(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
New light on the negotiations of Jewish leaders with Sir Oliver Cromwell in 1655 concerning the readmission of Jews to England was shed by historic documents found in the archives at Genoa.
This is reported today in the London “Times.” The documents show that in the negotiations between the Jews of Amsterdam, under the leadership of Manassah ben Israel, and Cromwell, the Jewish leaders asked permission to live and trade in England, offering at the same time the amount of £ 200,000 for the then ruined St. Paul’s Cathedral which they promised to restore at their own expense in order to inhabit it and rebuild a part as a synagogue. The proposal, the documents show, provoked great opposition among the members of the Council of the government and the clergy, some of them alleging that the Jews would seduce the good Christians and others, insisting that the Jews must be converted to Christianity.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.