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December 10, 1976 - Image 21

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1976-12-10

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, December 10, 1976 21

Sad Fate of an Old English Synagogue Told

By MAURICE SAMUELSON

(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)

MANCHESTER —
Manchester Jewry, the

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second biggest Jewish
community in the United
Kingdom, is in the process
of losing its most famous
monument and appears
helpless to prevent it.
It is the Great
Synagogue on Cheetham
Hill Road, known to gen-
erations as "The English
Shul" and often described
as Manchester Jewry's
cathedral. Among famous
names associated with it
are the English branch of
the Rothschild family
city
which settled in
before moving to London.
Although prayers have
not been said there for

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write-off, but wants to
save some of its interior
features.
They include' the bima
and pulpit, made of beaut-
iful Spanish mahogany,
stained glass windows
and pictures. Williams,
the head of the local his-
tory department at a
Manchester college, has
offered to remove these
items and to store th-iem.
But although he wrote to
the synagogue manage-
ment several months ago,
he is still awaiting a re-
ply.
When this was repoted
to Rev. Brodie, he prom-
ised. that he would deal
with it, quickly. Mean-
while, the building falls
into further disrepair.

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some years, it is only re-
cently that its ruinous
condition became fully
apparent. One of its two
cupolas has been neatly
sliced off — probably by
metal thieves — and sec-
tions of the roof have col-
lapsed. A basement win-
dow has been removed
and tramps and vandals
have easy access.
Opened in 1858, the
Great Synagogue was
listed by the Manchester
Corporation as worthy of
being preserved, but
whether through ineffec-
tiveness or through lack of
resources, the manage-
ment of the congregation
which now worships in a
newer building several
miles away has been un-
able to save it. An estate
agent has tried to sell it,
but so far without success.
But 'Manchester Jews
are far from indifferent to
its plight. Individually
they express grief,
shame, anger and
helplessness. The old
building still stands prb-
udly on Cheetham Hill
Road, the historic cradle
of -Manchester Jewry at
the turn of the century.
Two lesser synagogues,
on each side of it, have
been sold as a warehouse
and a lampshade factory,
but at least they are in-
tact. Not so the Great
Synagogue, seen daily by
hundreds of Manchester
Jews as they drive to
work through the old dis-
trict into the city.
Rev. Leslie Brodie, the
minister in the congrega-
tion's new building, is
among those who profess
sorrow at the ,old
synagogue's state. He
partly blames Manches-
ter's communal Jewish
leadership, who hardly
ever used it for ceremo-
nial occasions, such as
Warsaw Ghetto or Israel
Independence Days,
when it was still avail-
able.
He admits, however,
that there is no communal
purse for maintenance
purposes, adding that in
Manchester each syna-
gogue is an independent
body instead of part of a
powerful grouping, as in
London.
Paradoxically, one of
the people most eager to
do something about the
building is a non-Jew. Bill
Williams, author of a his-
tory of Manchester
Jewry, believes the build-
ing is now almost' a



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