Extract from papers on
Provincial Jewry in Victorian Britain

Papers prepared by Dr. (later Prof.) Aubrey Newman for a conference at University College, London, convened on 6 July 1975 by the Jewish Historical Society of England
Reproduced here with Prof. Newman's kind consent)

  

Page created: 27 November 2015
Latest revision: 7 March 2017

The following were the communities covered in the papers by only a small or
fleeting mention, as indicated below (county named are the historic counties):
 

BARROW (Lancs.)
(Barrow-in-Furness home page)

[Jewish Year Book] 1901  Congregation founded 1900

______________________

BIRKENHEAD (Lancs.)
(Birkenhead home page)

No entry in the [Jewish] Year Book for 1901, but mentioned by B. B. Benas in his lecture on Liverpool.

______________________

BLACKPOOL (Lancs.)
(Blackpool home page)

Not mentioned in the [Jewish] Year Book for 1901, but there is a return to the Board of Deputies

Board of Deputies return  -  1900 1 birth.

______________________

BOSTON (Lincs.)
(Boston home page)

(For the Community's history, see "Boston" in Cecil Roth's "The Rise of Provincial Jewry", 1950)

A. An early community mentioned in Roth, Provincial Jewry.

Not included - 1874-1901

______________________

CHESTER (Cheshire.)
(Chester home page)

[Jewish Year Book] 1901  Union Hall

______________________

GLOUCESTER (Glos.)
(Gloucester home page)

(For the Community's history, see "Gloucester" in Cecil Roth's "The Rise of Provincial Jewry", 1950)

A. There was a cemetery here in the early 19th century, with its own shochet in 1830. The Chief Rabbi visited the city in 1871, but by then the independent existence of the community had come to an end, the remaining members being affiliated to the Cheltenham synagogue.  [Gloucester - The Rise of Provincial Jewry by Cecil Roth (1950)]

______________________

LONDONDERRY (N. Ireland.)
(Londonderry home page)

[Jewish Year Book] 1901 

61 Jewish residents.
Synagogue Howkins Street (Founded 1894) Seatholders 15

______________________

PRESTON (Lancs.)
(Preston home page)

[Jewish Year Book] 1901 - There is no synagogue, but services are held during the Festivals at the Temperance Hall.

______________________

WHITEHAVEN (Cumberland)
(Whitehaven home page)

There is no community listed in any of the reference books from which statistical information has been drawn, but the Jewish Chronicle reported on 6 November 1874:

There has just been formed a Jewish congregation at Whitehaven, in the far north of England: it is a very small one consisting of four married and seven single men, all seatholders. The synagogue is of the most humble pretensions and void of any ornamentation whatsoever. The congregation has a shochet, who also acts as reader, treasurer and collector, at a very small salary. The income is derived from the rent of seats, the price of which ranges from 6d to 1s. The mitzvot are not sold but the members are called to the Law in rotation, on which occasion each makes an offering generally amounting to 6d. The Whithaven Jews are all natives of Lithuania and follow the occupation of hawkers of sponge, pictures and jewellery. With one or two exceptions they are very poor and ignorant. Yet credit is due to them for the efforts they make in upholding Judaism, some of them depriving themselves of common necessaries on order to subscribe to the Synagogue.

______________________

WIGAN (Lancs.)
(Wigan home page)

[Jewish Year Book] 1901  - Hebrew Congregation noted.

______________________

WREXHAM (North Wales)
(Wrexham home page)

[Jewish Year Book] 1901

Jewish Population 66.
Synagogue Bradley Road. founded 1890. Seatholders, 20. The annual income and expenditure £100.
The old and new congregations have been combined into one Congregation, the old Synagogue in Queen Street having been closed.

______________________

YORK
(York home page)

[Jewish Year Book] 1901

Jewish Population 60.
Synagogue Akdwark (founded 1892). Seatholders 23. The annual income and expenditure is about £95. Children are taught by the minister.
Poor Relief Society, Gillygate (founded 1896). To Relieve poor Jewish Families passing through the town. So far about 250 cases have been dealt with.

______________________