Some fun facts about the Jews of Ireland

I’m a conversion student of Irish descent living in the U.S. There’s not a robust Jewish community in Ireland today, but there was one historically so I want to share five facts about it.

– Irish Jews were predominantly Ashkenazi and spoke a dialect called Hiberno-Yiddish.

– Jews in Ireland and around the world provided relief during the Irish Potato Famine. The British Baron Lionel de Rothschild founded an organization called the British Relief Association to help Ireland during the famine. New York Jews raised money to help aid as well. However, the community’s efforts would only be recognized on an official level in 2010.

– By the early 1900s, most Jewish immigrants to Ireland lived in Dublin.

– One of Dublin’s Lord Mayors, Robert Briscoe, was Jewish. He served in 1956-1957 and 1961-1962. He was also a member of the IRA.

– The first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel was an Irish Jew named Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog and was a huge fighter for Irish independence. He was appointed the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland in 1919.