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The history of the Jews in Wales begins in the Middle Ages. In the 13th century, shortly after the English conquest of Wales, Edward I issued the 1290 Edict of Expulsion expelling the Jews from England. Except for one exceptional record, between 1290 and the formal return of the Jews to England in 1655, there is no official trace of Jews on Welsh soil.
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Major Jewish settlement in Wales dates from the 19th century, although there are also records of Jewish communities in the 18th century.
Middle Ages
Like the rest of Western Europe, medieval Wales was a Christian country.
The clergyman and author Gerald of Wales (c. 1146 – c. 1223) wrote an account of his journey through Wales in 1188 in order to recruit soldiers for the Third Crusade. In his account of that journey, the Itinerarium Cambriae (1191), he provides an obviously allegorical narrative concerning a Jew and a Christian priest travelling in Shropshire, England, but makes no reference to Jews in Wales.
During the thirteenth century there are records of Jews in Abergavenny, Caerleon and Chepstow, all of which were in the Marcher Lordships of south Wales.
It is likely that most if not all Jews left Wales after Edward I's act of 1290, although the writ of the English king would not have run in many of the Marcher Lordships. The Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion refers to the act but only in the context of the Jews in neighbouring England. But there is a remarkable record of an unnamed Jew in the commote of Manor Deilo in Carmarthenshire (outside the Marcher Lordships) in 1386/7.
Early modern period
In England, between 1290 and their formal return to that country in 1655, there are no other official traces of Jews as such except in connection with the Domus Conversorum, which kept a number of Jews who had converted to Christianity within its precincts up to 1551 and even later. There is no comparable evidence for Wales.
The BBC notes, "The oldest non-Christian faith [in Wales] to be established was Judaism, with a presence in Swansea dating from around 1730. Jewish communities were formed in the next century in Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd and Tredegar."
Modern period
The rapid expansion of the coal mining industry in the 19th century lead to major economic growth and a vast increase in immigration to Wales. The Jews were one group who immigrated to Wales in large numbers during this period, leading to the founding of new Jewish communities, particularly in the heavily industrialised South Wales Valleys. A synagogue was founded in Merthyr Tydfil in 1875, and by the end of the century, most towns in the Valleys were home to small Jewish communities and trading stations. Generally, these communities appear to have been well tolerated, though there were some notable exceptions. In 1911 antisemitic sentiment came to a head in the Tredegar area, where working-class mobs attacked Jewish-owned businesses, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage. Early 20th-century Welsh Jewish society is featured in the 1999 film Solomon & Gaenor, which is set at the time of the Tredegar riots.
Some of these topics were covered in the documentary The Kosher Comedian presented by Jewish/Welsh writer comedian Bennett Arron.
Jews continue to flourish in Wales, being augmented by refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe in the late 1930s. The modern community in South Wales is centred in the Cardiff Reform Synagogue and the Cardiff United Synagogue. The synagogue of Merthyr Tydfil, the major one north of Cardiff, ceased to hold regular services in the 1970s and was later sold. It is a Listed Building originally listed by the ex chief of Welsh Judaism Lara Gowing.
Notable people
Notable people of Welsh-Jewish Jewish background include: