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JCR-UK is a genealogical and historical website covering all Jewish communities and
congregations throughout the British Isles and Gibraltar, both past and present.
NOTE: We are not the official website for this community.
Borough of Worthing
Worthing, a seaside town just to the west of Brighton on England's south coast,
has a population of about 100,000. It was a municipal borough until 1974,
when it became a local government district and borough in the county of West
Sussex. Goring-by-Sea (population about 8,000) is an affluent neighbourhood of
Worthing, lying some 2.5 miles west of Worthing town centre. It has been part of
the Borough of Worthing since 1929.
Worthing Jewish Community
There was no organised Jewish community in Worthing prior to World War II.
In 1939, the Norwood Jewish Orphanage, based in south London, had initially been evacuated to homes in Worthing.
However, in 1940, after the fall of France, the Orphanage was moved to
Hertford for the duration of the war, as it was considered that Worthing was too close to the action.
However, a Jewish congregation was also established in Worthing early in World
War II, primarily by war evacuees, but which
continued for a number of years following the end of the War. After a break of
several years the Jewish residents of Worthing and surrounding areas
re-established themselves an association, which was primarily a social group.
In March 2023, it was announced that Chabad Lubavitch Brighton would be spreading its wings in Sussex by organising events in the Worthing area,
with the appointment of a rabbinic couple,
Rabbi Shaya Gourarie
and Rebbetzen Mushky Gourarie, to spearhead the drive in Worthing, as well as elsewhere in
West Sussex.(i)
Earlier
Congregation
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Congregation Data |
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Name: |
Worthing and District Hebrew Congregation |
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Address: |
Heene Hall, Heene Road, Worthing.
However, the earliest services (in 1939) were held at St John's Hut or Hall, Elm Grove, Worthing.(ii) |
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Formation: |
Formed Autumn
1939.(iii) |
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Closure: |
The congregation began to
decline by the early 1970's and, although efforts were made from time to time
to revive it,(iv)
it appears to have ceased activities in the late 1970s or early 1980s.(v)
A later short-lived attempt to revive the congregation was made in
1997.(viii) |
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Ritual: |
Initially Ashkenazi Orthodox, although the
revival of the congregation in the late 1990s appears to have been
non-denominational.(ix) |
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Affiliation: |
None |
|
Ministers:
(To view a short profile of a minister, hold the cursor over his name.) |
Rabbi Meyer Gordon -
rabbi, minister and teacher from
1939 to 1940.(x)
Rabbi William Wolff -
held Friday night outreach services in Worthing in 1997, rotating between the congregation
and the Eastbourne Progressive Jewish Community.(xi)
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War-time Lay Officers: |
Elected December 1939(xiv)
Meyer Freedman, President; P. Taylor, Treasurer; H. Miller, Warden; H. Hames, Hon. Secretary
Others
Mrs. H. Phillips - Hon. Secretary in September 1943(xv) |
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Post-War Lay Officers:
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Unless otherwise indicated the following data
has been extracted from Jewish Year Books(xvi) |
|
Presidents
1947-1948 - J. Rothstein
1948-1950 - Leslie W. Cohen
Chairmen
1950-1951 - I. Ashberg
1951-1952 - I. Weissman
1952-1956 - J. Rothstein
1956-1968 - no data
1968-1972 - I. Ashberg
1972-1975 - H. Bernstein
1975-1980s - L. Weiss
1997 - Denzil Sutcliffe(xvii) |
Treasurers
1946-1948 - Leslie W. Cohen
1948-1949 - H. Barnard
1949-1950 - J.I. Landau
1950-1952 - L. Cohen
1952-1968 - I. Ashberg
Hon. Secretaries
1945-1948 - Alec Weissmann
1948-1950 - Werner Mark
1950-1953 - Oscar Feuerstein
1953-1968 - I. Ashberg
1968-1975 - B. Goldman
|
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Membership:
|
National Reports and Surveys(xx)
1977 - 6 male (or household) members and 6 female members
1983 - 16 male (or household) members and 16 female members
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|
Goring Evacuee Congregation: |
During World War II, there was an evacuee
congregation in Goring-by-Sea, a neighbourhood of Worthing, which had been
organised by Rev. Jonah Indech.(xxi) |
Current
Association
|
Association Data |
|
Name: |
Worthing and District Jewish Community |
|
Address: |
Social meetings are held at Friends Meeting House, 34 Mill Hill Road, Worthing,
BN11 5DR.(xxv)
In addition, two or three Friday night religious services are usually held per
year at Worthing Town Hall.(xxvi) |
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Formation: |
Formed by about 2005.(xxvii) |
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Current Status: |
Active.
|
|
Ritual: |
The membership encompasses a wide range of observance, from Orthodox to
secular. |
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Affiliation: |
Unaffiliated |
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JSCN Link: |
Click on Worthing and District Jewish Community
(a member community), on the Jewish Small Communities Network website. |
|
Visiting Chaplains:
|
The community has been served by visiting chaplains,
in particular Rev. Malcolm Weisman(z"l), the
former minister for Small
Communities, as well as Rabbi Reuben Livingstone.(xxviii) |
|
Online Articles and Other Material
relating to the Worthing Jewish Community
On JCR-UK
Notable Jewish Connections with Worthing
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Daniel De Pass (1839-1921) born in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, sugar planter, shipping and guano merchant, had a house at 13 Heene Terrace in Worthing.
Portrait
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Edouard Espinosa (1871-1950), born in Moscow to Spanish Jewish parents, was a ballet dancer and teacher
who co-founded the Royal Academy of Dancing and later established the British Ballet Organization. He died at his home in Worthing.
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Councillor Cecil Herbert (Herbie) Golds, became the first Jewish Mayor of Worthing, 1995-6.
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David Jacobs CBE (1926-2013), TV and radio broadcaster, host of
Juke Box Jury, chair of Any Questions, etc. is listed as a notable former resident of Worthing. However, his last address was at Fittleworth,
a village about 15 miles north of the town.
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Harold Pinter CH CBE (1930-2008), Nobel Prize winning playwright, screenwriter, director and actor, lived in Ambrose Place, Worthing, 1962-1964.
A Blue Plaque commemorates his time there.
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Katie Price, media personality and former glamour model, owns a house in Goring-on-Sea. Her maternal grandmother was Jewish.
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Joseph Edward (Teddy) Sieff
(1905-1982), resident of St Johns Wood London, chairman of Marks &
Spencer (1967-1972), Zionist leader, owned a country estate near
Worthing and was a member of the Worthing Hebrew congregation in the
1960s.
-
Sir Frederick Claude Stern (1884-1967), born into the Stern banking family, a botanist, from 1909 developed Highdown Gardens
to the west of Worthing town centre, on the site of a former chalk quarry. After his death the gardens were bequeathed to Worthing borough council.
Stern was awarded the Military Cross in World War I and served as private secretary to Prime Minister Lloyd George at the Paris Peace conference in 1919.
In 1956 he was knighted for his services to horticulture.
View
Discovering the Sterns of Highdown
on the Jewish Country Houses website, hosted by the University of Oxford,
and an
illustrated timeline about the Stern family and Worthing on the Highdown Gardens website.
-
Vivian Van Damm (1889-1960), from a Dutch Jewish family, was a theatre impresario who managed the Windmill Theatre in London's Soho,
from the 1930s until his death. He had a home in the village of East Preston which is located between Worthing and Littlehampton.
-
Israel Zangwill (1864-1926), and his wife, Edith Ayrton Zangwill (1874-1945), lived in the village of East Preston.
In 2018, a blue plaque was unveiled at their former home, Far End, which describes the couple as: "writers and campaigners for women's suffrage,
a Jewish homeland and world peace."
-
Oliver Zangwill FRS (1913-1987), born in Littlehampton, the son of Israel and Edith Zangwill, was known as the father of British neuropsychology.
He was Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge.
-
The Jewish Orphanage in West Norwood, London, was evacuated to Worthing during World War II.
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Other Worthing Jewish Institutions & Organisations
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Worthing Jewish Population Data
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1958
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20 families |
(The Jewish Year Book 1959) |
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1968
|
90 families |
(The Jewish Year Book 1969) |
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Notes & Sources
(↵ returns to text above) |
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World War II Evacuee Communities
Jewish Congregations in West Sussex
Jewish Communities of England homepage
Page created: 2 May 2006
Data significantly expanded and notes first added: 28 August 2022
Page most recently amended:
6 July 2025
Research David Shulman and Steven Jaffe
Formatting by David Shulman
Explanation of Terms |
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