Dublin Hebrew Congregation

Name

Dublin Hebrew Congregation (DHC)⁽ⁱ⁾

Current Status:

In a gradual process that took place between 1999 and 2004, the DHC merged with the independent Terenure Hebrew Congregation (THC). In January 1999, general meetings of both congregations agreed on a merger⁽ⁱⁱ⁾ and later that year the DHC closed its Adelaide Road synagogue and moved its services to THC's synagogue in Rathfarnham Road.⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾ On 15 December 2004 the formal merger between the two congregations was completed when both congregations simultaneously approved the merger agreement.^(iv) The new merged congregation assumed the name Dublin Hebrew Congregation^(v) and holds its services at the Terenure Synagogue.

In order to avoid potential confusion, activities of the merged congregation (in light of its name) will generally be dealt with on this page, although such congregation is also the successor to the THC.

Current Address:

32a Rathfarnham Road, Terenure, Dublin D6W VE89. (in use by DHC from 1999)

For the history of the Terenure synagogue, see Terenure Hebrew Congregation.

Former Addresses:

36/7 Adelaide Road, Dublin (1892 to 1999)

This was the first purpose-built synagogue in Ireland and was built in Eastern Romanesque style, with seating capacity of 300 in the main body, and for another 150 in the galleries^(viii) (architect Dublin-based John Joseph O'Callaghan^(ix)). The site was chosen as it was within easy walking distance of the South Circular Road,^(x) which had become the area in which most of Dublin's Jews were then concentrated. It cost over £5,000 to build and was funded by donations from British Jews, including the Rothschilds family, and from Jews and non-Jews throughout Ireland, and a £3,000 mortgage.^(xi) The synagogue  was opened and consecrated by the new Chief Rabbi Dr. Hermann Adler on 4 December 1892.^(xii)

The synagogue became known as the "English shul",^(xv) differentiating it from the small congregations around Clanbrassil Street and Portobello, established in the 1880's and 1890's, primarily by recent immigrants from Lithuania and Poland. In 1915 a mikveh and baths were erected at the synagogue and in 1925 the building was materially enlarged, to provide school facilities for Jewish children.^(xvi)

As a result of the movement of the Jewish population to Dublin's suburbs, the synagogue was closed in 1999 and services were thereafter held at the synagogue in Terenure.^(xvii) Shortly following closure, the synagogue building was sold, for some £6 million,^(xviii) and demolished, apart from its front façade, and replaced by either a block of flats^(xix) or offices^(xx). it was intended that the proceeds of sale would be used to to redevelop the Terenure synagogue site, with the construction a new synagogue, community centre and mikveh.^(xxii) Ultimately, the Terenure site was not redeveloped and only the mikveh was added.^(xxiii)

12 Mary's Abbey, (off Chapel Street) Dublin (1836 to 1892)^(xxv)

These premises were formerly a chapel of a small Presbyterian group known as the Seceders or Non-Burghers, a sect of the Kirk of Scotland, who later went on to join similar groups in forming the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.^(xxvi) Mary's Abbey, a short and narrow street off Capel Street, is the site of the St. Mary’s Abbey, founded by the French Cistercians in 1147 on the site of an older Benedictine foundation and dissolved in the Reformation of 1539.^(xxvii) The lease of the building, which had a seating capacity of 90, was purchased by the congregation from the trustees of the Seceders for £300 in 1836 but the congregation was only able to purchase the freehold interest in 1853, for £350 from the Bank of Ireland.^(xxx)

At the time of its purchase and for almost fifty years thereafter, the Mary's Abbey Synagogue was the only synagogue in Dublin. The 1880s saw the beginning of a major influx of Jews from the Russian Empire escaping persecution triggered by the assasination of Tsar Alexander II, many of whom settled in the poorer areas around Clanbrassil Street and Portobello, some two miles from the synagogue. These newcomers, primarily from Lithuania, were generally far more strictly observant than members of the existing somewhat assimilated Mary's Abbey congregation, which held services only on a Saturday morning. Furthermore, Mary's Abbey was also too small for the needs of the growing community and the largely Yiddish-speaking newcomers found its services too formal, stern, middle class and unwelcoming. In the 1880s and 1890s many broke away to establish a number of their own small, more conveniently situated congregations, more to their liking.

The last Sabbath service was conducted at Mary’s Abbey on 3 December 1892,^(xxxi) which included a valedictory sermon by Chief Rabbi Dr. Hermann Adler, the congregation moving to the larger Adelaide Road synagogue, situated closer to the main Jewish residential areas. 

40 Stafford Street, Dublin (1822 to 1836)^(xxxii)

In 1822, the few Jewish families in Dublin formed a new Jewish congregation that met in the home of Joseph Wolfe Cohen at 40 Stafford Street (now Wolfe Tone Street). In 1829, when Cohen moved to other premises, the congregation rented the upper storey at 40 Stafford Street.^(xxxiii)

Formation:

The congregation was founded in 1822, there having been no Jewish congregation in Dublin since the closure of the Marlborough Green Synagogue in 1791, due to the community almost dwindling away. Joseph Wolfe Cohen presented the new congregation with a gift of two Torah scrolls that he and his brother, Abraham, had rescued from sale by the creditors of the Marlborough Green Synagogue. A third scroll was presented by Reuben Isaac Phillips.^(xxxvi)

Ritual:

Ashkenazi Orthodox. A bequest in 1854 was made on condition that the congregation conforms "to the form and service observed by the Great Synagogue, Duke's Place, London."^(xxxvii)

Affiliation:

The congregation is unaffiliated although until Irish independence in 1922, it would have been under the aegis of the (British) Chief Rabbi. However, in 1840 the congregation proposed that it it be considered as a branch synagogue of the Bevis Marks Synagogue although nothing appears to have come of this proposal.^(xxxviii)

Website:

https://www.dublinhebrew.org/

Ministers & Early Readers:^(xlii)
(To view a short profile of a minister or reader - hold the cursor over his name.)

Rev Isaac Davidson - reader and shochet from 1829 until 1844.^(xliii)

Rev. Julius Sandheim - reader and shochet from about 1839 until 1882 (not continuously).^(xliv)

Rev. Jacob D. Davis - preacher, reader and teacher from 1855 until November 1861.^(xlv)

Rev. Philip Bender - preacher and minister from 1862 until 1881.^(xlvi)

Rev. Israel Leventon - reader and shochet from about 1881 until 1899.^(xlviii)

Rev. Francis L. Cohen - minister from 1885 until 1886.^(xlix)

Rev. Edwin Hyman Simeon Collins - minister from about 1887 until about 1888.^(l)

Rev. Louis Mendelsohn, BA - minister from 1895 until about 1901.^(li)

Rev. S. Alfred Adler - minister in about 1900.^(lii)

(In 1919, the congregation was one of the six congregations which combined to appoint Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog as communal rabbi of the Dublin Jewish community, prior to him being appointed Chief Rabbi of Ireland in 1922.)

Rev. Abraham Gudansky - reader from 1901 until about 1925 and then minister until 1939.^(liii)

Rabbi Theodore (Teddy) Lewis - minister from 1944 until 1948.^(liv)

From 1949 to 1982, the congregation decided to defer appointing its own dedicated rabbi or minister and instead, during this period, relied upon the services of the various Chief Rabbis of Ireland (Rabbi Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits, Rabbi Dr. Isaac Cohen and Rabbi David Rosen), who occupied by rotation the pulpits of the various orthodox congregations in Dublin, as well as the community's dayan, Dayan S. Zalmon Alony).

Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis - minister from 1982 until 1984, when he became Chief Rabbi of Ireland.^(lvii)

After 1984 (except for the period in about 1995 when Rabbi Vivian C. Silverman was acting minister^(lviii)) the congregation generally relied upon the services the various Chief Rabbis of Ireland, until 2008 (when that office was left vacant) and Dublin's Communal Rabbi and/or Chabbad Rabbi, Rabbi David Radomsky (1985 to 1988)^(lix) and Rabbi Zalman Lent (2003-2023).^(lx)

Rabbi Zalman Lent was also later appointed as minister of the merged Dublin Hebrew Congregation, being the first resident rabbi to serve the congregation since the merger.

Rabbi Yoni Wieder and Rebbetzen Olivier Wieider - rabbinic couple from 2023 until present (March 2024).^(lxi)

Chazanim  (Cantors) since 1900:

Rev. Simon Wykansky - reader in about 1908.^(lxiv)

Rabbi Elkan Eliezer Gavron - second reader from about 1901 until 1921.^(lxv)

Rev. Morris Roith - second reader from about 1921 until 1966.^(lxvi)

Rev. Naftali (Nandor) Freilich - chazan from about 1939 until 1949.^(lxvii)

Rev. Isidore Gluck - chazan from 1951 until 1964.^(lxx)

Rev. Izak Halpert - chazan from 1964 until 1980.^(lxxi)

Cantor Alwyn Shulman - chazan from 1991 until about 2020.^(lxxii)

Lay Officers from 1896:

Unless otherwise stated, the following data on lay officers has been extracted from Jewish Year Books, first published in 1896/7 and which subsequent to 1956 generally ceased to provide details of lay officers other than the secretary.^(lxxviii)

Presidents

1896-1901 - M. de Groop, JP

1901-1913 - Ernest W. Harris, LLD

1913-1915 - Edwin Maurice Solomons, MA JP

1915-1923 - J. Isaacs, JP

1923-1925 - L.H. Rosenthal, KC

1925-at least 1956 - Edwin M. Solomons, MA

Treasurers

1896-1907 - Adolph Davies

1907-1909 - Joseph Isaacs

1909-1911 - Hoseas Weiner

1911-1912 - L.J. Clein

1912-1915 - D.L. Cohen

1915-1918 - W. Nurock

1918-1920 - A. Newman, JP

1920-1925 - Philip Sayers, JP

Vice Presidents & Treasurers

1925-1927 - Philip Sayers, PC

1927-1928 - Myer Golding

1928-1934 - Michael Noyek

1934-1938 - Hoseas Weiner

1938-1940 - Lewis Levinson

1940-1945 - no data

1945-1946 - S. White

1946-at least 1956 - H. Good, LLB

Secretaries

1881-1899 - Rev. Israel Leventon^(lxxix)

1899-1901 - Rev. Louis Mendelsohn, BA

1901-1939 - Rev. Abraham Gudansky

Hon. Secretaries

1896-1907 - John D. Rosenthal, LLB^(lxxx)

1907-1913 - Edwin M. Solomons, MA JP

1913-1915 - Philip Sayers, JP

1915-1920 - I. Elyan, JP

1920-1923 - S. Stolovern

1923-1925 - J. Zlotaver

1925-1927 - Bernard Shillman

1927-1932 - A. Spiro, BA

1932-1940 - S. White

1940-1945 - no data

1945-1946 - Geo. R. Morris

1946-1956 - S. Crivon, LLB

1956-1968 - no data

1968-1975 - H.C. White, LLB

1975-1977 - M. Gordon

1978-1983 - M. Simmons

1983-1985 - D. Wine

1985-1989 - M. Gordon

1989-1997 - M. Simmons

1997-2003 - Dr. Seton Menton

Membership Data:

General

1845 - 19 ba'allai batim and 21 seatholders (Chief Rabbi's Questionnaire)

Number of Seatholders - Jewish Year Books^(lxxxi)

1896 1899 1900 1903 1905 1912 1938 1945 1953 1962 120 105 120 130 150 160 248 365 294 300