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GROUNDBREAKING NEW BOOK PUBLISHED
November
2006
Jewish Heritage in England
English
Heritage has published Jewish Heritage in England,
the first ever comprehensive guidebook to England's
historic synagogues and sites.
Jewish Heritage in England, published in
association with Jewish Heritage, celebrates in full
colour the architectural heritage of 350 years of the
Jewish community, the oldest non-Christian minority in
England. It is based on the authoritative Survey
of the Jewish Built Heritage carried out
with the support of English Heritage, but appears at a
time when Anglo-Jewry has shrunk in size by almost a third
and congregations have abandoned urban centres, leaving
some of the country's most spectacular religious
architecture with an uncertain future. English Heritage's Inspired!
campaign launched last summer (see below) aims to secure a
future for historic places of worship of all faiths,
including synagogues as well as churches.
Jewish Heritage in England covers more than 300
sites organised on a region-by-region basis, ranging from
Britain's oldest synagogue, Bevis Marks Synagogue in the
City of London, through the Georgian gems of the West
Country to the splendid High Victorian "cathedral
synagogues" of Birmingham, Brighton and Liverpool.
Heritage trails around former Jewish quarters of the major
cities are featured, beginning with the East End of
London. Relics of Anglo-Jewry's medieval past are explored
in York, Lincoln and Norwich and venerable burial grounds
with Hebrew inscriptions are found in the unlikeliest of
places. Curious oddities not to be missed include a 19th
century private penthouse synagogue in Brighton and an
Egyptian style Mikveh [ritual bath] in Canterbury.
A valuable appendix covers Jewish sites elsewhere in the
UK, in Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, the Isle of
Man, Northern Ireland, and in the Irish Republic.
The book's author, Dr Sharman Kadish (Director of
Jewish Heritage), said, "England's historic
synagogues express the stability of Jewish life in this
country, which we are celebrating this year, the 350th
year since the re-establishment of the Jewish community in
England (1656-2006)." |
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150th BIRTHDAY BASH IN BRUM
September
2006
Singers Hill Synagogue |
| Birmingham's
Singers Hill Synagogue was packed for a choral Selihot
service a few days before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish
New Year. The special occasion, which was presided over by
the Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks, and attended by Jewish
Heritage Director Dr Sharman Kadish, doubled as an
opportunity to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the
senior "cathedral synagogue" of England, which
was opened back in September 1856. In recent years, owing
to dwindling membership, the building has been fighting
hard to stave off the possibility of redundancy. Situated
in the middle of a neighbourhood that is rapidly being
regenerated, the signs are now good for its long-term
future. Worshippers were treated to a fine rendition of
the traditional prayers by Hazan Lionel Rosenfeld
and the Shabbaton Choir, enhanced by the excellent
acoustics of the building. |
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MIXED NEWS ON INTER-WAR SYNAGOGUES
“INSPIRED!”
CAMPAIGN FOR
CHURCHES - AND
SYNAGOGUES TOO!
May
2006
Higher Crumpsall Synagogue in Manchester under repair
(©
English Heritage Photo: Keith Buck)
English
Heritage, the leading organisation for the historic
environment in Britain, has launched Inspired!, a
major campaign to secure a future for historic places of
worship nationwide: www.english-heritage.org.uk/inspired.
Whilst thousands of historic churches are threatened
with redundancy and deterioration, a tiny number of
historic synagogues also face a continuing battle to
survive. “England’s historic synagogues express the
stability of Jewish life in this country, which we are
celebrating this year, the 350th year since the
re-establishment of the Jewish community in England
[1656-2006]”, says Dr Sharman Kadish, Director of
Jewish Heritage UK.
Dr
Kadish represented Jewish Heritage UK
at Inspired! launch events in London: a reception
at the House of Commons hosted by the Rt Hon. Frank
Dobson MP and a glittering dinner (kosher food kindly
provided) presided over by Simon Thurley, Chief
Executive of English Heritage. Guest of Honour was His
Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester and, in addition
to heritage professionals and church leaders,
celebrities from politics, the media and entertainment
were present, including composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and
journalist Simon Jenkins, author of Britain’s 1000
Best Churches.
The Inspired! campaign literature
highlights the case of the former New
Synagogue, Egerton Road in London’s
Stamford Hill. This synagogue has been restored and
given a new lease of life as the Hasidic Bobov
Synagogue, thanks to grant-aid under the English
Heritage and Heritage Lottery Fund Joint
Repair Grant Scheme for Listed Places of
Worship.
The Joint Places of Worship Repair Grant Scheme is set
to continue and to be enhanced as part of the Inspired!
campaign. Indeed,
amongst lucky recipients of new grants announced as part
of the package is Higher Crumpsall Synagogue in Salford,
Greater Manchester which is to receive a further £151,000.
This new grant is in addition to an original grant of £130,000
made in 2004.
Ironically,
during the very week of the launch of Inspired!,
news broke that the former Clapton
Federation Synagogue, situated not very
far from Egerton Road, had been stripped bare of its
fixtures and fittings, including the attractive Ark.
This 1930s synagogue was sold in 2005 to a Jewish
charitable trust; apparently the new owners were afraid
that it was about to be Listed. DEMOLISHED July
2006. |
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MIXED NEWS ON INTER-WAR SYNAGOGUES
March
2006 |
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Art Deco
"Vision of the Temple" window at Higher
Crumpsall Synagogue
(Photo: Bob Skingle
Copyright © English Heritage)
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Manchester’s
Higher Crumpsall is under Repair
Major repair work to one of Britain’s most
important 1920s synagogues, Higher Crumpsall Synagogue
in Salford, Greater Manchester, is finally underway, supported
by a grant of £130,000 from the English Heritage and Heritage
Lottery Fund Joint Listed Places of Worship Grants
Scheme. It is anticipated that Phase I repairs to the Grade II
Listed building will be completed by Heritage
Open Days in September 2006. For more on
this story see Sites
at Risk. |
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Meanwhile,
on the other side of the city, the fate of South
Manchester’s two Sephardi synagogues in Didsbury is to be
decided by market forces. Withington Synagogue, Queenston
Road and Sha’are Tsedek Synagogue, just around
the corner in Old Lansdowne Road, have both been put up
for sale, but only one of them will be sold. The Sephardi and Mizrakhi
communities in the neighbourhood have dwindled in recent years
and no longer require both buildings that were erected in the
1920s. It is
expected that the extensive Sha’are Tsedek site will be sold
for redevelopment, the congregations combining forces at
Withington (Delissa Joseph with Joseph Sunlight 1925-27, Grade
II Listed). |
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Sunderland’s last remaining synagogue at Ryhope Road
has held its final service. This Grade II Listed synagogue,
designed by little known Newcastle Jewish architect Marcus K.
Glass, is an essay in Art Deco Ottoman,
rated by Pevsner as ‘vigorous and decorative’. The
building was sold to a Jewish charitable trust some years ago
and it is to be hoped that a sympathetic new use can be found
for the synagogue in a town which was once a bastion of Jewish
Orthodoxy. The almost identical but unlisted sister Clapton
Federation Synagogue in London, also by Glass, closed in
May 2005 and was DEMOLISHED July 2006. |
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Birmingham’s
Art Deco Synagogue is Demolished
February
2006 Ernest
Joseph’s unlisted International Style Birmingham
Progressive Synagogue, Sheepcote Street, was finally
demolished - on Shabbat
- [Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath] in redevelopment plans
that have been in the offing for at least eight years. The
reinvention of Birmingham city centre seems unstoppable. The
synagogue is due to be replaced by a new worship space inside
an office block less than a quarter of a mile away in a deal
worked out with the developer who has acquired both sites. But
will the planned ‘Shul-in-an office block’ be a
worthy successor? At least the charming Art Deco Ark has been
salvaged from Sheepcote Street. Ernest Joseph designed Shell
Mex House, an Art Deco London landmark.
The sad fate of the Birmingham Progressive
Synagogue draws attention to the vulnerability of the few good
inter-war synagogues in Britain that remain unaltered. |
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