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Turkey
In the beautiful synagogue of Ahrida, one of the oldest in Istanbul, the tevah assumes the shape of a caravel symbolizing not only Noah's Ark but also the vessels that in 1492 transported the ...
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Bulgaria
In a medieval miniature, Bulgarian Czarina Sara figures beside her husband, Czar Alexander, a two children, Shishman and Tamara. A Jewish queen, Sara of Turvono was obliged to convert to ...
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Romania
There is little evidence of a Jewish presence on the coats of the Black Sea before the arrival of Roman legions in the early second century C.E. Vestiges, coins, and inscriptions preserved in a ...
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Poland
Poland represents the most illustrious and tragic chapter in European Jewish history. For centuries, this country was the most welcoming to Jews fleeing Germany, Spain, and southern Europe; the ...
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Czech Republic
Below the bell tower of Prague's Jewish city hall, there are two clock faces. One displays Roman numerals, and the other Hebrew letters. The hands of the first clock revolve in the normal ...
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Slovakia
The history of Jews in Slovakia -dating from the sixteenth century under the protection of the Hapsburg- intersects that of their fellow believers in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Jews in these ...
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Hungary
At the Jewish Museum of Budapest, a replica of a tombstone dating from the third century bears the image of a menorah. This relic attests to nearly 1700 years of Jewish presence in the Carpathian ...
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Croatia
Jewish settlers had to wait until the death of Austria's Catholic and very anti-Semitic Archduchess Maria Theresa and the ascension of her her tolerant son, Joseph II, to gain the right to ...
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Slovenia
A Slavic land under Germanic rule for many centuries, Slovenia finally gained independence in 1991. The fate of the Jewish population here depended largely over the years on the good will of its ...
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Portugal
Portugal became an autonomous kingdom under Henry of Burgundy, a prince of French origin. His son, Alfonso I, was the first king of Portugal (1114-85). The history of its Jewish population ...
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Spain
There are numerous legends surrounding the arrival of the Jews in Spain. They were propagated by Jewish and Christian chroniclers, especially in the sixteenth century. Some say they came in the ...
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Switzerland
Jewish craftsmen and merchants settled in Switzerland's Roman cities between the third and fourth centuries, but the first documents that mention them date only from the thirteenth century. ...
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Germany
At the end of the nineteenth century, an international conference took place sponsored by the Zionist Organisation that was dedicated to the problem of the future national language of the Jewish ...
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Belgium
The history of the Belgian Jews is similar to that of the Jews of western Europe generally, involving migrations and internal changes as the old communities came under the influence of other ...
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The Netherlands
Holland has always welcomed political and religious refugees. The first great wave of Jews immigrated to the Netherlands from Spain and Portugal at the end of the sixteenth century. Although ...
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Ireland
While Ireland is not an obvious destination for those interested in Jewish culture, the island does offer a few surprises. Ireland's Jewish population has never been higher than 8000, and that ...
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Edinburgh
As in the rest of the country, the Scottish capital received virtually no Jews until the 18th century. We find the administrative trace of a request for installation by a certain David Brown in ...
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Glasgow
Most of Glasgow’s synagogues are in the suburbs, where the majority of the city’s 6,500 Jews now live. The oldest of them, dating from 1879, is in . As in the rest of the country, the ...
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Scotland
The first mention of a Jew in Scotland is in the minutes of a meeting by the Edinburgh Council date 1 September 1665, and it relates to his request to be converted so that he can work in the ...
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North London
Saint John’s Wood, Hampstead, and, above all, Golders Green and Stamford Hill are the heart of London’s Jewish life and have numbers of shops. Amusingly enough, most of the shops ...
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Central London (the City, the East End and the West End)
Of the Jewish presence in the City during the Middle Ages, there remains little more than memories, but it is a pleasure to walk around here. The three streets around the Bank of England ...
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London
The Jewish communities of London are highly diverse, in terms both of their rites and origins and of their geographical distribution. The Jewish presence in London is attested from the 11th ...
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England
There is no historical record of organised Jewish communities in the British Isles before the Norman invasion of 1066, when King William encouraged Jews -mainly merchants and craftsmen- to follow ...
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Italy
The excavations at Ostia, once the great imperial port of ancient Rome, have revealed the remains of an antique synagogue whose columns support capitals adorned with menorot, the traditional ...