History of the Jews in Wales

The history of the Jews in Wales begins in the 13th century. However, after the English conquest of Wales (1287-1283), Edward I issued the 1290 Edict of Expulsion expelling the Jews from England. From then until the formal return of the Jews to England in 1655, there is only one mention of Jews on Welsh soil. Jewish communities were recorded in the 18th century, while major Jewish settlement dates from the 19th century. Like the rest of Western Europe, medieval Wales was Christian. The clergyman and author Gerald of Wales (c. 1146 – c. 1223) wrote an account of his journey through Wales in 1188 in order to recruit soldiers for the Third Crusade, the Itinerarium Cambriae (1191). In it, he makes no reference to Jews in Wales but includes an allegorical narrative concerning a Jew and a Christian priest travelling in Shropshire, England. During the 13th century, there are records of Jews in Abergavenny, Caerleon and Chepstow, all of which were in the Marcher Lordships of South Wales. It is likely that most, if not all, Jews left Wales after Edward I's act of 1290 although the writ of the English king would not have run in many of the Marcher Lordships. The Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion refers to the act but only in the context of the Jews in neighbouring England. There is a record of an unnamed Jew in the commote of Manor Deilo in Carmarthenshire (outside the Marcher Lordships) in 1386/7. In England, between 1290 and their formal return to that country in 1655, there are no other official traces of Jews as such except in connection with the Domus Conversorum, which kept a number of Jews who had converted to Christianity within its precincts up to 1551 and even later. There is no comparable evidence for Wales. The BBC notes, "The oldest non-Christian faith [in Wales] to be established was Judaism, with a presence in Swansea dating from around 1730. Jewish communities were formed in the next century in Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd and Tredegar.