Ash, the hero of my Regency romance True Pretenses, is a Jewish con artist who grew up in a London rookery and has been passing as a Gentile for a number of years. The heroine Lydia is the daughter of a baron. For various financial reasons, they are considering a marriage of convenience. (Well, Ash actually wanted Lydia to marry his brother for convenience, but she had other ideas…)
Dabney emailed me to say that while she was reading, she wondered “if Ash could ever come out
As you can imagine, the short answer is, “it’s complicated.” Before I get into it, I just want to say that I’m going to talk primarily about my hero and heroine’s specific situation, and about Jews who wanted (for a variety of reasons) to be accepted into Christian British society, and not about the majority of Jews in Regency England who lived, worked, socialized, and married within the Jewish community.
Based on my research (if you want to know more, I highly recommend The Jews of Georgian England 1714–1830 by Todd Endelman), I don’t think that simply the fact of being Jewish would “ruin” Ash. He wouldn’t lose his property, his and Lydia’s marriage once performed would not be voided (getting an annulment was hard during the Regency), he wouldn’t have to flee town.
The primary consequence Ash would face if he told everyone in the heroine’s hometown that he was Jewish would be a lot of annoying, depressing, upsetting, prejudiced bullshit. Ash puts it like this: “If I told everyone I was Jewish, it would be the same life, with the same people, except that everything would be more difficult, and I’d have to hear them do and say things that would make it hard to like them.”
A number of Jewish people were accepted into the upper echelons of Christian high society, to a degree anyway. For example, Benjamin Goldsmid (a government loan contractor) was friends with Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton (among other notables), once entertained the King and Queen as drop-in dinner guests, and had the Prince of Wales over for an afternoon. (Endelman mentions that the future Regent’s visit “scandalized the more orthodox members of the Jewish community since the Prince had selected the Jewish Sabbath for his visit and Goldsmid had not wanted to offend him by suggesting another day”!)

Sir Walter Scott’s 1820 Ivanhoe featured a “fair Jewess” in love with a Christian knight. The ending, in which Ivanhoe married a Christian girl, was unpopular with readers. As you can see, poor Rowena didn’t make it onto the cover of this Classic Comic! Thackeray’s sequel killed off Rowena and made Rebecca Lady Ivanhoe…but he had her convert first, something Scott’s Rebecca flatly refused to do.
There was a sort of unpredictable algorithm for how accepted you could be based on (1) how much money you had and how good your parties were and (2) how British you were willing to be. The markers in the British assimilation spectrum were things like “dressing in British fashions,” “not keeping kosher,” “donating money to Christian charities,” etc. The end of the spectrum was conversion, and rich Jews who hoped to integrate fully into British society did convert. Whether they were truly 100% accepted is doubtful, but they certainly got much closer.
This passage from Endelman’s book really stuck with me:
Thomas Babington Macaulay, the great parliamentary spokesman for Jewish emancipation*, wrote to his sister Hannah in 1831 that a costume ball given by the financier Isaac Lyon Goldsmid**…had ‘a little too much of Mary St. Axe [a Jewish neighborhood in the City] about it,—Jewesses by dozens, and Jews by scores.’ He explained to her that after the ball he could not fall asleep right away, as ‘the sound of fiddles was in mine ears, and gaudy dresses, and black hair, and Jewish noses were fluctuating up and down before mine eyes.’
*”Emancipation” in this context means Jews being allowed to become voters, hold public office, take commissions in the military, etc.—things which during the Regency required taking an Anglican oath and therefore excluded all non-Anglicans.
**Benjamin’s nephew.
And that guy was a promiment pro-Jewish politician. I’m sure that was fun to deal with from your Christian friends!
(If you want to read more “witty” Regency anti-Semitism—not to mention other forms of racism and prejudice—check out Charles Lamb’s “Imperfect Sympathies”, which appeared in London Magazine in 1821 as part of his wildly popular Elia essay series. You’ll probably want this footnote: Hugh of Lincoln’s Wikipedia page.)
Something conversion did unquestionably make far easier was intermarriage, because there was no secular marriage in England at this time. The only way to be legally married was in a religious ceremony. Which meant that if a Jew and a Christian wanted to marry each other openly, one of them had to convert (at least nominally).
All that said, as Dabney astutely pointed out, my hero Ash is dealing with two flavors of intermarriage: Jewish/Christian and very poor/aristocratic. Of the two, very poor/aristocratic would probably shock Lydia’s social circle more. Ash is not a wealthy Jewish financier. His mother was a sex worker, and he’s a swindler and an ex-housebreaker. That he could never admit and reasonably expect to be received anywhere or do business with anyone. Probably even just admitting what neighborhood in London he was from would be enough to ostracize him.
As for what it meant to be poor and Jewish to Christian poor people…you were still looking at a lot of bullshit from a lot of people, and very likely violence of some kind at some point(s) in your life. But there were plenty of intermarriages and interfaith friendships. Large portions of the urban working poor and urban criminal underclass, who cared less about social status and reputation, also cared less about religious strictures. Intermarriage was simple if you didn’t feel that an official marriage ceremony was required! Among Londoners, many Christians who married Jews even converted to Judaism (especially if the woman was the non-Jewish partner).
Endelman even notes: “Integrated teams of pickpockets, housebreakers, and shoplifters, while never coming to constitute a majority of cases, appear with increasing frequency from the 1770s”!
Rose Lerner is the author of four historical romances. Her latest is True Pretenses. She is giving a way a e-book of True Pretenses. To be entered in a drawing for that, make a comment below.
I would like to be entered for the book. I love Regency’s and as a Jewish woman I am always interested in seeing Jewish characters. “”Never deceive a Duke”” so surprised me when Gareth turned out to be Jewish. I will put your book on my TBR pile as I wait to see if I win!
Sharyn, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the book has already been given away. :( Better luck next time! If you do end up getting your hands on a copy I’d love to hear what you think of Ash. I too always get excited when I see one of us on the page…
Thank you so much for the Goodreads link! As a Jewish romance-lover (and a Jewish-romance lover!) , I’m always thrilled to find the rare book with a Jewish character, especially one that actually identifies with their religion. I’m so looking forward to investigating that list.
And thank you also for all your commentary on these posts – so much fascinating info!
You are welcome! I don’t have as much reading time as I used to and it’ll take me a while to work my way through that list, so if you come across any must-read gems please let me know!!
I’m very much looking forward to reading the book. When I first saw the name Cohen (also my maiden name) I figured there would be some interesting twists. I’m always fascinated to see how Jews and Judaism are handled in historicals that are not specifically “”Jewish”” stories. Although it is set at a later period, I think of Daniel Deronda as a book that illustrates the fact that being a Jew was considered a severe liability. Daniel’s mother wanted him to escape is Jewish background and his guardian who raised him is horrified that Daniel would choose being a Jew over the basically “”secular Christian”” society in which he was raised. Of course he could only really do that by leaving England which might, in itself, be a commentary on the place of Jews in English society.
In any event, I have very much enjoyed Rose Lerner’s other books since they are so well written and have characters and situations that are not typical for regency set historicals. I’m sure this new one will be excellent also.
I’m curious, what do you mean by “”specifically Jewish stories””?
About Daniel Deronda, it’s definitely an interesting insight into how Christians viewed Jews at the time. I’d be really interested to read a range of contemporary Jewish responses to the novel. I bet some loved and some hated it!
I’d love to know what you think of the book when you read it!
The book Emily K refers to where the Jewish secondary character is attracted to the heroine but falls in love with a Jewish woman is, I think, Marjorie Farrell’s “”Lady Barbara’s Dilemma””. I liked it (but then, I liked most of her books), in part because of the friendship Lady Barbara has with David. I did not see it on the Goodreads list, so there clearly are more such books out there, even if not many.
Oh, cool, thanks! I should check that out. I don’t think I’ve read anything by her.
Yeah, I’m sure there are some out there that aren’t on the list! Plus it’s limited to romances where the hero or heroine is Jewish. I know I’ve read more Jewish secondary characters than protagonists.
Part of what I liked about the Farrell book is that the Jewish secondary character gets his own romance and plays a fairly major role in the book. Often the Jewish characters are the shopkeeper or some such, more tertiary than secondary, and relegated to far in the background.
Oh, that’s awesome! I love secondary romances; sometimes they’re the best thing about a book. Thanks!
Thanks for the new author. I will look for her. I also enjoy finding Jewish characters.
In Carla Kelly’s “”The Admiral’s Penniless Bride””, the Admiral and his penniless bride settle into a newly bought manor and go to call on neighbors. They call first on the successful Jewish banker nearby. It turns out that in the many years that the banker had lived there, not one neighbor had ever called on him or his wife which had hurt his wife. It was a poignant scene. Not the Regency, but since one commenter asked about Jews in other parts of the continent, I thought to mention that my brother-in-law wrote a scholarly work on “”secret Jews”” in Spain after the Jews were expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella. It is called “”Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of Crypto Jews””. It is not light reading however so it probably just for the true history buffs, especially since it was the result of many years research in Inquisition files.
That’s incredible that they just kept living there! I hope they kept up their acquaintance with their Jewish friends in town or that must have been ridiculously, masochistically lonely.
Your brother-in-law’s book sounds fascinating! If I write a book set in Spain I will definitely check it out. Thank you!
Thanks for this very interesting piece. I’ve been looking for more diversity in romance, especially historical romance as that is one of the primary genres I read, so I am pleased to read this. I have a question though. I am not well versed in the difference historically between Jewish as a religious category versus as a racial/ethnic category. Was it possible for people who were ethnically Jewish to integrate with Gentile society if they underwent a religious conversion? Or was that not really possible because being Jewish was considered more of a ethnic/racial category rather than a religious one?
Also, is your hero a practicing Jew (who observes Shabbat, Jewish holidays, etc)? Since your hero chooses to keep his Jewish heritage a secret, how would he manage to observe those traditions without drawing suspicion?
Thanks, Anna! That’s great to hear. :)
That’s a complicated question, and also one that was shifting in this time period (for a discussion of how racism changed to be more essentialist as the British Empire grew, see my comment to Emily K above). I think the answer is both yes and no.
Certainly, conversion to Anglicanism gained Jews a much higher level of social acceptance. It also, if a Jew was looking to be accepted among the upper classes, removed the legal barriers to their participating in gentlemanly careers like the army, the church, politics, and the law. There were statutes still on the books forbidding Jews from purchasing landed estates (they got around this by having property held in the name of Christian friends or employees). There was no way for Jewish immigrants to become naturalized English citizens. Jews were not legally allowed to vote (although some liberal election officials let them). In the Regency, there were no English universities that would accept them as students (so definitely no Oxford or Cambridge!). So obviously conversion, by removing these legal barriers, made acceptance into the higher ranks of society much much easier, even setting aside what Christians thought and felt about conversion.
Many Jews did convert and enter Gentile society. Whether they were fully viewed as “”one of us”” is doubtful (Endelman notes, for example, “”the common practice of referring to Jewish converts to the Church of England as Jews long after their conversion””). But many of them were highly successful and popular despite lingering prejudice: John Adolphus, Sir Francis Palgrave, and Benjamin Disraeli are just a few prominent names. Sure, Disraeli had anti-Semitic slurs like “”old clothes!”” and “”usurer!”” yelled at him on the hustings during his first political campaign, but he became Prime Minister of England.
And no, my hero Ash is not a practicing Jew. I don’t think he ever was exactly observant or religious, although he celebrated Shabbas and the Jewish holidays and maybe even occasionally went to synagogue when he lived in a Jewish community. But when he fled his Jewish gang and took his brother with him, he decided it was safest and most profitable to give that up, and he hasn’t really looked back. His little brother misses it more than he does.
But as you say, there’s Jewish as a religion and there’s Jewish as a group of cultures and ethnicities, and Ash definitely identifies as Jewish.
Oops! I should have said, Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Thank you, Rose! Your posts are so interesting. I also love history, especially the sometimes overlooked stories and experiences of marginalized people, so I find this stuff fascinating. I’m excited to read this book now.
interesting info
Thanks, Rose! I own all your books and will buy this if I don’t win the eBook. I love your originality! And I appreciate your research so we can truly experience the time period. Well done!
Aw, thanks, Karen! Research is one of my favorite parts of the job. I always wish I had time to do more of it.
Thank you for your post, for sharing your research, and for the additional comments in this thread. I’m glad Dabney thought to ask the question. I love reading historical romances that are supported by historical fact. Yay for authors who love research! I can’t wait to read “”True Pretenses.””
Thank you! I hope you like the book. :)
I loved your earlier books and am especially looking forward to True Pretenses (love the title). Being a “”nice Jewish girl”” with a long love of romance novels (especially Regencies) and historical novels, I’m always on the lookout for books with Jewish characters. I’m totally heading over to that GoodReads list after this. :-)
Keep me in the running!
Thank you! If you particularly love any of the books off the list, let me know!!
This is fascinating! Thank you for sharing a bit of your research. It’s definitely made me want to delve deeper into some of those research books you’ve mentioned. Very interesting stuff. (The reason I love reading historical romance is because of the history, so I love confirming that an author’s done her homework on the subject!)
Thanks! Research is one of the perks of the job, I think. :)
Congratulations on your new release. The schism between the Church of England and Catholicism forced Catholics to secretly worship in their homes. Were there any synagogues in the UK during this time period?
There were many! Mostly in London–the two biggest were Bevis Marks, the Sephardi synagogue, and the Ashkenazi Great Synagogue which most of the poorer Jews attended because you could attend without paying membership dues. But there were smaller ones everywhere the Jewish community was big enough to support it. In communities too small to pay for a dedicated building services were held in homes, as any congregant can lead Jewish services anywhere, an official rabbi and a dedicated building is not necessary.
What you do need is 10 men (a “”minyan””) to hold Jewish services. Some Jewish businessmen in the country had arrangements like, they would subsidize traveling salesmen if they promised to come back every Friday for services.
Here is a neat Rowlandson print of the Great Synagogue in London.