JTrails is delighted to have been invited to host this important trail which introduces an important historic community in North Wales and offers special thanks to Dr Nathan Abrams and his project team of Bangor University, who originated, authored and supported this trail and whose introduction to the trail follows.

'Welcome to this Trail of Jewish Bangor. Here, you will learn about the history of Jews in this city from medieval times to the present day.

The first evidence of Jewish presence in the region dates back to medieval times, although we are not sure that any Jews came to Bangor.

Jews were expelled from this country in 1290 and were not readmitted until 1665. However, we do not see any Jews in Bangor until the early nineteenth century. Their numbers were expanded by the mass immigrations of the last quarter of the nineteenth century but the figures of those who came to Bangor were never large.

The community declined around the 1970s but there are still individuals and families located in Bangor and scattered around in the towns and villages of Gwynedd. I am one of them.

Although very little extant traces of their presence survive, Jewish immigrants to Bangor had a significant impact on the civic, cultural, political and economic life of the city and it is this hidden history we aim to uncover in this map. We hope you enjoy it.

As project leader, I would like to thank Gareth Roberts of Menter Fachwen for his invaluable assistance on this project, Andy Goodman, Hazel Robbins and Soo Vinnicombe at Bangor University, and Rhys Jones of Locly for transforming our map into this app. This work is supported by the Bangor University ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.'