Oxford Jewish Heritage

David M Lewis

Past Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford

Past President of Oxford Jewish Congregation & Oxford University Jewish Society

Published 1992 by The Alden press, Oxford

Jews started returning to Oxford in the time of Cromwell and, although the community has never been a major one among the provincial Jewish communities of England, the presence of the University has always been a distinguishing and interesting feature.

In this new history, written for the celebrations of the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the modern Oxford Jewish Congregation, David Lewis collects the evidence for eighteenth century Jewish settlement in Oxford and describes the establishment of the nineteenth century community and its trading patterns. This community died out, and attention shifts to the Jewish undergraduates and the tensions between those who were trying to evolve an Anglo-Jewish identity and those who saw the only future for Jewish life in Zionism. In the Second World War the community was transformed by the arrival of German refugees and evacuation lrom London, and the problems of the expanded community under wartime strains get a frank and detailed treatment. Later chapters sketch the development of the remains of this wartime community into its present form of a mixed business and professional community, unique in the way in which it caters for all forms of Jewish religious observance.

Now scanned and each section uploadable to read; click on "Read More"

ISBN 0 9519253 0 X

Then and Now

A Collection of Recollections

Collected and Compiled by Freda Silver Jackson

Published 1992 by the Oxford Jewish Congregation

A miscellany of fascinating reminiscences of Jewish People in Oxford. Contributors include some of the most illustrious personalities in the academic world as well as business people, refugees, war-time evacuees, graduates, undergraduates and residents whose collective recollections span more than 75 years.

'Then and Now' is published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Oxford Jewish Community and is certain to be of interest to anyone and everyone who has passed through Oxford at any time since 1914.

Now scanned and each section uploadable to read;    click on "Read More"

ISBN 0 9519253 1 8

In June 1931 several plaques were unveiled by the Oxford City Council to commemorate various events connected with the medieval Jewish presence in Oxford.

These plaques were:

That on the Botanical Gardens Gate to mark the medieval Jewish Cemetery

That on the Scheduled Ancient Monument of Osney Mill to mark the martyrdom of the Haggai of Oxford

That on the Town Hall to mark the ancient Jewish synagogue

These were well reported in the Oxford Times and Oxford Mail: these reports are shown here (with thanks to the editors of the Oxford Mail and Times):