The Stirrings of the 1590s and the Return of the Jews to England

Anyone who stands in this place to talk about Anglo Jewish history in the years around 1600 cannot help but be acutely conscious of the awesome tradition into which he has dared to encroach. Nearly twenty times in the past three-quarters of a century, the Presidency of this Society has been occupied not only by masters but by the very creators of this metier, in whose shadow a new venture into the field ‘can but peep to what itw ould’. Shakespeare, of course, had treason in mind when he wrote of such peeping, but I feel not far distant from that accusation as I trample the ground that has been made to flower so remarkably by the Presidents of whom I just spoke. Those nearly twenty offices were held by only two men, Lucien Wolf and Cecil Roth, but even a quick glance at their writings will convince the reader

Written by

THEODORE K. RABB

Published in

Volume 26

1974

Other articles within the volume

• The Settlement of Jews in Gibraltar, 1704—1783
• The Jews of Spanish North Africa, 1600—1669
• The Jew as Scapegoat? The Settlement and Reception of Jews in South Wales before 1914
• The Decline and Expulsion of the Medieval Jews of York
• Ashkenazic Reactions to the Conversionists, 1800—1850
• George Eliot: Her Jewish Associations—A Centenary Tribute
• The Stirrings of the 1590s and the Return of the Jews to England
• The Historian in Two Worlds
• Preface