Scotland’s Jews

Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has now compounded the offence of comparing Jeremy Corbyn to Enoch Powell (offensive to both!) with his stupid remark “Jews have been in Britain since 1656”.

No sir, Jews have been in England – not Britain – since 1656, after Oliver Cromwell sought to right the medieval wrong of the brutal shakedown and pogrom by Edward I in 1290 which saw Jewish refugees flee to Scotland (some of whom used their continental connections to make Edward pay for his crimes by backing Robert The Bruce).

So vital were Jews to continental commerce due to the absurd usury laws imposed by the churches, there had to have been a significant Jewish presence in Scottish ports to allow for the significant trade between Aberdeen and Dundee with the Baltic ports of Lithuania and Poland.

Conflating the existence of Jews with organised Jewry – ie. synogogues, rabbis and the whole ragtag and bobtail of hierarchical religion – is wrong. The merchant Jews who kept their faith in private devotion as they sailed around the Mediterranean certainly had no need for it as they traded with the Cornish tinsmiths from ancient times and may have included amongst their number a certain Jesus

Christ during the so-called “lost years”.

MARK BOYLE Linn Park Gardens, Johnstone, Renfrewshire