There was a sizeable Jewish minority population (around 2000-3000 people) in medieval England, mainly in London with small populations in Lincoln, Norwich, Oxford and Cambridge. There were probably Jewish people in the retinue of William the Conqueror, as the first written records of Jewish inhabitants date from around 1070. Jews in England were restricted in many ways - where they could bury their dead, what colour clothing they could wear, and so on - and were often subjected to religiously-motivated violence. But they were 'tolerated' in the legal sense because they were able to lend substantial amounts of money to the royal exchequer, being permitted to practice 'usury' (lending money at interest) while Christians were not. Their status and safety fluctuated under different kings, but by 1290 persecution had grown to such a degree that Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion. Many English Jews fled to Scotland, Flanders and Poland.

In theory, Jews did not live in England for the next 350 years, although some practised in secret. During the Interregnum (1649-60), Oliver Cromwell effectively overturned the Edict of Expulsion, encouraging Dutch Jews to settle in London in order to benefit from their financial clout and ability to lend large sums. By the 18th century, a sizeable population of Jewish merchants, mainly Sephardic Jews from the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, lived and worked in London. In 1753, Parliament actually passed a Jewish Naturalisation Act, which permitted Jews to become British citizens, but it was repealed the following year after conservative segments of the public caused an outcry.

Jews remained part of English cultural and economic life, but had no political power until the middle of the 19th century. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was the first Prime Minister of Jewish heritage, though a practicing Anglican - his father, Isaac D'Israeli, had converted from Judaism as a young man. The first practicing Jew to sit as an MP was the banker Lionel de Rothschild, elected in 1847, although he was initially prevented from taking his seat, until an act was passed in 1858 which effectively allowed him to swear his Parliamentary oath to Jehovah. David Salomons was another significant figure in this period, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London.

The next major wave of Jewish migration to England came in the aftermath of the Russian pogroms of 1871. Unlike the wealthy Sephardim who had immigrated in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Russian and eastern European Jews were mostly poor Ashkenazim. They settled in the East End of London, and in ports such as Liverpool, and were primarily involved in the textile trades.

By the early 20th century, a stable Jewish population of around 200,000 lived in England. There was some further inward migration during the 1930s, by German Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. Jewish people in this period spanned social classes and contexts, from distinguished academics (e.g. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sigmund and Anna Freud, Leonard Woolf) and financiers to poor East-Enders. The Battle of Cable Street, fought in East London in 1936, was a clash between local Jewish youth and the police, who were patrolling an anti-Semitic march by Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists.