JCR-UK

Birmingham & District Community

Created 21 August 2005
Last Updated 16 October 2008

Enter text to search
and choose the type of search

this search will only return records associated with the
Birmingham Community, for a fuller search please Click Here

Birmingham Burials (5,682 records) - including images of grave stones:
- Brandwood End Cemetery (Jewish Section) 1918 - 2005 (620 records)
  (Note: Database only includes details of legible stones and a number of section and row numbers are not correct.)
- Old Witton Cemetery 1875 - 1977 (1,767 records)
  (Note: Database only includes details of legible stones and a number of section and row numbers are not correct.)
- Witton Cemetery 1938 - 2006 (3,295 records)
  (Note: Database also includes details where writing on stone is not legible. Several of the images have the reflection of the photographer and will be replaced in due course.)

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.

Jewish Community

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 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.

Jewish Population Data

1730
1851
1895
1909
1934
1946
1955
1965
1990
2004

- First Jewish settlement (possibly earlier)
- 752 (Professor Aubrey Newman)
- 3,000 to 4,000 (The Jewish Year Book 1896)
- 5,000 (The Jewish Year Book 1910)
- 6,000 (The Jewish Year Book 1935)
- 6,000 for Birmingham and 49 for Walsall (The Jewish Year Book 1947)
- 6,300 (The Jewish Year Book 1956)
- 6,300 (The Jewish Year Book 1966)
- 3,500 (The Jewish Year Book 1991)
- 2,343 for Birmingham and 389 for Solihull (The Jewish Year Book 2005)

Other Birmingham Information

Jewish Property and Heritage & Places of Local Interest

Bibliography, Local Research Libraries and other sources

Birmingham Cemetery Information

Warwick Medieval Jewish Community

If you have anything to add to this section please contact JCR-UK

About JCR-UK | JCR-UK home page | Contact JCR-UK Coordinator