Patrick Comerford
Western Marble Arch Synagogue, fondly known as Marble Arch or even WMA, is north and not west of Marble Arch in London, and the synagogue at 1 Wallenberg Place looks more like a curved terrace of period houses than like a synagogue.
Wallenberg Place was formerly 26-40 Great Cumberland Place (even) and was built in 1775-1789 as part of the Portman Estate development, begun by the developer Abraham Adams, and completed by William Porden.
Wallenberg Place forms the principal part of a crescent opening from Great Cumberland Place and was originally intended as the east part of a complete circus. The crescent consisted of substantial three-storey houses, raised by a storey and given mansard roofs during the early 20th century.
As a result of bombing during World War II, the most northerly house, 42 Great Cumberland Place, was demolished and rebuilt as flats with a facsimile façade in 1955-1957. The southern end of the crescent was also badly bombed, and was redeveloped in 1959-1961 to designs by TP Bennett and Son, providing a synagogue and offices for the Portman Estate (now 38 Seymour Street), as well as a number of flats (24 Great Cumberland Place). The principal, western frontage of the new development followed the design of the original houses closely.
No 26-40 Great Cumberland Place was renamed Wallenberg Place in 2014 in honour of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved the lives of as many as 100,000 Hungarian Jews during World War II.
Western Marble Arch Synagogue was formed with the merger of two great central London synagogues in 1991 but, as a sign outside indicates, it has a story dating back more than 2½ centuries. It came about through the merger of two earlier synagogues, the Western Synagogue, which was founded in 1761, and the much younger Marble Arch Synagogue, founded almost 200 years later in 1957.
The Western Synagogue was founded in 1761 in Great Pulteney Street, Westminster, by a group of Jews who moved out of the Great Synagogue on Duke’s Place. It was one of the first Ashkenazi synagogues in England, the first to be established outside the City of London in Westminster, and it was the first synagogue in London to have sermons preached in English.
At first, it was known as the Westminster Synagogue, but the formal name of the congregation was the Ḥevra Kadisha shel Gemilluth Ḥasadim (חברה קדישא של גמילות חסדים, Holy Congregation of Acts of Charity).
At first, the congregation met in the home of Wolf Liepman, a prosperous immigrant merchant from St Petersburg. A series of leased spaces followed until 1826, when the congregation built an elaborate synagogue in St Alban’s Place, off Haymarket, and renamed itself the Western Synagogue. Past prominent members included Samuel Montagu and Hannah Rothschild, Lady Rosebery.
The community moved to Alfred Place, off Tottenham Court. That building was bombed during World War II, and new premises were found in Crawford Place in the 1950s.
The Western Synagogue always adhered to strict orthodox principles, but it always maintained an attitude of religious tolerance to individuals and has upheld its tradition of administrative independence for over 250 years.
The Marble Arch Synagogue came into existence in 1957 under the auspices of the United Synagogue to replace the Great Synagogue in Duke’s Place, which was destroyed by German bombs during in the Blitz in 1941. A temporary structure was erected on the site in Duke’s Place in 1943 and continued to be used for more than a decade until 1958, after Marble Arch Synagogue was founded in 1957.
Meanwhile, the Western Synagogue had continued to have a nomadic existence since its foundation in 1761. The two great central London synagogues merged in 1991. One had been an independent synagogue, the other had been part of the United Synagogue, and the merger was the first of its kind in Britain. The unification was important because it brought together an independent synagogue and a part of the United Synagogue, for the first time in Britain.
Since the merger, the Western Marble Arch Synagogue was been an associate synagogue of the United Synagogue – the only synagogue with such status.
The merger was largely successful due to the inclusive nature of the previous synagogues. The two former congregations have happily blended together into a unified and dynamic community with a membership catering for all age groups, and today it is a leading Modern Orthodox congregation.
In addition, when the West End Great Synagogue at 21 Dean Street closed in 1996, the remaining members moved to the Western Marble Arch Synagogue. That synagogue still exists nominally as an independent congregation, with an address at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue, but with its own burial society and cemetery and some affiliation to the Federation of Synagogues.
The Western Marble Arch Synagogue has been enhanced in recent years with facilities such as the Mintz Beit Hamidrash, the Yagdaroff Library, the Bloomstein Hall and the recently refurbished Wohl foyer.
It is the only synagogue in Central London offering three services each day throughout the year, with four on Yom Kippur. The service is in Hebrew, the sermon in English and follows the Ashkenazi format, although there is also a Sephardic service on Shabbat.
The rabbinical team at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue includes Rabbi Daniel Epstein, who has been there since March 2021, and Rebbetzen Ilana Epstein. Chazan Eitan Freilich is the resident chazan.
A monument to Raoul Wallenberg by Philip Jackson was unveiled in Wallenberg Crescent, close to the Western Marble Arch Synagogue and the Swedish embassy, in 1997. But more about that sculpture another day, hopefully.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
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