THE FIRST JEWS IN BRITAIN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1990, 4 January 1890, Page 2

THE FIRST JEWS IN BRITAIN.

The date when the Jews first pitched their tents upon our shores is one of those statements so wrapped up in the fog of history that recent research has been unable to lift the mist surrounding it. Whether the Jews visited Britain with the Phoenician* or not, it is yet certain that many of them were living there after, and even before, the arrival of the Eomans. At one time a cordial alliance existed between the Hebrews and Ramans, and many Jews served as soldiers in the Roman army. It is therefore probable, says Mr Ewald, in his "Studies Restudied," that when the hosts of Caesar landed upon our coast the Jews were among the invaders, and many/finding the country to their liking, remained behind and took up their abode here. A curious discovery supports this assertion. Towards the close of the seventeenth century, while some men were digging at the foundation of a Mart Lane (the place where the Eomans used to barter their goods, now called Mark Lane), a strange Roman brick, the keystone to tbe arch of a granary vault, was turned up. On one side the brick had a has relief, representing Sampson driving the foxes into the field of corn. " How the story," comments Leland, " of Samson should be known to the Romans, much .less the Britons, so early after the propagation of the G-ospel, seems to be a great doubt, except it should be that some Jews, I after the final destruction of Jerusalem, should wander into Britain; and London being even in Cassar's ' time a port or trading city, they might settle here, and in the arch of their granary record the famous story of their deliverance from their captivity under the Philistines."