Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23

When Rabbi Hiya bar Abba was ill, Rabbi Yohanan paid him a visit, and asked him: "Are these afflictions dear to you?" “Neither them nor their reward!” He said “give me your hand”. He gave him his hand and raised him up. People said: “a captive cannot release himself from prison”. (Talmud, Berachot 5b)

Hillel says:
Do not separate yourself from the community… Do not judge your fellow until you have been in his position. (Mishnah Avot 2: 5)

Why did Jewish people migrate to Harrow?

The first Jewish people to come to Britain arrived after the Norman Conquest. During the 16th century migrants arrived from Spain and Portugal, and tended to practice in secret, but after 1656, Jewish people were able to practice openly in synagogues, and have their own burial grounds. This resulted in people coming from Holland and central Europe. Most Jewish people who have settled in UK descended from those who came from Russia and Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The early migrants came for economic reasons and because they were allowed to practice their religion freely. However their persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe sparked a new wave of immigration here, as conditions in their original place of settlement became desperate. During the 1930’s many educated Jewish people from Germany and Austria arrived in Britain, and after the Second World War, some survivors from the concentration camps arrived. During the 1950’s more settled from Eastern Europe, and the latest immigrants include those from the Middle East, arriving from Iraq, Egypt and Iran as life became more difficult there, for those who practiced Judaism.