Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

July 13, 2023

Britain’s Most Famous Convert to Judaism

Lord George Gordon, a/k/a Yisrael ben Avraham Avinu.

Born into an aristocratic Scottish family in 1751, Lord George Gordon was elected to Parliament in 1774, where he developed a reputation for eccentricity, political unreliability, and staunch support for granting the American colonies their independence. His political career came to an end in 1780, when he led protests against a bill extending limited civil rights to Catholics, which deteriorated into destructive riots. Gordon was arrested for treason and spent nine months in the Tower of London before being acquitted on grounds of insanity. During his imprisonment, his story grows more interesting still, as Mia Amran writes:

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