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THE
JEWISH COMMUNITY OF LEEDS
City of Leeds
The present boundaries of the officially-named City of Leeds metropolitan
borough, in Northern England, date from
1974, when the county borough of Leeds was merged with a number of other
localities from West Riding of Yorkshire to
form the metropolitan district (later borough) within the then new metropolitan county of West
Yorkshire. Leeds became a unitary authority in 1986 when West Yorkshire
lost its administrative status, becoming purely a ceremonial county.
The Leeds Jewish community is the second largest provincial
community in Britain (exceeded only by Manchester), currently numbering over
8,000 (out of a total population of approximately for 430,000 for Leeds itself
and 730,000 for the whole metropolitan borough). The community only really became established in 1840, much later than many
other communities. By the 1870's, most of the community lived in, or close
to, the very
poor Leylands district, which was almost a Jewish ghetto. The Jews
gradually moved to the north, partly as a result of slum clearance schemes which
started in 1907 and very few were left in Leylands by the late 1930's. They
initially settled in the Chapeltown district, and from the 1950's, moved further
north to the vicinity of Moortown and the Ring Road (Alwoodley).
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List of Jewish Collections
held by the
West Yorkshire Archive Service Leeds
The following congregations are, or were, considered to be part of the
Leeds Community. (If you cannot trace the congregation in the list below, try
searching in the list of alternative names.):
Agudas Israel Synagogue
Ahavas Achim Bnei Lodz Synagogue
Amalgamation of
Synagogues
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue
*
Chapeltown Hebrew
Congregation
(Closed - a constituent of
United Hebrew Congregation)
Chassidishe Synagogue *
Chevra Chaye Adam
Chevra Sefard Congregation
Chevra Sesmer Congregation
Chevra Shilleler Congregation
Chevra Torah Congregation
(Merged
into Beth Hamedrash Hagadol)
Copenhagen Street Chevra
(Merged into Great Synagogue)
Donisthorpe Hall
Minyan *
Etz Chaim Synagogue *
Great North
Synagogue
Great Synagogue
(Closed - a
constituent of United Hebrew Congregation)
Hillel House
Minyan *
Leeds Jewish Workers' Burial and
Trading Society
Congregation
(succeeded by
New Central Synagogue)
Leeds Masorti Synagogue
*
Leeds Zionist
Synagogue
(Merged
into Beth Hamedrash Hagadol)
Louis Street Synagogue
Lovell Street
Synagogue
Moortown
Synagogue (Replaced - a
constituent of United Hebrew
Congregation)
Neir Tamid Chevra
(Merged into Great
Synagogue)
New Briggate
Synagogue
(Succeeded by New Synagogue)
New Central Synagogue
(Merged to form New Central Vilna Synagogue)
New Central Vilna
Synagogue
(Merged into Etz Chaim Synagogue)
New Leeds Congregation
(Closed - a constituent of
United Hebrew
Congregation)
New Synagogue
(Closed - a constituent of
United Hebrew Congregation)
Old Central Synagogue
(Merged
into Beth Hamedrash Hagadol)
Psalms of David and Talmud
Synagogue
(Merged into New Central
Vilna Synagogue)
Queenshill Synagogue *
Roundhay Road Chevra
(Merged
into Beth Hamedrash Hagadol)
Shalom Beth Hamedrash
Shomrei Hadass Congregation *
Sinai
Synagogue (Reform) *
Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue
Talmudical Synagogue
(Merged with Psalms of David
Congregation)
United Hebrew Congregation *
Vilna Synagogue
(Merged to form New Central Vilna Synagogue)
*
Denotes active congregation
Articles on the Leeds Community
The Rise of Provincial Jewry -
Leeds by Cecil Roth, 1950. Available
on JCR-UK as part of the Susser Archive.
1840
1841
1846
1850
1877
1895
1934
1945
1955
1964
1988
2004
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- Approximate date of earliest organized Jewish
Community in Leeds
- 60 (9 families and 28 male lodgers)
(1841 census,
per Murray Freedman's "Leeds - The First Hundred Years")
- Establishment of first Synagogue
(see
Great Synagogue)
- 100 (Murray Freedman's profile on Leeds Jewry)
- about 500 families (The Jewish Chronicle)
- 10,000 (The Jewish Year Book 1896)
- 25,000* (The Jewish Year Book 1935)
- 25,000* (The Jewish Year Book 1945-6)
- 25,000* (The Jewish Year Book 1956)
- 18,000 (Study by Louis Sape)
- 10,500 (Murray Freedman's profile on Leeds Jewry)
- 8,267 (The Jewish Year Book 2005)
* These figures are disputed in
"Leeds Jewry - A Demographical and Sociological Profile" by Murray
Freedman, in which it is claimed that the highest number Leeds Jewry
ever achieved was possibly around 22,000 in the late 1920's and early
1930's. The Jewish Year Book 1991 also gives a figure for Leeds of
12,000, substantially above Murray's figure for a couple of years
earlier |
Other Leeds Information
Jewish
Property and Heritage & Places of Local Interest
Local
Research Libraries, Bibliography and other sources
Leeds
Cemetery Information
Medieval Community in Knaresborough
The following are former, alternative or unofficial names for some of the congregations
listed above:
Agudah Synagogue - see
Agudas Israel Synagogue
Agudas Hazionim Synagogue
- see
Leeds Zionist
Synagogue
Albert Grove Synagogue
- see
Psalms of David and Talmud
Synagogue
Back Rockingham Street Synagogue
- see
Great Synagogue
Belgrave Street Synagogue- see
Great Synagogue
Beth Hamidrash Chevra Shass
- see
Talmudical Synagogue
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol (Chapeltown)
- see
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol
Synagogue
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol (Moortown)
- see
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol
Synagogue
Brunswick Street Synagogue
- see
Leeds Zionist
Synagogue
Byron Street Synagogue - see
Louis Street Synagogue
Central Synagogue
- see
New Central Synagogue
and
Old Central
Synagogue
Chapeltown United Synagogue
- see
Chapeltown Hebrew
Congregation
Chevra Shass - see Talmudical
Synagogue
Chevra Sward - see
Chevra Sefard Congregation
Chevra Tehillim
- see Psalms of
David and Talmud Synagogue
Crimbles Street Synagogue - see
Talmudical Synagogue
Elmwood Green Synagogue - see
Chevra Shilleler
"Englisher Shul" - see
Great Synagogue
Federation Synagogue
- see
Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue
Francis Street Synagogue
- see
Chapeltown Hebrew
Congregation
"Grinner Shul" - see
New Synagogue
Herzl Moser Zionist Synagogue
- see
Leeds Zionist
Synagogue
Hope Street Synagogue
- see
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol
Synagogue
Lady Lane Synagogue
- see Leeds
Jewish Workers' Burial and
Trading Society Congregation
Leeds Reform Synagogue - see
Sinai Synagogue
Lowkever Synagogue
- see
Chapeltown Hebrew
Congregation
Lodzer Chevra - see Ahavas
Achim Bnei Lodz Synagogue
Mariempoler Synagogue - see
Old Central Synagogue
Newton Park Road Synagogue
- see
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol
Synagogue
Northfield Terrace Synagogue - see
Chevra Torah
Old Central Hebrew Congregation
- see
Old Central Synagogue
Old Hebrew Congregation - see
Great Synagogue
Parkside Synagogue
- see
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue
Polish Synagogue - see
Louis Street Synagogue
Psalms of David Congregation
- see
Psalms of David and Talmud
Synagogue
Regent Street Beth Hamedrash
- see
Amalgamation of Synagogues
Reginald Terrace Synagogue
- see
Psalms of David and Talmud
Synagogue
Sephardic Synagogue
- see
Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue
Shadwell Lane Synagogue
- see
United Hebrew Congregation
Sholebroke Terrace Synagogue
- see
Shalom Beth Hamedrash
Spencer Place Synagogue - see
Chassidishe Synagogue
St. Alban's Street Synagogue
- see
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol
Synagogue;
Leeds Zionist
Synagogue and
Old Central
Synagogue
St. John's Place Synagogue - - see
New Synagogue
Street Lane Synagogue
- see
Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue
Wintoun Street Synagogue - see
New Central Synagogue
Victoria Place Synagogue - see
Old Central Synagogue
Zionist Synagogue - see
Leeds Zionist
Synagogue
Communities researched and reformatted for JCR-UK by
David Shulman
Updated 10 January 2008
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