When Scotland was Jewish!

 

“When Scotland was Jewish”

Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman and Donald Yates

MacFarland and Company Inc Publishers 2012

 

When you read the title there is a wonder, in as much as “have we missed something”. The years and years of living in a country and not knowing that it was Jewish does come as a bolt in the dark. Certainly, Scottish history from school was always seen from an over the border viewpoint but this is something different!

Yet with DNA progress and lots of “evidence” the authors are determined to explain that we in Scotland are from Jewish roots of the  12th century.

The evidence is produced early on, but it weakens at the end with a chapter on Scots’s Ivanhoe. Archaeology and migration reviews help to show the result they wish to highlight. This evidence is good and links well with our understanding of the Scottish people.

 

I am reminded of the way we go down the motorway and we look for a certain car, let us say a Landrover. Before the quest we did not see any then we are shouting, “there is one” and again and again.

But the following is also true.

 

·         Images and designs are copied as popular and might not have such a strong religious view.

·         So, to, with gravestones and Jewish images.

·         I was aware of a Jewish presence in Stirling many years ago.

·         While John Knox was pushing for a Bible based revision to life, this does not make him Jewish.

In their favour some of the Scots roots  were known came from Ireland  and perhaps they came from “Jewish roots” further back to Spain and the Middle East. So names we associate with Ireland like Mowat,(merchant) are originally Jewish?

I do note in the sub text the authors are not really saying Scotland was Jewish, as the title says but, that there is a large influence from Jewish quarters that has permeated the Scottish Culture. The evidence for this is strong.

To discover that many of the Scottish clan and family names are rooted in Jewish heritage is astounding. Royal Stewarts, Douglas, Campbell, Bruce, Forbes, Sinclair to name a few.

I am left primarily with a new look at the Scottish culture seeing that it has been influenced greatly by merchants and businesspeople, from Europe and the Middle east some being Jewish.

While the writers are not saying that there are Jewish DNA ( there might be) in many Scots who now live in Scotland, there is recognition that the Jewish way of life did accommodate those who wished to join them in their approach to life.

 

The Scottish people have always, it would seem been the sub chapter of “British history”, yet they were very much a part of British culture and support in war. ( The enlightenment, Army support)

So too I am discovering that the Jews have been an influence in Scotland as far back as the 12 Century. The political situation today encourages multi culture in Scotland more than the rest of the UK.  Perhaps the Jewish influence was a start in this approach to life and others. Scotland was accommodating all those years ago.

We tend to have a memory of history which is more recent, and this book does help balance against the “bickering” between rival religious groups in the past few centuries, and Scotland’s ability to encompass many from afar.

Whether you love or hate the book the evidence is generally clear and accurate but the title itself is a “Sellers” title. But a title like “The Jewish culture has permeated the Scots culture since the 12 centuries because Scotland has tended to be an inviting country, and tolerated difference when England was less so” would not work!

I must get the DNA test done.