• Introduction
• History
• Key Dates
• Disability and Access

• Touring the area
• Places of interest
• Post a comment

ADMITTANCE TO THE UNIVERSITY

The community remained very small up to the 19th century, due to the continuing stifling presence of the religiously orthodox university. However, the advent of intellectual and religious liberalism in Oxford, as well as moves to provide political freedom for Jews nationally, swept away the bar to unconverted Jews attending the University.

In 1856, Jewish undergraduates were permitted, and in 1871 college fellowships were opened to all, whereas they had previously been open only to ordained clerics. It was, though, some decades before Jews took full possession of the freedoms they had been offered with very few Jewish undergraduates before the end of the 19th century.
There were, however, some early lecturers who held readerships. The first two were Adolph Neubauer, appointed in 1884 as reader in Rabbinical Literature (Exeter College) and David Samuel Margoliouth, who was appointed to a Readership at New College in 1889, where he resided and taught Arabic. Not unexpectedly the earliest Jewish presence was mainly within the Oriental Faculty. (Sir Isaiah Berlin became only the fourth Jewish academic fellow in Oxford, when he got his fellowship in All Souls College in 1932 -- a fact of which he was very proud.

COMMUNAL LIFE IN THE 19TH CENTURY

The Oxford Jewish Congregation traces its foundation back to 1842 but during the Victoria era, communal life was poorly organised with sporadic services held in private rooms.

The first 'synagogue' of the modern era was on the north side of Paradise Square established circa 1849. This was followed, after a gap of 18 years, by one at St Aldates from about 1870 and, latterly, by one at George Street from 1878. The George Street Synagogue was regarded as more suitable than the previous establishments, but it was in a backyard over stables on what is now thought to be the site of the Old Fire Station and its approach and surrounds were regarded as most unsavoury.