Welcome:
Thank you for visiting the website of the Oxford Jewish Heritage Committee. The committee was set up in 2006, with just three enthusiasts from an idea arising from a drusha delivered by our instigator Dr Evie Kemp in Schul on the High Holy days in 2006, which was also the 350th anniversary of the readmission of Jews to England under Oliver Cromwell. Now we number an international committee (with one member zooming in regularly from Haifa!) One of the first tasks was to set up a website, and with the help of friends of friends this went live during the first year based on a Joomla pattern. Over the subsequent years This Joomla site has grown until it became unwieldy, and the decision was taken to transfer to a WordPress Version. Our Friends at BeeBizzi in Oxford have helped us through this migration, and have promised your computer illiterate webmaster that life will be much easier in future. I hope so and I thank them.
The committee now consists of a mix of enthusiasts in the field with the support of Hebraists, medievalists and archaeologists, but we are always open to welcoming new expertise and enthusiasts. Contact us if you feel able to contribute: ojh@ojc-online.org
Our aim is to raise the profile of the history of Jews in Oxford from earliest records through to the modern day. The Jews first arrived in Oxford from France in 1070s and soon developed a thriving community in the city and its surrounds. They were expelled from Oxford and England by the proclamation of King Edward 1 in 1290.
Because the University has preserved so much of the historical evidence in documentation, Oxford retains a unique memory of those medieval Jews. Their story has been largely unknown and is described as the ‘Hidden History’. This website, launched in September 2009, is devoted to uncovering this history and offering it to a wider audience.
Highlights include detailed maps of Medieval Jewish Oxford, an Inventory of Hebraica and Judaica in the Oxford Colleges, Blue Plaques for famous Oxford Jews and much more.
If you think of a subject missing from our pages, contact me: ojh@ojc-online.org
Save the page and keep checking for updates (or be notified via www.facebook.com/OxfordJewishHeritage/ as we take you on the journey through Oxford’s Jewish History.
Latest News & Articles:
See above right “Recent Posts” for our latest news and articles, click “read more” to see more detail.
