Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Menasseh ben Israel
from an Etching by Rembrandt
MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL’S
MISSION TO
OLIVER CROMWELL
Being a reprint of the Pamphlets published by MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL to promote the Re-admission of the Jews to England 1649–1656
PREFACE
The Jewish Historical Society of England,soon after its establishment, resolved onthe publication of the present volumeas a memorial of Menasseh ben Israel,whose name must always hold the chiefplace on the first page of the history ofthe present Anglo-Jewish community.The Society did me the honour of entrusting me withthe preparation of the work.
Menasseh’s tracts have been printed in facsimile. Theyhave not been reproduced by any photographic process,but have been entirely reset in types similar to those employedin the original. Thanks to the resources of theprinting establishment of Messrs. Ballantyne, Hanson &Co. of Edinburgh, and the taste and care they have devotedto the work, a much finer effect has been producedthan would have been possible had photography been employed,while exact fidelity to the originals has not beensacrificed.
To me the preparation of this volume has been a labourof love. Nothing in the whole course of a very variedliterary career, extending over nearly thirty years, hasfascinated me so much as the story of the Return of theJews to England. Its mysteries belong to the highestregions of historical romance, and it forms a page of historywhich is a real acquisition both to the annals of the BritishEmpire and to that wider and more thrilling panoramaof human activities which depicts the for