Thursday 25 September 2025 at 7.30pm

Scarborough Lecture: The Medieval Jewish Communities of the East Midlands

Dr Dean Irwin of the University of Lincoln.

Miniature showing the expulsion of Jews following the Edict of Expulsion by Edward I of England (18 July 1290). The Rochester Chronicle. Public Domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BritLibCottonNeroDiiFol183vPersecutedJews.jpg

The East Midlands were home to several Jewish communities during the twelfth- and thirteenth-centuries. The most significant of these was at Lincoln, one of the larger communities in England after London, with smaller Jewries at Nottingham and (until 1231-2) at Leicester. Other counties, such as Rutland and Derbyshire, were not home to a formal Jewish community but we still have good evidence of Jewish-Christian interactions there. This talk will explore the Jewish presence in the East Midlands, what can be learned about the individual Jewish men and women who lived there, and the interactions that they had with their Christian neighbours.

Dean A. Irwin is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Lincoln, and a Visiting Fellow in Anglo-Jewish Medieval History at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He is writing a monograph on Jews and Christians as Neighbours in Medieval English Towns (Palgrave, 2027), editing a volume on The Medieval Lincoln Jewry (Arc Humanities Press, 2025), and co-editing (with Judith Olszowy-Schlanger) volume 3 of Hebrew and Hebrew-Latin Documents from Medieval England.

The LAHS Scarborough Lecture is named after the late John Scarborough, Local Leicester man, who after joining LAHS at the age of 21 became a life-long member and supporter of the Society for over 45 years. He was particularly interested in the High Medieval Period.

No booking necessary. Entry to the talk is free of charge.

Location: to be confirmed