Make Jews in Ireland a large minority. How can this happen
some interesting side-effects might ensue, Irish has some vocal similarities to Semitic languages.
Probably 19th century is your best bet. Iknow little about it, but Britain like many countries obtained large Jewish communities in London and the growing industrial centres (like Manhcester) via the industrial revolution demands/draw and of course regular instability elsewhere that pushed people to migrate
History of the Jews in Manchester - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Irish cities, being part of the UK got some of this too -but not a lot
History of the Jews in Ireland - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Maybe the US has a Nativist ant-immigrant Know-Nothing government late 19th century so Russian Empire Jews migrate to Great Britain instead of USA.Probably 19th century is your best bet. Iknow little about it, but Britain like many countries obtained large Jewish communities in London and the growing industrial centres (like Manhcester) via the industrial revolution demands/draw and of course regular instability elsewhere that pushed people to migrate
History of the Jews in Manchester - Wikipedia
Irish cities, being part of the UK got some of this too -but not a lot
History of the Jews in Ireland - Wikipedia
One possible route might be having a prominent Jewish figure in one of our many many many rebellions. Figures like Wolfe Tone (a French Protestant) was able to rise to prominence in the early republican movement, so it’s not impossible for non-catholic’s to get included in the narrative. Even if the rebellion doesn’t succeed, the story of a Jew being martyred for the Irish cause has a good chance of hanging on in our cultural memory and changing how the Irish populous view Jews, maybe even encouraging settlement during pogroms in europe
No great famine, greater industrialisation and integration leads to ireland being a pretty well developed western european country, that accepts thousands of refugees in the late 1800s. however i think ireland remaining in the union or a very older POD is necessary
Ireland a safe haven for Jews has a rich cultural history dating back to the mid 1800s. The first Jews came as refugees fleeing pogroms from Eastern Europe. The language of Ireland's Jews is a dialect known as Gaelic-Hebrew. The first immigrants came from modern day Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Russia. Samuel Levin opened a medical practice in Dublin and quickly became a leader in the small but thriving Jewish population. In 1855 the first synagogue was built by the Jewish community. Unlike the Jews in other areas of Europe the Irish Jews were active in all matters Irish. Benjamin Yehuda a philanthropist would buy meat and donate it to the widows and orphans. By the 1870s the Jewish community of Dublin had grown to 865.
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As you will have gathered from previous posts and the Wikipedia links, Ireland's Jewish population had a cultural significance out of all proportion to its size. Sizewise, Ireland North and South had a Jewish population of analogous size to those of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland or Bulgaria. And like them, the largely self-employed and urban Jewish populations weren't resented as they weren't rivals for land or jobs.
To increase the size, or even arrest the decline, of Northern Ireland's Jewish population (I know very little about the Dublin or Cork congregations) you would need to butterfly away both the Bolsheviks victory in the Russian Civil War and the Holocaust. Eastern European Jews seeking a better life and relative freedom from persecution, constantly replenished any losses due to assimilation or migration to larger Jewish centres up until the foundation of the USSR (allowing migrants to seek a better life and freedom from persecution was an affront to its ideological raison d'etre) and the virtual elimination of Eastern European Jewish communities by the Holocaust.
The NI government under Lord Craigavon actively encouraged Jewish businessmen and engineers expelled from Germany and Austria to bring their skills to NI during the late 1930s (one of the few things that Stormont did that we can point to with some pride). Trouble was we were (and are) a small economy.
Post WW2 new Jewish immigration virtually ceased, most of the Jewish refugee population moved on to the USA or Israel. I personally knew the only two to remain in NI, Mrs Yannie Kitzler and her son Larry (who worked with me in the Civil Service up until his retirement in 2002). Mrs Kitzler remained semi-observant, but Larry converted to Christianity and was buried a Methodist in 2014.
Which illustrates why the small Jewish population has entered into a cycle of decline, the mainland UK,the USA and Israel offer much better social prospects to the religiously observant including chances of same faith partners, all have much larger economies and the small remnant population is increasingly being assimilated by interfaith marriages and even religious conversions. Much like (Southern) Irish Protestants, Catholics in some parts of England and the (White Russian) Orthodox communities in the UK and France prior to 1989.
To increase the size, or even arrest the decline, of Northern Ireland's Jewish population (I know very little about the Dublin or Cork congregations) you would need to butterfly away both the Bolsheviks victory in the Russian Civil War and the Holocaust. Eastern European Jews seeking a better life and relative freedom from persecution, constantly replenished any losses due to assimilation or migration to larger Jewish centres up until the foundation of the USSR (allowing migrants to seek a better life and freedom from persecution was an affront to its ideological raison d'etre) and the virtual elimination of Eastern European Jewish communities by the Holocaust.
The NI government under Lord Craigavon actively encouraged Jewish businessmen and engineers expelled from Germany and Austria to bring their skills to NI during the late 1930s (one of the few things that Stormont did that we can point to with some pride). Trouble was we were (and are) a small economy.
Post WW2 new Jewish immigration virtually ceased, most of the Jewish refugee population moved on to the USA or Israel. I personally knew the only two to remain in NI, Mrs Yannie Kitzler and her son Larry (who worked with me in the Civil Service up until his retirement in 2002). Mrs Kitzler remained semi-observant, but Larry converted to Christianity and was buried a Methodist in 2014.
Which illustrates why the small Jewish population has entered into a cycle of decline, the mainland UK,the USA and Israel offer much better social prospects to the religiously observant including chances of same faith partners, all have much larger economies and the small remnant population is increasingly being assimilated by interfaith marriages and even religious conversions. Much like (Southern) Irish Protestants, Catholics in some parts of England and the (White Russian) Orthodox communities in the UK and France prior to 1989.
Hmmm, depends where hey come from, perhaps. Might be there are Sephardic Jews. Unlikely in some Armada wins world, as the Spanish made sure to keep track of anyone who had a single Jewish or Muslim ancestor and to allows consider them foreigners or likely traitors or whatevers. I was going to suggest perhaps the Jews move around like Irish Travelers, but the Roads wouldn’t be so great and there would be limited room for them to move anyways. Perhaps we have Jews comes in during the Commonwealth period, with them getting large tracts of land in Ireland as payment for services rendered.
That’s really not going to endear them to the Irish people, likely seeing them as British collaborators, becoming very unpopular with the poorer Catholic population and possibly leading to an anti-Semitic streak of Irish Republicanism, which in turn might cause a greater flight of Jewish people from the country as the Republican movement builds
Ireland had a slow Jewish immigration pattern until the 1890s. Anti Semitic pogroms against Jews caused many from the Russian empire to flee. Limerick, began to see a new Jewish community emerge. Irish historian Shamus O'Leary noted that the Eastern European Jews fleeing wanted a home free from persecution. Jews in Ireland put their children in Catholic parochial schools and took up Irish social causers
There kind of already is something like that, tangentially speaking, with physical force Republicanism in the 20th century through PIRA and INLA. Diatribes against "foreign" financial capital and friendly ties with multiple groups that have Jewish eliminationist rhetoric as part of their offerings (Hamas, PLO, Qaddafi's Libya, or going back further, collaboration with the Abwehr, etc.). Essentially, they aren't anti-Semitic in the way Tsarist & Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany was, but they just so happen to have a bunch of similarities with anti-Semitic groups.
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Bernie Steinbrenner a second generation Jew rallied the Jewish communities around the Irish cause. Steinbrenner famously stated "our new home needs us and we will help in any capacity. Jewish store owners donated food to Irish fugitives on the run, Jewish watch makers made and repaired guns. Rabbis became involved in the cause hiding fugitives in their synagogues and homes.
Historians debate about when the first Jews settled, some say it happened in the 1600s others the the late 1700s and others say as far back as 1290. What historians agree on is that the first time the Irish saw the Jews as their own was in 1798 after the first Irish Rebellion. The English went around offering land and money for anyone who would name names of who else was involved in the uprising the small Jewish community of Dublin refused to name anyone involved and the English as retribution burned down the Jewish stores and homes.