the former

Brixton Synagogue

London SW2

Page created: 21 September 2006
Latest revision or update: 28 February 2017

© Leslie Bailey 2008

The preserved front of the former Brixton Synagogue, Effra Road (August 2008)
Now Used by Eurolink Business Centre
Reproduced with the kind permission of Leslie Bailey

Congregation Data

Name:

Brixton Synagogue

Address:

49 Effra Road, Brixton, London S.W.2⁽ⁱ⁾ (opened 1913, enlarged and re-consecrated 25 September 1921, damaged by fire in 1956)
From 1905 to 1909, services were held in Carlton Hall, Turnstall Road, Brixton, and at 44 Brixton Hill from 1909 to 1913

Date Formed:

1905

Incorporated Congregations:

Borough Synagogue in 1961

Current Status:

Closed about 1982 - amalgamated with Streatham Synagogue (which had separated from Brixton Synagogue in 1946).

Ritual:

Ashkenazi Orthodox

Affiliation:

A constituent synagogue of the United Synagogue from 1913 until its closure. (Until 1913, members belonged to the Western Synagogue Burial Fund.)

Ministers:

Rabbi A. Mishcon - from 1906 until 1935⁽ⁱⁱ⁾

Revd. Louis Rubin-Zacks, M.A. - about 1935⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾

Rabbi (later Dayan) Morris Swift - from about 1936 until 1946^(iv)

Rabbi (later Dayan) Meyer Steinberg - from 1952 until 1966^(v)

Rabbi Philip Ginsbury - from 1966 until 1982^(vi)

Membership Data:

Number of male seat-holders^(vii):

1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970
352	356	473	508	614	526

Also see below for seatholder records on All-UK Database.

Local Government Districts:

Brixton is an area within London Borough of Lambeth and was previously (until 1965) in the somewhat smaller former Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth^(vii).

Registration District (BDM):

Lambeth (since founding of the congregation) - Link to Register Office website

Cemetery Information:

For United Synagogue cemeteries, see Cemeteries of the United Synagogue.

Prior to joining the United Synagogue in 1913, the Congregation's members belonged to the Western Synagogue Burial Fund.

Notes & Sources (↵ returns to text above)

(i) Jewish Heritage in England - An Architectural Guide by Sharman Kadish (2006), pp. 54, includes a brief description of the synagogue building in Effra Road. ↵
(ii) The Lost Synagogues of London, by P. Renton, 2000 , pp.134-7. Profile. ↵
(iii) Based on listing in Jewish Year Book solely for 1936. Rabbi Rubin-Zacks shortly afterwards emigrated to Perth, Australia. ↵
(iv) Based upon first listing in Jewish Year Book, 1937. Rabbi Swift resigned and emigrated to South Africa in 1946 - The Lost Synagogues of London, by P. Renton, 2000 , p.137. ↵
((v) The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History, edited by A. Rubenstein & M.A. Jollies , p.954. ↵
(vi) Rabbi Ginsbury had previously been the minister of Streatham Synagogue from 1959 and once again became the minister of Streatham Synagogue (later known as the South London Synagogue) upon the amalgamaton of Brixton Synagogue with that congregation in 1982. ↵
(vii) The United Synagogue 1870-1970 by Aubrey Newman (1977), pp. 218/219. ↵
(viii) The London Borough of Lambeth, an Inner London Borough within the Greater London administrative area, was created on 1 April 1965 upon the merger of the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth with the Streatham and Clapham parts of the former Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth (both metropolitan boroughs established in 1900). These areas had been within the (then abolished) County of London (established in 1899). ↵

Bibliography and Other Material relating to the this congregtion

on JCR-UK

London Bibliography, which includes:
- Fifty Golden Years, A History of the Brixton Synagogue by L. Cohen, 1958 (Published by the congregation).
- The Lost Synagogues of London by P. Renton, 2000 (Tymsder Publications, London), pp. 134-137.
- Other publications, referred to in the footnotes to above Congregation Data, which make reference to this congregation.

List of United Synagogue Congregations

Jewish Congregations in the London Borough of Lambeth

Jewish Congregations in Greater London

Greater London home page