Norwich Liberal Jewish Community

Name

Norwich Liberal Jewish Community (NLJC)

Name Former

Progressive Jewish Community of East Anglia, until August 2013 ⁽ⁱⁱ⁾

Address:

Services held at the Old Meeting House, Colegate, Norwich. ⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾

Current Status:

Active

Date Formed:

The community held initial meetings and services in 1989, after notices had been placed in local newspapers by the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues (now known as Liberal Judaism), who wished to ascertain whether there were sufficient people living in East Anglia who wished to form a liberal/progressive Jewish community based in Norwich.^(iv)

The first meeting of the steering committee was held on 11 January 1990 and the community's first annual meeting was held in March 1991.^(iv)

Ritual:

Liberal (Progressive)

Affiliation:

A constituent community of Liberal Judaism (formerly Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues) from 1991.

Website:

http://www.norwichljc.org.uk

JSCN Link:

Click on Norwich Liberal Jewish Community (a member community), on the Jewish Small Communities Network website.

Rabbis:

(To view a short profile of a minister whose name appers in blue - hold the cursor over his or her name.)

Rabbi Melinda Carr - from about 2000 to about 2003^(vi)

Rabbi Rachel Benjamin - from 2003 until 2009^(vii)

Rabbi Stephen Howard - from 2010 until 2012^(viii)

Rabbi Leah Jordan (part-time) - from 2013 to July 2018^(ix)

Rabbi Cantor Gershon Silins (part-time) - 2019^(x)

Rabbi Anna Wolfson (then known as Posner) (part-time) - 2020 to 2021^(xi)

Student Rabbi Hannah Marije Altorf - from January 2022 to July 2024^(xii)

Rabbi Martina Loreggian (part-time) - from September 2024 until present (May 2025)^(xiii)

Membership Data

National Reports and Surveys^(xv)

1996 - 35 members (comprising 25 households, 2 individual male and 8 Individual female members)

2010 - listed as having 50 to 99 members (by household)

2016 - listed as having under 50 members (by household)

Charitable Status:

The congregation is a registered charity (no. 1053565), registered on 7 March 1996. The governing document is the congregation's constitution dated 11 March 1991, as subsequently amended.^(xvi)

Registration District (BMD):

Norwich (since 1 July 1837) - Link to Register Office website (records currently held by Norfolk County Council).

Cemetery
Information:

The congregations shares with the Norwich Hebrew Congregation the Jewish section attached to the Earlham Road Cemetery. The congregation occasionally uses a very small Jewish section which exists in the municipal cemetery in Caister, just north of Great Yarmouth.^(xvii)