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Jewish Community of Liverpool and District

City of Liverpool

Liverpool, with a population of about 440,000 is major city and port lying on northeast bank of the river Mersey estuary in Northwest England. Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was a county borough from 1888 until 1974, when it became metropolitan district within the then newly formed metropolitan county of Merseyside. Liverpool became a unitary authority in 1986 when Merseyside lost its administrative status, becoming purely a ceremonial county.

Adjoining Liverpool are a number of other metropolitan boroughs within Merseyside, including Knowsley, formed in 1974 by the merger of the Huyton-with-Roby Urban District Council and several local authorities. Details of any Knowsley congregations are included in the list below. For other communities in, or closely connected with, Merseyside, see under Sefton (for Bootle, Crosby and Southport), Wirral (for Birkenhead, Hoylake and Wallasey) and Widnes (for Widnes in Halton).

The Liverpool Jewish Community

It seems probable that Jews settled in Liverpool before 1750 since, by 1752, there was a "Synagogue Court" off Stanley Street and a Jewish place of worship is confirmed by the Liverpool Memorandum Book of 1753.(1) This early community is believed to have consisted of Sephardi Jews, probably connected to the small Sephardi community that had then been established in Dublin.(2) This community did not survive and a new Ashkenazi was founded in about 1780, although little is known of its early history. 
 

Jewish Congregations of Liverpool

The following are the Jewish congregations that exist, or existed, in Liverpool. (If you cannot trace the congregation in the list below, try searching in the list of alternative names.): 

*   An active congregation.
#   Pages recently fully reformatted, with expanded data.

(3)  Pages with press reports on the congregation.
(4)  Pages with photographs.
(7)  Pages listing Ministers and/or Officers.
 

Alternative Names for Liverpool Synagogues

The following are former or alternative names of the above congregations:

 

Liverpool Jewish Cemeteries Information


JCR-UK HOSTED DATABASE

Search the Liverpool Jewish Cemeteries Database
covering all Liverpool Jewish Cemeteries
(as listed below)

Records of approximately 12,500 burials (to 31 December 2018), including personal details, plot locations and photographs of headstones.

Listed below are the cemeteries and burial grounds that had been used by the Liverpool Jewish Community:

  Cemeteries which are no longer extant:

  • Cumberland Street Burial Ground, in the grounds of Liverpool's first synagogue; now part of the site of the 'Met Quarter' shopping centre in Whitechapel. In use mid-eighteenth century.

  • Upper Frederick Street Jewish Burial Ground, in the back garden of 133 Upper Frederick Street (Liverpool's third prayer house). Now a housing area on Upper Frederick Street near Kent Street: in use 1770s to 1802. Remains reinterred in Broad Green Cemetery in 1923.

  • Oakes Street Jewish Cemetery, London Road, L3, now within the site of the Royal Liverpool Hospital In use from 1802 to 1837. Second cemetery of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation. Remains reinterred in the Broad Green Cemetery in 1904.

  • Solomon Mausoleum, a small family burial ground acquired by Dr Samuel Solomon for his family in 1810s. Remains re-interred in the former the West Derby Road (non-Jewish) Cemetery, which is now parkland known as Grant Gardens.

  Extant Cemeteries of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation:

  • Deane Road Cemetery ("The Old Jews' Burial Ground"), Deane Road, Kensington, Fairfield L7 0ET. Principal burial ground from 1838 to 1905. The cemetery's screen wall and railings were designated a Grade II Listed Building (number 1068282) on 14 March 1975 - View description on Historic England website.

  • Broad Green Jewish Cemetery, Thomas Drive, L14 3DL: Opened 1904 and still in use. Includes re-interred remains of the Upper Frederick Street and Oakes Street burial grounds.

  Extant Cemeteries of the Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation:

  • Green Lane Cemetery, Green Lane, Tuebrook L13 7DT. principal period of use from 1840 to 1921 (last interment 1952). First cemetery of the Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation (later known as the Hope Place Hebrew Congregation)

  • Long Lane Jewish Cemetery, Long Lane, Fazakerley L9 9AG. Principal period of use from 1921 to 2008: Second cemetery of the Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation (Hope Place Hebrew Congregation and Greenbank Drive Synagogue).

  Cemeteries of non-synagogue affiliated burial societies:

  • Rice Lane Jewish Cemetery, Hazeldale Road, Walton L9 2BA: principal period of operation: 1896 to 1981; last interment 2004. Founded by the Liverpool Hebrew Burial Society..

  • Lower House Lane Cemetery (formally West Derby Cemetery, Jewish Section), Lower House Lane, L11 2SF: principal period of operation: 1927 to 1991 (latest interment 2015). Founded by the Liverpool Federated Jewish Burial Society.

  Burial grounds within the Allerton Municipal Cemetery estate:

  • Allerton Reform Cemetery, Woolton Road, Allerton L19 5NF: Cemetery of the Liverpool Reform Synagogue. Opened in 1930 and in regular use. Note that some funerals take place at the nearby Springwood Crematorium; in a number of cases, remains are later interred in the Reform Cemetery.

  • Springwood Jewish Cemetery, Springwood Avenue, Allerton L25: Currently in active use. This has been the cemetery of the Childwall Hebrew Congregation since 1951 and the Allerton Hebrew Congregation since 1968. The 'communal' section, administered by Merseyside Jewish Community Care, was first used in 1974; this section is the burial ground for non-affiliated members of the community and the non-synagogue burial societies.

(For additional information, see the introduction to the Liverpool Jewish Cemeteries Database and IAJGS Cemetery Project - Liverpool)

 


Search the All-UK Database

The records in the database associated with Liverpool include:

  • Burials

    • WWII Civilian Casualties (28 records).

  • UK Jewish Communal Leaders Database - Liverpool records:

    • Jewish Directory for 1874 (records of 102 individuals);

    • Jewish Year Book 1896/97 (records of 45 individuals); and

    • JCR-UK Listings (records of 159 individuals - as of the March 2024 update)

  • 1851 Anglo Jewry Database (as of the 2016 update):

    • Individuals in the "1851" database who were living in Liverpool during the 1770s (2 records), 1780s (5 records), 1790s (15 records), 1800s (36 records), 1810s (78 records), 1820s (126 records), 1830s (280 records), 1840s (576 records), 1850s (954 records), 1860s (276 records), 1870s (225 records), 1880s (172 records), 1890s (38 records), 1900s (20 records) and 1910s (13 records).

  • Miscellaneous

    • Subscribers to Rabbi Rabinowitz Memorial Fund (199 records, primarily in Liverpool).

 

On-line Articles and other Material relating to the Liverpool Jewish Community

on JCR-UK

on Third Party Websites

  • Jewish Encyclopedia article on Liverpool by Joseph Jacobs and B.L. Benas, c-1906

 

Other Liverpool Jewish Institutions & Organisations
(that had been formed by 1900)*

Educational & Theological

  • Liverpool Hebrews Education Institution and Endowed Schools, Hope Place. (Founded 1840, building erected 1852)

  • Chevra Torah (founded by 1900).

Other Institutions & Organisations

  • Liverpool Hebrew Philanthropic Society (founded 1811) for: (1874) visiting and aiding the sick; (1896) giving weekly relief during the winter to the respectable Jewish poor..

  • Jewish Ladies' Benevolent Institution (founded 1849) for the relief of poor married women during sickness, confinement, and week of mourning.

  • Hebrew Provident Society (founded 1850) to provide old people with a pension of 5/- weekly for life.

  • Liverpool Hebrews' Free Loan Society (founded 1861).

  • Society for Clothing the Necessitous Boys of the Hebrews' Educational Institution (founded 1866).

  • Liverpool Hebrew School Children's Soup Fund (founded 1870) for providing the children of the schools with hot dinners during the winter. 

  • The Liverpool Jewish Choral Society (founded 1871) for providing an efficient honorary choir for the Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation; and for giving amateur entertainments and reunions to which subscribers and their friends are admitted

  • Liverpool Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor (founded by 1874)

  • Liverpool Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Jewish Poor (founded 1875).

  • Liverpool Hebrew Tontine Society (founded 1883).

  • Children's Clothing Society (founded 1884) for making and distributing clothes to poor Jewish children.

  • Children's Jewish Charities Aid Society (founded 1895).

  • Orphan Aid Society (founded by 1896) to aid the Jews Hospital and Orphan Asylum.

  • Society for Temporarily Sheltering Poor Strangers of the Jewish Faith (founded by 1896 but not mention inJewish Year Book 1900)

  • North End Young Men's Jewish Association (founded 1897).

  • New Hebrew Burial Society and Chevra Kadisha (founded by 1900)

  • Liverpool Jewish Young Men's Social Club (founded by 1900) .

  • Liverpool Hebrew Workmen's Benefit Society (founded by 1900)

* As listed in the Jewish Directory of 1874 and the Jewish Year Books 1896 & 1900.

 


Registration Districts
(Births, Deaths & Marriages)

  • Liverpool (since 1 October 1969)

    • Previous Registration Districts:

      • From 1 July 1937 to 1 October 1934 - Liverpool

      • From 1 October 1934 until 1 October 1969 - Liverpool Registration District divided into two registration districts - Liverpool North and Liverpool South.

    • All registers would now be held by current office.

    • Register Office website

 

Liverpool Jewish Population Data

1750

 Earliest organised Jewish Community in Liverpool

1851

2,500

The largest provincial Jewish Community (Provincial Jewry in Victorian Britain)

1896

5,000

(The Jewish Year Book 1896/97)

1900

5,000

(The Jewish Year Book 1900/01)

1934

7,000

(The Jewish Year Book 1935)

1945

7,500

(The Jewish Year Book 1945/46)

1965

7,500

(The Jewish Year Book 1966)

1976

6,500

(The Jewish Year Book 1977)

1980

5,950

(The Jewish Year Book 1981)

1990

5,000

(The Jewish Year Book 1991)

1992

4,000

(The Jewish Year Book 1993)

1998

3,000

(The Jewish Year Book 1991)

2001

  2,698*

(2001 Census results)

2011

  2,157*

(2011 Census results)

2021

  1,807*

(2021 Census results)

*The 2001, 2011 and 2021 census result figures represent those who answered the voluntary question 'What is your religion?' by clicking the category 'Jewish' among the eight check-box options (another of which was 'No religion'). However, between 6.0% to 7.7% of the population nationally did not answer the question and the figure would not have included those who considered themselves Jews by ethnicity but not by religion, and accordingly the actual number of Jews would be higher than the figures shown.


Other Jewish Congregations in Merseyside

Jewish Communities of England home page

________________

Notes & Sources ( returns to main text)

  1. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1971, volume 11, p.410. However, the website of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation (https://www.princesroad.org/) refers to the synagogue in 1753 as being in Cumberland Street, although this no longer appears on the website.

  2. British Chief Rabbis 1664-2006 by Derek Taylor (2007), p. 123 and Jewish Year Books 1947 through 1978.

 

Page created: 2002
Congregations researched and page reformatted by David Shulman: August 2005
Page most recently amended: 4 August 2024

 
   


 

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