Some New Facts About the Portsmouth Jewish Community

MY attention was drawn to the Portsmouth Circumcision Register (1762-1807) by Mr. Cecil Roth, who, in a lecture on “The Portsmouth Community and its Historical Background,” said, “I have made a full abstract of this curious docu? ment and I trust that the opportunity of publishing it will not be long delayed.”2 I consulted Mr. Roth and he encouraged me to publish it. I have left the text of the manuscript unaltered, as the author, Reb Leib Aleph (1723-1814), left it. However, I have translated it into English and have written an introduction in order to make its contents accessible to those who are unfamiliar with Hebrew, the language in which it was originally written.

This Circumcision Register3 is the oldest historical record, apart from the Congre? gational Seal (1747) and three Ketuboth of 1754, 1758 and 1761, of the Portsmouth Jewish Community. It starts on the 8th Tammuz, 1762,

Written by

Eugene Newman

Published in

Volume 17

1951

Other articles within the volume

• The Mediaeval Christian Hebraists of England: HERBERT OF BOSHAM AND EARLIER SCHOLARS
• Some New Facts About the Portsmouth Jewish Community
• The Anglo-Jewish Contribution to the Education Movement for Women in the Nineteenth Century
• Baron Paul Julius de Reuter
• Isidor Gerstenberg (1821-1876): Founder of the Council of Foreign Bondholders
• Were There Jews in Roman Britain?
• A Survey of Anglo-Jewry in 1851
• Judah Benjamin
• Anglo-Jewish Notaries and Scriveners
• Solomon Bennett, 1761-1838 Artist, Hebraist and Controversialist
• Samson Gideon: Eighteenth Century Jewish Financier
• The References to England in the Responsa of Rabbi Meir Ben Baruch of Rothenburg, 1215-1293
• The Beginnings of the Jewish Trade Union Movement in England
• A Survey of the Jewish Institutional History of Liverpool and District
• The History of the Jewish Community in Gentile Society
• The Jews of Falmouth—1740-1860
• The Jewish Contribution to the British Textile Industry “BUILDERS OF BRADFORD”
• Leone da Modena and his English Correspondents
• An Anglo-Jewish Family
• Preface