By Gidon Molin

Where do Jews live?Jews can be found all across the UK with the vast majority being in the greater London area. According to the Board of Deputies, this comprises 72% of British Jewry. Other main centres of Jewish life include: Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Gateshead and Glasgow.

How many Jews are being born?According to the Board of Deputies, there were 2647 Jewish births in 2000 (most recent figure).

How many Jews are there in the UK?According to the 2001 Census, 267,000 people classified themselves as being Jewish. In 1995, the Board of Deputies put the figure at 285,000

The history of the Jews in England goes back to the reign of William I. The first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070, although Jews may

have lived there since Roman times.[1] The Jewish presence continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290.

After the expulsion, there was no Jewish community, apart from individuals who practised Judaism secretly, until the rule of Oliver Cromwell. While Cromwell never

officially readmitted Jews to Britain, a small colony of Sephardic Jews living in London was identified in 1656 and allowed to remain.

The Jewish Naturalisation Act of 1753, an attempt to legalise the Jewish presence in England, remained in force for only a few months. Historians commonly date Jewish

Emancipation to either 1829 or 1858 when Jews were finally allowed to sit in Parliament, though Benjamin Disraeli, born Jewish, had been a Member of Parliament long before

this. At the insistence of Irish leader Daniel O'Connell, in 1846, the British law "De Judaismo", which prescribed a special dress for Jews, was repealed.] Due to the lack of anti-Jewish violence in Britain in the 19th century, it acquired a reputation for religious tolerance and attracted significant immigration from Eastern Europe. In the 1930s and

1940s, some European Jews fled to England to escape the Nazis.Jews in Britain now number 300,000, and England contains the second largest Jewish population in Europe and the fifth largest Jewish community worldwide

The Jews have a 5,750 year history, tracing their origins to Biblical times. Evolving out of a common religion, the Jewish people developed customs, culture, and an ethical system which identified them as Jews regardless of their individual religious attitudes. The ancient Jews were both conquerors and the conquered. But they were among only a handful of ancient peoples to survive, despite centuries of persecution, massacres, and their dispersion amongst all of the world's nations. Where other peoples assimilated, the Jews adopted some local customs and folkways, but held onto the basic tenets of their religion and culture