| AdminHistory | The archive of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation contains a wealth of information about Jewish life in Birmingham and about the Jewish community's involvement in the arts, social work, politics, business and many other aspects of life in the city from the early nineteenth century to the present day.
The community dates from at least the early eighteenth century. There are several Jewish names in rate books dating from 1730, and in 1780 the Birmingham historian William Hutton briefly described a synagogue: 'In the Synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve the faint resemblance of their ancient worship. Their whole appurtenances being no more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is small, but tolerably filled where there appears less decorum than in the Christian churches.' (Levine, p. 2)
Fifty years later, the oldest surviving records in the archive show signs of greater prosperity. The Congregation had built a synagogue in Severn St, which was consecrated in 1809, employed a rabbi, Isaiah Phillips, and a butcher, and owned a cemetery. The first minutes in the collection, which date from 1826 (JA/1/A/1/1) record a special meeting of the Congregation's governing Committee of five men, held 'for the purpose of taking into consideration what charge should be made to Mr Michael for burying his child'.
The Committee was elected annually by the 'free members' of the Congregation. Free membership was restricted to those who paid more than a shilling a week in membership fees and who had lived in Birmingham for more than a year. During the nineteenth century, the Congregation's Laws were revised so that more people became eligible to sit on or elect the Committee, which was instead called Council. See JA/1/A for more detailed information about the history of Council.
An important milestone in the history of the community came in 1839, when David Barnett, a prominent businessman, campaigner for Jewish civil rights, and member of Council became the first Jew to be elected to the Birmingham Town Council. He was allowed to swear an oath of office omitting the words 'on the true faith of a Christian,' since 'his religion strictly commanded Israelites that wherever they might be, they were duty bound to support the establishment of that country.' (Levine, p. 16)
David Barnett was among several members of the Congregation who founded the Birmingham Hebrew School (see JA/1/C). In 1840, the synagogue gave an annual grant and the use of the vestry in the Severn St synagogue for a school, which met there until 1843, when, with great celebration, a new building was opened in Lower Hurst St. At this time, the rabbi of the congregation, who was usually known as the Minister, was also the Secretary to the Congregation and Headmaster of the Hebrew School. Later, the posts were separated; in 1860, the Headmaster of the Hebrew School and Secretary to the Congregation was one post, and the Lecturer and the Minister was another. The Headmaster's post was split from the Secretary's post in 1904.
The school provided a focus for some of the Congregation's charitable work. The Hebrew Educational Aid Society (MS 2539) raised money to subsidise schoolbooks, clothing, and apprentice children to businesses in the city; this was one of several charitable organizations set up during the nineteenth century. See Related Material for a list of these charities.
By the early 1850s, Birmingham's Jewish population had increased to about 700 or 140 families, and the Synagogue Council was 'energetic and out for change'. (Newman) Synagogue finances were revised, but the attempts to develop a suitable system caused some controversy, since the level of membership payment determined whether members had the right to vote and where they sat in the synagogue. At first, a committee was set up to assess members and decide how much they should pay. This system proved very unpopular, and was probably one cause of the first brief division in the Congregation, which took place in 1853, when a group led by AT Louis and I Blankensee set up a separate synagogue in Wrottesley St. In 1856, the assessment system was replaced; seats in the synagogue were rated instead and members applied in writing for a seat at a price of their choice. The Wrottesley St Congregation returned in 1856 to the new Singers Hill Synagogue, built in an elaborate Italianate style by the young Birmingham architect Henry Yeoville Thomason, and described in the press at the time as 'a glory to the community and an ornament to the town' (see http://www.singershill.com/architecture.htm).
The first Annual Report of the Congregation dates from 1854. This shows that several sub-committees had been set up to take responsibility for various aspects of Jewish life. These were Council, the Finance Committee, the General Purposes Committee, the School Committee, and the Burial Board. Council minutes of the same period mention a Bread and Rice Committee and a Meat Committee, although these are not listed in the Annual Report. This structure has changed very little since then; today, the main synagogue committees are Council; the Finance and General Purposes Committee; the Foundation Managers' Committee and Hebrew and Religious Instruction Committee, successors to the School Committee; and the Buildings Committee. There is more detailed information about the history of these committees at series level (see JA/1/A-P).
Birmingham's Jewish community had always been proud of its unity, and until the end of the nineteenth century, apart from the brief division in 1853, Singers Hill was the only synagogue in the town. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Jewish population was again increasing rapidly, as persecution in Russia brought a new generation to Birmingham; by 1900, the population had increased to around 3200. The newcomers found Singers Hill 'cold and unfriendly' referring to it as the 'englische shul' [synagogue] and wanted a building where they could worship in a different style. Around 1901, a group of about 90 people set up the Wrottesley St Beth Hamedrash (house of study), the ancestor of today's Central Synagogue on the Pershore Rd. Another Beth Hamedrash in Holloway Head was registered for religious worship in 1894 and became known as the New Synagogue (see JB). The governing Council of Singers Hill was clearly keen to retain its influence over the community, however; its archive contains several versions of agreements between Singers Hill and the Wrottesley St Beth Hamedrash, which require the Beth Hamedrash to apply annually to Singers Hill for the right to hold services, among other conditions (see JA/2/K/2/1).
The new synagogues reflected the class divisions within the community. Although the area between Hurst St and Holloway Head was known as the working-class Jewish area of the city, by this time, some of the more prosperous members of the Congregation had moved out to the fashionable areas of Edgbaston and Moseley. A member of the community interviewed for an oral history project in the 1980s recalled , 'There was east side Birmingham and West Side Birmingham, believe me there was! There was the 'Hagley Rd' set and the rest of Birmingham Jews. The Hagley Rd set had got 'it' and the rest were nobody. There wasn't any mixing, none.' ('Proper Jewish Lives', p. 21, JA/2/H/6)
Although the Congregations in the city worshipped separately, they worked closely together in what they called 'communal life'. The Birmingham Shechita Board, which oversaw the supply of kosher meat in the city, was set up in 1891, as a sub-committee of the Council of Singers Hill, but became, after some debate, a city-wide body in 1920 (see MS 2529). The Cemeteries Committee (JA/1/F) and the Chevra Kadisha Committee (JA/1/G), which were responsible for keeping the laws regarding death and funerals, included representatives from all the synagogues in the city. The Birmingham Jewish Welfare Board, which was set up in 1922, combined many of the nineteenth-century charities into a single organization.
Another aspect of communal life was the arts and social clubs. The first records of these societies survive from the late nineteenth century. Edward Lawrence Levy, a teacher, athlete, and amateur actor recalled 'I established the first Jewish Dramatic Club and the members of it made their debut at a Purim party…this was on March 26 1872 and it ran a long and successful course for years.' ( E.L. Levy, 'Birmingham Jewry 1870 & 1929', p.26) Other clubs included the Jewish Arts Society (MS 2520), which was particularly noted for its Dramatic Section, the Jewish Literary Society, and by the mid-twentieth century, other youth organizations such as the Young Israel Society (MS 2523) and the Birmingham Jewish Youth Council (MS 2522).
The community expanded again in the 1930s, as Jews fled from Germany and Eastern Europe. This expansion, with the growth of Jewish arts societies and clubs, led to a need for more space in the synagogue and new facilities. Accordingly, a major fundraising project known as the Communal Scheme was set up, which raised over £25,000 to extend the synagogue, build a new hall for clubs and societies, and move the Hebrew School to a new site in St Luke's Rd. The scheme was completed in 1934.
In 1935, the Birmingham Liberal Jewish Synagogue was established. Its synagogue was in Sheepcote St, but it will move to a building in Bishopsgate St in 2006.
Many members of the community served during the Second World War and there is a tablet in their honour at the entrance of Singers Hill. By the end of the War, the old Jewish area had disappeared, and the population was scattered more thinly across the city, reaching a maximum of 6300 in 1947.
Singers Hill celebrated its centenary in 1956 by adding stained glass windows to the synagogue, building a children's synagogue at the side of the main Singers Hill complex, and altering the Communal Hall. A centenary history was written by a local historian, Harry Levine (see JA/2/G/6).
From the 1950s, many Jews left Birmingham for the larger communities in London or Manchester, or emigrated to Israel, and the population began to decline from its peak of 6300 to around 2300 in 2001. New Jewish institutions grew up in the suburbs: the Solihull and District Congregation was established in 1962, worshipping at a synagogue on 3, Monastery Drive, Solihull; and the King David School moved to a new site in Moseley in 1966. Following the closure of the New Synagogue, a synagogue opened at the King David School.
As the Jewish population aged, new facilities were provided to care for the elderly; the community opened Tudor Lodge, a residential home, in 1955, the Joy Silverstone House in 1972, and a Home for the Elderly in 1993.
The New Synagogue merged with Singers Hill on 1 January 1997 and in the mid-1990s Singers Hill and Central held talks about merger, although no decision was reached. The community has given much attention to its history; prominent among its historians is Zoe Josephs, who published three volumes of community history called 'Birmingham Jewry'; 'Survivors', which collected stories of refugees from Nazi Germany; and many other books and articles. Her research notes survive in the archive (see MS 2524), with two other collections of personal papers belonging to Dorothy Gillman (MS 2525) and Constance Davis (MS 2526).
Despite the decline in population, Birmingham still sustains a vibrant Jewish life, with a variety of institutions, clubs, and charities serving the community, many with roots in the old charities and organizations established in the nineteenth century. The Congregation's history has been summarised in this way: 'There took place a gradual shift of emphasis from a tiny minority religious grouping, only interested in its own survival, to a more extrovert anglicised community happy to be part of the larger society surrounding it… The result is that Birmingham Jewry today is in many ways directly comparable to its predecessor of 1851 and is still basically organized in the same way. However, it also exhibits the peculiar tensions of our own time and in some ways these have been uneasily grafted upon the older institutions and ways of life.' (Newman) |