Oxford Jewish Community

• Articles by Harold Pollins originally published in the Oxford Menorah (25 articles) 1993 - 2017.

• Press Reports relating to the Oxford Jewish Community, compiled by Harold Pollins.

  • Part 1 (1844 - 2011) (excluding those during World War II).

  • Part 2 During World War II.

• Oxford Synagogue - an article, dated 28 September 1849, from the Jewish Chronicle.

• The Rise of Provincial Jewry - Oxford. From papers for a conference at University College, London, convened by the Jewish Historical Society of England, prepared by Aubrey Newman - 6th July 1975. 

• Provincial Jewry in Victorian Britain - Papers for a conference at University College, London, convened by the Jewish Historical Society of England, prepared by Aubrey Newman - 6th July 1975.

  • Paper on Oxford.

  • Chief Rabbi's Questionnaire of 1845 - Oxford Congregational Data.

• Oxford Synagogue - Memories - an article dated 26 August 1955, by K. R. A. Hart from the Jewish Chronicle.

• Oxford - City of Sweetness - an article dated 20 October 1978 on the Oxford Jewish community, its history, characters, buildings and institutions from the Jewish Chronicle.

• Herbert Martin James Loewe in Oxford - an article by Harold Pollins that was first published in 2006 in the Jewish Journal of Sociology.

• Oxford Jewish Community - a Brief History, dated 13 June 2003, by Harold Pollins.

• Oxford’s Forgotten Sons and Daughters - an article dated 5 February 2011 from the Oxford Mail on Oxford's rich Medieval Jewish history.

• Oxford Jewish Casualties during the Great War, an article by Harold Pollins published in The Bulletin of the Military Historical Society, volume 65, pages 92-101, November 2014.

• Oxford Medieval Jewish Community.

• Oxford Bibliography

Additional articles are to be found on the Oxford Jewish Congregation page.

(primarily courtesy of Steven Jaffe)

• University Faculty members with major influences on the Jewish student community:

  • Herbert Loewe (1882-1940) (m. Ethel Hyamson, born in Oxford) was born in London. He was appointed lecturer in Semitic languages at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1913. During World War I he served in India and returned to Oxford in 1920. During his time in Oxford the Loewe home at Beaumont street was a focus of hospitality and social and intellectual activity for Jewish students. In 1931 he took up an academic post at Cambridge. The Loewe collection comprises about 5,000 items at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish studies.

  • Dr Cecil Roth (1899-1970), pre-eminent Anglo Jewish historian of his day, collector of Judaica and editor of the Encyclopedia Judaica. London-born Roth was lecturer in post Biblical Jewish studies at Oxford from 1939 until 1964. He and his wife Irene continued the tradition of Herbert Loewe in providing at their home in Oxford a social and intellectual focus for Jewish students, for instance, by hosting an open house on Shabbat afternoons.

• Other celebrated Oxford academics and alumni include:

  • Samuel Alexander OM (1859-1938), Australian-born philosopher, scholarship student at Baliol and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.

  • Professor David Baum (1940-1999), Birmingham-raised professorial fellow in paediatrics at Oxford University, attached to St Catherine's College.

  • Lord Max Beloff (1913-1999), London-born historian and Conservative peer, was a graduate (with first class honours) of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

  • Sir Isaiah Berlin OM CBE (1909-1997), Latvian-born philosopher, was a Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, and a Trustee of Oxford Synagogue.

  • Baruch S Blumberg (1925-1911), American-born Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Master of Balliol College, Oxford.

  • John Bowers KC (b.1956), Grimsby-born principal of Brasenose College, Oxford.

  • Sir Maurice Victor Blank (b. 1942), businessman and philanthropist, was a graduate from St Catherine's College, Oxford.

  • Lord Lionel Leonard Cohen of Walmer (1888-1973), London-born barrister and judge was a graduate of New College, Oxford.

  • L. Jonathan Cohen (1923-2006), British philosopher was a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford, and a Fellow and Praelector in Philosophy and Senior Tutor at The Queen's College, Oxford.

  • Sir Zelman Cowen (1919-2011), Melbourne-born Governor General of Australia, Rhodes scholar and later Provost of Oriel College, Oxford.

  • Professor David Daube (1909-1999), refugee from Nazi Germany, fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford University, until 1970 when he moved to California, where he became Professor-in-Residence at UC-Berkeley's law school.

  • Baroness Ruth Deech, DBE (née Fraenkel; b. 1943), London-born academic, lawyer, bioethicist and politician, chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), (1994 to 2002), Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford.

  • Walter Eytan (1910-2001), German-born don at Queen's College Oxford, a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during World War II, he became director general of Israel's foreign office.

  • Professor Eduard Fraenkel (1888-1970), German-born refugee from Nazi Germany, Corpus professor of Latin at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

  • Sir Martin Gilbert (1936-2015), London-born honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, historian and the author of eighty-eight books.

  • Arthur L. Goodhart, KBA, QC (1891-1978), American-born Professor of Jurisprudence, Master of University College, Oxford.

  • Lord Arnold Goodman (1913-1995), London-born solicitor, political adviser and chair of the Arts Council, Master of University College, Oxford.

  • Avraham Harman (1914-1992), Israel's London-born ambassador to USA, president of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem was a graduate of and later honorary fellow of Wadham College, Oxford.

  • Herbert Hart (1907-1992), Harrogate-born professor of jurisprudence, principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. He had been a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during World War II.

  • Leslie Hoare-Belisha (later 1st Baron Hore-Belisha) (1893-1957), British politician and Member of Parilament, was a graduate of St John's College, Oxford. He initially represented the Liberal Party, then National Liberal Party and later the Conservative Party and served as the UK Minister of Transport (1934–1937) and Secretary for War (1937–1940)

  • Lord (Sir Charles James) Jesselton (1860-1928), British barrister, magistrate and businessman, was a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford. He was vice-chairman of the British North Borneo Company, and Jesselton, the future capital of British North Borneo, was named after him (now known as Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah, Malaysia).

  • Lord (Sir Keith) Joseph (1918-1994) London-born Conservative government minister and political and economical theorist, graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford, elected Prize Fellow to All Souls College in 1946.

  • Elena Kagan (b. 1960), Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court was a graduate from Worcester College, Oxford.

  • Harold Laski (1893-1950), Manchester-born Left-wing political and economic theorist in the UK and the USA and a Professor at the London School of Economics, was a graduate of New College, Oxford.

  • Marghanita Laski (1915-1988), Manchester-born journalist, radio panelist and novelist, who contributed over 250,000 additions to the Oxford English Dictionary, was a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford.

  • Ruth Lawrence-Neimark (b. 1971), Brighton-born child maths prodigy, joined St Hughs College, Oxford, in 1983, aged 12. She graduated in 1985 with a starred first as the youngest graduate of the university in modern times. She teaches at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

  • Nigella Lawson (b. 1960), London-born chef and broadcaster, graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

  • Professor David Malcolm Lewis (1928-1994), Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford. Past President of Oxford Jewish Congregation and Oxford University Jewish Society, author of The Jews of Oxford (1992).

  • V.D. (Vivian David) Lipman (1921-1990), Anglo-Jewish author and historian, was awarded first class honours BA from Magdalen College, Oxford, and a D.Phil from Nuffield College, Oxford.

  • Sir Alan Mocotta (1907-1990), a high court judge, was a graduate of New College, Oxford and a warden at Oxford Synagogue. He served as chairman of the Council of Jews' College and vice president (and later president) of the Board of Elders of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation.

  • Claude Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore (1858-1938), scholar, philanthropist, religious leader and a founding president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, graduated (with first class honours) from Balliol College, Oxford.

  • Lord Claus Moser, KCB, CBE (1922-2015), German-born refugee from Nazi Germany, a leading statistician and civil servant, was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford.

  • Adolf Neubauer (1831-1907), Hungarian-born and a scholar in Jerusalem and Paris, was a noted Jewish librarian in the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, and compiler of the catalogue of the Hebrew collection. From 1884 until 1900 he was reader in Rabbinic Hebrew at Oxford University.

  • Dr David Patterson (1922-2005), Liverpool-born Cowley Lecturer in Post-Biblical Hebrew at Oxford University, was the founder and president of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish studies (biography).

  • Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, CBE (1907-1995) German-born British nuclear physicist, who held the post of the Wykeham Professor of Physics and a Fellow of New College, Oxford. In 2004, the theoretical physics building at Oxford University was named the Sir Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics.

  • Robert Peston (b. 1960), London-born journalist, presenter and author, graduated from Balliol College, Oxford.

  • Harold Pollins (1924-1918), historian and author, was a resident of Oxford and a tutor at Ruskin College, Oxford. He was a major contributor of material to JCR-UK, in particular relating to Oxford (biography).

  • Chaim Raphael (born Chaim Rabinovitch) (1908-1994), Middlesbrough-born civil servant and writer, was Cowley Lecturer in Post-Biblical Hebrew at Oxford University (biography).

  • Rachel Riley (b. 1986), Southend-born co-host on Channel 4's Countdown, graduated in mathematics from Oriel College, Oxford.

  • Michael Rosen (b. 1946), London-born children's novelist and poet, graduated from Wadham College, Oxford.

  • Cecil Roth (1899-1970), Anglo-Jewish historian and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, was a graduate of Merton College, Oxford.

  • Herbert Louis Samuel (later 1st Viscount Samuel) (1870-1963), British Liberal politician and former party leader who served as the first High Commissioner for the British Mandate in Palestine, graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, and he and Lady Samuel were war-time residents of Oxford.

  • Sir Simon Schama (b.1945), London-born historian and TV presenter, was a fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, before taking up a post in the USA.

  • Lord Samuel Segal, MRCS (1902-1985), surgeon and Labour Party politician who became Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, was born in Oxford and was a graduate of Jesus College, Oxford.

  • James Joseph Sylvester (born James Joseph) (1814-1897) is believed to be the first Jewish Fellow at an Oxford college. In the course of a trans-Atlantic career, London-born Sylvester was appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University in 1883. He was the first to coin mathematical terms such as "graph" and "matrix".

  • Lord George Weidenfeld (1919-2016), Viennese-born publisher who came to Britain as a refugee from Nazi Germany, was an Honorary Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford, Hon. Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford, and was awarded the Degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, by Oxford University in 2010.

  • Professor Geza Vermes (1924-2013), Hungarian-born British academic, Biblical scholar and historian, was a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, and the first Oxford Professor of Jewish Studies.

• Other former or present Oxford residents include:

  • Elise Benjamin, Green Party Councillor on Oxford City Council from 1999, became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Oxford in 2011. She was Sheriff of Oxford 2009-2010.

  • Robert Carvalho (1907-1996), solicitor, president of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation, and President of the Anglo-Jewish Association, who was also warden of Oxford Synagogue.

  • Sir Monty Finniston (1912-1991), Glasgow born chemist and industrialist, lived in Abingdon, Oxford from 1946 until 1958.

  • Sir Ludwig Guttmann (1899-1980), German-born refugee from Nazi Germany, neurologist who first settled in Oxford. In 1943 he was asked to establish the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, but continued to live in Oxford until 1951.

  • Miriam Margolyes (b.1941), actress, was born and schooled in Oxford.

  • Lord Segal of Wytham (1902-1984), doctor, Labour MP, working peer and deputy speaker of the House of Lords, lived in Oxford as a child and adult, and was the son of resident minister Rev. M. H. Segal.

• Rabbinical Figures who were residents, academics or students in Oxford, including student chaplains, include:

  • Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski, a graduate of University College, Oxford, is senior rabbi of Golders Green synagogue.

  • Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Chabad shaliach at Oxford (with which he later split), founder of the L'Chaim Society. He was referred to by The Washington Post as "the most famous rabbi in America".

  • Rabbi Daniel Braune-Friedman, and his wife, Hannah, were Jewish students' chaplains in Oxford from 2009 until 2013.

  • Chief Rabbi Sir Israel Brodie was a graduate of Balliel College, Oxford.

  • Rabbi Dr. Samuel Daiches, notable Jewish scholar and the first rabbi to become an English barrister, spent the war year in Oxford.

  • Haham Rabbi Moses Gaster lectured in Slavonic languages at Oxford University.

  • Rabbi Dr Solomon Goldman was a postgraduate student at Oxford University and rabbi of St John's Wood Synagogue.

  • Rabbi Sidney Benzion Leperer was appointed in 1969 by Chief Rabbi Dr Jakobovits as the first student chaplain in Oxford, but it is not clear whether he took up the appointment which was not to be made official until he met the students.

  • Rabbi Michael Rosenfeld-Schueler and Rebbetzen Tracey Rosenfeld-Schueler have served as the Oxford University Jewish Chaplaincy Couple from 2013 until present (September 2023).

  • Rev. Malcolm Weisman, minister to small communities, was a student and then chaplain at Oxford University.

  • Rabbi Saul Zneimer, former chief executive of the United Synagogue, is an Oxford graduate who was awarded two blues for football.