On Sunday, Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, attended a service at Christ Church cathedral in Oxford to mark the 800th anniversary of the Synod of Oxford. As Harriet Sherwood reports, the synod “passed laws forbidding social interactions between Jews and Christians, forcing Jews to wear identifying badges, imposing church tithes on them, and banning them from certain professions. They were also forbidden from building new synagogues.” Sherwood sketches the evolution and repercussions of these rules, and examines the significance of the Church of England’s decision this year to apologize formally to the Jewish community for its “shameful actions.”
By the late 13th century, further measures forbade Jews from owning land and passing on inheritance to their children. Hundreds were arrested, hanged, or imprisoned. Eventually, all the Jews in England—3,000 or so—were expelled under an edict in 1290 by King Edward I. They were not permitted to return for more than 360 years.
The Church of England was not created until the 1530s, when Henry VIII split from the pope. Nevertheless, it was now right for Christians to repent of their “shameful actions” and to “reframe positively” relations with the Jewish community, said Jonathan Chaffey, archdeacon of Oxford.
The move follows a 2019 document produced by the Church of England which said Christian attitudes towards Judaism over centuries had provided a “fertile seedbed for murderous anti-Semitism.” Anglicans and other Christians must not only repent for the “sins of the past” but actively challenge anti-Jewish attitudes and stereotypes, said the document.
It acknowledged that cathedrals in Norwich and Lincoln were associated with the spread of the blood libel in the late Middle Ages, when Jewish communities were falsely accused of abducting and killing Christian children [and using their blood for ritual purposes].
Read more on Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/08/apology-800-years-on-for-laws-that-expelled-jews-from-england