The Jews' Expulsion from, and Return to England

Did you know that King Edward I of England expelled his three thousand Jews in 1290? He appropriated their houses to pay off his debts, and established a policy which essentially emptied the country of some of its most affluent traders and tax payers.   Fast forward to seventeenth century Amsterdam. Its rabbi, Manesseh ben Israel, believing that he could hasten the messianic age through the resettlement of a Jewish community in England, shrewdly pointed out to Oliver Cromwell, a devout Puritain as well as the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, that the prophecies in Deuteronomy 28:64 and Isaiah 11:12 precluded the return of the Messiah until the dispersion of the Jews had reached "from one corner of the earth to the other." Since England was synonymous with "corner of the world" (Angle-Terre), the Second Coming awaited only the admission of the Jews.To that end, the rabbi composed the "Esperanca de Israel" (Hope of Israel) in 1650, dedicated it to Parliament, remiinded its members that God and the world were watching, and at Cromwell's invitation, left for London.   The religious potential of the rabbi's theories should have been irresistible to the millenarian Puritans who assumed that the Jews would finally acknowledge Jesus. Of course, the monetary advantages they might secure to the Durch were certainly not overlooked. But the response was to rehash tales of Jewish lust for Christian blood, to charge that Jews would attempt to convert the populace, encroach on England's commerce, and take over the churches. Nevertheless, Cromwell bypassed Parliament - and public opinion - and permitted the Jews to quietly, but unofficialy, return. The resettlement did not attract large numbers - perhaps three thousand by 1690 - but it was largely free of intolerance and allowed the establishment of a cemetery and a synagogue.   It is thought that the original edict of expulsion has never been officially abrogated. Are there any scholars among you who know if that is so?