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NOTE: We are not the official website of this congregation.
White Friars, Bolland's Court, 2022 Probable
location of former Chester Synagogue Courtesy Steven Jaffe
City of Chester
The historic cathedral city of Chester, with a population of some 90,000, is situated on the river Dee, in
north western England, close to the Welsh border, and was the traditional county town of
Cheshire.
The city was a county borough until 1974, when it merged with
adjoining authorities to form the district of Chester in the administrative
county of Cheshire. In 2009, it became part of the new unitary authority
and borough of Cheshire West and Chester.
The Jewish Community
Although an important port during the Middle Ages,
there is no record of a medieval Jewish community having existed in Chester. In the 1750s there may have been a Jewish lodging house for itinerant hawkers.(ii)
However, an organised Jewish congregation was not established until the end of
the nineteenth century. The community always remained relatively small.
Congregation Data
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Name:
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Chester Hebrew
Congregation
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Formation:
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Formed in 1894,(iii) although members of the community
previously held services in members' homes(iv).
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Addresses:
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The congregation does not presently appear
to have a synagogue building.(v)
From 1894 until 1900, the congregation held services
in a room in Union Hall, Chester.(vi)
In 1900, the congregation moved to Bolland's Court, White
Friars,
Chester, and remained there for many years until the
synagogue closed in 1963.(vii)
It was reported, solely in 1964, that the congregation's
address was 39a Lower Bridge Street, Chester.(viii)
It was also reported that following the closure of the
synagogue the congregation joined with that of
Hoylake Hebrew Congregation,
some 24 miles away, being recongregated in 1973.(ix)
However, during the interim period it appears that both
congregations continued to maintain a separate
existence.
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Present Status:
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Active, although services
are held very rarely but meetings are held from time to time and
there is a visiting rabbi from Manchester.(xi)
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Ritual:
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Ashkenazi Traditional / Orthodox
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Affiliation:
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The congregation is an
unaffiliated congregation.
From at least 1908 there were efforts to unite the congregation
with the
Wrexham
Hebrew Congregation (which
are 13 miles).
In 1912, there was a press report that the
Wrexham congregation
was then affiliated with that of Chester.(xii)
Although no formal amalgamation took place
and both congregations continued to exist as separate independent congregations, joint activities and the shared use of a minister was intermittent from
early in the twentieth century until as late as the 1930s.
For additional information, see "The Jews
of Wrexham" by Harold Pollins.
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Ministers
and Readers: (To view a short profile
of a minister whose name appears in blue - hold
the cursor over the name.)
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Rev. Colman Sumberg
- reader in 1894 on formation of the congregation(xv)
Rev. W. Levien
- reader from 1894 until 1895 or 1896(xvi)
Rev. Moses Eker
- minister from 1896 until about 1898(xvii)
Rev. Israel Litovitch
- reader from 1898 until about 1899(xviii)
Rev. Solomon Trotsky
- reader from 1900 until about 1906(xix)
Rev. Isidore Lubetzki
- reader from about 1907 until about 1908(xxii)
Rev. Selig Bressloff
- minister from 1908 until about 1912(xxiii)
Rev. S. Calemanovitz
- minister from about 1912 until about 1916(xxiv)
Rev. Samuel Kibel
- minister from about 1917 until about 1918(xxv)
Rev. Joseph Herman
- minister in about 1919/20(xxvi)
Rev. Max Franks
- minister in about 1920(xxix)
Rev. S. Silver
- minister from 1922 until about 1924(xxx)
Rev. B. Cohen
- minister from about 1925 until about the 1960s(xxxi)
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Lay Officers of the
Congregation:
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Unless otherwise stated, the
following data on lay officers has been extracted
from
listings in
Jewish Year Book, first published in 1896/7
(the congregation being first listed in 1900/1).(xxxv)
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Presidents
1894-1895
- S. Polinker(xxxvi)
1895-1896
- M. Price(xxxvii)
1896-1897
- H. Haft(xxxviii)
1897-1902
- Woolfe Jackson(xxxix)
1902-1905
- S. Bloom(xl)
1905-1906
- Jacob Goldman(xli)
1907-1908
- S. Wolfman
1908-1913
- S. Bloom
1913-1914
- S. Polinker
1915-1917
- W. Sharp
1917-1919
- S. Polinker
1919-1921
- Max Cohen
1921-1924
- W. Sharp
1924-1926
- Morris Sharp
1926-1927
- I. Eimerl
1927-1929
- Dr. I.S. Fox
1929-1931
- Dr. C. Morgan
1931-1934
- no data
1934-1937
- Morris Sharp
1937-1946
- no data
1946-1956
- M. Cohen
Vice President
1921-1929
- A. Finestone
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Treasurers
1894-1895
- J. Carasov(xlv)
1895-1896
- S. Polinker(xlvi)
1896-1898
- Woolf Adler(xlvii)
1899-1907
- S. Polinker(xlviii)
1907-1908
- J.M. Glisk
1908-1909
- S. Polinker
1909-1912
- M. Blank
1912-1913
- S. Polinker
1913-1914
- I. Eimerl
1914-1915
- M. Cohen
1915-1917
- W. Sharp
1917-1921
- S. Bloom
1921-1922
- Morris Sharp(xlix)
1922
- I Goldenberg(xlix)
1922-1924
- no data
1924-1926
- Morris Sharp
1926-1927
- I. Eimerl
1927-1929
- Dr. C. Morgan
1929-1934
- no data
1934-1937
- Dr. C. Morgan
1937-1953
- no data
1953-1956
- J. Viner
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Secretaries and Hon. Secretaries
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1894-1895
- M. Price(lii)
1895-1896
- S. Woolfman(liii)
1896-1897
- no data
1897-1898
- M. Blank(liv)
1898-1899
- S. Polinker(lv)
1899-1902
- M. Blank(lvi)
1902-1907
- J. Marks(lvii)
1907-1909
- M. Blank
1909-1912
- C. Morgan
1912-1915
- H. Newmark
1915-1919
- Morris Cohen
1919-1920
- Morris Sharp
1920-1924
- H. Newmark
1924-1926
- H. Bloom
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1926-1927
- I. Eimerl
1927-1929
- Dr. C. Morgan
1929-1931
- no data
1931-1934
- H. Bloom
1934-1937
- M. Klertz
1937-1946
- no data
1946-1949
- S. Cohen
1949-1951
- Rev. B. Cohen
1951-1961
- B. Moore
1961-1969
- Mrs. A.J. Mayorcas
1969-1976
- Mrs. A.J. Mayorcas & J. Viner
1976-1985
- Mrs. A.J. Mayorcas
Secretary for Marriages 1954-1956
- W. Kletz
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Membership Data:
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Reports & Survey(lxi)
1977 - 18 male (or household) members and
20 female members
1983 - 25 male (or household) members and
20 female members
1990 - 34 household members (comprising
28 households, 3 individual male and 3 individual female members)
1996 - 30 male (or household)
members
2010 & 2016 - listed as having under 50 members (by household)
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Registration District:
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Cheshire West and Chester,
since 1 April 2009(lxii)
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Link to Register Office website
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Cemetery Information:
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There is no Jewish cemetery in
Chester.
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Online Articles and Other
Material relating to the Chester Jewish Community
on JCR-UK
Some Notable Jewish Connections with Chester
(prepared with the assistance of Steven Jaffe)
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Martin Lewis CBE, born in Manchester, TV presenter, financial journalist and entrepreneur,
grew up in the Cheshire village of Norley and attended King's school Chester.
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Abraham Mendes (d. about 1730) a merchant with interests in Amsterdam and Barbados,
was the first known Jew to reside in Chester.
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Alfred Mond, first Baron Melchett (1868-1930), industrialist, financier and politician,
and later Minister of Health, was Liberal MP for Chester from 1906 until 1910.
He was an enthusiastic Zionist, served as President of the British Zionist Federation
and founded the moshav of Tel Mond (now a town) in central Israel,
which was named after him.
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Other Chester Jewish Institutions &
Organisations
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Educational & Theological
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Other Institutions
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Jewish Literary Society
- founded by 1929(lxxi)
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Jewish Ladies Guild
- founded by 1945(lxxii)
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Council of Christians and Jews
- founded by 1953(lxxiii)
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Chester Jewish Population Data
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Year
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Number |
(Source) |
1945
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60 |
(The Jewish Year Book 1945/6) |
1946
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30 |
(The Jewish Year Book 1947) |
1959
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70 |
(The Jewish Year Book 1960) |
1984
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110 |
(The Jewish Year Book 1985) |
1985
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30 families |
(The Jewish Year Book 1986) |
1990
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90 |
(The Jewish Year Book 1991) |
1991
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70 |
(The Jewish Year Book 1992) |
1996
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35 |
(The Jewish Year Book 1997) |
2003
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132 |
(The Jewish Year Book
2004) |
Notes & Sources
(↵
returns to text above)
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Jewish Congregations in Cheshire
Jewish Communities of England homepage
Page created: 2 November 2005 Data significantly expanded and notes added: 6 May 2024
Page most recently amended: 17 May 2024
Research by David
Shulman, assisted by Steven Jaffe Formatting by David Shulman
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