In 1860, a Jewish man named Joseph Malin decided to make it official. He opened the doors to the first fish and chip shop on Cleveland Street in London. And the rest, as they say, is fishtory.

In his 1950s essay on early Anglo-Jewish history, the British Jewish historian Cecil Roth wrote that the Portuguese physician Manuel Brudo, a “Marrano,” had noted in his 1554 book about fever ...