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JCR-UK is a genealogical and historical website covering all Jewish communities and
congregations
throughout the British Isles and Gibraltar, both past and present.
City of Gloucester
The city of Gloucester, with a population of approximately 110,000, is
situated on the right bank of the river Severn in the West of England. It is
the county town and a local government district of the county of Gloucestershire,
and was a county borough until 1974.
Gloucester Jewish Community
There was a medieval Jewish community in Gloucester.
In modern times, the first Jews appear to have begun to settle in the city before the end of the
seventeenth century and a community was formed and the synagogue was established
early in the eighteenth century. The community had its own cemetery by the early nineteenth
century, with its own shochet in 1830, but had ceased to exist by the 1870s.
In recent years, a liberal Jewish community, now known as the
Three Counties Liberal Jewish Community
(see separately), was established,
serving the counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
The principal sources for information on the modern Gloucester community are The Rise of Provincial Jewry
by Cecil Roth, 1950
(Gloucester section online)
(referred to here as "Roth") and Chapter 2 of The Hebrew Community of Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud by Brian Torode, 1989
(online)
(referred to here as "Torode").
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Congregation Data
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Name:
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Gloucester Synagogue
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Address:
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The synagogue was in
Mercy Place, Gloucester, opposite the
Infirmary,(iv)
from at least 1892.(v)
Previously the synagogue was 'on the south side of
Barton Street', nearly opposite the Presbyterian Meeting
Hall. The building was demolished in the 1960s, to make
way for the Co-op.(vi)
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Formation:
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There are reports of a synagogue from 1792,(vii),
although it is
likely to have been established some time earlier.
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Closure:
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Although the synagogue was
reportedly closed in 1840 "due to lack of congregation",
there were reports of services being held 1842 and
possibly in 1852,(viii)
although it is uncertain as to where these services were
held. A report of 1842
refers to a room inn Southgate Street.(xi)
However, the congregation had become defunct by
the 1870s. In 1871, the Chief Rabbi visited the
city, but by then the independent existence of the community had come to an end,
the remaining members being affiliated to the Cheltenham Synagogue.(xii)
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Ritual:
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Ashkenazi Orthodox
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Affiliation:
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The congregation was an
unaffiliated congregation under the aegis of the Chief
Rabbi.
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Regulations:
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The manuscript of the congregation's regulations,
the Takkanot, written in Yiddish about the year 1800, is in the Mocatta Library,
London.(xiii)
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Spiritual Leaders:
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Rev. Isaiah Abrahams
- acted as minister in late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.(xvi)
Rev. A. Levy, shochet authorised to practise at Gloucester in 1830.(xvii)
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Registration District:
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Gloucestershire, since 1 April 2006(xviii)
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Link to Register Office website
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Online Articles and Other
Material
relating to the Gloucester Jewish Community
on JCR-UK
on Third Party websites
Notable Jewish Connections with Gloucester
(Prepared with the assistance of Steven Jaffe)
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David Ricardo (1772-1823), who owned
the Gatcombe Park Estate in Gloucestershire, was Sheriff
of Gloucester in 1818.(xxv)
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Members of Parliament for Gloucester
(which was represented by a Jewish MP for a continuous
period of 42 years (1945-1987):
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Moss Turner-Samuels QC (1888-1957), Labour MP for Gloucester, 1945-1957, was a former city councillor in Newcastle upon Tyne,
and served as High Sheriff of Gloucester, 1945-1946.
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Rt. Hon. John Diamond (known
Jack Diamond) (1910-2004), Labour MP for Gloucester, 1957-1970, served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, from 1964 to 1970.
He was created a life peer as Baron Diamond of the City of Gloucester in 1970.
He led the Social Democratic Party in the House of Lords from 1982 to 1988.
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Sarah Oppenheimer (known as Sally
Oppenheimer) (born 1928), Conservative MP for Gloucester 1970-1987, served as Minister of State for Consumer Affairs
from 1979 to 1982.
She was created a life peer as Baroness Oppenheimer-Barnes of Gloucester in 1989. She retired from the House of Lords in 2019.
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Gloucester Jewish Cemetery Information
Jewish burial grounds in Gloucester:(xxvi)
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The old Gloucester Jewish Burial Ground, Organ's Passage, or
Gardner's Lane, off Barton Street (adjoining St Michael's Parish
burial grounds), was the original Jewish cemetery in Gloucester,
also serving the Jewish residents of Ross, Hereford and Stroud.
The first interment was that of the child Uri or Pheis (called
Phillip) Levi, who died in the autumn of 1784. About 27 gravestones
survived, the oldest being from 1807 and the latest from 1886. In
1938, the graves were exhumed (to make way for a children's playground) and re-interred
in the Coney Hill Cemetery, with the approval of the trustees and
the Board of Deputies. The epitaphs on these gravestones are listed in the Gloucester section in
The Rise of Provincial Jewry
by Cecil Roth, 1950, part of the Susser Archive.
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Coney Hill Cemetery, Coney Hill Road, Gloucester,
GL4 4PA has a small hedged Jewish Section that contains the 1938 re-interred remains and
re-erected gravestones from the old Organ's Passage burial ground.
Article on JCR-UK:
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"Jewish Tombstone Inscriptions in S. W. England - Studies in Anglo-Jewish History No. 3", by Rabbi Dr. Bernard Susser, includes an
Introduction that makes reference to Gloucester. Part of the
Susser Archive.
(For additional information,
see
IAJGS Cemetery Project - Gloucester)
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Notes & Sources
(↵
returns to text above)
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Jewish Congregations in Gloucestershire
Jewish Communities of England homepage
Page created: 22 August 2005
Page significantly enhanced and notes added: 10 November 2023
Page most recently amended:
29 December 2023
Research and
formatting by David Shulman
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