and the former

Sunderland Yeshiva Synagogue

(and Sunderland Yeshiva and Kolel)

Sunderland (later Gateshead), Tyne & Wear

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After World War II, a yeshiva, known as the Sunderland Yeshiva, was established in Sunderland, followed some years later by the founding of the Sunderland Kolel. (The yeshiva was, in fact, the second yeshiva to be established in the town. In 1905, a yeshiva had been established in Sunderland by Rabbi Hirsch Hurwitz, being Britain's first ever yeshiva but it was short-lived and closed following Rabbi Hurwitz's departure from Sunderland in 1911.)

For some year there was a functioning synagogue at the Sunderland Yeshiva.

In the 1980s, due to the dwindling size of the Jewish community in Sunderland, in particularly the orthodox section of the community, the Kollel and then the Yeshiva relocated to Gateshead, where the yeshiva is still known as the Sunderland Yeshiva .

Congregation Data
Name:	Sunderland Yeshiva Synagogue
Address:	1, The Cedars Road, Sunderland.⁽ⁱⁱ⁾ The synagogue had its own minyan for most of the year. During the holidays when the Yeshiva was on vacation (in particular, Pesach and Succoth), the congregation did not function, and the faculty of the Yeshiva would generally pray in the Sunderland Beth Hamedrash.
Date Founded:	by 1951^(v)
Closure:	Closed in the mid 1980s^(vi)
Ritual:	Ashkenazi Strictly Orthodox
Affiliation:	A constituent of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (UOHC)^(vii)
Officers:	President - R.D. Pearlman - from about 1951 until about 1979^(x) Treasurer & Hon. Secretary - M.S. Wynne -from about 1951 until about 1953^(xi)
Notes & Sources (↵ returns to text above) (i) Reserved. (ii) This was the address of the yeshiva and was listed as the address of the synagogue in Jewish Year Books 1952 through 1979. ↵ (iii) and (iv) Reserved. (v) Based upon the synagogue's first listing in Jewish Year Book 1952. ↵ (vi) Although the synagogue's last listing was in Jewish Year Book 1979, the synagogue presumablr continued to function until the Yeshiva moved to Gateshead in 1988. ↵ (vii) Jewish Year Books 1952 through 1979. ↵ (viii) and (ix) Reserved. (x) Based upon listing as president of the synagogue in Jewish Year Books 1952 through 1979. ↵ (xi) Based upon listing as treasurer and hon. secretary of the synagogue in Jewish Year Books 1952 and 1953. ↵

The Sunderland Yeshiva
Name:	Sunderland Yeshiva
Alternative Names:	Yeshiva Netzach Yisroel Sunderland Talmudic College and Yeshiva (and affiliated Institute for North African Children) - from about 1952 to about 1988)^(xxi) Sunderland Talmudic College and Yeshiva - from about 1988^(xxii)
Address:	The Yeshiva's first premises were at 2 Kensington Esplanade, Sunderland. The building had been used from the 1930s to 1945 as the Sunderland Childrens' Hostel, providing a refuge to child refugees from Germany and Czechoslovakia, and was transferred in 1946 by Julius Behrman and his son, Gerald, to the yeshiva free of all charges.^(xxiii) In 1952 the yeshiva moved to 1 The Cedars Road, Sunderland SR2 7EW, the opening celebration taking place on 5 November.^(xxiv) In June 1988, the Yeshiva moved to Gateshead, retaining its Sunderland name, and is situated at Prince Consort Road, Gateshead-on-Tyne, NE3 4DS.^(xxv)
Status:	Active, in Gateshead
Date Founded:	Founded in October 1946 by Rabbi (later Dayan) Aryeh Leib Grossnass and Rabbi Zushne Waltner at the initiative of Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler of Gateshead Yeshiva.^(xxix) The first students were some 30 former yeshiva students stranded in displaced persons camps in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, having spent the war years in German concentration camps or in Siberia. In 1950, the yeshiva accepted a large group of students from Morocco, who had been seeking places in yeshiva in the UK and elsewhere, which was followed by further such groups in subsequent years. This set off the yeshiva's association with North African Jewry.
President:	Rabbi Abraham Babad - from about 1952 until about 1956^(xxx)
Roshei Yeshiva (Principals): (To view a short profile of a Rabbi whose name appears in blue, hold the cursor over his name.)	Rabbi Zushne Waltner - from 1946 until 1952^(xxxi) Rabbi Shammai Zahn - from about 1949 until about 2001^(xxxii) Rabbi Zechariah Gelley - from 1965 until 1987^(xxxiii) Rabbi Yankel Ehrentreu - from about 2003 to present (2021)^(xxxiv)
Vice Principals and Senior Lecturers:	Rabbi Chaim Shmuel Lopian^(xxxv) Rabbi Wovshi Kaufman^(xxxvi)
Secretary:	M.S. Wynne -from about 1949 until about 1953^(xxxvii)
Notes & Sources (↵ returns to text above) (xxi) Listed as such in Jewish Year Books 1953 through 1988. ↵ (xxi) After the move to Gateshead, Jewish Year Books 1989 through 2015 (the last publication). ↵ (xxiii) The Jewish Communities of North East England by Lewis Olsover, !980, pp. 284/5. ↵ (xxiv) Levy's History p.270. ↵ (xxv) Jewish Year Books 1989 through 2015. ↵ (xxvi) and (xxviii) Reserved. (xxix) History of the Sunderland Jewish Community 1955-1955 by Arnold Levy (1956), p.270. The Yeshiva was first listed in the Jewish Year Books 1948. ↵ (xxx) Listed as president of the Yeshiva in Jewish Year Books 1953 through 1956. ↵ (xxxi) The Jewish Communities of North East England by Lewis Olsover, 1980 pp. 284/4. In Jewish Year Books, Rabbi Waltner was listed as principal of the Yeshiva from 1948 through 1954 (in 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954, jointly with Rabbi Zahn). ↵ (xxxii) Rabbi Zahn is listed as principal of the Yeshva in Jewish Year Books in 1950 and from 1952 through 2001 (initially, jointly with Rabbi Waltner). ↵ (xxxiii) Rabbi Gelley's Jewish Press obituary. He was not listed in any Jewish Year Books. ↵ (xxxiv) Listed (as Rabbi J. Ehrentreu) as principal of the Yeshiva in Jewish Year Books from 2003 through 2015 (the last year of publication) and still serving in 2021, based on online research. ↵ (xxxv) Arnolds's History, pp.270/1 and online obituary. ↵ (xxxvi) The Jewish Communities of North East England by Lewis Olsover, !980, pp. 284/5. ↵ (xxxvii) Listed as secretary of the Yeshiva in Jewish Year Books 1950 through 1953. ↵

The Sunderland Kolel
Name:	Kolel Institute of Higher Rabbinic Studies^(xli)
Other Names:	Centre for Advanced Rabbinics (from about 1986)^(xlii) Sunderland Kolel - Institute of Higher Rabbinic Studies (after move to Gateshread)^(xliii)
Address:	The Oaks, Sunderland, until about 1986^(xliv) 2 The Oaks West, Sunderland SR2 8HZ, from about 1987 until move to Gateshead^(xlv) 139 Prince Consort Road, Gateshead NE8 1LR, from at least 2003^(xlvi)
When Formed:	In 1960, when a number of dedicated scholars from the Sunderland Yeshiva, who had reached Kolel standards, wanted to continuew their studies to more advanced levels. At the time the only other Kolel in the UK was in Gateshed.^(l)
Principals:	Rabbi (later Dayan) Chanoch Ehrentreu - from 1960 until 1979 and again from about 2005^(li) Rabbi M. Trepp - from about 2004 to about 2005^(lii)

Notes & Sources (↵ returns to text above)

(xli) Name under which listed from first appearance in Jewish Year Books (1962), through 1986. ↵

(xlii) Name under which listed from Jewish Year Books 1987 until it ceased to be listed under Sunderland (1998). ↵

(xliii) Name under which listed after move to Gateshead - first listing in Jewish Year Book 2003. ↵

(xliv) Address listed in Jewish Year Books from 1962 through 1986, although from 1980, the address was more specifically listed as 4 The Oaks.. ↵

(xlv) Address listed in Jewish Year Books from 1987 through 1997. It is currently unclear whether this was a renumbering of the previous listed address, or different premises. ↵

(xlvi) Jewish Year Books from 2002. ↵

(xlvii) to (xlix) Reserved.

(l) The Jewish Communities of North East England by Lewis Olsover, !980, p. 285 and The Sunderland Beth Hamedresh 1889-1999 by Derek Taylor & Harold Davis, 2010, p.218. ↵

(li) The Sunderland Beth Hamedresh 1889-1999 by Derek Taylor & Harold Davis (2010) pp.217/9. Dayan Ehrentreu was also listed as principal of the Kolel in Jewish Year Books from 2005 to 2015 (the last year of publication). ↵

(lii) Based on Rabbi Trepp's listing as principal of the Kolel in the Jewish Year Book 2005. ↵

On-line Articles and Other Material
relating to the Sunderland Yeshiva and Kolel

on third party website

Out from the Cold by Riki Goldstein (7 April 1921), the story of Rabbi S Kahn and the Sunderland Yeshiva on the Mishpacha Jewish Family Weekly website.
From Melilla, Morocco to Sunderland yeshiva, interview with Rabbi Simon Benzaquen, conducted by Steven Jaffe, 14 April 2021.

Notable Alumni from Sunderland Yeshiva

Dayan Saadia Amor, rosh beth din of the UK Sephardi Beth Din.
Rabbi Simon Benzaquen, (see interview above).
Rabbi Shimon Biton, av beth din of Marseille.
Rav Nissim Rebibo, rosh beth din of Marseille, then of Paris, and subsequently of France.

Sunderland Jewish Community home page

List of UOHC Congregations

Jewish Congregations in Tyne and Wear

Jewish Communities of England home page

Page created: 21 August 2005
Data significantly expanded and notes first added: 27 December 2021
Latest revision or update: 3 May 2023

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