Paupers, pariahs or paragons? Bristol's Jewish community, 1720-1881: a microhistory of Anglo-Jewry.

My research is exploring the origins, demographic structure, lives, and relationships of Bristol's Jewish community during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. My master's dissertation, The Alexander Family and the City of Bristol, 1798-1926, showed that it is possible to reconstruct the lives of a Jewish family in Bristol through in-depth research in primary sources, many of which have not previously been used for Jewish studies. My doctoral research is using the same techniques to investigate the whole community, providing new insights into its composition, networks, lifestyle, and culture. There is growing evidence that Jewish communities in London and the provinces were closely interlinked. Detailed research into the Bristol community is therefore highly relevant to the history of Anglo-Jewry as a whole and is throwing new light upon Jewish experience nationwide.