Page created: 21 August 2005
Latest revision or update: 30 March 2013

Birmingham & District Jewish Community

City of Birmingham
and the Boroughs of Solihull and Walsall

Birmingham, in the English Midlands, is the second largest city in England, with a population of approximately one million.  In the vicinity of Birmingham are a number of towns whose Jewish communities have looked to the Birmingham community for support or shares facilities, including Walsall immediately to Birmingham's northwest and Solihull immediately to Birmingham's southeast.  

Until 1974, Birmingham, Solihull and Walsall were county boroughs, the first two in the county of Warwickshire and Walsall in the county of Staffordshire. Each then became metropolitan boroughs within the newly created metropolitan county of West Midlands (the areas of Solihull and Walsall being increased at the time by the incorporation of adjoining areas).  These metropolitan boroughs became unitary authorities in 1986, when West Midlands lost its administrative county status, becoming purely a ceremonial and geographical county.  Solihull had been an urban district until 1964, when it received county borough status.

Birmingham Jewish Community

The Jewish Congregations

The following congregations are, or were, considered to be part of the Birmingham & District Community

• Birmingham Central Synagogue (active)

• Birmingham Hebrew Congregation (active)

• Birmingham Home for Aged Jews Synagogue  (closed)

• Birmingham Lubavitch Centre (active)

• Birmingham New Synagogue (closed - merged with Birmingham Hebrew Congregation)

• Birmingham Progressive Synagogue (active)

• Birmingham's first Jewish congregations (to 1856)

• Midland Reform Synagogue Movement (closed 1970)

• Solihull & District Hebrew Congregation (active)

• Walsall Hebrew Congregation (closed)

The following are former or alternative names of the above congregations:

• Beth Hamedrash - see Birmingham Central Synagogue

• Birmingham Liberal Jewish Synagogue - see Birmingham Progressive Synagogue

• Froggery Synagogue - see Birmingham's first Jewish congregations

• Hurst Street Synagogue (1800's) - see Birmingham's first Jewish congregations

• Hurst Street Synagogue (1900's) - see Birmingham New Synagogue

• Park Road Synagogue - see Birmingham New Synagogue

• Severn Street Synagogue - see Birmingham's first Jewish congregations

• Singers Hill Synagogue - see Birmingham Hebrew Congregation

• Wrottesley Street Synagogue (1800's) - see  Birmingham's first Jewish congregations

• Wrottesley Street Synagogue (1900's) - see Birmingham Central Synagogue

Articles on the Birmingham Jewish Community

Birmingham  from "Provincial Jewry in Victorian Britain"  - Papers for a conference at University College, London, convened by the Jewish Historical Society of Great Britain, prepared by Aubrey Newman - 6th July 1975.  Reproduced here with his kind consent.

A Portrait of Birmingham Jewry 1851- Birmingham Jewish Local History Study Group

The Rise of Provincial Jewry - Birmingham by Cecil Roth, 1950. Available on JCR-UK as part of the Susser Archive.

Jewish Encyclopedia article on Birmingham by Joseph Jacobs and Leopold J.Greenberg, c-1906.

Birmingham Jewish Communities - History and Reality (at http://www.brijnet.org/birmingham/history.html) by Arthur Chesses.

On-line article,  Jews of Medieval Warwick from the Victoria County History of Warwickshire, volume 8 (1969), pp. 486-7.

Other Birmingham Jewish Institutions

King David School, founded 1865 - www.kingdavid.bham.sch.uk

Jewish Population Data

Other Birmingham Jewish Information

Jewish Property and Heritage & Places of Local Interest

Bibliography and other sources

Birmingham Cemetery Information (IAJGS Cemetery Project)

Warwick Medieval Jewish Community

Jewish Congregations in West Midlands

Jewish Communities of England home page

Explanations of Terms Used