The small Jewish community in Aldershot did not follow any of the established
patterns. At the turn of the second half of the nineteenth century the old
seaport communities were already in decline and important communities were
developing in the major industrial towns. Aldershot was neither a seaport nor an
industrial town. It was a mere village with fewer than a thousand inhabitants.
The establishment of a Jewish community in this village, therefore, followed no
precedent although the reasons were not far to seek. The Crimean War revealed
the shortcomings of the British Army and the necessity for the establishment of permanent military camps with adequate
facilities for training. The War Office selected
Aldershot as a suitable site and work began in 1855.
Barracks were built to house 20,000 men and 4,000 horses.
It became apparent that the village of Aldershot could
not supply the needs of the military population and
there were soon attracted a few Jewish families of the
humbler class ready and able to take advantage of
the opportunity offered. Like most Jews living outside
London at that time these were small retailers and
artisans such as silversmiths and working jewellers.
They followed the occupations of a majority of Jews
in the smaller towns where they had originally found a
market not already exploited by their Gentile
predecessors or contemporaries. Thus it was that the
reverses of the Crimean War and the lessons learnt from
those reverses were an indirect cause of the
establishment of a Jewish community in Aldershot.
As the village of Aldershot grew into a town too
quickly and unplanned, the shanty slum town which
replaced the village could not have been an attractive
place of residence. Mr. John Walters in Aldershot
Review(1)
describes it as follows:
The town's most profitable activity was that of satisfying the army's thirst
for alcohol. In 1851 Aldershot had two small public houses. In 1855 - only a
year after the foundation of The Camp - there were counted twenty taverns
and forty beer houses. And many of these provided facilities and women for
satisfying sexual thirst also. These new taverns and beer shops were
additional to those on the rim of the Camp. Hygiene and sanitation lagged
far behind in Aldershot's race towards development. The place was a horror
of filth, muck and stench. This was because the speculative builders were
not inhibited by any compulsory sanitary regulations. No such regulations
existed The builders economised by not providing cesspools or even space for
them. Townsfolk dug holes in any available ground for the reception of
excrement and other waste, and any quiet wall or gutter served as a urinal.
When the rains came the filth usually rose from its holes to become a kind
of Hampshire River Styx. It encompassed the town and adhered to the footwear
of its inhabitants. Officers from The Camp were nauseated by the sights and
the smells, warning the G.O.C. of the health perils faced by the troops in
such conditions. Many indeed did contract fever from their trips into
Aldershot town. Civilian workers with sufficient means flocked into more
civilised and cleaner Farnham to seek houses or lodgings. And this old town,
also benefiting from The Camp, became notorious for its extortionate prices.
In Farnham too there was a great expansion of inns and taverns.
It was economic necessity and not the attraction of
the Hampshire countryside which persuaded the Jewish
tradesmen to set up their businesses and to reside in
Aldershot.
By 1858 there were sufficient Jews in what was now
a small town to establish an informal community which
from time to time could meet for prayer. In 1863 this
tiny community felt the necessity to establish itself
on a formal basis. They had already been meeting
regularly for prayer, and their principal concern now
was the provision of a cemetery and a supply of Kasher
meat. Eight residents of Aldershot founded the
Congregation and it could never have been a very
flourishing Congregation because in 1896 the Jewish
Year Book gave the number of seatholders as six and
the expenditure for the year as £78. At that date the
Jewish population of Aldershot was 54 not including
soldiers, and that number would, of course have
included women and children. The minimal dimensions
of a viable Jewish community have in this century
become much larger. It is unlikely that so small a
number of congregants would to-day attempt to form a
Congregation, and most certainly it could not have been
maintained by such small numbers for so long
a period.(2)
The eight residents who formed the Congregation
were Frederick Levy, Moses Phillips, Joseph Lazareck,
Selim Melson, Woolf Cohen, Francis Phillips, Samuel
Lazareck, and Michael Melson, Optimistically they
added "with power to add". The occupations of these
gentlemen are indicative of their humble status and the
economic necessity which required them to move to this
most unpleasant town with no facilities for the practice
of their religion. Moses Phillips was a jeweller as
was Selim Melson. Joseph Lazareck combined the trades
of clothier and jeweller. Francis Phillips was a watchmaker, and Woolf Cohen a general merchant. Obviously
all these services would not have been required by the
small local population but they served the needs of the
Aldershot garrison.(3)
The laws of the Congregation of which only a
manuscript copy survives show that Moses Phillips was
President and Selim Melson Hon. Secretary. Joseph
Lazareck and Frederick Levy were on the Committee. The
weekly subscription was to be sent to the house of the
President every Monday. There was, of course, the
provision, usual at that time, that refusal of office
would result in a fine to the funds of the Congregation
varying from 21/- in the case of the President, 10/6 in
the case of the Hon„ Secretary, to 5/- in the case of a
Committee member. Any new member of the Congregation
was required to pay a subscription of 2/- weekly but
could not vote unless he had been a subscriber for six
months. Non-paying residents or strangers using the
services of the Shochet (ritual butcher) were to pay
him 2d. a lb. as a tax for meat, and 3d. per head of
poultry, but the Shochet was required to account to the
Congregation for the money so received. The Shochet
was, of course, to receive a fixed salary and this was
to be paid every Tuesday. Attendance at meetings of
the Congregation was compulsory, and failure to attend
resulted in a fine of 2/6 unless unfortunately the
member was prevented by illness or absence from
Aldershot from attending. In view of this there was
a special provision that if the meeting were convened
by anyone except the President and was considered by
the majority of the members to be an unnecessary
meeting the member convening the meeting should be
fined 10/6. The precaution was taken of having the laws
of the Congregation signed by every member of the
Congregation, and it is interesting to observe that
although these gentlemen were humble tradesmen and
artisans it is apparent from their signatures that they
ware all literate at a time when literacy was far from
general.
One of the first concerns of the newly formed
community was to acquire a burial ground, and it was
decided in July 1864 to apply to the Aldershot Burial
Board for a portion of the Board's burial ground for
the use of the Congregation. This had apparently long
since been in mind because a plan of grave spaces of
the Aldershot Cemetery dated 1861 shows a portion of the
Cemetery "allotted to the Hebrew Congregation". This
allotment had been sanctioned by Lord Grey on the 20th
April 1864, but formal steps could not be taken until
the Congregation had been properly constituted.
The application explained that the part set
aside for the Congregation would have to be distinctly
divided by a wall from the remainder of the burial
ground, have a separate entrance from the road, and be
entirely under the control of the Congregation. The
application put forward a new approach and asserted
that as rate payers and residents in the parish the
members of the Congregation had a right to a space for
this purpose. Apparently this application was a mere
formality because on the 30th July 1864, the Board met
and instructed the Clerk that it was disposed to
entertain the application to the extent of 1,200 sq.
yds. instead of the 2,000 sq. yds. asked for if the
Congregation were prepared to pay £50 and carry out the
work of erecting the division wall and the separate
entrance at their own expense, The Congregation must
have been optimistic in regard to the growth, because
although the cemetery is still in use there is still
room for grave spaces. A formal Agreement took rather
longer and was dated the 19th April 1865, and a grant
was accordingly made to Moses Phillips, Selim Melson,
Joseph Lazareck, Woolf Cohen, and Francis Phillips as
trustees for the Congregation. This formality must
also been anticipated because on May 1st Mr.
Joseph Stoodley, a builder of Aldershot, offered to execute the works required
for £59, and a formal Agreement was entered into with Mr. Stoodley on the 10th May
1865. The work was duly carried out to the satisfaction of the Congregation's surveyor, and apparently they
had no difficulty in finding the £109 for the
consideration and cost of works and also their
surveyor's fees. The manner by which the Congregation
had secured its burial ground was interesting for the
reason that other Congregations which were being formed
about that time appeared to be having problems in
acquiring small burial grounds, and the Aldershot
Congregation was from time to time able to give the
necessary information and "know how" to the new
provincial Congregations then being established.
The Congregation was soon concerned to provide its
members with a supply of Kasher meat. On June 12th
1864, a resolution was passed in regard to arrangements
with a local butcher to provide facilities for the
Congregation's shochet to attend as slaughterer. The
butcher was to provide a service for the Congregation
which seems a little unusual now. He was required to
send his messenger every evening to customers who were
members of the Congregation to collect orders and to
dispatch them between 9.30 and 10.30 the next day when
the shochet would be in attendance to perform his
duties. No time was lost in engaging a shochet and
on July 4th Chief Rabbi Adler duly certified that Meyer
Ahronsha had passed his examinations and was authorised
to perform the duties connected with his office provided
that his religious and moral conduct continued to be
such as to render him worthy of the Chief Rabbi's
confidence. Mr. Ahronsha appears later to have shortened his name to Ahrons and became locally known
as the Reverend Mr. Aarons. The shochet's salary
appears to have been 15/- per week and presumably, as
was customary in small Congregations, he also acted as
reader and carried out other duties for the Congregation, but even so this could not have been a full time
occupation. Mr. Ahronsha does not appear to have given the Congregation
satisfaction because an application was made to the Chief Rabbi for a replacement on December 10th 1865. The Chief Rabbi refused to
consider the matter without knowing the reason for the
discharge of Mr. Ahronsha. He saw Mr. Ahronsha and
persuaded him to attend at the houses of members of the
Congregation to kill poultry whenever required and also
to conduct himself in a respectable manner towards the
members of the Congregation. He hoped that Mr.
Ahronsha would now give satisfaction. Apparently the
Congregation was still minded to dismiss him and the
Chief Rabbi "summoned" the president and Honorary
Secretary of the Congregation to appear before him with
Mr. Ahronsha. The result of this arbitration appeared
to confirm the justification of the Congregation for
dismissing their shochet because in the same month the
Rev. Jacob Cohen of Oxford applied for the post in
reply to an advertisement in the Jewish
Chronicle(4)
and he was in due course duly certified by the Chief
Rabbi as authorised to perform his duties. He appears
to have held the same post until 1888 when the Rev. S. E.
Lassman was appointed. Not surprisingly the Rev.
Cohen found some difficulty in maintaining himself on
his salary. In March 1872 he wrote to the President
of the Congregation complaining that the allowance of
£1 10s granted to him for expenses when he had been
summoned to London for examination before Dr. Adler had
been insufficient, and he produced a full account of
his expenses which makes interesting reading to-day.
He had apparently had to stay a few days longer than
expected and had spent 11/-d. more than his allowance.
In May 1872 he wrote a letter of petition to the
Congregation asking for an increase from 15/-d, to
16/6d a week in his salary.
The embryo Congregation could little afford to
lose any members but in August 1864 Frederick Levy moved
to Weston-super-Mare. He was asked to continue his
subscription to the Synagogue but regretted his
inability to do so. In September 1864 Mr. Broatman
joined the Congregation and he was followed by Mr. Saul
Warschawski in 1866. Both new members made declarations
that they would adhere to the laws and regulations of the
Congregation and endeavour to sustain and promote its
welfare.
An interesting application for membership was
received in 1880 from Mr. Nathaniel Solomon. He had
apparently been living in Aldershot since 1867 and his
immediate reason for wishing to join the Congregation
was his intended marriage. His letter read as follows:
I wish to become a member of your congregation so
as if any time my intended wife or myself
should wish to come to the synagogue we should be
able to do so. I should like to have cosha (sic.)
meat. I will pay one shilling per week for the
same and if bye and bye I can pay more I will do so
an early reply will oblige.
At that time Mr. Solomon appeared to be in quite a small
way of business as a wholesale and retail furnisher but
it was not many years before he became the proprietor
of the largest business in Aldershot and its chief
citizen.(5)
Solomon Brothers became chief contractors to
the Aldershot Garrison and very important contractors
to the army generally, and were said to hold the largest
hire stock for military purposes in the country. The
tents and portable buildings used by the army were
manufactured in the firm's works in Aldershot. From
supplying the army with its requirements the national
reputation of the firm soon spread and Solomon Brothers
were providing the marquees for Goodwood, Ascot, and
Henley, and later received a Royal appointment. It
was not only business matters which concerned Nathaniel
Solomon. He served on the Aldershot Council from 1902
becoming Chairman of Aldershot Urban District Council
in 1907 and Mayor of the Borough in 1924. He was also
a founder and, later, chief of the Volunteer Fire
Brigade. At the mayoral banquet Alderman Solomon
waxed reminiscent and said that when he came to
Aldershot in 1867 the business centre was not very much
because most of Aldershot was either fields or gardens.
His marriage to Rose, which had prompted him belatedly
to join the Congregation lasted until 1914 when Mrs.
Solomon died at the early age of 55. In a tribute the
Rev. Michael Adler said:
The Jewish Soldiers have lost one of their
best friends in the passing away of Mrs. N. Solomon,
who for many years acted as Hon. Secretary to the
Aldershot Congregation. Her interest in the
welfare, moral and material, of the Jewish regular
who was stationed at the barracks near her home,
was unceasing. During the negotiations with the
Headquarters' Staff that resulted in the present
synagogue being given by the authorities to the
Aldershot military and civil community. Mrs.
Solomon was indefatigable, and supported me with
the utmost loyalty in bringing the work to a
successful issue.(6)
The funeral of Mrs. Solomon in the tiny burial
ground was attended by the representatives of all civic
organisations in Aldershot and the Aldershot Gazette in
a long account of the funeral reported.
Crowds of people had assembled at the
graveyard and followed with the deepest interest
and sympathy the somewhat brief service of
committal, rendered in Hebrew and English. The
emotion of the bereaved husband and some (sic.) was
touching to behold. Each mourner at the
conclusion of the service took the sexton's
spade and shovelled three spadesful of earth into
the grave The officiating clergy were the
Rev. Michael Adler, assisted by the Rev. Plascow.
Nathaniel Solomon may have delayed his membership of the Synagogue but made amends later by acting
as its President from
1916(7) until
he died in 1932. His long span of life saw the growth of Aldershot from
a village to an important provincial town and his own
growth from a poor struggling, tradesman, unable to
pay the full membership dues of 2/-d. to the
most respected citizen of the town.
Alderman Solomon was not the only
Congregation who took an active part in affairs
the town. Joseph Lazareck devoted many years of
service to the wider community as a member of the School
Board, the local Board of Health, and the Aldershot
Board of Guardians.(8)
Services were held, apparently from the outset,
at Moses Phillips' premises at 24, High Street. This
was at all times described as a temporary Synagogue,
but it certainly housed the four Scrolls of the Law and
their appurtenances which belonged to the Congregation.
The following is a description of the interior taken
from Sheldrake's Guide (circa. 1888):
The reading desk is in the centre of the
Synagogue opposite the ark and has a very handsome
cover worked and presented to the congregation by
some lady friends. In the ark, which is made of
polished geshem wood, and has some richly
embroidered veils of purple, blue and scarlet
there are four valuable parchment scrolls of the
ancient mosaic law. All these scrolls have solid
silver appendages (Yaddim) presented by various
friends and members.
At first this was solely a civilian Synagogue. The
few Jews then in the regular army do not appear to have
been much concerned with Jewish worship, and, having
no facilities provided for them, frequently attended
Church Parade. However, by 1882 advantage was taken
of the existence of a Synagogue in Aldershot and for
the first time divisional order contained the following
under the heading "Divine Service":
Jews --- at 8.30 a.m. on Saturdays and
Holy Days in the temporary Synagogue, 24, High Street, Aldershot. Commanding Officers will
facilitate the attendance of men of this
persuasion at the services.(9)
The Jewish Chronicle applauded this development and said
that the spirit displayed by the Aldershot authorities
if generally followed would do much towards placing
Jewish soldiers on a better footing. Thus it was that
the tiny Congregation of Aldershot was able to provide
a precedent for other communities where there were Jews
serving in the Services. Three years later the Board
of Deputies was able to arrange that every Jewish
soldier who applied for it should obtain leave of
absence for festival observances. Some apparently
went to London but others attended the Synagogue in
Aldershot. This was the first time that soldiers in
uniform had been present at the New Year services.
Thus the civilian Synagogue became a joint civil and
military Synagogue, but in due course Moses Phillips'
premises were disposed of, and as a result of the exertions of Mrs. Solomon and others the Army authorities
provided premises within the Camp for both the civilian
and military Jewish population of Aldershot. This
Synagogue, known to the community as "The Hut", was,
of course, on military ground, but no difficulties were
experienced by civilians in attending the services which
were held for many years until The Hut was demolished to
make way for developments at the Barracks, and the few
remaining Jews in Aldershot ceased to have a place of
worship.
There was regular correspondence between the
Chief Rabbi and the Congregation and the Congregation
was supplied with all necessary information and special
prayers prepared by the Chief Rabbi from time to time.
Some-of these were prayers of thanksgiving, others
prayers of intercession such as during the cholera
epidemic and persecution of the Jews of Russia. Whilst
taking advantage of the services made available by the
Chief Rabbi the Congregation failed to contribute to
the Chief Rabbi's fund until 1891 when it was resolved
to subscribe 2 guineas per annum. Aldershot, however,
was not backward in regard to charity and no less than
£82.11s. was sent to the Mansion House Relief Fund for
the persecuted Jews of Russia in 1882. Of this sum
Joseph Lazareck subscribed £30 and Samuel Lazareck £15.
Most of the Aldershot contributors appear to have been
non-Jewish residents of Aldershot, with whom the
Congregants were on very friendly terms.
The Congregation, small as it was, had the
usual trials and tribulations, In 1894 the President
received a letter from the Chief Rabbi referring to a
complaint by a Mr. Burstein that the Congregation had
refused to call him up when he desired to have his
child named. The President replied to the Chief
Rabbi that Mr. Burstein had never been present in the
synagogue since the child had been born.
The Rev. Isaac Livingstone became Minister of
the Congregation in 1907 and Chaplain to the Garrison,
and he has informed the writer that by that time his
duties were principally as Chaplain to the Garrison.
His recollection is that the civilian Congregation then
consisted principally of the families of Phillips and
Lazareck.
The Congregation struggled on with services at
"The Hut" but-it was reported at the Annual General
Meeting in 1935 that there were only two or three
members regularly paying their
subscriptions.(10) By
1940 it was reluctantly observed that no interest was
taken in the Synagogue and in 1945 Dr, Brodie was reported to have discouraged
the continuance of a civilian Synagogue in Aldershot. Eventually arrangements were made for the United Synagogue to take over
the cemetery and the ritual appurtenances which were
transferred to the Jewish Committee for H.M. Forces and
are now at Kenton Synagogue.(11)
As an ephemeral Synagogue Aldershot had lasted
longer than most notwithstanding its tiny Congregation
and lack of a permanent Synagogue building. In so
small a community some movement away from Aldershot,
some marriages out of the faith, and some lack of
interest by the third generation of members, combined
to cause the demise of the Congregation. The Synagogue
had outlived its usefulness but it is a comforting
thought that for nearly 100 years it had served the
purpose for which its founders had striven. It was
unique because of the reason for its foundation and for
its continuance with so small a Congregation.
