The history of Jews in Britain has unfolded between the extremes of expulsion and emancipation. The first Jewish immigrants were allowed to settle down in England under William the Conqueror, yet the later Middle Ages saw a first wave of antisemitic hatred, which led to Jews being banned from the kingdom in 1290. This did not change until 1656, when Jews were readmitted to Britain under Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate. In 1858 British Jews were given full citizenship, and eminent Victorians such as Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli testify to their successful integration in the 19th century. Some of the most widely circulated representations of Jewish life and tradition stem from Britain; however, stereotypical ways of seeing Jews have often implied antisemitism – also in times when no (or hardly any) Jews were present, as evident from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice or Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. More recently, in the wake of the Holocaust, the relations to Israel form a wider context shaping Jewish-British identities as well as the interactions between Jewish and Non-Jewish Britons. In this class, we will trace the history of Jewish cultural presence on the British Isles. We will engage with the Jewish cultural impact in Britain and analyze various cultural texts from different periods and across the media. Hatred and prejudice against Jews is manifest in many of these texts; however, we will not restrict ourselves to the study of antisemitism, but also look at more resistant and enlightened forms of Jewish (self)representation which face and overcome stereotypes.
- Trainer/in: Pittel Harald