Place
London לונדון
The city that expelled the Jews in 1290 and to which they returned three and a half centuries later.
England expelled its Jews first in Europe, in 1290 under Edward I. The decree was never formally revoked: in 1656, after Menasseh ben Israel's appeal to Cromwell, it was simply decided not to raise the question, and the community began to gather again — Portuguese merchants first, then Ashkenazim.
Two and a half centuries later London was where the Balfour Declaration was written: the foreign secretary's letter to Lord Rothschild of 2 November 1917.
On the timeline
5257 · 1497 CEPortugal, the Anusim and the Inquisition5678 · 1918 CEThe Balfour Declaration5780 · 2020 CEThe Flourishing of Torah Study and Daf Yomi
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The Hope of Israel (Menasseh ben Israel) — the appeal after which Jews returned to England
Documents of the period
- The Balfour Declaration, 2 November 1917 — the letter written here that shaped forty years of history
Basis: documents and evidence.