The Jews in the English Universities

Regarding the admission of the Jews to the English Universities, there is a legend which has established itself as history. They were, it is said, entirely excluded from the opportunities of higher education in this country until the nineteenth century was well advanced: the first breach in the old system was made by Nathan Lazarus Benmohel who, graduating at Dublin in 1836, was the first conforming Jew to obtain a degree in any university in the British Isles: and they were empowered to become full members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge only by the Universities Tests Act of 1871. But this account, accepted implicitly or explicitly by all the standard works,1 is utterly misleading.

The connexion of the Jews with the two great English University towns goes back to the Middle Ages, and certain theorists have maintained that they played some part in their development as seats of

Written by

Cecil Roth

Published in

Volume 4

1899

Other articles within the volume

• THE JEW BILL OF 1753
• JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 1902–1903
• BYE-LAWS
• LAWS
• CLIFFORD’S TOWER, YORK
• THE JEWS OF AMSTERDAM IN 1655. A TRANSCRIPT AND TRANSLATION FROM THE ORIGINAL STATE PAPERS IN THE POSSESSION OF E. N. ADLER
• THE JEWISH MONARCH AND QUEEN ELIZABETH
• THE CANTERBURY SYNAGOGUE
• EXTRACTS FROM THE CLOSE ROLLS
• SOME HISTORICAL NOTES, 1648–1680
• STATUS OF THE JEWS IN ENGLAND AFTER THE RE-SETTLEMENT
• SIR I. L. GOLDSMID AND THE ADMISSION OF THE JEWS OF ENGLAND TO PARLIAMENT
• PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
• THE EARLIEST JEWISH PRAYERS FOR THE SOVEREIGN
• JOACHIM GAUNSE: A MINING INCIDENT IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH
• JOHN DURY AND THE ENGLISH JEWRY
• HISTORY OF THE “DOMUS CONVERSORUM” FROM 1290 TO 1891
• NATION OR RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY? PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
• The Chazanim of the Great Synagogue, London
• English Students of Maimonides
• The Jews in the English Universities
• The Prayer-book of Joseph Messias, 5481
• The Jewish Obituaries in the “Gentleman’s Magazine”
• The Beginnings of Anglo-Jewish Biblical Exegesis and Bible Translation
• Anglo-Jewish Travellers to Palestine in the Nineteenth Century
• Benedict the Gildsman of Winchester
• PREFACE.
• FOREWORD TO THE ADVANCE FASCICULE