Jews have been in Britain since the Roman times. Erasing their presence plays into white supremacy.

What is it about?

Rigorous scholarship relies on evidence. But in the case of Jews in antiquity, absence of evidence has often been taken to be evidence of absence. An abundance of caution has frequently meant the erasure of Jews from antiquity. Using the test case of a tombstone from Roman Britain, I suggest that a hermeneutic of imagination can be helpful in making sure Jews in antiquity aren’t invisible. Failure to imagine Jews in antiquity plays into white supremacist ideas of 'purity' in the UK, and we need to remember how diverse antiquity was.

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Photo by Gabe Fender on Unsplash

Photo by Gabe Fender on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This is the first paper to argue for the presence of Jews in Roman Britain since 1956. Failure to imagine Jews in antiquity results in a history void of diversity. This article gives readers tools to see what is invisible in the historical record.