Edinburgh Jewish Community

Edinburgh, Scotland

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congregations throughout the British Isles and Gibraltar, both past and present.
NOTE: We are not the official website for this community.

City of Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital and second largest city in Scotland. It is situated on the east coast of Scotland's central lowlands on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. Since 1996, the City of Edinburgh, including surrounding villages, has constituted a self-contained unitary local authority, with a population of about 450,000, and from 1975 to 1996 it formed a district of the now defunct Lothian Region. Prior to 1975, Edinburgh was in the traditional county of Midlothian. Although Leith, the port of Edinburgh, had historically been a separate burgh, it has been administered as part of Edinburgh since 1920.

The Edinburgh Jewish Community

Edinburgh is where the first professing Jew settled in Scotland, a David Brown in 1691. The Edinburgh Town Council and Burgess Roll minutes of 1691 and 1717 both recorded applications by Jews to reside and trade in Edinburgh. A small Jewish community was founded in the early 1800s or possibly earlier, with the first synagogue opened in 1816/17.

Jewish Congregations

The following are the Jewish congregations that existed in Edinburgh:

Dalry Road Synagogue (closed about 1914)
Edinburgh Central Synagogue / Roxburgh Place Synagogue / Edinburgh Beth Hamedrash (merged into the Hebrew Congregation 1932)
Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation*
Edinburgh New Hebrew Congregation /Richmond Street Synagogue (closed 1921)
Guthrie Street Congregation (early 19th century)
Independent Hebrew Congregation (1920s)
Sukkat Shalom - Edinburgh Liberal Community*

* An active congregation.

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

Beth Hamedrash - see Edinburgh Central Synagogue, etc
"Blecheneh Shul" - see Dalry Road Synagogue
"Bolshie Shul" - see see Edinburgh Central Synagogue, etc.
Caledonian Crescent Congregation - see Dalry Road Synagogue
Edinburgh Liberal Synagogue - see Sukkat Shalom - Edinburgh Liberal Community
Edinburgh Reform Hebrew Community (until March 2004) - now Sukkat Shalom - Edinburgh Liberal Community
"Englisher Shul" - see Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation
Graham Street Synagogue - see Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation
"Greener Shul" - see Edinburgh New Hebrew Congregation
Leith Central Hebrew Congregation - see Edinburgh Central Synagogue, etc. (footnote (x))
Nicholson Street Synagogue - see Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation
Park Place Synagogue - see Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation
Richmond Street Synagogue - see Edinburgh New Hebrew Congregation
Richmond Court Congregation - see Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation
Ross House Synagogue - see Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation
Roxburgh Place Beth Hamedrash - see Edinburgh Central Synagogue, etc.
Salisbury Road Synagogue - see Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation
South Clerk Street Synagogue - see Edinburgh Central Synagogue, etc.

Search the All-UK Database

The records in the database associated with Edinburgh include:

Burials on JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Register (JOWBR):
- Braid Place Cemetery (29 records); and
- Echobank (Newington) Cemetery (Jewish Section) (130 records).
UK Jewish Communal Leaders Database: - Edinburgh records:
- Jewish Directory for 1874 and Jewish Year Book 1896/7 (records of 22 individuals); and
- JCR-UK Listings (records of 39 individuals - as of the March 2024 update).
1851 Anglo Jewry Database (as of the 2016 update):
- Individuals in the "1851" database who were living in Edinburgh during the 1800s (1 record); 1810s (1 record); 1820s (25 records), 1830s (43 records), 1840s (42 records), 1850s (67 records), 1860s (15 records), 1870s (9 records), 1880s (3 records), 1900s (3 records) and 1910s (1 record).

Online Articles and Other Material
relating to the Edinburgh Jewish Community

on JCR-UK

The Rise of Provincial Jewry - Edinburgh by Cecil Roth, 1950, covering the period to 1840. Available on JCR-UK as part of the Susser Archive.
Provincial Jewry in Victorian Britain - papers for a conference at University College, London, convened by the Jewish Historical Society of England, prepared by Aubrey Newman - 6th July 1975:
- Paper on Edinburgh prepared from material by A. Levy.
- Chief Rabbi's Questionnaire of 1845 - Edinburgh Congregational & Charitable Data and Edinburgh Educational Data & Other Remarks.
- Zionism in Edinburgh, section of the paper 'Zionism in Provincial Britain', by Dr. S. Levenberg.
Circumcision Register for Edinburgh, 1831-1838. (Part of the Susser Archive.)
Gallery of Photographs of Edinburgh Synagogue and Piershill Cemetery, Jewish Section, by Steven Jolles, 2025
Jewish Listed Heritage Sites in Edinburgh.
Bibliography.

on Third Party Websites

Edinburgh Jewish Community on Scottish Jewish Archives Centre website.
Edinburgh Jewish History on the Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation website.
Jewish Encyclopaedia article on Edinburgh by Joseph Jacobs and Isadore Harris, c-1906.
For photographs and text on the Sciennes House Place (formerly Braid Place) Cemetery, the first Jewish cemetery in Scotland, see below.

Some Notable Jewish Connections with Edinburgh
(prepared primarily by Steven Jaffe)

Ruth Margaret Adler (née Oppenheimer) (1944-1994) was a feminist, human rights campaigner and child welfare advocate in Scotland. She died in Edinburgh.
Rabbi Dr. Louis Rabinowitz (1906-1984), born in Edinburgh, became chief rabbi of South Africa. Son of Rabbi Jacob Rabinowitz.
Max Born (1882-1970) was a German physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He was Tait Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh (1936-1952). Nobel Prize winner in Physics (1954).
Lionel Henry Daiches (1911-1999), son of Rabbi Dr Salis Daiches, was a Scottish QC and Liberal Party politician. His brother David Daiches CBE (1912-2005), was a literary historian, scholar and writer, and author of the memoir Two Worlds. An Edinburgh Jewish childhood.
Jenni Calder (b.1941), daughter of David Daiches, Edinburgh based literary and arts figure, who wrote about her multiple identities in her book, Not Nebuchadnezzar.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind KCMG QC (b. Edinburgh 1946) was Conservative MP for Edinburgh Pentlands (February 1974 to 1997) and Kensington (2005 to 2015). He was a senior Government minister between 1986 and 1997, as Secretary of State for Scotland, Transport, Defence and Foreign Secretary.
Hugo Rifkind (b. Edinburgh 1977), Times columnist, writer and broadcaster, son of Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
Muriel Spark (née Camberg) (1918-2006), born in Edinburgh, novelist, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, had a Jewish father and maternal grandmother. A convert to Catholicism, her novel set in Jerusalem, Mandelbaum Gate, deals with her complex sense of identity.
Samuel Robin Spark (1938-2016), Edinburgh based artist, estranged son of Muriel Spark. An active member of the Edinburgh Jewish community.

Edinburgh Jewish Cemeteries Information

The Scottish Jewish Cemeteries website, created and maintained by Derek Tobias, includes a searchable database in respect of burials at all the Edinburgh Jewish cemeteries.

Edinburgh has the following Jewish cemeteries:

Carlton Hill Cemetery - "In 1795, the Town Council sold a plot of ground on the Calton Hill to Hermon Lyon, a Jewish dentist, to provide a burial place for himself and his family." [Source: The Jewish Travel Guide. London: Jewish Chronicle, 1992]
Braid Place (now Sciennes House Place) Old Jews Burial Ground, off Causewayside. In use from 1820 (or possibly 1790) until 1867. Contains some 29 burials (searchable in JOWBR database, see above).
The burial ground is a Scottish Category B Listed Building (number LB30476), designated on 3 March 1990. View description on Historic Environment Scotland website.
See also photographs and text on the Sciennes House Place Cemetery on Cemetery Scribes website.
Newington Cemetery, Jewish Section (also known as Echobank Cemetery), Dalkieith Road. EH16. In use from 1867 until about 1918. Some 130 burials (searchable in JOWBR database, see above).
A Scottish Category B Listed Building.
Piershill Cemetery, Jewish Section, Piersfield Terrace, Portobello, EH8. In use from 1892 (or possibly 1889). The largest of the three cemeteries.
Dean Cemetery (Extension), Liberal Jewish Section, 63 Dean Path, Edinburgh EH4 3AT. Succah Shalom, Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community has reserved plots in the new part of this cemetery.

(For additional information, see IAJGS Cemetery Project - Edinburgh)

Other Edinburgh Jewish Institutions & Organisations^(xx)
(See congregation page for institution wholly associated
with the Edinburh Hebrew Congregation)

Educational

Hebrew and Religious School - founded 1891.^(xxi) The school, at the premises of the Hebrew Congregation, met every afternoon from five until seven o'clock.

Welfare, Religious & Communal Organisations

Benevolent Loan Society, founded in 1891, to provide loans to Industrious poor,^(xxii) probably originally established as the Hebrew Philanthropic Society, founded in 1838.^(xxiii)
Ladies' "Lying-In" Society, founded by 1875, to assist poor lying-in women.^(xxiv)
Jewish Board of Guardians, initially founded some time prior to 1896, but apparenty disbanded. Re-established in 1899.^(xxv)
Jewish Bread Meat & Coal Society, founded by 1904 by Rabbi Jacob Rabinowitz.
Jewish Independent Burial Society (Chevra Kadisha), founded in by 1904.
Hebrew Working Men's Sick Benefit and Divisional Society, founded in by 1906.
Jewish Naturalisation Society, founded by 1906.
Rabbis Fund Society, founded by 1912.
Jewish Representative Council , founded by 1916 (possibly only of short duration).
Board of Shechita, founded by 1919.
Jewish Convalescent Home in Scotland, Edinburgh Committee, founded by 1921.
Gertrude Jacobson Jewish Orphanage, Edinburgh Aid Committee, founded by 1921.
O.Z.E., edinburgh branch founded by 1927.
Edinburgh Jewish Refugees Aid Committee, founded by 1939.
Women's Appeal Committee, founded by 1939.
Jewish War Services Committee, founded by 1945.
Trades Advisory Council, branch founded by 1946.
Jewish Old Age Home for Scotland, formerly the Scottish Home for Aged Jews, Edinburgh committee, founded by 1948.
Jewish Defence Committee, founded by 1948.

Friendly and Loan Societies and Lodges

Grand Order of Israel, King Edward VII Lodge No 13 (First Lodge of Scotland), founded by 1906.
Maccabaean Friendly Society, founded by 1915.
Achei Brith, founded by 1916.
Masonic Solomon Lodge, No. 1209, founded by 1921.
Independent Order of B'nei B'rith, Dr. Salis Daiches Lodge (First Lodge of Scotland), founded by 1926.
B'nei B'rith, Dr. Salis Daiches Lodge (First Ladies' Lodge of Scotland, No. 97), founded by 1932.
Independent Order of B'nei B'rith Friendly Society, King David Lodge No. 19, founded by 1934.
Association of Jewish Friendly Societies, Mount Moria Lodge No. 20, founded by 1950.

Social, Cultural, Youth & Sports

Jewish Literary Society, founded 1886, among the oldest (if not, the oldest) of such societies in Britain.^(xxviii)
Anglo Jewish Association, branch founded by 1900.^(xxix)
Jewish Amateur Orchestral Society, founded by 1900.
Edinburgh Hebrew Literature Society, founded by 1905.
Edinburgh University Jewish Society, founded by 1909, possibly the earliest university Jewish society founded outside London
Jewish Boys' Association, previously Jewish Young Men's Association, founded by 1914.
Jewish Entertainment Society, founded by 1914.
Jewish Ladies' Social Club, founded by 1915.
Junior Maccabaean, founded by 1924.
Jewish Boy Scouts, group founded by 1924.
Jewish Girl Guides, group founded by 1924.
Junior Boy Club, founded by 1927.
Jewish Dramatic Society, initially the Jewish Operatic Society, founded by 1928.
Jewish Institute, founded by 1929.
League of Nations Union Jewish Branch, founded by 1924.
Association of Jewish Ex-Service Men and Women (AJEX) formerly Jewish Ex-Service Men' Association Edinburgh branch founded by 1932.
Jewish Youth Centre, founded by 1934.
Maccabi Association, Edinburgh club founded by 1938.
Friendship Club, founded by 1971.
Edinburgh Star, community journal established by 1991.

Zionist & Other Israel Organisations

Zionist Association (Achei Zion), Edinburgh branch founded by 1911.
Daughters of Zion, branch founded by 1911.
Young Man's Zionist Cultural Association, founded by 1911.
WIZO (formerly Women's Zionist Society and Edinburgh Ladies' Zionist Society) branch founded by 1924.
JNF Commission, branch founded by 1927.
Poale Zion, branch founded by 1939.
Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, branch founded by 1949.
Friends of Anti-Tuberculosis League of Israel, branch founded by 1952.
Israel Aid Society, branch founded by 1954.
Youth Aliyah, branch founded by 1954.
Jewish Israel Appeal, formerly Jewish Palestine Appeal, branch founded by 1956.
Edinburgh Friends of Israel, founded by 1972. [jyb1973]
Scottish Friends of Alyn, founded by 2006. [jyb2007]

Edinburgh Jewish Population Data
Year	Number	Source

1816	20 families	Congregation's website, first accessed 2017
1835	20 families	Statistical Account of Scotland
1896	250 families	The Jewish Year Book 1896/7
1901	300 families	The Jewish Year Book 1901/2
1908	400 families	The Jewish Year Book 1909
1909	1,800	The Jewish Year Book 1910
1915	2,000	The Jewish Year Book 1916
1945	1,500	The Jewish Year Book 1945/6
1952	1,400	The Jewish Year Book 1953
1962	1,700	The Jewish Year Book 1963
1966	1,100	The Jewish Year Book 1967
1974	980	The Jewish Year Book 1975
1978	700	The Jewish Year Book 1979
1984	600	The Jewish Year Book 1985
1990	500	The Jewish Year Book 1991
2001	762	Census 2001 for Scotland
2011	855	Census 2011 for Scotland
2021	1,250	Census 2021 for Scotland

Notes & Sources
(↵ returns to text above)

(i) - (xix) Reserved.
(xx) Unless otherwise stated, the year given for the latest formation of the relevant institution is the the year prior to its first listing in a Jewish Year Book. For example, if first listed in the 1915 edition, we have inserted the date as "by 1914" and if first listed in the 1902/3 edition, we have inserted "by 1902". ↵
(xxi) Note which first appeared in the first Jewish Year Book, 1896/7. ↵
(xxii) Note which first appeared in the first Jewish Year Book, 1896/7. ↵
(xxiii) Roth's section on Edinburgh from The Rise of Provincial Jewry, 1950, refers to the communal Philanthropic Benefit Society, established in 1838, and the Chief Rabbi's Questionnaire of 1845's data on the Edinburgh Congregational & Charities refers to the Hebrew Philanthropic Society. It is believed that both these are referring to the precursor of the Benefit Loan Society. ↵
(xxiv) Note which first appeared in the first Jewish Year Book, 1896/7. ↵
(xxv) Listed in the first Jewish Year Book, 1896/7, but then not listed until the 1900/1 edition, with a note that it was re-established in 1999. ↵
(xxvi) and (xxvii) Reserved.
(xxviii) Paper on Edinburgh by A. Levy, 1975. ↵
(xxix) Listed in the Jewish Year Book 1900/1, then not listed again until 1922 through 1926, and the not listed until 1949. ↵

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Page created: 21 August 2005
Page most recently amended: 1 June 2025

Research and formatting by David Shulman

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