Hartlepool

prepared by L. Olsover

Many from the small community of Hartlepool came over from Hamburg in ships owned by the Hartlepool Steam Navigation Company, and their original place of worship was in Old Hartlepool, in a room over a stable. By 1871 the community had progressed sufficiently to be able to build, in the residential district of West Hartlepool, a specially designed synagogue which was consecrated by the Chief Rabbi. It had also a minister of its own, Rev. Alexander Tertis. Those orthodox Jews who still lived in Old Hartlepool travelled to the synagogue by ferry, paying the fare of one halfpenny in advance of the Sabbath.

The community was served by a non-Jewish butcher who sold Kosher meat under supervision. Burials were directed to the Sunderland Cemetery until the Hartlepool community had its own burial ground.

It is difficult to trace the occupations of the earliest settlers of Hartlepool. It is likely that some of them were ships chandlers or ship brokers, but when the Jubilee of the synagogue was celebrated in 1922 many of the Honorary Officers were jewellers or silver smiths. The majority of the members were however poor, making a living in the colliery areas by selling goods on credit. A few of them seem to have settled for a time in a mining village, Tudhoe Colliery near Spennymoor, about six miles from Durham. Since they could not get home on Fridays on the short winter days they probably stayed over the weekend at Spennymoor with their fellow travellers.