Mosaic Reform Synagogue

Congregation Data

Mosaic Reform Synagogue (since 2014)⁽ⁱ⁾

Middlesex New Synagogue

39 Bessborough Road, Harrow HA1 3BS (from 1962, new building dedicated 1977)

Since June 2011, the Mosaic Reform Synagogue (formerly the Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue) has shared these premises and it has became the shared administrative address of all three Mosaic congregations, see below.⁽ⁱⁱ⁾

In October 2018, it was announced that the congregation, together with the other two "Mosaic" congregations, will be relocating to a new purpose-built complex at 65 Stanmore Hill, Stanmore, for which planning permission was approved in January 2020. The move is expected to take place in the first half of 2022.⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾

Active

1959^(iv)

Reform

A constituent synagogue of the Movement for Reform Judaism (formerly the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain).

Mosaic Jewish Community

Since 2014, the congregation has been part of the  Mosaic Jewish Community (website - http://choosemosaic.org/), which also includes Mosaic Liberal Synagogue (formerly Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue) and the Mosaic Masorti Synagogue (the Hatch End Masorti Synagogue). Centred in and around the London Borough of Harrow, Mosaic offers "one community with three strands of Judaism."^(vi)

Rabbi Lionel Blue - 1961 to 1964 (first minister of the Congregation)^(viii)

Rabbi Michael Goulston - 1965 to 1968^(ix)

Rabbi Michael Standfield - 1971 to 1986^(x)

Rabbi Simon J. Franses - 1987 to 2008, and thereafter rabbi emeritus until 2009^(xi)

Rabbi Kathleen de Magtige-Middleton - 2008 to present (February 2022)^(xii)

Rabbi Ady Assabi^(xiv) - student rabbi from 1969 to 1971

Rabbi Larry Alan Tabick - assistant rabbi 1981 to 1986^(xv)

Rabbi Lisa Barrett - part-time assistant rabbi in about 2011^(xvi)

National Results & Survey^(xix)

1977 - 455 male members and an estimated 456 female members

1983 - 685 male (or household) members and 119 female members

1990 - 822 members (households)

1996 - 738 members (450 households, 93 individual male and 195 individual female members)

2010 - listed as having 500 to 749 members (by household)

2016 - listed as having 300 to 399 members (by household)

On 23 December 2013, the congregation was incorporated as a private company (company number: 08825271) limited by guarantee without share capital, initially under the name of The New Reform Synagogue Limited, changing its name on 19 November 2014 to Mosaic Reform Synagogue (with use of 'Limited' exemption).^(xx)

It is also a registered charity, its current registration dating from 20 November 2014 (registered charity number: 1159303). The governing documents are the Company's Memorandum & Articles Association.^(xxi)

The congregation's previous registration as a registered charity, under the name Middlesex New Synagogue was from 7 September 1999 (registered charity number: 1077299), which was removed from the register on 16 October 2018.^(xxii) With effect from 3 January 2016, all such charity's assets and liabilities were transferred to the new entity.^(xxiii) (There had also been an earlier registration under no: 69041.^(xxiv))

In addition, Mosaic Jewish Community Limited (company no. 08825132) is a registered private company, incorporated on 23 December 2013 as the New Jewish Community Limited, changing its name on 8 April 2014. It is also a registered charity (no. 1157109).^(xxv)

Bessborough Road is in the London Borough of Harrow, an Outer London Borough created on 1 April 1965. Prior thereto, it was in the former Municipal Borough of Harrow (incorporated in 1954 and coextensive with the London borough), within the former County of Middlesex.

Harrow (since formation of congregation) - Link to Register Office website

The congregation has "London Synagogue" membership of the Jewish Joint Burial Society (JJBS), which includes rights of burial at one of the Society's cemeteries, in particular the Western Cemetery, Bulls Cross Ride, Cheshunt. There is also generally the option (through the JJBS) of a Woodland Burial in Cheshunt or cremation at Golders Green Crematorium.

Notes & Sources (↵ returns to text above)

• (i) The congregation's website, accessed 8 March 2015. This name was adopted when the congregation joined the Mosaic Jewish Community (see below) and was the name under which the congregation was listed in the Jewish Year Book 2015. ↵

• (ii) Website of the then Harrow & Wembley Progressive Synagogue, accessed 8 March 2015. ↵

• (iii) Mosaic Jewish Community's website, accessed 23 November 2018, 23 January 2020 and 28 February 2022. ↵

• (iv) Jewish Year Books 1962 through 2015. ↵

• (v) Reserved.

• (vi) Mosaic Jewish Community's website, accessed 23 November 2018. ↵

• (vii) Reserved.

• (viii) Congregation's website, accessed 8 March 2015, and Rabbi Blue's obituary in the Daily Telegraph. ↵

• (ix) Congregation's website, accessed 8 March 2015, and Rabbi Goulston biography in Palgrave Dictionary. ↵

• (x) Congregation's website, accessed 8 March 2018, and Rabbi Standfield's profile. ↵

• (xi) Congregation's website, accessed 8 March 2015, and Rabbi Frances's "Who's Who" entries in Jewish Year Books (latest 2009). ↵

• (xii) Rabbi de Magtige-Middleton's profile on the Congregation's website, last accessed 28 February 2022. ↵

• (xiii) Reserved.

• (xiv) Congregation's website, last accessed 23 November 2015. Rabbi Assabi died in 2003. ↵

• (xv) Congregation's website, last accessed 23 November 2015 and Rabbi Tabick's entries in "Who's Who" in Jewish Year Books (latest 2015). ↵

• (xvi) Based on the profile of Rabbi Barrett on South West Essex & Settlement Reform Synagogue website. ↵

• (xvii) and (xviii) Reserved.

• (xix) Reports on synagogue membership in the United Kingdom, published by or on behalf of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and which can be viewed on the website of the Institute of Jewish Policy Research. Click HERE for links to the various reports. ↵

• (xx) Companies House website (in beta trial stage), accessed 23 November 2018. ↵

• (xxi) Charities Commission's website (in beta trial stage) and Open Charities website, accessed 23 November 2018. ↵

• (xxii) Charities Commission's website (in beta trial stage), accessed 23 November 2018. ↵

• (xxiii) Congregation's Annual Report and Financial Statements for year ended 31 December 2016, filed with the Charities Commission. ↵

• (xxiv) Jewish Year Book 1995. ↵

• (xxv) Companies House website and Charities Commission's website, respectively, (both in beta trial stage), accessed 18 May 2018 ↵