the former

Huyton-cum-Roby Hebrew Congregation

Huyton with Roby, Knowsley, Merseyside

(formerly Lancashire)

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congregations throughout the British Isles and Gibraltar, both past and present.

Towns of Huyton, Roby and St Helens

The town of Huyton and the adjoining village of Roby, in northwest England, are just to the east of Liverpool. From 1894, they formed the Huyton-with-Roby Urban District within the County of Lancashire. In 1974, the urban district was merged with a number of adjoining areas to form the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley within the newly-created Metropolitan County of Merseyside.

The town of St Helens, situated some 5 miles to the northeast of Huyton, is in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, also within the Metropolitan County of Merseyside and previously, from 1887 to 1974, formed a county borough, geographically within the county of Lancashire.

Jewish Community

From 1940 to 1942, Huyton was home to probably the largest enemy alien internment camp on the British mainland,⁽ⁱⁱ⁾ many of such internees being Jewish refugees who had come to the UK to escape persecution by the Nazis. There was also a small Jewish community in Huyton formed in the latter part of World War II, and which continued for a few years following the war. Jewish activity in the area had earlier been centred on St Helens.

Congregation Data
Name:	Huyton-cum-Roby Hebrew Congregation⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾
Address:	The 1944 high holy-days services were held at the Church Hall, Church Road, Roby.^(iv) There is currently no data as to where other services were held.
Formation:	The congregation was formed in July 1944.^(v) However, a Jewish circle had been formed in 1943 in near-by St Helens, for residents and service personnel based in St Helens, Huyton and district, which organised Rosh Hashana services at the Parochial Hall, Prescot Road (near the junction of Boundary Road) St Helens.^(vi)
Affiliation:	None known.
Closure:	The congregation closed by about 1949.^(vii)
Ritual:	Ashkenazi - Orthodox
Ministers:	Rev. M. Aarons - minister from about 1946 to about 1949^(xi)
Lay Officers:	Unless otherwise stated, all data on lay officers has been extracted from listings in Jewish Year Books 1945/6 through 1949.^(xii)
	President 1944-1945 - S. Finn^(xiii) 1946-1947 - V. Miller Vice President 1944-1945 - V. Miller^(xiv) Chairmen 1947-1948 - Dr. Abraham Clein^(xv) 1948-1949 - M. Gordon Vice Chairmen 1947-1948 - H. Segal 1948-1949 - M. Cohen	Treasurers 1944-1945 - Dr. Abraham Clein^(xv) 1946-1947 - Mr. Rappaport 1947-1948 - M. Loftus 1948-1949 - M. Rappaport Hon. Secretaries 1944-1945 - L. Boyars^(xvi) 1945-1946 - L. Lazarus^(xvii) 1946-1947 - M. Kirwan 1947-1949 - J. Levy
Registration District (BMDs):	Knowsley (since 1 April 1974)^(xxi) - Link to Register Office Website.
Cemetery Details	There are no Jewish cemeteries in Huyton, Roby and St Helens.

Online Articles and Other Material relating to relating to
the local Jewish Community

on JCR-UK

Selected Press Reports relating to the Jewish Communities in Huyton, Roby and St Helens.

Notable Jewish Connections with Huyton, Roby and St Helens

David Bernstein b. 1943, chairman of the Football Association, Manchester City FC and the British Red Cross, was born in St Helens, near Huyton.
Eddie Clein, Lord Mayor of Liverpool (2000-2001), who grew up in Huyton, is the son of the late Dr Abraham Clein (d.1968), Labour Councillor for Huyton and a founder member of the Huyton community.
Sydney Gordon OBE was leader of Huyton council and was awarded the OBE in 1965 for his services to local government.
Berthold Greenhill (c.1901-1971), businessman, Zionist and communal leader in Liverpool, was elected the first president of Huyton Rugby League Football Club in 1967. He had served as chairman of the club for many years.
The Anita Samuels Centre, an NHS facility at Ellison Grove, Huyton, is named after Anita Samuels OBE DL (1924-2016) a visionary and administrator for mental health care in Merseyside.
Jewish Internees at Huyton Internment Camp 1940-1942.
- Peter Baer (1924-1996), a print maker.
- Martin Bloch (1883-1954), an artist, colourist and teacher, born in Neisse, then in Upper Silesia, Germany (now Nysa, Poland).
- Hugo (Puck) Dachinger (1908-1995), an artist, draughtsman and designer, born in Gmunden, Austria. View Hugo Dachinger's portrait of a man at Huyton internment camp.
- Norbert Elias (1897-1990), a distinguished sociologist, born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland).
- Hans Gál, OBE (1890-1987), a composer and author, born in the village of Brunn am Gebirge, just outside Vienna, Austria. He composed "Music Behind Barbed Wire", inspired by his experiences as an internee in Huyton and the Isle of Man.
- Lord Claus Moser, KCB, CBE (1922-2015), a Berlin-born statistician, interned together with members of his family.
- Samson Schames (1898-1967), an artist of the Blitz.
- Eric Robert Wolf (1923-1999), a distinguished anthropologist, born in Vienna, Austria.

Other Huyton with Roby Jewish Institutions & Organisations

Hebrew and Religious Classes - founded in 1944^(xxii)
Huyton Ladies Benevolent Society - founded by 1946^(xxiii)

Huyton Jewish Population Data
1946	40 families	(The Jewish Year Book 1949)

Notes & Sources
(↵ returns to text above)

(i) Reserved.
(ii) Discussed in The Island of Extraordinary Captives (2022) by Simon Parkin. ↵
(iii) This was the name listed in Jewish Year Books and in the Jewish Chronicle report of 21 July 1944 - "cum" means "with" or "and". ↵
(iv) Jewish Chronicle report of 21 July 1944. ↵
(v) Jewish Chronicle report of 21 July 1944. The congregation was first listed in the Jewish Year Book 1945/6 (the previous edition was the 1940 edition). ↵
(vi) Jewish Chronicle report of 3 September 1943. ↵
(vii) The final listing was in the Jewish Year Book 1949. Jewish Chronicle report of 25 May 1974 stated that the congregation's activities had disconntinued more that 20 years previously. ↵
(viii) to (x) Reserved.
(xi) Rev. M. Aarons was listed as minister and reader of the congregation in Jewish Year Books 1947 through 1949. ↵
(xii) The first Jewish Year Book to be published following the war-time cessation of publication in 1940 was the 1945/6 edition. Thereafter the year books were published according to the calendar year, being published towards the end of the year prior to the year appearing in its title. Where a person is first listed in a year book as holding a particular office, it is assumed that his term of office commenced in the year of publication and that he continued in office until the commencement of office of his successor, unless the office was vacant. For example, if an officer is listed in Jewish Year Books 1947 through 1949, it is assumed that he commenced office in 1946 and continued in office until 1949. However, it should be noted that this is only an assumption and, accordingly, his actual years of office may differ from those shown here. ↵
(xiii) Mr. Finn was referred to as president of the congregation in Jewish Chronicle reports of 21 July 1944 and 21 October 1944. He was not listed in any Jewish Year Book. ↵
(xiv) Mr. Miller was referred to as vice president of the congregation in the Jewish Chronicle report of 21 July 1944 ↵
(xv) Apart from Dr. Clein's listing as president of the congregation in the Jewish Year Book 1948, he was referred to as treasurer in the Jewish Chronicle report of 21 July 1944 and is also mentioned in the report of 21 September 1945. ↵
(xvi) Mr. Boyars was referred to as hon. secretary of the congregation in the Jewish Chronicle report of 21 July 1944 ↵
(xvii) Apart from Mr. Lazarus's listing as hon. secretary of the congregation in the Jewish Year Book 1945/6, he was also mentioned in the Jewish Chronicle reports of 21 November 1944 and 21 September 1945. ↵
(xviii) to (xx) Reserved.
(xxi) Previous Registration District: Prescot (from 1 July 1837 to 1 April 1974). Any registers would be held by the current register office ↵
(xxii) Jewish Chronicle report of 21 November 1944. ↵
(xxiii) Listed in Jewish Year Books 1947 through 1949. ↵

Jewish Congregations in Merseyside

Jewish Communities of England homepage

Page created: 17 May 2006
Data significantly expanded and notes first added: 17 January 2023
Page most recently amended: 5 February 2023

Research by David Shulman and Steven Jaffe
Formatting by David Shulman

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