jews who identified 'by ethnicity only' in England and Wales or Scottish Jews who identified as Jewish by upbringing but held no current religion. These broader definitions brought the total number of Jews enumerated in the United Kingdom in the 2001 Census to 270,499. However, some 20,000 unexpected Jews living in areas far from established communities all over the country identified as following the Jewish religion (the 2001 census for the first time included a question on religion, which was not mandatory to answer). The only region in the country where no Jews identified was the Scilly Islands. On the other hand it is known that a considerable number of strictly Orthodox Jews in N.E. London, N.W. London and Manchester chose not to answer the question. From 2005, for the first time in at least 40 years, the number of births in the community exceeded the number of deaths. Since then the Jewish population has grown from 275,000 to 280,000. This is attributable largely to the high birth rates of Haredi Jews. It is probable that the current UK Jewish population is 280,000. Although, it is a well documented fact from various studies that within Jewish communities and particularly in some strictly Orthodox areas, residents ignored the voluntary question on religion following the advice of their religious leaders which has resulted in a serious undercount, this undercount can also be extended to, for various reasons, the Jewish refugees from Western Europe in the 1940s and 1950s who would not volunteer this information, therefore it is ultimately difficult to give an accurate number on the total UK Jewish population. It may be even more than double the official estimates, heavily powered by the very high birth rate of orthodox families and British people who are Jewish by race but not religion; as it currently stands, the Jewish as a race section is not documented on the census.

Currently, about two-thirds of the UK's Jews live in Greater London or contiguous parts of South Hertfordshire and south-west Essex. Substantial communities outside the London area include Manchester, home to some 30,000 Jews, and Leeds, where now less than 7,000 Jews live. Other substantial communities include Gateshead, Glasgow and Liverpool, as well as other former industrial cities.

There are some 350 synagogues in the country, and it is estimated that 70% of the country's Jews are affiliated with one. Roughly one in five of British Jews attend a synagogue once a week.

Of those affiliated, the affiliations are distributed across the following groupings:

• the central Orthodox synagogues: the United Synagogue, the Federation of Synagogues (Ashkenazi), the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogues (Sephardi) – 61%;
• Progressive synagogues: the Movement for Reform Judaism (previously known as Reform Synagogues of Great Britain), and Liberal Judaism – 27%;
• strictly Orthodox (Haredi) synagogues – 11%;
• Conservative (Masorti) synagogues: the Assembly of Masorti Synagogues – 2%