Oliver Cromwell's readmission of the Jews to England in 1656 is traditionally regarded as a watershed in the history of the Jews in England; the culmination of a Christian enthusiasm for Jewish ideas which had been gathering strength since the Reformation. Judaism without Jews presents a revisionist account of Anglo-Jewish history and provides a critical account of the historiography of readmission as a definitive act of toleration. Eliane Glaser demonstrates that throughout the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Christians learnt Hebrew, studied Jewish history and even adopted Jewish customs, but argues that Christian Judaizing did not necessarily lead to the toleration of Jewish people. Through an analysis of a series of historically specific debates about church government, the relationship between church and state and the powers of monarch and parliament, Judaism without Jews interprets Christian philosemitism as the result of the polemical motivations of a variety of religious and political factions in early modern England.

'An interesting book, well worth reading.' - Mia Roth, The European Legacy

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Anglo-Jewish History and Early Modern England
Puritans and Judaism: From Scholarship to Sedition
Anglicans and Judaism: From Ceremony to Legalism
Religious Toleration: Jews and Jewish Precedents in the Christian Church and State
Contesting Readmission: Common Law and the English Constitution
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

ELIANE GLASER completed a Ph.D. at Birkbeck College, London before joining the BBC. She is now an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, and works as a radio producer, historian and writer.