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Definition :

Jews. Several Statutes were passed in the reign of Queen Victoria respecting the Jews. See 8 & 9 Vict. c. 52, giving them relief as to municipal offices; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 58, and 19 & 20 Vict. c. 119, ss. 21, 22 as to their marriages; 21 & 22 Vict. c. 48, s. 5, amended by 23 & 24 Vict. c. 63, as to their making declara-tions as a qualification for office; and the Jews Relief Act, 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. 49), empowering either house of Parliament by resolution to allow them to omit the words 'upon the true faith of a Christian' from the form of oath then required to be taken by members of Parliament. The Promissory Oaths Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 72), has since prescribed a form of oath containing no reference to the faith of a Christian, and the Promissory Oaths Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 48), repeals 21 & 22 Vict. c. 48, and the Jews Relief Act, 1858, except s. 4, which provides that the official patronage of a professing Jew shall devolve on the Archbishop of Canterbury. By s. 3 of the Jews Relief Act, 1858, nothing in that Act contained was to extend to enable professing Jews to hold the office of Lord Chancellor.

Various Acts exempting or making special provi-sions for Jewish religious observances and customs have been passed. See (English) Factory and Work-shop Act, 1901 (1 Edw. 7, c. 22), ss. 47 and 48, as to substitution of Sunday for Saturday working; (English) Slaughter of Animals Act, 1933 (23 & 24 Geo. 5, c. 39); and (English) Retail Meat Dealers Shops (Sunday Closing), and (English) Shops (Sunday Trading Restriction) Act, 1936 (26 Geo. 5, and 1 Edw. 8, cc. 30 & 53), enabling Jews to trade on Sundays under certain conditions.

The Statute de Judeismo, or Les Estatutes de Jeuerie (Statutes of the Realm, vol. 1., p. 221), of uncertain date, but probably passed in 1375 (though? Coke put the date at 1390), which prohibited usury by Jews and compelled them to wear a distinctive dress, was not expressly repealed until 1846, by 9 & 10 Vict. c. 59. For curious comment on the Statute by Lord Coke, see 2 Inst., where it is observed that 15,060 Jews banished themselves in consequence of the statute, and were not banished by Parliament.

The (English) Act of 1753 (26 Geo. 2, c. 26), to enable foreign Jews to be naturalised without taking the Sacrament, was replaced in 1754 by 27 Geo. 2, c. 1.

See, generally, Henriques on the Return of the Jews to England, published in 1905.