COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
The former Westminster Jews’ Free School on Hanway Place, off Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
I posed, in jest, a conundrum the other day, asking why there are no Greek cafés or restaurants on Greek Street in Soho. But, of course, in my discussion of the cultural diversity of that one street in Soho – from Greek and French to Italian and Irish, all contributing to the mosaic of life in England today – I ought to have referred too to the Jewish school that was on Greek Street for many years.
The Westminster Jews’ Free School was established by the independent Western Synagogue in 1811, before the government provided any funds for education. The school was founded under the auspices of the Western Synagogue to teach Hebrew, English, writing and arithmetic.
Originally, the aim of the school was ‘that male children of the Jewish persuasion (whose parents are unable to afford them education) be instructed in Hebrew and English reading, writing and arithmetic; that the principle of religion be carefully inculcated, and every exertion used to render them good and useful members of society.’
The school was formalised in 1820, it was funded by voluntary contributions and classes were held at the teachers’ homes. By 1837, the school committee had decided to rent a premises in Stanhope Street but by 1843 this was too small and a new school was opened at 59-60 Greek Street, opposite the Pillars of Hercules, which I was writing about earlier this week.
The children were admitted from age 5 to 12 and discharged at 13. As well as teaching, the boys received gifts of clothing and on his bar mitzvah each boy was given an entire new outfit was provided.
The equivalent girls’ school opened at Richmond Buildings, 21 Dean Street, in 1846. Shortly after, it too moved to 59-60 Greek Street. Its aims were ‘For the diffusion of religion and knowledge of moral and social principles among the young and ignorant.’
The two schools were amalgamated in 1853 and named the Westminster Jews’ Free School. By the time education was made compulsory and school boards were set up in the 1870s, it was a large, successful establishment.
The school moved from Greek Street to Hanway Place in 1883 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The school remained at 59-60 Greek Street for 40 years. But by 1882, it was obvious the school was no longer big enough. A new school that could accommodate 500 children was built on the north side of Hanway Place, a narrow lane near the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street, and it was consecrated in July 1883.
Because the school was located between Bloomsbury and Soho, it brought together an economically diverse Jewish community. The school charged fees to attend, but many scholarships were available. The school management committee included members of the prominent and wealthy Montefiore and Rothschild families and wealthy local businessmen and investors who saw the school as both a charitable and religious undertaking.
The wages and resources for teachers were much better than schools of comparative size in similar areas, staff turnover was low, teachers stayed for years, wages were increased regularly.
School prizes were endowed by prominent figures, including Sir David Salomons was the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London, one of the first Jewish MPs and a founder of the London and Westminster bank, and his nephew, Sir David Lionel Salomons. Yet, despite this, many of the children came from families that still lived in poverty well into the early 20th century.
At its peak, the school had 700 children on its rolls. But attendance was falling off by the 1930s, and the last pupil enrolled in 1939. A famous pupil was Harry Ehrengott, the only fireman during World War II who was awarded the George Cross for bravery, the highest honour that can be awarded to a civilian.
After the end of World War II 80 years ago, Westminster Jews’ Free School finally closed on 31 December 1945.
The former Westminster Jews’ Free School was converted into flats and offices in the late 1990s. But the name of the school is still to be seen in the beautiful terracotta decoration and lettering.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
Westminster Jews’ Free School closed 80 years ago on 31 December 1945 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Watford and District Synagogue … dates from 1946 when two congregations came together after World War II (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
When I was Watford this week, I paid a brief visit to Watford Synagogue, a short ten-minute from Watford Junction station, and also went in search of the sites and locations used by earlier congregations in the town.
There may have been Jews living in Watford in the late 18th century and there has been a continuous Jewish presence since the early 19th century. No formal Jewish congregations were formed in the town until the early 20th century but there were at least four Jewish congregations in the Watford area.
The first Jewish congregation in Watford was formed in 1918 and it continued until the mid-1920s. Several congregations were established during World War II, and the present congregation was established at 38 Clarendon Road at the end of 1946 and it has been in the Nascot Wood area from about 1957.
The Watford and Bushey Hebrew Congregation was active from 1918 until about 1927, with a synagogue on Leavesden Road from 1918. However, this first congregation experienced financial difficulties and, by 1920, it was stated that unless funds were forthcoming, it would be necessary to close the synagogue.
The congregation continued to be listed officially until 1927, but seems to have petered out by then.
During World War II, as families were evacuated from central London, there were at least four short-lived Jewish congregations in the Watford area. They included a congregation organised the Revd E Freedman; a group that was also known as the Watford and Bushey Hebrew Congregation that met in a house in Bushey in 1941-1942, though it does not seem to have had connections with the congregation of the same name in 1918-1927; a congregation that used the Methodist Hall on Queen’s Road in 1941-1945; and the Garston and North Watford Hebrew Congregation, active in 1942-1946.
A Jewish congregation was located at the Methodist Hall at 91 Queen’s Road in 1941-1946 … the site has since been redeveloped (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The first of these short-lived war-time congregations in the Watford area was associated with the Revd E Freedman of Abbots Langley. He appears to have organised Sabbath morning services in the Watford area in in January 1941, but it is not known they related to any of the other congregations in the area at the time.
The Watford and Bushey Hebrew Congregation met in ‘The Gables’ on Heathfield Road in Bushey in 1941-1942. It probably had no connections with the earlier congregation that had the same name in 1918-1927. It first held its services in May 1941, but there is no further mention of it after 1942.
From June 1941, yet another Jewish congregation used the Methodist Hall on Queen’s Road. It later become known as the Watford and District Hebrew Congregation, and its weekly services continued until at least 1945.
Garston and North Watford Hebrew Congregation was holding services from at least 1942, with High Holy Day services in both Saint Peter’s Hall, 58 Tudor Drive, in North Watford, at The Hall at 3 Horseshoe Lane in Garston, as well as in a Methodist hall.
By 1944, the Garston and North Watford Hebrew Congregation was holding its services in Parkgate School, Parkgate Road, Watford. The weekly services continued until late 1946, and the congregation was involved in organising the meeting in December 1946 that led to the formation of the Watford and District Synagogue.
Watford Synagogue was first located at 38 Clarendon Road … the site has since been redeveloped (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The new congregation brought together the two rival congregations that had emerged in Watford, one meeting in the Methodist Hall on Queen’s Road and the other known as Garston and North Watford Hebrew Congregation.
At first, the synagogue was located at 38 Clarendon Road, Watford, and it has been in the Nascot Wood area since about 1957. The shul is in a house that was once a semi-detached house. It was transformed into a modern synagogue with the building of a large single storey extension following a fire in the early 1990s.
The Revd Mordechai (Martin) Miloslawer served this new congregation from 1947 until about 1950. Before World War II, he was the minister in Koenigsburg in East Prussia, then in Germany and now Kaliningrad in Russia.
His synagogue was destroyed during the Kristallnacht pogroms in November 1938. He was then imprisoned by the Nazis, but came to England in 1939. Later, he served synagogues and congregations in High Wycombe, Wanstead, Woodford, Slough and Windsor, and was a hospital chaplain. He died in 1989.
Watford and District Synagogue joined the United Synagogue as an affiliated synagogue in 1948, and became a constituent or full member synagogue in 1994.
The shul is part of the ‘5+1’ group, consisting of six small United Synagogue communities – five in Hertfordshire and one in Bedfordshire. The 5+1 has an intercommunal social programme that tries to match the programmes offered by large synagogues while retaining the closeness of smaller communities.
Watford and District Synagogue describes itself as ‘a friendly community comprising just under 300 adult members, another 50 young adults and around 50 children.’ It says its services ‘are unashamedly Orthodox’, but that the ‘membership covers the entire spectrum of Jewish observance, and all are welcome.’
The members live in Watford, Bushey, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Northwood and surrounding areas of Hertfordshire and North-West London. Rabbi Mordechai Chalk grew up in Golders Green and spent 11 years studying in Israel before moving back to Britain in 2018.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
Watford Synagogue says it is ‘unashamedly Orthodox’ but that the ‘membership covers the entire spectrum of Jewish observance, and all are welcome’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
West London Synagogue on Upper Berkeley Street was built in 1870 and is regarded as one of the finest Victorian synagogues in Britain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
The Marble Arch area has two of the most beautiful and dynamic synagogues in central London: Western Marble Arch Synagogue, which I looked at last week (7 March 2025), and West London Synagogue, at Upper Berkeley Street and Seymour Street, which I am looking at this evening.
West London Synagogue is one of the oldest synagogues in Britain, one of the most important Reform synagogues in London and one of the largest congregations in Europe. Together with Davis and Emanuel’s East London Synagogue, it is regarded as one of the finest Victorian synagogues in Britain and is a Grade II listed building.
Until recently, the senior rabbi of West London Synagogue was Baroness (Julia) Neuberger, until she retired in 2020, and it has also been associated with one of her predecessors Rabbi Hugo Gryn. Members of the congregation have included the historian Sir Simon Schama and the actor Maureen Lipman.
Inside West London Synagogue, long been seen as the flagship Reform synagogue in Britain (Photograph: WLS)
WLS, as it is known popularly, has long been seen as the flagship Reform synagogue and was the oldest synagogue affiliated with the Movement for Reform Judaism before that affiliation lapsed two years ago. It continues to see itself as ‘the heart of progressive Judaism in Central London’. It has an inclusive and progressive congregation, with men and women sitting together during services and playing equal parts in leading them.
Although the congregation was established in 1840, the present building was not built until 1870. It was founded primarily by members of two prominent families: the Mocatta family, whose ancestors originally came from Spain, and the Goldsmid family, who originally came from Holland. Both families were long settled in London and believed West London needed a synagogue for ‘British Jews’ and not ones that were segregated based on heritage, lineage or past language differences.
This explains why WLS is known formally as the West London Synagogue of British Jews, although its Hebrew name is Holy Congregation Gate of Zion (ק"ק שער ציון, Kahal Kadosh Sha’ar Tziyon).
The congregation was established on 15 April 1840, when 24 members of the Mocatta, Goldsmid and other families met in the Bedford Hotel, Southampton Row, and announced their secession from their respective congregations, the Sephardi Bevis Marks Synagogue and the Ashkenazi Great Synagogue of London.
West London Synagogue was designed in the Byzantine-Romanesque or Neo-Byzantine style by Henry David Davis and Barrow Emanuel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The Mocatta and Goldsmid families had been quarrelling with the wardens in their synagogues and complaining over what they regarded as a lack of decorum for years.
They wanted to worship nearer their homes in the West End, religious services with a decorum they believed was lacking in both synagogues, sermons in English, and to together of both branches of English Jews: the Sephardim, mainly of Spanish and Portuguese descent and the Ashkenazim, with German, Dutch and central and east European backgrounds.
The new prayer group hired the Revd David Woolf Marks (1811-1901) as its first minister in March 1841. As the reformers’ plans became more developed, the criticism became more vociferous. in September 1841 the new congregation was denounced by the Chief Rabbi in September 1841, and its members were subject to a cerem or an excommunication order.
The West London Synagogue of British Jews had its first permanent building at Burton Street Chapel in Bloomsbury, from 27 January 1842. A few days before the synagogue was consecrated, the leader of the Sephardi Synagogue at Bevis Marks and the Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi Great Synagogue issued a ban and declared the rebels were in contradiction of the beliefs and practices of orthodox Judaism.
Marks and the congregation adopted a unique, bibliocentric approach known to critics as ‘neo-Karaism’. Marks and the new group largely rejected the authority of the Oral Torah and rabbinic traditions, abandoned many traditional prayers, and abolished many practices, such as observing the second day of festivals and excised various prayers grounded in rabbinic tradition.
These premises soon become too crowded too by 1848, and a new location in Margaret Street, off Cavendish Square, was dedicated on 25 January 1849. The new congregation used the term ‘Reform’, from German and American influence, to describe its worship and beliefs.
A new location was required yet again by 1867, and the present synagogue building on Upper Berkeley Street was opened on 22 September 1870, with a seating capacity at the time for 1,000 people.
The synagogue was designed in the Byzantine-Romanesque or Neo-Byzantine style by the architects Henry David Davis (1839-1915) and Barrow Emanuel (1842-1904), partners in Davis and Emanuel. Davis was one of the first Jews to practice architecture in Britain. Emanuel was a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and a son of Emanuel Emanuel, the first Jewish mayor of Portsmouth. Their other synagogues include East London Synagogue (1876) in Stepney Green, and Lauderdale Road Synagogue (1896-1897).
he three-storey façade is dominated by a pedimented semicircular arch supported on coupled columns with richly-carved capitals (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The synagogue is built in brick with a Portland stone façade and a slate roof. The three-storey façade is dominated by the pedimented semicircular arch supported on coupled columns with richly-carved capitals. The recessed entrance bay has graduated semi-circular arched windows over three doorways framed by a semi-circular arched arcade with similar columns.
The attic storey arcade has eight round-arched windows with foliate capitals on square piers. There are similar one-light windows on the projecting outer bays.
Davis and Emanuel also designed the main sanctuary, the bimah and the Torah ark in the Neo-Byzantine style. The other interior features include a panelled entrance hall with a beamed coffered ceiling, a double-flight staircase and bronze candelabra.
The central dome is carried on semi-circular arches and quatrefoil-section scagliola piers with foliate Byzantine-Romanesque capitals, decorative balcony fronts, clusters of colonettes and capitals and barrel-vaulted aisles. There is fine stained-glass in semi-circular arches and square-headed windows.
The premises extend into Seymour Place to include offices, a library and various community facilities. The organ was built by Harrison & Harrison and has 55 stops on four manuals and pedal. It was restored in 2008.
Meanwhile, David Marks retired in 1895. Many of his innovations, which had never very popular with the congregation, were abandoned by his successor, Rabbi Morris Joseph. He brought West London closer to mainstream Reform Judaism and removed from the liturgy its petitions for the restoration of sacrifices in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Harold Reinhart (1891-1961) was appointed in 1929 and brought West London into the World Union for Progressive Judaism. The synagogue was a founding member in 1942 of the Associated British Synagogues, later the Movement for Reform Judaism and now known as Reform Judaism. Rabbi Reinhart resigned in 1957 and with 80 former members of West London Synagogue established the New London Synagogue, later renamed Westminster Synagogue.
His successor, Rabbi Werner van der Zyl, was the Senior Rabbi in 1958-1968. He was followed by Rabbi Hugo Gryn (1930-1998), a survivor of Auschwitz who became a celebrated broadcaster and a leading voice in interfaith dialogue. He has been described as ‘probably the most beloved rabbi in Great Britain’.
West London Synagogue is associated with the first two women rabbis in Britain, Dublin-born Rabbi Jackie Tabick and Baroness Julia Neuberger (Photograph: Tripadvisor)
The building has expanded in every generation, and now includes classrooms for the children’s Hebrew school, lecture halls and libraries, as well as offices for the rabbis and the administrative staff.
Dublin-born Rabbi Jackie Tabick, the first woman ordained a rabbi in 1975, was an associate minister in West London Synagogue in 1975-1999. Rabbi Julia Neuberger, the second woman to be ordained as a rabbi in Britain, was the Senior Rabbi from 2011 to 2020, was the first to lead a synagogue in Britain. She became a life peer in 2004.
After a long-running dispute, West London Synagogue suspended its membership in the Movement for Reform Judaism (MRJ) in 2020, and that affiliation lapsed in 2023.
The co-senior rabbis are Rabbi Dr Helen Freeman, who was appointed in 2020, and Rabbi David Mitchell, who has been there since 2011. The staff also includes Assistant Rabbi Matthew Turchin and Associate Rabbi Emily Reitsma-Jurman.
West London Synagogue is committed to social action and interfaith activities (Photograph: WLS)
Today, West London Synagogue has about 3,000 members. WLS is committed to social action, and runs a drop-in for asylum seekers once a month, and works closely with local churches and other community organisations, and is committed to interfaith activities.
The synagogue has live broadcasts of its services, and its calendar includes varied Shabbat and festival services, formal and informal services, interfaith events, community groups, once a month drop-in sessions for asylum seekers and a night shelter for homeless people once a week.
Services follow the prayer books of the Movement for Reform Judaism, with material from both Sephardi and Ashkenazi traditions. Men and women have sat together since the 1920s, and a choir and organ are part of service except for the aleinu and the Kaddish.
There is a traditional Reform choral service in Hebrew and English at 6 pm each Friday, with a sermon and music. The weekly Shacharit services on Saturday mornings begin at 11 am, and include the choir, Torah readings, and usually a sermon. There are services marking lifecycle moments, including a bar/bat mitzvah, baby blessing, pre-marriage celebration or birthdays and anniversaries. Morning services are preceded by coffee and cake after every service there is a kiddush or a blessing with wine, and light reception.
Western Marble Arch Synagogue, near Hyde Park, looks like a curved terrace of period houses on the Portman Estate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
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 has a story dating back to 1761 or earlier (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
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.
Inside Western Marble Arch Synagogue (Photograph: WMA/Facebook)
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 foyer in Western Marble Arch Synagogue (Photograph: WMA/Facebook)
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
The Western Marble Arch Synagogue is the only synagogue in Central London offering three services a day, with the sermon in English (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The Montagu Centre, Maple Street, the London headquarters of Liberal Judaism and home of the West Central Liberal Jewish Synagogue until it closed in 2022 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
The Montagu Centre on Maple Street is the London headquarters of Liberal Judaism, formerly the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues. It is part of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and of the European Union of Progressive Judaism, and so is part of the worldwide Jewish majority of non-Orthodox Jews.
Since April 2023, Liberal Judaism (LJ) and the Movement for Reform Judaism (MRJ) have been working closely together to create one new unified movement. The new movement, Progressive Judaism, will represent about 30% of British Jewry who are affiliated to synagogues.
The Montagu Centre is named after Lily Montagu (1873-1963), a founding figure in Liberal Judaism and a tireless campaigner for the rights of women. Liberal Judaism has had its offices at the Montagu Centre for more than 70 years since it moved there in 1954. The building was once home too to the West Central Liberal Synagogue, founded by Lily Montagu in 1928, but its roots could traced to services she first held in the 1890.
West Central Liberal Jewish Synagogue was known as the West Central Liberal Jewish Congregation until about 1961, and was at the Montagu Centre from 1954. The synagogue closed in 2022, having suffered from both the shift in population from central London and the fallout from the Covid-19 lockdown. Its last rabbi was the Dublin-born Jackie Tabick, who became Britain's first female rabbi 50 years ago in 1975.
The Hon Lilian Helen Montagu (1873-1963) was a founding figure in Liberal Judaism and a tireless campaigner for the rights of women
At first, the synagogue was located at the Club House on Alfred Place, near Bedford Square, the premises of the West Central Jewish Girls’ Club since 1914. The club was founded by the Hon Lilian Helen Montagu, affectionately known as ‘Miss Lily’, her sister, the Hon Marian Montagu (1868-1965), and their friend, Emily Harris, in 1893 when they rented two rooms at 71 Dean Street, Soho.
All the club meetings included Jewish prayers. Many of the girls served by the club were forced to work 5½ days a week, including Saturday mornings, and so the club held Sabbath day services on Saturday afternoons, generally led by ‘Miss Lily’.
Lily and Marian Montagu were the daughters of a strictly Orthodox Jew, Sir Samuel Montagu (1832-1911), an MP and banker who later became the first Lord Swaythling. Although Lily was brought up in an observant Jewish home, she believed traditional forms of Judaism had no appeal to many young people of her generation and that they were at risk of giving up their Jewish heritage.
In an article in the Jewish Quarterly Review in 1899, ‘The Spiritual Possibilities of Judaism Today’, she identified the need to present Judaism in a way that is in harmony with the thought of the day and that gives meaning to people otherwise living without Jewish religious teaching.
Following her article, Lily Montagu involved in establishing Progressive Judaism in Britain and in 1902 she and Claude Montefiore (1858-1938) founded the Jewish Religious Union. It was the forerunner of both the Liberal Jewish Synagogue (LJS) and the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues (ULPS), now known as Liberal Judaism.
The first services that led eventually to the formation of the West Central Liberal Jewish Synagogue were held in an hotel in Marylebone and then in the West Central Jewish Girls’ Club on Alfred Place. They were the first Jewish services in England to include prayers in English.
The group organising the services became the West Central Branch of the Jewish Religious Union in 1913. Many of the original members came mostly from the West Central Jewish Girls’ Club, and the section carried on most of the functions of a congregation, with Sabbath and festival services in Alfred Place.
The services were conducted mainly by Lily Montagu, who was supported by Dr Claude Montefiore and by the rabbis and ministers of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood. But the section was hampered by a lack of money, for most of its members were far from prosperous, and by the fact that the members came mostly from the West Central Jewish Girls’ Club, and so had few men.
Due to this lack of both finance and men, a congregation was not formed officially until 1928, when the West Central Liberal Synagogue was formed largely with the support of Rabbi Solomon Starrels (1895-1984) of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. The first service took place on 8 September 1928, and from then on regular services were held in the Club House on Alfred Place, with choral and organ music, and prayers in Hebrew and English.
The congregation was assisted by a number of ministers, mainly from the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, from 1928 to 1938. Then, from 1938, Lily Montagu was the sole minister once again. The life of the congregation included the open air services followed by tea and the annual general meeting, and the large annual bazaars.
Although Lily Montagu was the prime mover behind both the synagogue and the club, she kept the two organisations separate. She was also active in social improvement, particularly in respect to working women, unemployment, sweatshops and bad housing, and later with helping Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.
The site the West Central Liberal Synagogue and the Club House on Alfred Place, destroyed in a German bombing raid on the night of 16/17 April 1941 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
During World War II, the West Central Liberal Synagogue and the Club House in Alfred Place were destroyed in a German bombing raid on the night of 16/17 April 1941, and 27 people who were sheltering in the basement were killed. The congregation was left without a home, and for many years it held services in a number of locations.
When the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues gave Lily Montagu the title of Lay Minister in 1943, she became the first Jewish woman minister in Britain. She conducted services, including weddings and funerals, in a gown and hat, but without a tallit. The rabbis who assisted her from time to time included Dr Leo Baeck (1873-1956), who moved to London after World War II.
The venues where the congregation held post-war services until 1954 included the Whitfield Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road, now the American International Church; the Mary Ward Settlement, off Woburn Place; 2 Fitzroy Square (1945-1948); 82 Charlotte Street (1949-1952); and 51 Palace Court (1953-1954).
Post-war services were held at Charlotte Street until 1952 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The architect Ernest Joseph found a bombed site at the corner of Whitfield Street and Maple Street, negotiated a 99-year lease and designed a simple but beautiful synagogue that was built in stages: the first floor was built and consecrated in 1954, a second floor was added in 1959, and the synagogue sanctuary, with the ark, desk and perpetual lamp were moved upstairs, while the lower floor became a communal hall in 1960.
The congregation transferred its lease and the building to the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues (ULPS) for its headquarters in 1970, on condition that it would have continued use of it for services and congregational activities. The building was renamed the Montagu Centre after Lily and Marian Montagu.
Lily Montagu was also one of the first women to become a Justice of the Peace. For many years was a magistrate in St Pancras and chaired the London Juvenile Courts. She died on 22 January 1963 in her 90th year, and her sister Marian died two years later in 1965 aged 96.
The Montagu Centre was renamed in 1970 and the site was redeveloped in the 1990s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The Montagu Centre site was redeveloped in the 1990s, when the original building was demolished, making way for a mixture of housing and offices, including the offices of Liberal Judaism, and the synagogue. During the redevelopment, the congregation had a temporary location at 12/14 Clipstone Street. The congregation’s rabbis and ministers have included Dr Frederick K (‘Fritz’) Solomonski (later Rabbi Frederick Solomon), Joseph Ascher, Rabbi Roger Victor Pavey, Rabbi Lawrence Rigál, Rabbi Hillel Avidan, Rabbi Mark L Solomon, Rabbi Janet Burden, and Rabbi Dr Jacqueline (Jackie) Tabick from Dublin.
In time, the move of people away from the centre of London adversely affected the congregation. Before World War II, there were 249 ordinary members in 1939, as well as 48 associate members and two burial members. By 1990, there were 146 members; by 1996, there were 74 members, and 50-99 members in the period 2010-2016. Members were increasingly elderly, with many travelling long distances to worship there.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, the congregation found it could not meet physically from early 2020. The space at the Maple Street premises deteriorated and became unusable. For a while, the reduced congregation met using Zoom or physically at Westminster Synagogue in Kensington. However, the congregation formally ceased to exist in January 2022.
After the congregation was dissolved, a chavurah or small prayer group was formed, and it continues to meet and hold services once a month at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood. These services are led by Rabbi Jackie Tabick or members of the group.
Rabbi Jackie Tabick was born Jacqueline Hazel Acker in Dublin, where her childhood synagogue was the Dublin Jewish Progressive Synagogue, Leicester Avenue, Rathgar. She was ordained as Britain’s first female rabbi in 1975. She led the Shabbat and Festival services at West Central Liberal Jewish Synagogue from 2014 until it closed in 2022.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
Rabbi Dr Jacqueline (Jackie) Tabick was born in Dublin
Soho Theatre on Dean Street in the heart of the West End is housed in a former synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Patrick Comerford
Soho was once a notorious red light district, but it has been gentrified in recent years, and is known today for its theatres, restaurants, cafés and music scene. Soho Square is one of the prettiest and most unexpected open spaces in the West End, and in the past it was the home to many Jewish impresarios, producers, directors, and the locations of some now-lost synagogues, Jewish charities, schools and more.
Soho Theatre on Dean Street is one of London’s busiest theatre and comedy venues, with a year-round festival programme and a buzzing bar in the heart of the West End. The theatre, which opened in March 2000, is housed in a former synagogue, having raised the funds to buy and redevelop the building.
When I was in Soho last week, I searched for the stories of Jewish Soho. I visited this former synagogue and went in looking for some of its predecessors, including the former Beit HaSepher Synagogue on Soho Square and the former West End Talmud Torah and Bikkur Holim synagogue on Manette Street.
The West End Great Synagogue, which was known as the West End Talmud Torah and Bikkur Holim Synagogue until about 1950, was first formed in 1910 with the merger of the West End Talmud Torah, which had been founded at Green’s Court in 1880, and the former Bikkur Holim Synagogue, which had been at Brewer Street, off Golden Square. It also incorporated the Beit HaSepher synagogue on Soho Square.
Karl Marx and his family lived in abject poverty at 21 Dean Street from 1848 to 1856 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
Karl Marx and his family lived in abject poverty at 21 Dean Street from 1848 to 1856, until his wife inherited a legacy and they could afford to move to Haverstock Hill in Belsize Park. By the late 19th century, the Jewish community in Soho was made up of shopkeepers and immigrants who had moved into the West End.
The dominant local industry was tailoring, with people working in hard conditions in their flats and workrooms on bespoke suits and theatre costumes and supplying trimmings, and embroidery, from Saville Row to West End theatres.
Then in 1912, 1,500 skilled West End tailors, mostly immigrants from central and east Europe, went on strike, and 12,000 Jewish tailors in the East End also went on strike in support of them. The strikes were successful, and brought an end to the exploitation of sweated labour. Royalty Mansions on the site of the former Royalty Theatre on Meard Street, off Dean Street, were first built in 1908, and are a reminder of these skilled workers.
The former Manette Street Synagogue at 14 Manette Street, between Greek Street and Charing Cross Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
These highly exploited but low-paid workers were, by and large, members of Orthodox Jewish families that were immigrants from central and east Europe, and they needed small chevrot there, just as they were needed in the East End.
The Talmud Torah Synagogue first began above a shop at 9 Green’s Court, off Golden Square in Soho in 1880. The Bikkur Holim Synagogue was formed at 41 Brewer Street, also off Golden Square in 1910. They soon merged, and after a brief time in Berwick Street moved in 1916 to 14 Manette Street, between Greek Street and Charing Cross Road, and behind Soho Square, where it was known as Manette Street Synagogue.
Manette Street was originally known as Rose Steet, and takes its name from A Tale of Two Cities, in which Charles Dickens has Dr Alexandre Manette and his daughter Lucie living on Soho Square. Their house is said to have been modelled on the House of Saint Barnabas, which Dickens visited. Because of this association, Rose Street behind the House of Saint Barnabas was renamed Manette Street.
The Soho Square Beth HaSepher Synagogue was established in 1910 and in 1916 moved to 26A Soho Square, beside the Charity House or House of Saint Barnabas on the corner of Soho Square and Greek Street.
The building was once a workhouse associated with Saint Anne’s Parish and had a variety of religious uses from the 1830s for over a century. It was a church-run commercial school from 1839 to 1847. The it was part of the House of Charity until that moved around the corner to 1 Greek Street in 1862. It was then the Saint John the Baptist Mission House and Industrial School (1870-1899), followed by Saint Patrick’s Home for Working Boys (1903-1916).
The Beth HaSepher synagogueS founded in 1910, moved to 26A Soho Square around 1917. It was affiliated to the Federation of Synagogues.
The Soho Square Beth Hasepher Synagogue moved to 26A Soho Square in 1916 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The two synagogues on Manette Street and on the corner of Soho Square and Greek Street merged in 1948, and moved to 21 Dean Street, where the new synagogue was renamed the West End Great Synagogue.
For many years, Soho had a distinguished rabbi in Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Ferber (1879-1966), the author of many books. He was the rabbi of the West End Talmud Torah Synagogue from 1913, established the Chesed V’emeth Burial Society in 1915, and consolidated the various activities and religious life of the community of Jewish working class immigrants in Soho into one institution.
He was described as a ‘man of saintliness and gentleness, loved and admired by all who came into contact with him’. He remained Rabbi of Soho for 42 years, from 1913 until his retirement in 1955.
The West End Great Synagogue owned its own cemetery, consecrated in 1915. Because of this, over the years, many smaller congregations affiliated with it and with its burial society. Some of them or their members still retain this affiliation, although many of these congregations are no longer active. They include Commercial Road Great Synagogue, Congregation of Jacob Synagogue, Ezras Chaim Synagogue, Fieldgate Street Synagogue, Great Garden Street Synagogue, Nelson Street Sephardish Synagogue, Sandy’s Row Synagogue and Teesdale Street Synagogue.
Royalty Mansions on the site of the former Royalty Theatre … a reminder of the skilled clothing workers who lived and worked in Soho a century ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The original building on Dean Street had been damaged by German bombs during World War II and was rebuilt as a new synagogue in 1964. Rabbi Maurice Lew was appointed Rabbi of the West End Great Synagogue in 1963, and his official induction as rabbi also involved the consecration of the rebuilt building.
Maurice Lew was born in Siedlce in Poland, and his father, Rabbi Israel Joseph Lew, was the Rabbi of the Mile End and Bow Congregation. Rabbi Maurice Lew retired as Rabbi at Dean Street in 1979.
The West End Great Synagogue maintained a minyan or quorum for many years and generously donated to Jewish charities and student activities. The building on Dean Street included halls used for dancing and by the Labour Friends of Israel. The Ben Uri Gallery, founded in 1915 to support East End artists, relocated there in the 1970s and remained there until 1996.
When the synagogue at 21 Dean Street closed in the 1990s, the remaining members moved to the Western Marble Arch Synagogue. The 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.
After the former West End Great Synagogue moved to the Western Marble Arch synagogue, the former synagogue on Dean Street became the Soho Theatre.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
The Soho Theatre on Dean Street opened in the former synagogue in 2000 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)
The London Jewish Mural on Finchley Road … a kaleidoscope of Jewish history by Leon Fenster (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Patrick Comerford
Earlier this year, during the summer months, I visited the London Jewish Mural in Finchley. Leon Fenster has captured the colourful and vibrant essence of London's Jewish community in a 26.5 x 14.2 metre artwork rising nine storeys high.
The mural, featuring over 150 faces from historical figures to local legends, celebrates the diverse and dynamic contributions of Jewish individuals to London’s history and culture in a colourful kaleidoscope that draws together memories, legends, history, celebrations and stories of the Jews who live, lived and passed through London.
The towering London Jewish Mural was unveiled at the JW3 cultural centre on Finchley Road in early July on a previously blank wall. The work takes the form of a Yiddish theatre straight from the 19th century East End. It takes a while to see the boxes, stage and seating, however, as every inch is packed with characters and objects.
The artwork was installed on 12 July 2024 by a team of abseilers who had to battle with the wind to pin it down. Fully unfurled, the banner transformed a once blank wall into that rich tapestry of London Jewish culture and history.
Leon Fenster’s collage features hundreds of people, places and items connected to the history of Jewish London, with over 150 faces and 100 stories from Jewish fiction, legend, history and the business world.
William Gallinsky, director of programming at JW3, which commissioned the mural, said: ‘London has a diverse Jewish community, with history and stories to match. Now, more than ever, we need to ensure that rich tapestry is shared with the whole of London. What better way to be loud, and proud of our heritage, than by putting it up on the side of our home for the world to see? Leon has captured the depth and breadth of Jewish London in a beautiful artwork that we hope will create countless conversations about multicultural London.’
Dame Vivien Duffield, founder of JW3, and CEO Raymond Simonson are there among all the faces on the wall, and, as we might expect, there are seven prominent rabbis, including Julia Neuberger and the late Jonathan Sacks.
Can you spot the boxers, bus stops and Oliver Cromwell? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Political figures range from Benjamin Disraeli, the only Jewish prime minister, celebrating the bar mitzvah he never had, to Karl Marx, who is buried in Highgate. But here too are Queen Elizabeth I at the trial of Rodrigo Lopez, her Jewish personal physician, and Oliver Cromwell, who allowed Jews to return to England in the 1650s.
There are Jewish boxers across the generations, including Daniel Mendoza, who appears on my own family tree, and the 1930s Olympic boxer Harry Mizler.
But what would Sigmund Freud think of being there alongside three agony aunts, Margorie Proops, Claire Rayner and Irma Kurtz? Maureen Lipman is grappling with a couple of phones, recreating Beatie who featured in BT television ads for many years.
There are copies of paintings by Marc Chagall, the comedian and author David Baddiel is up a ladder marking a tally on a wall – a reference to his book Jews Don’t Count – and the tiger and rabbit are from the children’s books by Judith Kerr.
The Beatles come back from the 1960s, thanks to their Jewish manager Brian Epstein, who steered their early look and style. Epstein gave them their first suits, inspired by Mod fashion, which was a Jewish phenomenon – the children of Jewish tailors wearing their parents’ creations. Indeed, the whole work has been compared on one site to Peter Blake’s famous Sergeant Pepper album cover.
There are the Beigel shops on Brick Lame, while a bus stop refers to Palwin wines, a Kosher brand that produces varieties 4, 4A, 10 and 11 – named after the bus routes that once ran past the firms offices in Whitechapel. A minibus weighed down by black hats and suitcases represents the Charedi community’s gradual migration from Stamford Hill to Canvey Island in Essex.
A young Nicholas Winton is seen overseeing the Kindertransport trains, there is a depiction of the Battle of Cable Street, and there are images of the Women’s Soviet Jewry Campaign.
Even the Golem of Prague appears, warding off Nazi planes during the Blitz by hanging off Saint Paul’s Cathedral like King Kong.
The Golem of Prague hangs off Saint Paul’s Cathedral like King Kong during the Blitz (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Leon Fenster’s art is a bold new form of visual storytelling. He began his career in architecture and his kaleidoscopic approach was inspired by his architectural background, giving a very distinctive character to his work.
Some weeks later, as I looked at Yip Yew Chong’s street art in Singapore, I was not surprised that during his time in Singapore, Taiwan and China Leon Fenster had been inspired by the density of Asian cities to develop the style he is now known for.
In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, Leon Fenster said the mural was ‘a collision of historical memories in a single space, an artwork that lets us inhabit our memories and dreams in the same way that we actually remember our memories within dreams. It's a kaleidoscope of the world of one community.’
I spent some time that afternoon viewing the mural in Finchley and yet did not spot everyone or everything. I had every good intention of returning to see the mural before the display came to an end. I hope it’s still there the next time I visit London.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
David Baddiel up a ladder marking a tally on a wall – a reference to his book ‘Jews Don’t Count’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Hampstead Synagogue on Dennington Park Road … designed by Delissa Joseph in ‘an Eclectic French Gothic-Romanesque style’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Patrick Comerford
Hampstead, Saint John’s Wood, and – above all – Golders Green and Stamford Hill – are the heart of London’s Jewish life, with a large number if synagogues and many kosher shops.
At the end of the 19th century, as the Jewish population gradually left the East End in London, some moved to Hampstead. Several associations came together to create a synagogue that would follow the German and Polish rites, and the Hampstead Synagogue was built in 1892.
During my recent but very short visit to Hampstead, I had all-too-brief look at Hampstead Synagogue on Dennington Park Road, West Hampstead.
Hampstead Synagogue is a brick building designed in the Neo-Romanesque style by the architect Nathaniel Delissa Isaac Joseph (1859-1927), known as Delissa Joseph. He was a nephew of the Jewish philanthropist, social reformer and architect Nathan Solomon Joseph (1834-1909), whose work included the Great Victoria Street synagogue in Belfast and Sandys Row Synagogue in Bishopsgate, London.
The doorway of Hampstead Synagogue has a stepped semicircular arched architrave (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Delissa Joseph attended Durham House School and the Jews’ College, and began to practice as an architect in 1882. He designed a number of synagogues, including the Hammersmith and West Kensington synagogue on Brook Green (1890, now the Chinese Church in London); Cardiff Synagogue (1896-1897, now demolished), South Hackney Synagogue (1897, now closed); Finsbury Park Synagogue (1901, now closed); South-East London Synagogue, New Cross (1904, destroyed in a German air raid, 1940); and the Sephardi synagogue, South Manchester (1925-1927).
He designed superstructures over the booking halls of many London Underground stations, including Moorgate Station Chambers, Oxford Circus House and Coburg Court Hotel above Queensway station.
He also designed a number of blocks of mansion flats in London, including those on Fitzgeorge and Fitzjames Avenue in West Kensington, Rutland Court and Rutland Gardens in Knightsbridge, and Chelsea Court and Chelsea Embankment Gardens.
His wife the artist and social campaigner Lily Delissa (Solomon) Joseph (1863-1940) was also an eminent figure in late 19th and early 20th century London. She trained at the South Kensington School of Art, and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. She was also a suffragette and in 1912 was detained at Holloway prison as a result of her campaigning. She was a leading figure in the Hammersmith Synagogue, setting up its Ladies’ Guild.
Delissa was supportive of her political activities, and the Jewish Chronicle described him as an ‘ardent supporter of the cause of women’s suffrage in synagogue affairs’.
The upper stages of the synagogue façade are dominated by a moulded semicircular arch with a large window (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Delissa Joseph designed Hampstead Synagogue in what has been described as an Eclectic French Gothic-Romanesque style. It is built in red brick with slate roofs and its plan is of an entrance hall to the front of centralised auditorium.
Outside, it has a three-stage central tower with a tall hipped roof, a moulded parapet and clasped buttresses that are continued as octagonal broached ogee-capped turrets.
The doorway has a stepped semicircular arched architrave. Its upper stages are dominated by a moulded semicircular arch with foliate capitals to engaged shafts of three orders flanking a large window set over two order shafts of flanking interlaced arches over narrow lancets.
The tower is flanked by two-storey blocks each having four round-arched lancets above moulded semicircular arched doorway. The two-storey outer blocks each have hood moulds over two round-arched windows to the rear of single-storey ranges each with three round-arched lancets.
The central dome to the rear, which I could not see during my short, brief visit, has lunettes with graduated arched lights to a central drum.
Inside the synagogue, the entrance hall has a coffered ceiling, a mosaic tile floor, two-bay semicircular arched arcades with foliate capitals to the outer bays and decorative wrought-iron balusters on the staircases.
Galleries flank the polygonal-plan centre with the ribs of the panelled dome springing from cast-iron columns with waterleaf capitals supported on octagonal marble piers with moulded abaci. These support the panelled balcony fronts on three sides.
The barrel-vaulted ark area has segmental-arched archivolts. The marble ark is in a classical style, with decorative wrought-iron doors and an overlight set in a semicircular arch flanked by Ionic columns and quadrants that terminate in coupled Ionic pilasters to the dentilled entablature and balustraded parapet.
A marble pulpit is in a similar style with balusters to the front and it is flanked by swept marble steps. I also understand the building has good stained glass.
Hampstead Synagogue was completed in 1901. It was designated a Grade II* Listed Building in 1989, and was restored in 2009-2011. The first service in the newly renovated synagogue building was held on Saturday 12 September 2009
Hampstead Synagogue is known for the beauty of the building, and the power of its choral services on High Holydays, and holds some of the largest seasonal celebrations in the area.
It is a member of the United Synagogue and has been led by Rabbi Dr Michael Harris since 1995. The synagogue holds learning events, concerts, and social meetings for the members and visitors.
Notable members in the past have included the philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997), who known for his conversational brilliance, his defence of liberalism and pluralism, his opposition to political extremism and intellectual fanaticism, and his accessible writings on people and ideas. An annual Isaiah Berlin Lecture is held at Hampstead Synagogue, at Wolfson College, Oxford, at the British Academy, and in Riga.
Hampstead Synagogue describes itself as a friendly, modern orthodox community characterised by a rich mixture of tradition and forward thinking, which it calls ‘Minhag Hampstead’. Under Rabbi Michael Harris, it combines an inclusive outlook with a belief in the importance of education and cross-community dialogue.
The Shabbat services embrace a lower-key, less formal style, where members of the community share the davening with the chazan Rabbi Shlomo Gerzi. On Friday nights, he leads services in the style of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.
Hampstead Synagogue is a fairtrade synagogue.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
Notable members of Hampstead Synagogue in the past have included Sir Isaiah Berlin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
Inside the Great Synagogue of Gibraltar or Shaar Hashamyim Synagogue, celebrating its 300th anniversary this week
Patrick Comerford
The Jewish Community in Gibraltar this week (7 November 2024) celebrated the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Great Synagogue of Gibraltar.
The history of the Jews in Gibraltar dates back more than 650 years. During that time, there have been periods of persecution, but for the most part the Jews of Gibraltar have prospered and been one of the largest religious minorities on ‘the Rock’.
Significantly, they have faced almost no official anti-Semitism over their centuries, and during Gibraltar’s tercentenary celebration in 2004, the former Chief Rabbi, the late Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, said, ‘In the dark times of expulsion and inquisition, Gibraltar lit the beacon of tolerance,’ and that Gibraltar In the dark times of expulsion and inquisition, Gibraltar lit the beacon of tolerance,’
The round-headed doorway and round-headed windows of the Great Synagogue in Gibraltar, founded 300 years ago by Isaac Nieto from Bevis Marks Synagogue in London
When I visited Gibraltar some years ago, the Jewish presence was visible on the streets, but I missed the opportunity to visit any of the four synagogues in the city. So it was interesting to hear this week about the celebrations marking the tercentenary of Shaar Hashamyim Synagogue, or the Great Synagogue in Gibraltar, the oldest synagogue in continuous use in Gibraltar, which was founded in 1724.
The Great Synagogue in Gibraltar was founded by Isaac Nieto, who was also the Haham or rabbi and spiritual leader of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation in London, Sha’are Hashamayim, popularly known as Bevis Marks Synagogue.
However, the first record of Jews in Gibraltar dates from 1356 CE, under Muslim rule, when the community appealed for help in securing the ransom of a group of Jews captured by Barbary pirates. In 1474, 12 years after the Christian takeover, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, sold Gibraltar to a group of Jewish conversos from Cordova and Seville led by Pedro de Herrera in exchange for maintaining the garrison of the town for two years.
When the two years were up, however, the 4,350 Jews in Gibraltar were expelled by the Duke, and their fate is unknown. Many may have returned to Cordova where they faced persecution at the Inquisition directed by Torquemada from 1488, until Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497.
Gibraltar came under British rule through the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Gibraltar came under British rule. But in the treaty, Spain insisted on including a clause barring Jews and Moors from the city. Under pressure from Spain, Jews were expelled Jews from Gibraltar once again in 1717. However, when Britain sought to reopen trade talks with the Sultan of Morocco, he refused to negotiate unless Jews and Muslims were allowed to settle in Gibraltar.
General William Hargrave, Governor of Gibraltar, presented a piece of land in Engineer Lane to a Jewish merchant, Isaac Nieto (1702-1774), in 1724, and he used the site to build a small synagogue.
Nieto was the Governor’s secretary when it came to relations with Morocco, and so was an influential figure.
Nieto had been born in Leghorn, the son of David Nieto (1654-1728), a doctor and rabbi from Venice. His father brought him to London at a young age when he became Chief Rabbi of the Sephardi congregation at Bevis Marks in 1702. Bevis Marks synagogue was founded from the Sephardi synagogue in Amsterdam, which explains many similarities with the features of the Sha’ar HaShamayim synagogue in Gibraltar.
The Great Synagogue in Gibraltar has been rebuilt several times over the past 300 years
Isaac Nieto is regarded as the founder and first religious leader of the modern Jewish community in Gibraltar. He organised the community in 1724 along similar lines to those at Bevis Marks and gave it the same name Kahal Kadosh Sha’ar HaShamayim or ‘Holy Congregation Gate of Heaven’. However, it became known as the Great Synagogue or Esnoga Grande, so the Great Synagogue in Gibraltar is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in Gibraltar.
Following the death of his father in 1728, Isaac Nieto returned to London and in 1732 he was appointed Chief Rabbi of the Bevis Marks Synagogue.
The Great Synagogue of Gibraltar at 49 Engineer Lane is behind a three-storey domestic-looking façade with round-headed windows and a round-headed doorway.
The Great Synagogue has been rebuilt several times in the 300 years that have followed. The original building had its entrance in what is now Serfaty’s Passage, but this building was destroyed in the great rainstorm of 30 December 1766, when 80 people drowned. This access, from a narrow alley was once colloquially referred to as ‘Synagogue Lane’.
The same storm caused a breach in the Line Wall that had to be hastily repaired by William Green and his engineers. A new larger building was built with a new entrance in Engineer Lane, and the date in Hebrew can still be seen on the façade. At the time, there were 600 Jews in Gibraltar, making up one-third of the civilian population.
The building, like most in the town, was destroyed again on 17 May 1781 during indiscriminate Spanish gunfire following the arrival of the second relief convoy escorted by Admiral Darby’s fleet.
The synagogue was rebuilt in 1812 after it was damaged by a fire and the present vaulted ceiling dates from that time. It is possible that the Engineer Street entrance dates from the 1812 rebuilding.
The present building shares many common features with the Spanish and Portuguese synagogues of Amsterdam (1675) and Bevis Marks in London (1701). The appearance is typical, with shuttered windows, although it lacks the characteristic iron works balconies of Regency Gibraltar. The plain building is rendered and painted with stone quoins and surrounds. The interior features include colourful tiles, wrought-iron balustrades, dark wooden furnishings and marble floors.
Some alterations were made in 1912, as the inscriptions in the stone window heads flanking the main door attests.
Irish Town in Gibraltar … the Ets Hayim (Tree of Life) or Little Synagogue (Esnoga Chica) was founded there in 1759 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Three other synagogues in Gibraltar function on Shabbat and feast days and can be found behind the façades of typical early 19th century terraces in the narrow streets of the Old Town.
The Ets Hayim (Tree of Life) or Little Synagogue (Esnoga Chica) was founded in 1759 by Moroccan Jews who wanted a less formal service. It still stands at 91 Irish Town. Irish Town is an important commercial street in the heart of Gibraltar. In Ulysses, James Joyce says Leopold Bloom’s wife Molly is from Gibraltar, and over the centuries many Governors were of Irish birth or from Irish families.
The lavish Flemish Synagogue (Esnoga Flamenca) or Nefutsot Yehuda (Dispersed of Judah) synagogue was built in 1799-1800 on Line Wall Road in response to the request of some people for a return to more formal, Dutch and London customs.
The fourth synagogue in Gibraltar, the Abudarham Synagogue (Esnoga Abudarham), was founded in 1820 at 19 Parliament Lane by recent Moroccan immigrants and is named after Rabbi Solomon Abudarham.
Most Jews were evacuated from Gibraltar to the United Kingdom during World War II (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
By 1805, Jews represented half of Gibraltar’s population.
Gibraltar City Hall on John Mackintosh Square, once known as Connaught House, was built in 1819 as his family home by Aaron Nunez Cardozo (1762-1834), a prosperous London merchant of Jewish Portuguese descent and consul for Tunis and Algiers in Gibraltar.
During World War II, most Jews were evacuated from Gibraltar to the United Kingdom during World War II. Some Jews opted to stay in the UK, but most returned after the war.
Several Jews have held senior positions in Gibraltar. Sir Joshua Hassan (1915-1997) was the Chief Minister in 1964-1969 and again in 1972-1987; his nephew Solomon Levy (1936-2016) was the Mayor of Gibraltar in 2008-2009.
Gibraltar today has a Jewish population of about 750, five kosher institutions, a Jewish primary school and two Jewish secondary schools.
Throughout the years, the Jewish community in Gibraltar has maintained strong links with the Spanish and Portugues community in Britain and Bevis Marks synagogue in London. More recently, Solomon Levy’s brother, Rabbi Abraham Levy (1939-2022), who was born in Gibraltar, was the senior rabbi at Bevis Marks from 1962 to 2012.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
The City Hall, Gibraltar … Solomon Levy (1936-2016) was the Mayor of Gibraltar in 2008-2009 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
