Searching for lovely rolling greens, charming folk, leprechauns, and blarney? How ‘bout a knaidel with that Stout? Ireland is an enchanting land with a small but feisty Jewish presence.

The earliest Jewish reference in the Annals of Innisfallen records the arrival of five Jews from across the sea, probably merchants from Rouen in France. After the expulsion of Jews from Portugal in 1496, some arrived on the South coast. The earliest record of an Irish Synagogue dates from 1660, a prayer room in Crane Lane, opposite Dublin Castle. The oldest Jewish cemetery, near Ballybough Bridge, Clontarf, Dublin, dates from the early 1700's.

After the Napoleonic Wars, there was some Jewish immigration from Central Europe, but the main influx came between 1880 and 1910 when 2,000 Jews came from Eastern Europe who participated in the professions, trades, and manufacturing.

Rabbi Dr. Herzog was appointed the first Chief Rabbi of the Irish Free State, and his son Chaim Herzog served as the President of Israel. A National School for Jewish Children was established in 1907. The Jewish population peaked at 5,500 in the late 1940's.

The majority of today’s 1700 individuals and 700 Jewish families in Ireland are based in Dublin and Belfast. Dublin boasts three Orthodox and one Progressive Synagogue, a Mikvah, Jewish school, Talmud Torah, Museum and Kosher shop. The Irish Jewish community is lively, vibrant and optimistic. Details and info on kosher food and eateries can be found at JewishIreland.com.

Rabbi Zalman Lent (353-1-4064818 familylent@eircom.net) does a Chassidic jig with his many students and guests. Together with his wife Rifky (nee Loewenthal) and their children his work for the community includes regular programs, focused especially on youth.

The Irish Jewish Museum is situated in the former Beth Hamedrash Hagodel Synagogue, 3/4 Walworth Road, Dublin 8. Exhibits range from old Irish Jewish artifacts to a mock-Jewish kitchen and a model of an Irish synagogue.

Notable Jewish sites include Weingreen Biblical Antiquities Museum, a Statue of Moses, Rabbi Herzog's Home, Clonyn Castle in Delvin, Co. Westmeath, where 100 orphaned children from concentration camps lived until 1948, the birthplace of Leopold Bloom (James Joyce's famous character in 'Ulysses'), the Holocaust Memorial and Ballybough Cemetery.

Much of Ireland's elevated ground is close to the coast, and almost the entire Atlantic seaboard, from Cork to Donegal, is a bulwark of cliffs, hills and mountains. Most of the island’s center is composed of flat farmland or raised bogs.

Despite its northern latitude, Ireland's climate is moderated by the Gulf Stream, hence, the Caribbean balminess. The temperature only drops below freezing occasionally, and snow is scarce. Summers are comfortable and it stays light until around 11 pm. Always be prepared for rain because Ireland is wet. The heaviest rain usually falls where the scenery is best, such as around Kerry, which can be drizzle-bound on as many as 270 days of the year.

The truly luminous greens, luxuriant wildflowers, are fitting consolation for feeling a bit damp.
Most traditional music is performed on fiddle, tin whistle, goatskin drum and pipes. Almost every village seems to have a pub renowned for its music.

English is Ireland’s main language, but it’s spoken with a mellifluous lilt and a peculiar structuring of sentences. Irish is the native language in western and southern Ireland, known as the Gaeltacht.
The Irish landscape and people live up to their reputation, and visitors enjoy the green, rain-hazed loughs and wild, bluff coastlines, the inspired talent for talk, the easy pace of life.

It’s surprising how much variety this small land packs into its countryside. The limestone terraces of the stark, eerie Burren seem separated from the fertile farmlands of Tipperary by hundreds rather than tens of miles, and the primitive beauty of the west coast, with its cliffs, coves and strands, seems to belong in another country from the rolling plains of the central cattle-rearing counties.

Ireland hosts a wealth of history and traces of an ancient culture: sites such as Newgrange in County Meath or the clifftop fortress of Dún Aengus on Inishmore (the biggest of the Aran Islands) are among the most stupendous Neolithic remains in Europe, while in areas of Sligo almost every hill is capped by an ancient cairn.

It's said that Ireland, once visited, is never forgotten, and most find that the blarney rings true. The Irish landscape's mythic resonance, the surroundings rich with history, the people aptly famous for their truly warm hospitality, friendliness and “craic,” will make visitors raise their cup and say, “L”Chaim, lad!”

Shul caption: The beloved Adelaide Road shul in the Dublin city centre (now closed).