Penrith, Keswick & District Hebrew Congregation

Selected Press Reports relating to the
Evacuee Jewish Community in Penrith

Jewish Chronicle, 29 December 1939

PENRITH - In consequence of the evacuation of a number of Jewish schoolchildren, including, twenty-seven Royal Grammar School boys, as well as Jewish families, from Newcastle on Tyne, a community has been formed at this little Cumberland town. The leadership has been entrusted to Mr. Murray Rosenberg, of Palestine, who is temporarily residing in the town with his brother-in-law and sister: Mr. and Mrs. Goodman of Newcastle. Services have been held in the local Masonic Hall.

Jewish Chronicle, 20 December 1940

JEWISH CHILDREN AT PENRITH
I would like to pay a tribute to the hard work and continuous effort which Mr. Murray Rosenberg has put into the organisation of the Penrith Jewish Community. For the last 16 months he has had services at his house every Friday night and Saturday morning and Yom Tov. He obtained a Sefer Torah, and the boys were encouraged to take part in conducting the service - one reading the evening prayer, another the morning prayer, and another the Musaf. Under his supervision the boys formed a Habonim Group which has been most helpful in bringing the Jewish boys - who had scarcely met in their home-town - together, and staunch friendships and Jewish interests have been developed. Apart from his efforts, there have been only four or five isolated visits from the Newcastle Ministers. Thus the Jewishness of the boys evacuated to non-Jewish billets in Penrith would have been in a sad plight.
MRS. RAIE H. TAYLOR, Roundhay, Kenton Road, Newcastle on Tyne,

Jewish Chronicle, 25 May 1941

25.4.41 PENRITH A communal Seder was arranged in Hutton Hall, Penrith, and 32 people took part... Czech refugees who work in a near-by forest arranged a Seder at Patterdale Hall.

Jewish Chronicle, 1 August 1941

At a meeting of the Newcastle Board of Education with Mr. M. Wilkie in the chair, Rabbi Newman, of London, was appointed resident teacher in the reception area. All children who are evacuated to Penrith, Keswick, and Windermere, are asked to attend the Hebrew classes.