Dalston Synagogue

Name:

Dalston Synagogue

Last Address:

Poet's Road, Canonbury, London N.5  (from 1884)
A 99 year lease of the plot was purchased in 1884 for £650 (with an option to purchase the freehold for £1,100) and the synagogue (designed by architect Nathan Solomon Joseph, FRIBA in collaboration with Isidore Spielmann⁽ⁱ⁾) was built, together with a minister's residence, for £7,000.⁽ⁱⁱ⁾

In July 1885, the last stone of the building - the crowning stone of the Aron Kodesh -was formally laid by Mr. Samuel Montague (later Lord Swaythling) at a special service conducted by Rev. Dr. Herman Adler, Delegate Chief Rabbi, and Rev. Marcus Hast, Chief Chazan of the Great Synagogue, supported by enormous choir made up of members of several synagogues.⁽ⁱⁱ⁾

Former Addresses:

1874-1876 -Two rooms in Colveston House, Birbeck Road, London E.8 (the second, a spacious conservatory, was used for the accommodation of ladies).⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾

1876-1884 - 120 Mildmay Road, Kingsland, London N.1. The building, of corrugated iron with interior walls of varnished pine, was constructed within five weeks at the cost of £500.^(iv)

(Note: neither of these addresses were actually in Dalston.)

Date Founded:

The congregation was founded on 3 May 1874, when a meeting was held to establish a congregation in Dalston.^(v)

The congregation faced opposition from the neighbouring North London Synagogue, which intensified when the congregation took the Mildmay Road premises, as it feared the establishment of a congregation in the area close to its own catchment area, would cause a reduction in its membership and thus threaten its financial stability.^(vi)

Status:

Closed - amalgamated in 1967 with Stoke Newington Synagogue (whose predecessor congregation, the New Dalston Synagogue, had been formed in a secession from the Dalston Synagogue in the 1880's)

Ritual:

Ashkenazi Orthodox

Affiliation:

A constituent synagogue of the United Synagogue from 1885 until its closure.^(vii)

Newsletter or Magazine:

Synagogue Review - South Hackney & Dalston (see below)

Secessionist Congregation:

In 1887, several members, who objected to a slight modification in the order of service proposed by the Chief Rabbi, broke away to form a new congregation, the New Dalston Synagogue in Sandringham Road, which developed into the Stoke Newington Synagogue.^(viii)

Earlier Congregation:

Clephane Road Congregation - In the early 1870s, a small group of Jewish residents of Canonbury, lead by Marks Manus^(ix), formed a congregation worshiping in a house in Clephane Road. In the winter of 1874, the members of this congregation joined the Dalston Synagogue.^(x)

Incorporated Congregation:

North London Synagogue - 1958

Ministers:

(To view a short profile of a minister or reader - hold the cursor over his name.)

Rev. Michael Henry Myers - from 1874 until March 1885^(xv)

Rev. Hermann Gollancz - from 1885 until 1892^(xvi)

Rabbi Moses Hyamson - from December 1892 until April 1902^(xvii)

Rev. David Wasserzug - from 1903 until 1918^(xviii)

Rev. (later Rabbi) Samuel Gross - from 1920 until 1924^(xix)

Rev. (later Rabbi Dr.) Joseph Rabbinowitz - from 1925 until 1958,^(xx) and thereafter emeritus

Rabbi Isaac Newman - from 1958 until 1967^(xxi)

Chazans / Readers:

Rev. Jacob Lesser - from 1875 until March 1906^(xxv)

Rev. Philip Fassenfeld - from early 1907 until June 1936^(xxvi)

Rev. Jacob Koussevitzky - from about 1936 until about 1948^(xxvii)

Rev. Samuel Baruch Taub - from about 1948 until about 1950^(xxviii) 

Rev. Jacob (Jack) Sherman - from about 1951 until 1967^(xxix)

Lay Officers:

The data set out below, as regards the period until 1910, has generally been taken from The Dalston Synagogue - An Historical Sketch by Rev. D. Wasserzug (1910).^(xxxiv) For the period since 1910, this has been extracted from Jewish Year Books.^(xxxv)

Presidents^(xxxvi)

1874-1878 - Elias Cohen

1878-1885 - Freeman Cohen

Vice Presidents^(xxxvi)

1874-1876 - Isaac Isaacson

1876-1878 - Simeon Goldman

1878-1881 - Marks Manus

1881-1885 - Moses A. Rozelaar

Wardens^(xxxvii)

1885-1887 - Freeman Cohen

1885-1893 - Moses A. Rozelaar

1887-1891 - Marks Kruszinski

1891-1895 - Simon Simons

1893-1896 - Samuel Hess

1895-1900 - Wolfe Isaacs

1896-1904 - Joseph Birn

1900-1905 - Philip Josephs

1904-1915 - Abraham Lewis

1905-1908 - Bernard Loewenstein

1908-1923 - Ludwig Felsenstein

1915-1936 - Isaac Landau

1923-1924 - Ascher L. Sions

1924-1925 - D. Abrahams

1925-1928 - C. Orgel

1928-1940 - A. Lissack

1936-1937 - A.I. Bard

1937-1940 - F.S. Cohen

1928-1940 - A. Lissack

1940-1945 - war years (no data)

1945-1947 - J.W. Jackson

1945-1947 - J. Ofstein

1947-1955 - A. Lissack

1947-1950 - A. Goodman

1950-1954 - J. Ofstein

1955-1956 - Arnold Hertzberg

1955-1956 - J. Rosner

Treasurers / Financial Representatives^(xxxviii)

1874-1876 - Jacob Vandenberg

1875-1878 - Moses A. Rozelaar

1878-1881 - Morris Van Thal

1881-1883 - Philip Lewey

1883-1887 - Marks Kruszinski

1885-1891 - Simon Simons

1891-1895 - Joseph William Berg

1895-1905 - Alfred Moss Posener

1905-1910 - M. Drukker

1910-1915 - Isaac Landau

1915-1916 - Montie P. Jacobs

1916-1917 - Montie P. Arnold

1917-1923 - Ascher L. Sions

1923-1928 - S. Spanjer

1928-1930 - D. Weitzman,BA

1930-1933 - S. Spanjer

1933-1936 - D. Abrahams

1936-1940 - J. Ofstein

1940-1945 - war year (no data)

1945-1955 - Arnold Hertzberg

1955-1956 - J.J. Weisfogel

Secretaries & Hon. Secretaries

1874-1876 - Morris Duparc

1876-1902 - post generally held by minister

1902-1918 - Isaac Goldston

1918-1950 - C. Littman^(xxxix)

1950-1951 - L. Stern

1951-1953 - M. Sinclair

1953-1965 - D. Birnbaum

1965-1966 - G. Leigh

1966-1967 - E.D. Sugarman

Beth Hamedrash:

From about 1913 until World War II, there was a separate Beth Hamedrash operating within the congregation, with its own officers, as set out below:^(xliv)

Wardens

1913-1931 - Ludwig Felsenstein

1913-1931 - A. Blumenthal

1931-1940 - F.S. Cohen

1931-1940 - S. Hertzberg

Treasurer

1931-1940 - M. Levinsky

Hon. Secretaries

1913-1919 - A.A. Felsenstein

1919-1920 - J. Cohen

1920-1921 - P. Marovitch

1921-1922 - no data

1922-1925 - J. Solomons

1925-1940 - S. Rosen, BSc

Membership Data:

United Synagogue (male seat-holders)^(xlv)

1885	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960
208	269	365	368	340	355	306	402	463

Also see below for seatholder records on All-UK Database.

Hebrew & Religious Classes:

The Hebrew and Religious Classes had been established in the early days of the congregation by Rev. M.H. 

In 1895, a Committee of Education was elected to reorganised the classes on a self-supporting basis for the children of the district and the reorganised classes were opened on 23 February 1896. The initial chairman of the committee and hon. superintendent of the classes was Waldemar Benscher and the initial treasurer was Herman H. Oppenheimer.^(xlvi)

Due to the lack of adequate space, an addition was made to the synagogue building to provide for classrooms and this structure was completed at the cost of £650 and consecrated by the Chief Rabbi on 11 April 1897.^(xlvi)

In about 1901, Isaac Goldston, AKC was appointed headmaster of the classes, retaining such position until at least 1918.^(xlvii)

The following are details of the number of pupils enrolled in the clases for the relevant years:^(xlviii)

1896	1897	1900	1902	1903	1904	1909	1910	1911	1912
36	92	100	110	105	130	112	118	112	108

 

1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919	1920	1921	1923
110	102	110	120	100	90	120	130	144	161

Local Government District:

Both Poet's Road and Mildmay Road, the addresses where the Synagogue had been situated, are actually just outside Dalston proper (and were in Canonbury and Kingsland) and are within the London Borough of Islington (whereas Dalston proper is in the London Borough of Hackney). Formerly (until 1 April 1965) they were in the somewhat smaller former Metropolitan Borough of Islington (established in 1900, conterminous with the pre-existing parish of Islington), within the former County of London (established in 1899). Prior to 1899, the parish of Islington was in the former County of Middlesex.

Registration District (BMD):

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