There is no evidence that there were any Jews in Anglo-Saxon England. However, there was a flourishing Jewish community in Rouen in Normandy, and some Jews from there settled in London in the time of William I. In 1096 crusaders killed many Rouen Jews, and some survivors probably fled to London.
By 1127 a London street with a great synagogue (probably Old Jewry) was known as ‘street of the Jews’. Although Jews lived in a number of English towns, only in London was there a Jewish cemetery, just outside the city wall.
Jews were discriminated against and taxed heavily; Christian Londoners murdered local Jews in riots in 1189 and 1264. In 1290 Edward I expelled all Jews from England.
