Southport & District Reform Synagogue

Congregation Data

Southport & District Reform Synagogue

Southport New Synagogue⁽ⁱⁱ⁾

Sha'arei Shalom ("Gates of Peace")⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾

Princes Street (adjoining Portland Spa, on corner of Portland Street), Southport, PR8 1EG^(iv)

(Previous address - West Street Club, Southport, until about 1955)^(v)

Active

Founded in 1948.^(vi)

Reform

A constituent synagogue of the Movement for Reform Judaism (formerly known as Reform Synagogues of Great Britain) and its predecessor, Association of Synagogues of Great Britain).

http://southportreform.org.uk/

Click on Southport Reform Synagogue (a member community), on the Jewish Small Communities Network website.

Rabbi Bruno Italiener - late 1940s and/or early 1950s^(ix)

Rev. Alexander C. Jaffe - from about 1949 until about 1952^(x)

Rev. Erich Cahn - from about 1952 until about 1963^(xi)

Rabbi Michael Goulston - from about 1964 until about 1965^(xii)

Rabbi Dr. Albert B. Belton - from about 1965 until about 1966^(xiii)

Rev. Norman Zalud - from 1966 until about 1975^(xiv)

Rabbi Sidney Kay - from 1976 until 1988,^(xv) and thereafter emeritus until 2013

Rabbi Amanda Golby - from about 1988 until 1995^(xvi)

L'Chayim ("To Life")^(xx)

National Reports and Surveys^(xxii)

1977 - 107 male (or household) members and 51 female members

1983 - 113 male (or household) members and 53 female members

1990 - 179 members (comprising 81 households, 43 individual male and 55 individual female members)

1996 - 166 members (comprising 118 households, 13 individual male and 35 individual female members)

2010 & 2016 - listed as having 50 to 99 members (by household)

The congregation is a registered charity (registered charity no. 227576), initially registered under the name Southport New Synagogue on 31 March 1965, and subsequent unders its present name. The Governing document is a Deed of Trust and the congregation's constitution revised and amended to February 1960.^(xxiii)

Sefton (since 1 July 2011) ^(xxiv) - Link to Register Office website.

Worship Number: 64782.

Group for Marriage Certification: West London Synagogue

Cemetery
Information:

The congregation is a member synagogue of the Jewish Joint Burial Society (JJBS), through which the congregation's members participate in a burial scheme.

For cemetery details see Cemetery Information on Sefton Jewish Community home page

Notes & Sources (↵ returns to text above)

• (i) Reserved.

• (ii) This was the name under which the congregation was listed in Jewish Year Book until and including 2011. ↵

• (iii) Congregation's website, last accessed 8 September 2019. ↵

• (iv) The address under which the congregation was listed in Jewish Year Books from 1956 through 2011 was Portland Street, Southport PR8 1LR. However is believed to be the same location as the current address, which is on the corner of the Princess Street and Portland Street. ↵

• (v) This was the address under which the congregation was listed in Jewish Year Books from 1950 (the congregation first appearance) through 1955. ↵

• (vi) This congregation celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2018 - posting by the congregation on Jewish Small Communities Network on 27 July 2018. ↵

• (vii) to (viii) Reserved.

• (ix) Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History, p.461, although the dates of his term of service are not given. e is not mentioned as a minister of the congregation in any Jewish Year Book. ↵

• (x) Based upon the listing of Rev. Jaffe as minister of the congregation in Jewish Year Books from 1950 through 1952. ↵

• (xi) Based upon the listing of Rabbi Cahn as minister of the congregation in Jewish Year Books from 1953 through 1963. There was no minister listed for the congregation in 1964. ↵

• (xii) Based upon the listing of Rabbi Goulston as minister of the congregation in the Jewish Year Book 1965. ↵

• (xiii) Based upon the listing of Rabbi Belton as minister of the congregation in the Jewish Year Book 1966. ↵

• (xiv) Based upon the listing of Rev. (later Rabbi) Zalud as minister of the congregation in Jewish Year Books 1967 through 1976. ↵

• (xv) Based upon Jewish Chronicle obituary of 13 December 2013. ↵

• (xvi) Based upon the listing of Rabbi Amanda as minister of the congregation in Jewish Year Books 1989 through 1997 and Nelson Fisher's
  Eight Hundred Years - The Story of Nottingham's Jews (1998), p.184. There were no ministers subsequently listed for the congregation. ↵

• (xvii) to (xix) Reserved.

• (xx) Congregation website, last accessed 8 September 2019. ↵

• (xxi) Reserved.

• (xxii) Reports on synagogue membership in the United Kingdom, published by or on behalf of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and which can be viewed on the website of the Institute of Jewish Policy Research. Click HERE for links to the various reports. ↵

• (xxiii) Charities Commission website, accessed July 2025. Clicking on the charity number of this will take you to the charity's registration on the Charities Commission website. ↵

• (xxiv) For previous registration districts, see on Sefton Home Page. Any registers would now be held by current register office. ↵