'Gamlingay, Merton College & Jewish Law'
By Rabbi Eli Brackman
The Domesday Book is a census that was commissioned in December 1085 by William the Conqueror, who invaded England twenty years earlier in 1066. The book contains records of 13,418 settlements in the English counties south of the border with Scotland at the time. The first Jew recorded living in England is recorded as living in a village in Oxfordshire. This does not mean no other Jews lived in England at the time, as major cities like London and Winchester were not included in the book, thus leaving out a substantial number of possible Jews who might have lived in the larger cities. This essay will look at the history of an ancient village that appears in… Read More »