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Constructing Identity: Anglo-Jewry and Synagogue Architecture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Sharman Kadish
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Abstract

This essay seeks to explore the relationship between Jewish and British identity in the architecture of Anglo-Jewry by reference to a small selection of architecturally important or representative synagogues in this country that are still standing and that have been recorded for the Survey of the Jewish Built Heritage. The Survey was set up in 1997 under the auspices of the Jewish Memorial Council with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage and the RIBA to record and research the vanishing architectural heritage of the Jewish communities of Britain and Ireland. In the process it aims to promote protection and preservation and public access to historic Jewish buildings and sites nationwide.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 45 , 2002 , pp. 386 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2002

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References

Notes

1 Alderman, Geoffrey, Modern British Jewry (Oxford, 1992; 2nd edn 1998), p. 310.Google Scholar

The term ‘cathedral synagogue’ is used in the literature to denote a large-scale building constructed in the post-Jewish-emancipation period. An alternative name is ‘choral synagogue’. The word ‘cathedral’ is borrowed from the Christian context. However, in the Jewish tradition there is no concept of a hierarchy of synagogues comparable with cathedrals and parish churches.

2 Jarrassé, Dominique, ‘La synagogue reflet d'une histoire’, in Monuments Historiques, 191, February 1994 (issue devoted to ‘Le patrimoine juif franҫais’), p. 29 Google Scholar, and see also his L'Age d'or des synagogues(Paris, 1991).Google Scholar

3 ‘Beautification of the commandments’ Mehilta [commentary] on Exodus 15:2, “This is my God and I shall extol/beautify Him’, part of the Shirat Hayam or Song of Moses recited by the Israelites after the crossing of the Red Sea.

4 Literature on Bevis Marks includes: Gaster, Moses, History of the Ancient Synagogue (London, 1901)Google Scholar; Hyamson, Albert, The Sephardim of England (London, 1951; 2nd edn, 1991)Google Scholar; Kadish, Sharman (ed.), Building Jerusalem: Jewish Architecture in Britain (London, 1996), especially essays by Epstein and JamillyGoogle Scholar; Krinsky, Carol Herselle, Synagogues of Europe (Cambridge Mass., 1985; 2nd edn, paperback, New York, 1996)Google Scholar; Kadish, Sharman, Bevis Marks Synagogue 1701-2001(Swindon, English Heritage, 2001).Google Scholar

5 Jamilly, Edward, The Georgian Synagogue (London, 1999).Google Scholar On the West Country in particular see Bernard Susser, The Jews of South-West England(Exeter, 1993), ch. 5; Friedlander, Evelyn and Fry, Helen, “The Disappearing Heritage: The Synagogues and their Ritual Artefacts’, in Pearce, Keith et al.(eds), The Lost Jews of Cornwall (Bristol, 2000), pp. 292–303 Google Scholar; and ‘Synagogues and cemeteries in the South West’, in The Jews of Devon and Cornwall: Essays and Exhibition Catalogue (Bristol, 2000), pp. 12–25.Google Scholar

6 At Exeter the façade underwent alterations in 1835 and was damaged by bombing during the Second World War. The shells of Georgian synagogues are also extant at Penzance (1807) and Falmouth (1808), the latter exceptional in that it occupied a fairly prominent site overlooking the harbour. The Georgian Ark of the old Portsea Synagogue (1780) is preserved in the 1930s Southsea Synagogue, Portsmouth. Likewise, Cheltenham Synagogue contains older fittings from the original New Synagogue in London, Great St Helen's (1761). Brighton, Devonshire Place, rebuilt by David Mocatta 1836-37, had much in common with earlier Georgian examples.

7 On Ramsgate see Cardozo, D. A. and Goodman, P., Think and Thank: The Montefiore Synagogue and College, Ratnsgate, 1833–1933 (Oxford, 1933)Google Scholar; Krinsky, , Synagogues of Europe, pp. 424–26Google Scholar; Rosenau, Helen, ‘Montefiore and the Visual Arts’, in Sonia, and Lipman, V. D. (eds), The Century of Moses Montefiore(Oxford, 1985), pp. 118–28Google Scholar; Rosenau, Helen, ‘Reflections on Moses Montefiore and Social Function in the Arts’, Journal of Jewish Art, 8 (1981), pp. 60–67 Google Scholar; Wyatt, Gill, Sir Moses Montefiore and Ramsgate (Kent, 1984).Google Scholar

8 I am indebted to Toni Demidowicz, Conservation Officer, Birmingham City Council, who has researched the history of this building, making great use of old maps of the city. In Liverpool, whilst Seel Street Synagogue has long since gone, the fine Greek Revival screen and gateway at Deane Road, the oldest extant Jewish burial ground in the city that dates from 1836, survives, but is sadly neglected despite a Grade II listing.

9 However, this portico could make no claims to architectural purity, since it apparently had rusticated columns. Levene, Henry, The Norwich Hebrew Congregation 1840–1960: A Short History (Norwich, 1961) includes a photograph on p. 8.Google Scholar The synagogue was bombed in 1942.

10 Jewish Chronicle, 14 August 1863, p. 5.Google Scholar The foundation stone is preserved at the Jewish cemetery in Old Charlton Road, Dover.

11 Krinsky, , Synagogues of Europe, pp. 410–12.Google Scholar Canterbury was not mentioned by Rachel Wischnitzer in her seminal essay on ‘Egyptian Revival in Synagogue Architecture’, American Jewish Historical Society Quarterly, 41, September 1951, pp. 61–75 Google Scholar, reprinted in From Dura to Rembrandt: Studies in the History of Art(Jerusalem, 1990), pp. 96–106.Google Scholar Nor is the building actually identified as a synagogue in the Statutory Listing.

12 On images of the Jerusalem Temple in Western art see Rosenau, Helen, Vision of the Temple (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Tigerman, Stanley, The Architecture of Exile (New York, 1988)Google Scholar; and on Freemasonry: Curl, James S., The Art and Architecture of Freemasonry (London, 1990).Google Scholar

13 Jacobs, Jacob, Narrative of the Erection of the New Synagogue at Canterbury, MSS AJ 168 a/2, Southampton University Library.Google Scholar Extracts published in Cohn-Sherbok, Dan, The Jews of Canterbury, 1760–1931 (Canterbury, 1984).Google Scholar

14 For example, the portico and detailing of Leeds, New Synagogue, Chapeltown Road (J. Stanley Wright 1929–32). See below.

15 One of two architect’s perspectives preserved in the Manchester City Archives is reproduced in Williams, Bill, Manchester Jewry: A Pictorial History 1788–1988 (Manchester, 1988), p. 16.Google Scholar The fashion for Italianate synagogues was started by John Davies’ New Synagogue, Great St Helen’s, Bishopsgate (1838), featured in H. Melville's and T. H. Shepherd's London Interiors(1841) which achieved wide circulation.

16 Thomason's original drawings, including colour-wash decorative schemes for the Ark, are preserved at Birmingham City Archives. They were conserved at the behest of the Survey and a selection exhibited in the City Library in 1998. See Kadish, Sharman, ‘First national survey of Jewish Built Heritage’, Context, [Journal of] The Institute of Historic Building Conservation, 59, September 1998, pp. 36–38.Google Scholar

17 Jamilly, Edward, ‘Anglo-Jewish Architects, and Architecture in the 18th and 19th centuries’, Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, 18 (1958), pp. 127–41Google Scholar; Jamilly, Edward, ‘Synagogue Art and Architecture’, in Levin, S. S. (ed.), A Century of Anglo-Jewish Life, 1870–1970 (London, 1970), pp. 75–91.Google Scholar In addition, Jamilly has made a special study of ‘Hyman Henry Collins’, Quest, 1, September 1965, pp. 41–45 Google Scholar; Beenstock, Rhona, ‘Edward Salomons — A Sociable Architect’, Manchester Region History Review, 10 (1996), pp. 90–95.Google Scholar

18 Kadish, Sharman, ‘Nathan Solomon Joseph (1834–1909)’, one of a number of entries on Jewish architects for New Dictionary of National Biography, in pressGoogle Scholar; Fraser, Lesley, ‘“Four Per Cent Philanthropy“: Social Architecture for East London Jewry, 1850–1914’, in Kadish, S. (ed.), Building Jerusalem, pp. 166–92.Google Scholar

19 For example, London, Hampstead Synagogue, Dennington Park Road of 1892 (extended 1901, 1921), Grade II* listed.

20 Glasman, Judy, ‘Synagogues in the late 19th century: Design in Context’, London Journal, 13, no. 2 (1988), pp. 143–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Glasman, Judy, ‘Assimilation by Design: London Synagogues in the 19th century’, in Kushner, Tony (ed.), The Jewish Heritage in British History (London, 1992), pp. 171–209 Google Scholar.

21 See Kadish, Sharman, ‘Eden in Albion: A History of the Mikveh in Britain’, in Kadish, S. (ed.), Building Jerusalem, pp. 101–54.Google Scholar

22 Newman, John, Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald, 1st edn (1969), p. 470, 2nd edn (1976), p. 489. Pevsner himself missed many synagogues completely despite having been born a Jew.Google Scholar

23 One exception being Sheffield, North Church Street (John Brightmore Mitchell-Withers Senior, 1872–73) a modest red-brick building with pointed windows, still extant.

‘Gothic architecture is scarcely admissible, being essentially Christian in its forms, and its symbols; and Classical architecture …[is] Pagan Architecture …’, Nathan S. Joseph, 19 December 1867, in Report No. 1: Central Branch Synagogue, Report of the Building and Finance Committees … 2 February 1868, United Synagogue Archives, London Metropolitan Archives. Quoted in Krinsky, Synagogues of Europe, pp. 129–30, n. 192.

24 I am here following Jones, , Welsh Chapels(1996), pp. 57 Google Scholar,74. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales is currently engaged on a chapel-recording project.

25 On Merthyr see Jewish Chronicle, 22, 29 June 1877, p. 12 Google Scholar; Pontypridd; Jewish Chronicle, 25 October 1895, p. 19 Google Scholar, illustrated; and The Builder, 2 November 1895, pp. 317–18Google Scholar. Photographs of the interiors of both buildings, now much altered, are preserved at the Welsh Folk Museum, St Fagan's, and at Merthyr Public Library.

26 Nathan Joseph in his report to the United Synagogue in 1867, as cited in n. 23 above. However, he designed the Ohel complex at Willesden Cemetery for the United Synagogue in Gothic style in 1873.

27 Delissa Joseph introduced Reform-inspired reordering of Ark and Bimah into the nominally Orthodox United Synagogue, starting with Hampstead, Dennington Park Road (1892). At his Hammersmith Synagogue (1890), the layout was altered in 1896. Ironically, West London Reform (1870) was built with a central Bimah which was not moved until 1897. However, early provincial Reform Synagogues at Manchester, Park Place and Bradford, Bowland Street (1880–81) were built to the new plan. See below.

28 Information kindly provided by West London's organist Chris Bowers-Broadbent, 24 August 2000.

29 Kershen, Anne J. and Romain, Jonathan A., Tradition and Change: A History of Reform Judaism in Britain 1840–1995 (London, 1995), pp. 53, 65–66, 76.Google Scholar On the Healey brothers see Linstrum, Derek, West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture (London, 1978), pp. 377–78Google Scholar; The Builder, 17 September 1910, p. 322.1 am grateful to my project fieldworker the archaeologist Andrew Petersen for his valuable observations on ‘oriental’ influences on synagogue architecture. He is author of Dictionary of Islamic Architecture (London, 1996).Google Scholar The Brondesbury Synagogue in London (Frederick W. Marks 1904–5), complete with onion domes, is the best example of several synagogues that have recently been turned into mosques.

30 Refugees also came from Austrian Galicia and Romania.

31 Samuel Melnick, ‘Sites of Synagogues in East London 1800–1940’, unpublished typescript list.

32 Recently offered for sale for £750,000; see Jewish Chronicle, 24 September 1999, p. 17.Google Scholar

33 See Survey of London Vol. XXVII: Spitalfields and Mile End New Town (1957), pp. 221–25.Google Scholar

34 For the full story of the sordid fate met by this building in the late 1980s see Kadish, Sharman, ‘Squandered Heritage: Jewish Buildings in Britain’, in Kushner, The Jewish Heritage in British History, pp. 147–65.Google Scholar

35 Glasman (1992), p. 191. See note 20 above.

36 See Sharman Kadish, ‘Four Synagogues', in Synagogue, ‘Art in SacredSpaces’[sic], catalogue for an exhibition of photographic light-boxes by Catherine Yass, held in London at The Congregation of Jacob Synagogue, El, 21 May–11 June 2000, no pagination. The artist has now been identified as Dr Philip Steinberg; David Brandes in personal communication (e-mail) with the author, 5 December 2001.

In Glasgow's Langside Synagogue (Jeffrey Waddell & Young 1926–27), is to be found a delightfully traditional interior behind a vaguely modernist façade. The Ark and Bimah, as well as other decorative details such as the clock on the gallery front, were lovingly carved by a member of the congregation, a Russian-born cabinetmaker named Berkowitz.

37 For example at Essen, Steelerstrasse (Edmund Körner 1908–1914) see Krinsky, , Synagogues of Europe, pp.285–8.Google Scholar

38 Southend Synagogue, Alexandra Road (Parkes & Evans 1911–12, closed 2001) also utilized reinforced concrete for the floors. This allowed for the construction of a raked and cantilevered gallery. The slender columns are hardly structural, but Sunlight's efforts in Manchester were far more confident. London, Golders Green Synagogue, Dunstan Road must rate as a ‘transitional’ building. The original building, by Lewis Solomon & Son [Digby] (1922), had a traditional gallery on columns. The extended area, by Ernest Joseph (1927), was cantilevered, without columns.

39 In private correspondence with the writer. The British Architect, 20 February 1914, pp. 157–58Google ScholarPubMed, and The Building News, 3 April 1914, p. 468 Google ScholarPubMed, carried drawings. Plans survive both at the synagogue and in the Architects' Department of Manchester City Council; acknowledgments to David Hilton, Plan Keeper. Sunlight's papers have been deposited at the Portico Library, Manchester and have been partially sorted by this writer.

40 Levy, Arnold, History of the Sunderland Jewish Community (London, 1956), pp. 145–47.Google Scholar

41 That is, in the 1983 rewrite, Buildings of England: County Durham, 2nd edn, p. 452.Google Scholar

I am grateful to the architect Hedy Parry-Davies for first bringing Glass's work to my attention in her dissertation, ‘Synagogues in England — A Heritage under threat?’ (postgraduate Diploma in Building Conservation, Architectural Association, London, May 1998).

42 ‘Refurbishment: Dance School Leeds. Dancing Partners’, Building, 27, February 1998, pp. 57–60.Google Scholar Wright's original plans, as well as engineering drawings, are extant at West Yorkshire Archives.

43 The YMCA building in Jerusalem (Arthur Loomis Harmon 1926–33) springs to mind.

44 See generally Benton, Charlotte (ed.), A Different World: Emigré Architects in Britain 1928–1958, published to accompany at exhibition at the RIBA, Heinz Gallery (London, 1995).Google Scholar

45 On Willesden see Architects' Journal, 14 April 1938, pp. 617–19.Google Scholar Unfortunately, later alterations, including the white-washing of the exposed brickwork, compromised the original modernist austerity of the interior.

The synagogue was sold in 2000. The striking Heathfield Park façade is to be retained, the site being within a Conservation Area. A selection of Landauer's plans and sketches for both Willesden and Alyth are preserved at the British Architectural Library. On Landauer's continental synagogues see Schwarz, Hans-Peter (ed.), Die Architektur der Synagoge (Frankfurt, 1988), pp. 270, 275,281–85Google Scholar, catalogue to accompany an exhibition at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, 1988–89, and Krinsky, Synagogues of Europe, who described Plauen as ‘one of the purest International Style synagogues ever built’, p. 304.Google Scholar

A biography of the architect has just been published: Klotz, Sabine, Fritz Landauer (1883–1968): Leben und Werk eines jüdischen Architekten (Berlin, 2001).Google Scholar

46 An extremely rare example of an international style synagogue in Britain retaining most of its original features. Sadly, it is to be sacrificed to city-centre redevelopment.

47 See Krinsky, , Synagogues of Europe, pp. 419–21Google Scholar and Cottam, David et al, Sir Owen Williams 1890–1969 (London, 1986)Google Scholar; Architects' Journal, 24 March 1938, pp. 480,489-91.Google Scholar

48 The so-called ‘Jacob's Affair’ of 1964 had a satisfying conservation spin-off. The New London Synagogue, the founding congregation of what later was to become the Masorti [‘Traditional’, i.e. Conservative] Movement, acquired the forsaken St John's Wood United Synagogue, Abbey Road (H. H. Collins 1882) and lovingly renovated it. Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs became the minister.

49 On Belfast see Krinsky, , Synagogues of Europe, pp. 407–10.Google Scholar Ernst Freud's’little synagogue (1956) at the London Jewish Hospital, Stepney Green, was shamelessly demolished along with the rest of the site in the early 1980s, without being properly recorded. See Wischnitzer, Rachel, Architecture of the European Synagogue(Philadelphia, 1964), pp. 273–74Google Scholar, which contains the only photographs of this building of which I am aware. Carmel College is the first post-war synagogue to be listed, in 1999.