What was Jewish life like in medieval England?

Answer 1

It varied considerably from place to place and over time.

Many rules were introduced governing the kinds of work that Jews could do, but these were not always applied very strictly; in theory, by the 12th century, Jews could only work as moneylenders and many of them did, but king John had a personal crossbowman who was a Jew and there are instances of Jews in many other occupations.

In Canterbury in 1200 the Jewish community lived in a small area in the very heart of the High Street, with its own synagogue, stone vault for keeping money and very large houses for the Jewish families. One, Samuel, worked as a dyer while most of the others were "moneyers". They were well respected and important members of the city's population, with close neighbours who were craftsmen, merchants and Christian priests. The lane next to the synagogue was called "Heathenman Lane", but this did not imply any bad feelings towards the Jews.

In some other towns and cities the Jews were persecuted, attacked, falsely charged with crimes and in some cases murdered.

The religious difference was not usually an underlying issue - it was the financial element that caused problems: Jews were mainly moneylenders, meaning that Anglo-Norman nobles (and even the king himself) got themselves deep in debt which they could never afford to repay. Persecuting the Jews therefore made very good sense - if the Jews were seen to be evil non-Christians, guilty of all kinds of invented crimes, they could eventually be expelled from England, these nobles would be out of debt immediately and would never have to repay the money they owed. A simple but deplorable solution.

All Jews were expelled from England in 1290 under an edict of king Edward I. Many English people would have seen that this was a vile injustice, knowing their Jewish friends to be innocent of any crime, but they could do nothing to assist.

England did not re-admit Jews until the 17th century.