Today, the Jewish community of Ireland is almost exclusively concentrated in the capital city of Dublin. Irish Jewry has been experiencing a great decline over the past 30 years, in part due to economic stagnation and a lack of opportunities. During this period, the emigration of many of the younger, active Jews to the United Kingdom, Israel, and the United States halved the community’s population and diminished its level of activity. In recent years, particularly during the period of Irish prosperity, this was partially offset by immigration to the country.
Adelaide Road synagogue in Dublin. Photo: Paddy WhelanJews arrived in Ireland during the reign of William the Conqueror. Henry III made his viceroy the custodian of Jews in Ireland; his successor, Edward I, rescinded this protection, banishing the Jews from his kingdom in 1290.
Two centuries later, the Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition. Some sought shelter in Britain and Ireland, embracing Christianity while maintaining aspects of Sephardic Jewish culture.
Oliver Cromwell officially readmitted Jews into the Commonwealth. Sephardic Jews engaged in trade between London and Dublin founded the first documented synagogue in Dublin in 1663: a room in an undistinguished building on Crane Lane (near modern-day Temple Bar). This initiative was taken by two members of the extended Pereira merchant family.
During the Jacobite rebellion, the forces of William of Orange received their bread from Isaac Pereira, a contractor to the military. A party of Dutch Jewish bakers was unwillingly domiciled in Meath, witnessing the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
By the mid-18th century, the Dublin Jewish community was immersed in the commercial life of the city, and had abandoned Crane Lane. It worshipped in temporary locations around the north inner city. However, the Irish Naturalisation Act of 1783 excluded Jews, and this Act was not repealed until 1816. Intermarriage, religious conversion and emigration undermined the community.
Communal infrastructure
Eventually a small influx of Ashkenazi Jewish merchants came to Dublin from Russia and Germany. They quickly became integrated into middle-class society, and developed a communal infrastructure. A deconsecrated Presbyterian church at Mary’s Abbey was purchased in 1835, providing a permanent space for their synagogue. Dublin’s Jews now numbered approximately 300, and smaller communities thrived in Belfast, Cork, Limerick and other towns.
Elsewhere, Tsar Alexander III’s discriminatory May Laws of 1882 ensured that Jews became the outsiders in Russian society. Most left the shtetls where they had lived for generations. In 1890, the Irish-Jewish community was swollen by 700 Lithuanians.
The last Sabbath service was conducted at Mary’s Abbey on December 5th, 1892; the following Saturday, Jews and Christians attended the dedication of an ornate purpose-built synagogue at Adelaide Road (destined to remain open until 2000). Numbers rose: in 1901, there were 2,015 Jews in Dublin; 10 years later, it was 2,899.
The newcomers gravitated towards the South Circular Road. New synagogues proliferated and kosher shops serviced the community, especially on Clanbrassil Street. During the first World War, Jews were among those who served in the British army, while their wives and daughters fundraised for the troops.
Following the Easter Rising and the Civil War, during which members of the Jewish community fought on both sides, Jews acquired Irish citizenship when the Free State was proclaimed in 1922.
Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog consolidated the Irish identity of his community by severing formal links with umbrella religious institutions in the UK. However, he and others failed to influence Dáil Éireann during the 1930s, when violence against Jews during the Third Reich created the need for refuge. Ireland was closed to Jewish immigrants from 1938 until after the end of the second World War. Throughout those years, Irish Jewish men and women joined the British armed forces.
Magnet of Israel
The postwar recession, coupled with anti-Semitism at government level, prompted Irish Jews to re-evaluate their position. Thus began a trend of Jewish emigration from Ireland, mainly to England and the USA. When Israel was declared an independent state in 1948, Irish Jews went there. By then, the Dublin community had deserted South Circular Road for the suburbs.
The Irish Jewish community reached its peak at just short of 5,000 in the mid-20th century; fewer than half remain. Recent demographic changes have seen Jews settling beyond the traditional environs of south Dublin, and the profile of the community has become more cosmopolitan. Jews have involved themselves across the social, artistic, professional and political spectrum.
With its discrete culture and complex identity, the Jewish community has traced a faint but colourful counterpoint within mainstream Irish society for nearly 1,000 years.
The information above is extracted from the article «Irish-Jewish community has evolved to be part of the social fabric», by Dr. Melanie Brown. First published in the Irish Times on 18 February 2014.
Dr Brown is a local centre examiner at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and a member of the Dublin City Interfaith Forum
The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland brings together various Zionist, youth and women’s organizations.
Ireland’s chief rabbi supervises the country’s synagogues (all in Dublin except for one in Cork). Past chief rabbis of Ireland have included Rabbi Isaac Herzog and Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits who became, respectively, the chief rabbis of Israel and of the British Commonwealth. The chief rabbi also supervises the kashrut of Dublin’s kosher establishments.
Chabad is active in Ireland and offers a variety of classes and services.
Israel’s first ambassador to Ireland arrived in 1994.
Embassy of Israel
Carrisbrook House
122 Pembroke Road
Ballsbridge
Dublin4
Tel: +353 1 230 9400
Fax: +353 1 230 9446
Email: info@dublin.mfa.gov.il
Website: http://embassies.gov.il/dublin/Pages/default.aspx
For up to date information on Kosher restaurants and locations please see the Shamash Kosher Database
Irish Jewish Community Office
Herzog House
Dublin 6
Tel: + 353-(0)1-4923751
Email: irishcom@iol.ie
Apart from the Orthodox religious establishment, which includes two synagogues—the Dublin Hebrew Congregation and Machzekei Hadas—a Progressive congregation is also active in Dublin.
There is a Jewish primary school, Stratford National School, and a high school called Stratford College. With the decline in the Jewish population, the schools were opened to students of other faiths and today both have a multidenominational enrolment. The Dublin Talmud Torah oversees Hebrew education in Stratford Schools. It also provides cheder (afternoon Hebrew classes) for Jewish children not attending Stratford Schools.
The Irish Jewish Museum is located in the building of the former Walworth Road Synagogue, in an area of Dublin that used to be home to many Jews. With the decline in the Jewish population, the building fell into disuse in the 1970s but was re-opened as a museum in 1985. Other sites include the former home of Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog, in which his son, Chaim, who went on to become the president of Israel, was raised. A plaque denotes its distinguished former inhabitants.
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