The Jews in the English Universities

<plain_text><page sequence="1">The Jews in the English Universities By Cecil Roth Regarding the admission of the Jews to the English Universities, there is a legend which has established itself as history. They were, it is said, entirely excluded from the opportunities of higher education in this country until the nineteenth century was well advanced: the first breach in the old system was made by Nathan Lazarus Benmohel who, graduating at Dublin in 1836, was the first conforming Jew to obtain a degree in any university in the British Isles: and they were empowered to become full members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge only by the Universities Tests Act of 1871. But this account, accepted implicitly or explicitly by all the standard works,1 is utterly misleading. The connexion of the Jews with the two great English University towns goes back to the Middle Ages, and certain theorists have maintained that they played some part in their development as seats of learning.2 There is not a particle of evidence, and barely a particle of plausibility, to support this view. Nevertheless, the intellectual ferment which conditioned the Universities in their early days cannot but have been heightened by the fact that Jewish communities existed around them. These included persons of the intellectual calibre of Rabbi Benjamin of Cambridge;3 Berechiah haNakdan of Oxford, 1 Cf., for example, Jewish Encyclopedia, xii, 379. A. L. Sachar, History of the Jews, p. 194. 2 E. G. Boase, Oxford, p. 25. J. R. Green, Stray Studies, p. 339. Jewish Encyclo? pedia, viii, 672, xii, 378, etc. 3 Stokes, Studies in Anglo-Jewish History, pp. 53, 114, 132, 136, 149, 195. Jewish Quarterly Review, n.s., xix, 27-8. 102</page><page sequence="2">THE JEWS IN THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES author (as is now almost certain) of the famous Fox Fables;4 Moses ben Isaac haNessiah, the philologist and grammarian, perhaps the only person in England at the time with some knowledge of Arabic;5 Jacob of Oxford, learned member of a very learned family;6 and David of Oxford, a bibliophile and follower of Maimonides.7 It is remarkable, indeed, that all the most notable Anglo-Jewish writers of the Middle Ages either resided at, or had close personal connexions with, one or other of the two University towns. One can hardly imagine that eager students would not have sought the company of these scholars and discussed with them points of common interest, or that communications between men like Walter de Merton and Jacob of Oxford (who sold the other property which constituted the nucleus of his College) were rigidly restricted to business matters. Relations between the Oxford scholar Roger Bacon and the local Jews are indeed suggested by a statement of his own, unfortunately not quite as definite as one might have hoped.8 However, all this together is barely sufficient to justify the assumption that the Jews played the slightest part in University life in its more specific sense. 4 I hope to be able to deal with this problem and to present the fresh evidence that has accumulated in a future paper. 5 Moses haNessiah was grandson of the woman financier Comitissa of Cambridge, and was perhaps a resident of that place. His Sepher haShoham, the most im? portant literary production of medieval Anglo-Jewry, is in the course of publication by the Me\itze Nirdamim Society of Jerusalem. 6 Son of Master Moses of London, the grammarian; grandson of Rabbi Yomtob, author of Sepher haTenaim; brother of Master Elias of London, the most eminent Anglo-Jewish scholar of the day; and himself known as the nadib, or patron of learning. 7 Cf. my article in Moses Maimonides VIII Centenary Memorial Volume, pp. 209-214. 8 In speaking of the facilities for studying Hebrew, he says: " Doctores . . . non de sunt. Ubique sunt Hebraei! " The inference is that he made use of these facilities. Cf. Daiches, The King fames Version of the Bible, pp. 105, 111-112. Neubauer's state? ment (Notes on the Jews in Oxford, in Collectanea of the Oxford Historical Society, ii, 288) that " thus Roger Bacon could have learned nothing from Hebrew books, since they did not exist in England " is manifestly absurd in the light of recent discoveries. This same constant denigration of things English led Neubauer to deny (ibid.) that there were any Jewish physicians in pre-Expulsion England; cf. my recent History of the Jews in England, p. 114, for an enumeration of half a dozen?a total which is certainly incomplete.</page><page sequence="3">104 MISCELLANIES IN HONOUR OF E. N. ADLER The first persons of Jewish birth known to have entered the Univer? sity of Oxford were two converts, Warin and John, who were ad? mitted in 1244. As converts, they enjoyed the royal bounty, and when payment was in arrears the Sheriff of Oxford was instructed to supply them with money as well as a special grant for clothing. The object of their study was of course to take Holy Orders, and they were instructed by one of the most famous teachers of the day, the Domini? can scholar Robert Bacon. One of them, however, after becoming an acolyte, desired to return to Judaism, being transferred in conse? quence as a prisoner from the Schools to the Castle. It is to be re? gretted that we are unable to trace his career further.9 The first person of Jewish birth known to have become a member of the teaching staff of the University belongs to the following century. We are told of a special rate raised on ecclesiastical goods in the Province of Canterbury in 1321 for the payment of the convert who taught the Hebrew and Greek languages at Oxford, in accordance with the recent recommendations of the Council of Vienne (from another source, we know that his name was John of Bristol).10 The conjunc? tion of the two tongues is curious. Possibly, John was an Oriental Jew from one of the declining Byzantine communities: possibly, Greek was included with Hebrew by a slip of the pen;11 but to the present writer the combination seems to indicate how trivially the whole question of instruction in these remote languages was regarded even when the provision which prescribed it was obeyed. Upwards of two centuries were to elapse before Hebrew studies began to flourish in England. Though at the outset professing Jews were absent from the country, scholars of Jewish birth were now able to find a scope for their activity in the two Universities, mosdy 9 This persuasive identification is that of M. Adler, Jews of Medieval England, pp. 288-9, from Close Rolls, 1241, p. 278; 1242, p. 99; 1244, p. 161; 1245, p. 298. 10 Rashdall, Medieval Universities, iii, 161-2. Wood, Antiquities, i, 401. Neu? bauer, ubi supra, pp. 313-4. Cf. the record of payment in 1323 of iyzd. to the Dean of Axebrigg " for one convert teaching Hebrew at Oxford, namely, j?d, in the pound." (H.M. Commission, Dean and Chapter of Wells, i, 208.) 11 So Daiches, op. cit., p. ioyn.</page><page sequence="4">THE JEWS IN THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES IO5 in a private capacity or as College lecturers. All or almost all of them were, of course, converts to Christianity. At Cambridge there were John Immanuel Tremellius, of Ferrara, " King's Reader of Hebrew " in 1549-53; Philip Ferdinand, who, after an initial experi? ment at Oxford, matriculated on December 12th, 1596, and published the first specimen of Cambridge Hebrew scholarship;44 Rabbi Jacob," c. 1610; Paul (Moses) Scialitti, who taught at Trinity in 1663-5, and was admitted Master of Arts by royal letter in 1664; an otherwise unknown Michael (1665); the learned Isaac Abendana (1664?71), a loyal Jew; and Israel Lyons, the erudite silversmith (c. 1732?70).12 For Oxford, we have (besides Ferdinand, who took the oaths to the Queen and University on June nth, 1596) Jacob Barnett (1609-10); Antonio Maria de Verona, formerly of Cambridge (1626); Alessandro Amidei (1658); Isaac Abendana (1689-99); Philip Levi (d. 1706); a certain Aaron, of Magdalen College (1726-34); and others later on.13 Of all these, the only one to occupy an official position in either University was apparently Tremellius, and the only matriculated members were Ferdinand and Scialitti (Oxford was obviously less hospitable than the sister seat of learning). By now, professing Jews were once more living in England; and the scholastic implications of the Return were signalised by the forgery (not too skilfully) of an inherently improbable Oxford doctorate diploma in the name of Samuel Soeiro, son of Menasseh ben Israel.14 The original setders, happy to find a haven of refuge, are not likely to have worried about their admission to or exclusion from the higher seats of learning. When, however, in the following 12 See Stokes, Studies in Anglo-Jewish History, p. 207 fr., for the Jewish teachers of Hebrew at Cambridge: some further details in Venn, Alumni Canta brigienses. 13 Full details will be found in an unpublished paper of my own on the Jews in Oxford, prepared in 1941 for the Centenary of the present community. 14 An examination of the text by the then keeper of the Archives may be found in Trs. J.H.S.E., i, pp. 52-4. Since then I have obtained a photograph from Amsterdam of the original, which makes it clear that, however much a forgery, it is certainly contemporary and perhaps English in origin. I have suggested a solu? tion of the problem, not very flattering to the hero of the occasion, in my Life of Menasseh ben Israel, pp. 221-2.</page><page sequence="5">io6 MISCELLANIES IN HONOUR OF E. N. ADLER generation the medical profession began to exercise its attractions on them, as it inevitably did, a problem began to present itself. The obvious solution to it was to study in some place outside England where no such difficulties arose. Italy and Padua, the traditional nursery of Jewish physicians, were unfamiliar and remote, though some London practitioners (e.g. Ephraim Luzzatto) had studied there. But certain German universities had recently opened their gates to Jews,15 while in Holland there had always been a fairly hospitable academic environment.16 In the year 1730, Simon Adol phus of London, member of a family prominent in the Great Syna? gogue, was permitted by Frederick William of Prussia to take his degree at the University of Halle, on condition that he would not practise in the kingdom.17 His brother Moses (who married Golly, a daughter of Benjamin Levy, founder of the Great Synagogue in London) matriculated at Leyden in 1735 in his fifty-sixth year, study 15 In 1678, the Great Elector obtained the admission of Tobias Cohen and Felix Gabriel Moschides to the University of Frankfort-on-Oder; and they testified to their gratitude by presenting him with a Hebrew grammar. Nevertheless, even with this powerful backing they were not admitted to a degree, and ultimately they had to go to Padua for that purpose. The first Jew to graduate in Germany is said to have been Moses Salomon Gumpertz, who graduated at Frankfort-on-Oder in 1721: cf. Kisch, Der Erste in Deutschland promovierte fude, in Monatschrift f?r die Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums, lxxviii, 350 fr*. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, Meyer Low Sch?mberg, subsequently of Lon? don, who had entered his name at the University of Giessen in 1706, was allowed to take his degree on December 21st, 1710 (unlike Abraham Heimans, who, though permitted to matriculate at the same seat of learning in 1697, was not allowed to graduate). In view of Schomberg's subsequent career and the record of his family, it is by no means improbable that he compromised with his conscience on this occasion, as his sons did after him in similar circumstances in England. Subse? quently, Jews were admitted to graduate at the Universities of Halle (1724), Duls? berg (1727), Heidelberg (1728), Giessen (1729), Vienna (1782), Mainz (1788), and Prague (1788). At Duisberg, founded in 1665, seven Jews were among the seventy five Doctors of Medicine who graduated 1726-50. 16 e.g. Leyden : see the authorities cited in Kisch, op. cit., note 27. Other London physicians had of course obtained their degrees in Portugal, as professing Christians, before coming to England. 17 Simon Adolphus is not mentioned in Lucien Wolf's account of the family in his Essays, pp. 142?3. His thesis was entitled, Simon Adolphus, Anglo-Londoner;~ sis, Gente fudaeus, Thesae inaugurates Anatomicomedicae miscellaneae, Hallae Magd., 1730. {Magna Bibliotheca Ang!o-Judaica, B. 20, 11.)</page><page sequence="6">THE JEWS IN THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES 10J ing?an unusual subject for Jews in those days?Philosophy and Literature. He was accompanied to the University by his son Joy, subsequently famous as the author of the fashionable novel, Histoire des Diables Modernes, and personal physician to Frederick the Great; he presented his doctoral thesis, De Dolore, in 1739.18 The exact nature of the obstacles which made it impossible for a Jew to pursue his studies in the Universities of Oxford and Cam? bridge will be seen later on.19 These, however, did not apply in Scotland, as was discovered by Jacob de Castro Sarmento, an eminent and prolific Portuguese physician who had taken up his residence in England. Doubtless, a British degree was likely to improve his status in the country; and it was probably for this reason that he took the necessary steps to receive the Doctorate of Medicine from the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen on July ist, 1739. (His sponsors were Dr. Alexander Stewart, Dr. Cromwell Mortimer and Sir Hans Sloane.) This degree was given in those days only in an honorary form, and it is unlikely that the person so distinguished had to take any Christological oath : though it must be admitted, in view of what is known about Sarmento's later career, that he would not perhaps have boggled at one had it been necessary.20 There is some doubt too about one of his contemporaries, Ralph Sch?mberg, son of Meyer Low Sch?mberg, formerly physician to the Great Syna? gogue, who graduated at Aberdeen at about the same time. Since he had received his early education at the Merchant Taylors' School, and neither he nor his brothers ever associated themselves with Judaism, there is good reason to believe that he was no longer at this time attached to the Jewish community.21 Scotland, however, gave professing Jews their opportunity before long, and young men who could not hope to graduate in England 18 Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, B.20, 13. 19 See below, pp. 108-9. 20 I am indebted for some details to the Librarian of the University of Aberdeen. Mr. Harold Soref has been kind enough to excerpt some other names for me from the register of the University?James Abel (1728, etc.), Alexander Gold (1741) and a few others. But it does not seem to me that any are distinctively Jewish. 21 Dictionary of National Biography, s.v.</page><page sequence="7">108 MISCELLANIES IN HONOUR OF E. N. ADLER found an opening in Edinburgh, where several went to study. Joseph Hart Myers, son of the Warden of the Great Synagogue and a promin? ent figure in Anglo-Jewish communal life in the Regency period, apparently led the way, graduating in 1779 with a thesis Dissertatio medica inauguralis, de diabetev22 So far as I have been able to discover, he was the first professing Jew to take a degree in the normal course of events at a British University?upwards of half a century before the date generally assigned to this. He was followed by Abraham Solomon, son of " Dr." Solomon of Liverpool, the famous quack, whose thesis was Disputatio . . . de . . . cerebri tumoribus (Edinburgh, 1810).23 Other Edinburgh graduates were Aaron Hart David of Montreal (1835) : Hananel de Leon, of Jamaica (1819) : and possibly Douglas (!) Cohen, ' Cambro-Brittanus ' (1828). By this time, University College had been established in London (1826), Jews being admitted to it from the beginning on equal terms (it was indeed in large measure a Jewish foundation). On February 6th, 1832, Nathan Lazarus Benmohel had entered Trinity College, Dublin, and he became Bachelor of Arts in 1836, being the first Jew to graduate at an Anglican, if not at a British, University.24 It is the two older English Universities which, however, attract our attention especially in this connexion. The position regarding these at the beginning of the nineteenth century is carefully summed up by H. S. Q. Henriques in his Jews and English haw, pp. 208-209 : Acts of Parliament had been passed at various times (i Eliz. c. i; 7 Jac. c. 6; i Guil. &amp; Mar. c. 8; i Geo. I, st. 2, c. 13) requiring oaths, some of which at least would have been obnoxious to Jews, to be taken by persons admitted to degrees or offices in the Universities. But 22 Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, B.20, 50; for his subsequent career, see Wolf, Essays, pp. 244-5 n. 23 This title should be added to the Magna Bibliotheca. 24 Nathan Lazarus Benmohel was son of A. L. Benmohel (1788-1839) minister of the Portsmouth community from 1814 to 1824 (the surname is derived from the initials of Ben Morenu ??Rav Lazi). He was born in Hamburg on 26th Sivan 1803, matriculated on 6th February, 1832, and died at Sandycove, Co. Dublin, on De? cember 22nd, 1869. These details, derived mainly from MS. sources, correct the account given in the Jewish Encyclopedia, iii, 37, which inaccurately describes Benmohel as " the first conforming Jew to obtain a degree in a British University."</page><page sequence="8">THE JEWS IN THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES 100, by means of the annual indemnity Acts, any difficulty thus created might have been surmounted in the same way as entrance to the liberal professions had been gained by the Dissenters. The Universities and their colleges, although not originally ecclesiastical foundations, had always kept up a close connexion with the Established Church, and, so far from smoothing the way for the sectarians to take degrees, actually insisted on their members taking religious tests in addition to the statu? tory oaths, including in most cases subscription to the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. These tests had to be taken at Oxford before matriculation or admission to membership, but at Cam? bridge might be deferred until candidature for a degree. One has accordingly to eye with suspicion the legendary stories of Oxford Jewish students at the beginning of the nineteenth century ?Joshua Montefiore, the adventurous and mendacious uncle of Sir Moses Montefiore, and John Solomon, another son of " Dr." Solomon of Liverpool. (The stories are inherently improbable, and the names do not figure on any official roll.) On the other hand, apostates from Judaism, or crypto-Jews who were not very particular about the form of oath, are to be encountered in some numbers. As we have seen, as early as 1664 Paul Scialitti, a notorious convert, was admitted M.A. at Cambridge by royal letter. Isaac Sch?mberg, brother of the Ralph Sch?mberg who has been mentioned above, and member of a family which was notoriously easy-going in matters of religion, was ad? mitted a fellow-commoner of Trinity College in the same University on March 17th, 1746/7 at the relatively advanced age of 33. This was actually before his baptism, which took place in the following August?probably in consequence of inconvenient inquiries which had been made in the meanwhile; but he was certainly not a professing Jew at the time. Incidentally, he did not matriculate, and became M.D. in 1750, Per lit. reg.25 At Oxford, Moses Mendes the poet (who is said to have studied at one time at St. Mary's Hall) was admitted Master of Arts honoris causa in 1750, immediately after his conver? sion from Judaism: later on, we encounter Emanuel Samuel 25 Admissions, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1701-1800, p. 154. (He is described here as " Professor of Medicine in the University of Giessen Hesse "). Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. His part-Jewish nephew, Alexander Crowther Sch?m? berg, matriculated at Oxford in 1775.</page><page sequence="9">110 MISCELLANIES IN HONOUR OF E. N. ADLER Samuel, of Lincoln, son of a travelling jeweller named Samuel Samuel, who matriculated at University College in 1782 at the age of 19 and became a Demy of Magdalen in 1783. (He subsequently entered the legal service of the East India Company, and died in 1818 as President of the Courts of Justice of the colony of Berbice.26) With the nineteenth century, names testifying to Jewish extraction became more numerous. In Cambridge we find men like Ralph Bernal (Christ's College, 1809) and his son Ralph (pensioner at Trinity, 1826). In Oxford, William Nassau Senior, the economist, matriculated in 1809; John Leycester Adolphus, the famous critic, in 1811; the brothers Thomas Bailey Levy and George Levy, sons of Abraham Levy and both subsequently clergymen of the Church of England, in 1830 and 1834 respectively (the latter was afterwards a Fellow of Queen's); and Orlando Haydon Bridgman Hyman, son of a German Jew named Simon Hyman of Devonport, in 1830. This remarkable person was subsequently Ireland Scholar, Fellow of Wadham from 1835 to his death in 1878, a great local character in his day, and probably the first person of Jewish birth to become an Oxford Don.27 He had, however, been anticipated as teacher in that University by Israel Lyons the younger, who lectured on botany as early as 1762/3 under the auspices of Joseph Banks, but probably was not known as a practising Jew.28 So too Isaac d'Israeli, when he became an honorary LL.D. in 1832, though not converted, was hardly to be reckoned an adherent of the faith into which he had been born. Though it was impossible for Jews to graduate at Cambridge, as at Oxford, their position there was more favourable in that the Tests 26 Historical Register of the University of Oxford, s.v.; Macray, Register of Magdalen College, vii, 83. He was a son of Samuel Samuel of Lincoln, a travelling jeweller, who died at Louth, aged 69, on June 3rd, 1804. (Gentleman's Magazine, 1804, p. 599; 1818, p. 571.) 27 Register, s.v. Notes and Queries, V., xi, 201?202. Macmillan's Magazine, 1889. Jewish Chronicle, 25, xi, 1889. Hyman was memorable as " offering in his task a type of scholarship which I had never been in contact with before " (Mark Pattison). 28 Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, ii, 327-8. On the other hand, according to his correspondence, Emanuel Mendes da Costa was refused permission to lecture there in 1774, though this may have been due to faults of character.</page><page sequence="10">THE JEWS IN THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES III did not have to be taken until proceeding to a degree. Hence, while at the older University professing Jews were effectively excluded from the outset, at Cambridge they might matriculate, study, and take their tripos, though not graduate; and young Jews who thirsted for learning rather than for a degree proceeded thither as a matter of course. The first known name on the roll is James Joseph Sylvester, later famous as a mathematician, who entered St. John's in 1831 and became Second Wrangler in 1837, DUt did not ta^e n*s degree until 1872.29 Arthur Cohen, subsequently so eminent in the legal pro? fession, after meeting with some initial difficulty at Trinity, was ad? mitted at Magdalene as a Fellow Commoner in November, 1849, through the influence of the Prince Consort, and was Fifth Wrangler in 1853 (in the same year he was elected President of the Union); but he too could not proceed to his degree as yet.30 Trinity, however, was not completely exclusive, and Alfred Hyman Louis of Birmingham, the first Jewish Secretary, and first Jewish President (1850) of the Cambridge Union, matriculated there in January, 1847, as a Pensioner at the outset of what promised to be a brilliant career.31 The Cambridge University Reform Act of 1856 threw under? graduate honours and emoluments open to all persons without the necessity of taking tests, and made it possible for them not only to matriculate but also to take degrees in Arts, Law, Medicine and Science; though not in Theology, nor to become members of the Senate, nor to hold University offices.32 On July 5th of the following year,33 Arthur Cohen proceeded to the degree of Bachelor of Arts 29 Stokes, p. 237. It is untrue that Sylvester was not a professing Jew, as stated in the work cited in the next note. 30 (Lucy Cohen), Arthur Cohen, A Memoir by his Daughter for his Descendants, pp. 13-14. 31 Admissions, Trinity College, Cambridge, 1801?1850, p. 602; Jewish Chronicle, 30, v, 1848, 20, xii, 1850. Like the rest of his Jewish contemporaries, he did not graduate. He was called to the Bar in 1855. 32 Henriques, The Jews and the English Law, pp. 209-211 (19 &amp; 20 Vic. c. 88). Henceforth and down to 1872, the wording of the test on taking a degree at Cambridge was " I wTill conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as by law established." 33 Not, as in Stokes and in his own daughter's Memoir, in 1858; cf. Jewish Chronicle, 24, vii, 1857.</page><page sequence="11">112 MISCELLANIES IN HONOUR OF E. X. ADLER as a " non-declarant," being the first professing Jew to do so. In the following decade many young men belonging to some of the best Anglo-Jewish families entered the University, though not all graduated : Nathaniel, Alfred and Leopold de Rothschild; Sydney James Stern, later Baron Wandsworth; D. L. Alexander, long Presi? dent of the Board of Deputies; Israel Davis, afterwards intimately associated with Anglo-Jewish journalism, who was a scholar of Christ's; and?academically the most important of all?Numa Hartog, the first Jew to become Senior Wrangler (1869), whose in? ability to obtain a Fellowship by reason of his faith gave rise to much comment. It must be borne in mind that the removal of restrictions on the admission of Jews to the University did not immediately do away with all obstacles so far as the individual colleges were con? cerned : and even Alfred de Rothschild had difficulty in procuring exemption from attendance at Trinity College Chapel.34 Meanwhile, the Oxford University Reform Act of 1854 had made possible the admission of Jews to the older University, though on terms slightly less liberal than those which now applied in Cambridge. It provided that " it should not be necessary for any person, upon matriculating in the University of Oxford, to make or subscribe any declaration or to take any oath, any law or statute notwithstanding," and further that no such subscription or oath should be necessary upon taking the degree of Bachelor in Arts, Law, Medicine or Music. (In Cambridge, the Act of 1856 threw all degrees open, not the lower degrees only.) It seems that the first person to take advantage of the new provisions of this measure was Arthur Sackville Davis, of Worcester College, who matriculated on July 10th, 1859, was ad? mitted in December, 1862, to the degree of Bachelor of Arts and in June, 1869, to that of Bachelor of Common Law?the highest then open to a person who refused to sign the Thirty-Nine Articles.35 One or two other Jews probably studied at Oxford at this period, but those names I have been able to trace (e.g. Henrv Bernhard Samuelson, 34 Winstanley, Cambridge in the Eighteenth Century. 35 Jewish Chronicle, n, vi, 1869; see, for later details of his career, ibid., 15 and 29, iv, 1870; 20, v, 1870, 24 and 31, iii, 1871; 8, vi, 1877; 18, vi, 1880. He died in 1913, aged 84.</page><page sequence="12">THE JEWS IN THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES II3 matriculated in 1865, and James Isaac Cohen, scholar of Worcester in 1866 and later Secretary of the Church Pastoral Society) are of persons who did not profess Judaism. It was in March, 1869, that the first Jew became a scholar of an Oxford College, in the person of D. F. Schloss, who was elected almost simultaneously to an Exhibi? tion at New College and a Scholarship at Corpus.36 The first Cam? bridge scholar was Ernest Hart, founder of the British Medical Journal, who, however, though elected to a scholarship at Queen's some fifteen years earlier, never availed himself of it.37 The position of the Jews in the older English Universities in the eighteen-fifties and eighteen-sixties was, therefore, far more favour? able than is generally believed. Moreover, the disabilities from which they suffered were shared by all those who were not members of the Church of England. From i860, however, a strong feeling against the continuation of the Tests grew up, particularly at Trinity College, Cambridge. After prolonged discussions and some obstruction, the Universities Tests Act was passed in 1871. This provided that all degrees, together with all rights and privileges annexed to them and all offices in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham or any of their colleges, were thrown open to all persons irrespec? tive of religious belief, and made it illegal for any member of a Uni? versity or College to be compelled to attend the public worship of any church, sect or denomination to which he did not belong. How? ever, degrees in and professorships of Divinity, and such offices as had been previously by some ordinance or statute confined to per? sons in or about to enter Holy Orders, were exempted from the provisions of the Act. In effect, it implied that Fellowships and Pro? fessorships (and, so far as Oxford was concerned, the higher degrees also) were for the first time thrown open to non-members of the Church of England, including Jews.38 36 Jewish Chronicle, 19, iii, 1869. 37 The contemporary Press is my principal source for the above details; to have given full references would have been wearisome. Reference may be made also to The Boo\ of Memorial, Cambridge, 1939, pp. 24-26, and Stokes, Studies, p. 236 if. 38 34 &amp; 35 Vic. c. 26; Henriques, op. cit., pp. 208, 210-211; Jewish Chronicle, 2, iv, 1869; 11, ii, 1881; 20, xi, 1885. The Jewish community had specifically interested</page><page sequence="13">114 MISCELLANIES IN HONOUR OF E. N. ADLER That they were not long in taking advantage of their opportunities goes without saying; but it is not necessary to enter into details. The first Oxford Jewish M.A. was probably Adolph Neubauer, the emin? ent Hebraist, who had already been in the service of the Bodleian Library for many years (1873); the first Fellow of a College in either University was Samuel Alexander of Lincoln (1882); the first Pro? fessor was James Joseph Sylvester, who filled the chair of Savilian Professor of Geometry from 1883 to 1897, and in 1887 became the first Jewish D.C.L. honoris causa (the second was Dr. Hermann Adler, Chief Rabbi, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday in 1909).39 To analyse the record thereafter is superfluous, though it may be mentioned that Cambridge seems to have exercised the more powerful attraction on Jewish ability in every branch of scholarship. The account in the previous pages has related especially to the older English Universities. But (as has been indicated above) a new spirit was introduced into English University life in 1826 when the Uni? versity College was established in London. It counted from the be? ginning a distinguished roll of Jewish students and graduates. One only need be noted in this volume, and in this connexion: Elkan Nathan Adler, son of the Very Reverend Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler, Chief Rabbi, who became B.A. in 1880 (being placed third in the Classical Honours List), M.A. two years later, and on July 24th, 1941, completed his eightieth year amid the fervent congratulations of Jewish bibliophiles and scholars throughout the world. itself in the movement, petitions for the removal of the Tests being presented through the Board of Deputies (Emanuel, A Century and a Half of Jewish History, p. 92). It is noteworthy that the conferring of a degree on Numa Hartog had been regarded (surely incorrectly) as a special act of grace on the part of the Vice Chancellor, ibid., p. 89. 39 It is said that the first English Jewess to become an M.A. was Dora E. Yates, of University College, Liverpool (1900). Sylvester had previously been Professor of Natural Philosophy in University College, London, 1837-1841; Jacob Waley (the first M.A. of the University of London) was Professor of Political Economy there. 1853-1865.</page><page sequence="14">THE JEWS IN THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES 115 ADDITIONAL NOTE. I have given a popular account of the position of the Jews vis-?-vis the University in pre-Emancipation times in an article, The Medieval University and the Jew, in the Menorah Journal for December 1930. Since then I have accumulated a great deal of new material, and I hope to be able to return to the subject in a more serious fashion at some subsequent opportunity. Meanwhile, reference may be made to the following monographs on the subject. For Italy, Soave, Medici ebrei laureati nell' universita di Padova nel 1600 e nel ijoo, in Vessillo Israelitico, xxiv, 189-192; Kaufmann, Trois docteurs de Padoue, in Revue des Etudes Juives, xviii, 293-298, and various other articles by the same authority; a Polish article by Warchal referred to in Kisch, op. tit., note 120. C. Fedeli, Un singolare documento Pontificio riguardante Vuniversita di Pisa (Pisa, 1911). I. Zoller, / medici ebrei laureati a Siena negli anni 1543-1695, in Rivista Israelitica, x, 60-66, 100-110; and Lauree in medicina di studenti israeliti a Perugia nel secolo xvi, in Annali della Facolt? di giurisprudenza a Perugia, viii, 91-129. For Germany and Central Europe we have the important volume already referred to by Guido Kisch, Die Prager Universit?t und die Juden, 1348-1848 (M?hrisch-Ostrau, 1935), with his sub? sidiary studies such as Universit?tsgeschichte und j?dische Familienforschung, in J?dische Familien-Forschung, iii, 566-574. P. Reiger, Deutsche Juden als Heidel? berger Studenten im 18 Jahrhundert, in Martin Philippson Festschrift, pp. 178-183. L. Lewin, J?dische Studenten an der Univ. Frankfurt a.d. Oder, in the Frankfort Jahrbuch fur j?dische Geschichte und Literatur, xiv ff. A. Kober, Rheinische Juden dohtoren, in the 75th anniversary volume of the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary, ii, 173? 236, and his J?dische Studenten und Doktoranden der Universit?t Duisberg im iy Jahrhundert, in M.G.W.J., lxxv, 118-127; various further articles of David Kauf? mann^, such as Fin Jahrhundert einer Frankfurter Arztefamilie, in his Gesammelte Schriften, iii, 276-303. See also S. Krauss, Geschichte der j?dischen Arzte, Vienna, [930. Besides those names mentioned above, p. 108, the following which may be Jewish are listed in the printed record, Edinburgh Medical Graduates, 1715-1845: Henry Hart, of St. Kitts (1773), James or Jacob Lyons, of Virginia (1785), John Barnett, anglus (1797), Joseph Ralph, anglus (1821). There are also a few Portuguese names, such as Jo?o Pereira de Castro, lusitanus (1793).</page></plain_text>