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

Jewish Chronicle, 9 October 1942

A press report records what might have been the first Jewish service at St Helens, for Rosh Hashana. The report suggests there was no organised congregation in St Helens and the service was hastily arranged once it was discovered a minyan could be mustered.

Jewish Chronicle, 3 September 1943

In 1943, a St Helens Jewish Circle had been formed for residents and service personnel based in St Helens, Huyton and district. The Circle organised Rosh Hashana services in 1943 at the Parochial Hall, Prescot Road (near the junction of Boundary Road) St Helens. It also initiated education for children under the auspices of the Greenbank Hebrew and Religion classes, Liverpool, which provided a visiting teacher three times a week. The joint secretaries of the Circle were Mrs I Rosen and Mrs A Clein, Hillside House, Hillside Road, Huyton.

Jewish Chronicle, 21 July 1944

HUYTON - The decision to establish the congregation was made at a meeting held at Hillside Road, Huyton, in July 1944. The founding committee included Mr. S. Finn, President; Mr. V. Miller, Vice President; Dr. A. Clein, Treasurer; and Mr L. Boyars (34, Fairfield Avenue, Roby, near Liverpool) Hon. Secretary. The services on the following Holy-days were to be held at the Church Hall, Church Road, Roby.

Jewish Chronicle, 21 November 1944

HUYTON—At a meeting of the Huyton-cum-Roby Congregation, Mr. S. Finn, President, reported on recent developments; various sums were allocated to local charities; the formation of a Cheder was unanimously agreed to (with Mr. L. Lazarus, 19, Edge Street, Thatto Heath, St. Helens, as Hon. Secretary); and a ladies' social section was formed (with Mesdames D. Finn and R. Clein as Joint Hon. Secretaries).

Jewish Chronicle, 21 September 1945

The only Jewish station-master in England...is Mr. S. Lazarus, whose station is at St. Helens, a busy Lancashire junction; Mr. Lazarus is the Hon. Secretary of the Education Committee of a little Jewish community at Huyton-cum-Roby, near Liverpool. Huyton-cum-Roby, by the way, has a claim to fame all of its own - the Hebrew classes there are held in a doctor's two surgeries, those at Roby and at Huyton, of Dr. A. Clein, who is Chairman of the Education Committee. Besides the Cheder, the Roby surgery houses the Jewish Ladies Benevolent Society, whose organiser and Chairman is Mrs. Clein.

Jewish Chronicle, 24 May 1974

The last chapter has been written in the history of the Huyton Hebrew Congregation, which discontinued its sacred activities over 20 years ago. Established during the early part* of the Second World War to serve the religious and educational needs of Jewish families then living in that outlying area of Liverpool, the congregation, which at one time had about 100 members, held regular services on the Holy-days in various locales and organised successful Hebrew classes for children. Due to the movement of members from the district after the war, all this ceased over two decades ago. The final question - what to do with the accumulated funds of the congregation - was resolved at a meeting of trustees and former members which was held at the Liverpool Jewish Community Centre, with Dr Mervyn Goodman, president of the Merseyside Jewish Representative Council, in the chair. It was resolved that the money in hand - stated to be about £300 plus accumulated interest - be allocated to the Liverpool Yeshiva with the proviso that the monies be retained by that institution for a period of six years before making use of them.
[*actually in 1944]