Jewish community of Worcester, England

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City of Worcester, England
City of Worcester, shown within Worcestershire

During the Middle Ages there was a small Jewish community in Worcester, a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England that mainly provided money lending services to the non-Jewish citizens. Worcester also hosted a national gathering of England's leading Jews in 1241, to allow the Crown to assess their worth for taxation. The Worcester Bishopric was hostile to the Jewish community in Worcester, commissioning tracts against Jewry, and pushing for segregation of Jews and Christians. During the Second Barons' War, Jews suffered violence and many died in 1255, at the hands of Simon de Montfort's supporters.

Jews were expelled from Worcester in 1275 and most left for Hereford. The former residents suffered the fate of other Jewish communities in the Middle Ages and were finally expelled with the rest of the British Jewry in 1290.

The community was reestablished many centuries later during the Second World War. After the war the community dwindled and the synagogue was closed in 1973.