In a message dated 7/17/2005 1:03:08 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
yisraelasper@comcast.net writes:

< There were Jews in England before the Norman conquest but after the Norman
conquest the Jews who were already in England found themselves culturally and
otherwise taken over by the French Jews. >

==I'm surprised by this. I grew up in England and was educated (many decades
ago) at Jewish academic high schools, but have ever before heard this. I
just checked the Enc Jud to get more information, and there learned that
England was among the last countries in medieval Europe where Jews settled.
There is mention of a possibility that "a small nucleus" of Jew may have lived
there under the Romans, and that in the Saxon period, "isolated Jews extended
their commercial activities as far as the British Isles". The EJ adds that the
"slender evidence" formerly adduced in support" of this belief "has no
validity."