The Dalston Synagogue-an historical sketch-Front piece

The Dalston Synagogue (also known as the Poets Road Synagogue) was a Jewish place of worship in the

London Borough of Islington The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough in Inner London. Whilst the majority of the district is located in north London, the borough also includes a significant area to the south which forms part of central London. Islington has ...

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nort ...

, from about 1885 to 1970. Jews fleeing the

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

s of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, and those beginning to leave the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

and move northwards towards

Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish. The ...

and

Stamford Hill Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of Hackney, the major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the l ...

established a congregation in the neighbourhood by 1876. The

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

building was erected in Poets Road in 1885,Allardyce, p39. a street just outside the boundaries of

Dalston Dalston () is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas includ ...

, and became one of the leading members of the

United Synagogue The United Synagogue (US) is a union of United Kingdom, British Orthodox Jewish synagogues, representing the central Orthodox movement in Judaism. With 62 congregations (including 7 affiliates and 1 associate, ), comprising 40,000 members, it ...

s.Peter Renton, ''The Lost Synagogues of London'', Tymsder Publishers, 2000 Jacob Koussevitzsky, a member of the famous Koussevitzky cantorial family, was its

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

from 1936, though another source says the 1950s. At its height, the Poets Road Synagogue had hundreds of worshippers; it closed in the late 1960s, as the remaining Jewish population moved further afield. The synagogue site was eventually sold and the building, along with its

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows, was demolished in 1970 and replaced by a block of

council flat A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 a ...

s, leaving no trace of the Jewish life which existed in this area.

Religious neighbours

Other religious institutions existed nearby. The original Adath Israel orthodox congregation was founded in this area and its first permanent building was in Alma Road, off

Green Lanes Green Lanes may refer to: *A green lane (road), a type of road, usually an unpaved rural route. *Green Lanes (London), a major road running through north London * Harringay, a neighbourhood in the London Borough of Haringey The London Borough o ...

, before moving on towards

and the other side of

Clissold Park Clissold Park is an open space in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bounded by Greenway Close (to the north), Church Street (south), Green Lanes (west) and Queen Elizabeth's Walk (east); the south-east corner abuts St ...

in the 1950s. The Shacklewell Lane synagogue was located in Dalston, close to Ridley Road Market. Since the Poets Road congregation, despite its Canonbury location, was called the Dalston Synagogue, the Shacklewell Lane synagogue had to take on the name of the New Dalston Synagogue; this building still has a religious use, as

Shacklewell Lane Mosque Shacklewell Lane Mosque ( tr, Shacklewell Camii) is a Turkish mosque located in Shacklewell, London. Established by Ramadan Güney, his wife Suheyla Güney and other Trustees Turkish Cypriot in 1977, it is the first ever Turkish mosque in the Un ...

. Other nearby synagogues included the Finsbury Park synagogue, close to Clissold Park and

Manor House A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, and the smaller, less formal, Goldblums Shtiebel in Highbury New Park. From the mid-seventeenth century, Newington Green had been known as an area tolerant of religious minorities, specifically

Dissenters A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Usage in Christianity Dissent from the Anglican church In the social and religious history of England and Wales, an ...

, and the church on the green reflected that. Its minister from 1947, John Reece Walker, was known as an interfaith worker, and "made a remarkable contribution to the cause of good relations between Christians and Jews in North London".ch 8. Also on the green was the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...

, founded in 1865 and its headquarters built in 1895. St Matthias, one of London's foremost

High Church The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...

es, was built nearby from 1849 to 1853.Allardyce, p33.'Stoke Newington: Churches'
''A History of the County of Middlesex''
Volume 8: Islington and Stoke Newington parishes (1985), pp. 204-211. Accessed 29 May 2009. Pre-dating all of these is the pre-Reformation Anglican church in the parish of Stoke Newington; it is dedicated to

St Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

, as is the impressive "new" (1858) church opposite, by Sir

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

Religious leaders and clergy

After World War II, the Dalston synagogue was led by the Rev. Joseph Rabinowitz. Following his retirement, the community appointed Rabbi Isaac Newman, formerly of the

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

Synagogue. His appointment coincided with the amalgamation of the synagogue with the North London synagogue in Lofting Road. This was a period when Jews were leaving Islington for greener pastures further north and north west. The period of the 1960s also coincided with the

Louis Jacobs Louis Jacobs (17 July 1920 – 1 July 2006) was a leading writer and theologian. He was the rabbi of the New London Synagogue in the United Kingdom. He was also the focus in the early 1960s of what became known as "The Jacobs Affair" in the ...

affair, possibly the biggest rift in Anglo Jewry. Rabbi Newman supported Jacobs, which led him into confrontation with his own synagogue lay leadership and with the United Synagogue. Newman later moved to the Barnet Synagogue, where he served for twenty years, He retired to Israel, where he influenced the creation of

Rabbis for Human Rights Rabbis for Human Rights is an Israeli human rights organization that describes itself as "the rabbinic voice of conscience in Israel, giving voice to the Jewish tradition of human rights".

. He died in Jerusalem in 2011. Following the synagogue's closure in 1967, members of the community were given the choice of joining either the New Dalston Synagogue in Shacklewell Lane or the Finsbury Park Synagogue near Manor House and

, both of which have since ceased to operate. The former building s now used by Shacklewell Lane Mrosque, while the latter was, for a short period, a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

serving the ultra-orthodox residents of Stoke Newington and

References

External links

Dalston Synagogue
o
''Jewish Communities and Records - UK''
(hosted by ''jewishgen.org''), accessed 24 November 2010. {{coord, 51.5517, -0.0867, type:landmark_region:GB-ISL, display=title Former synagogues in London 19th-century synagogues

Religious neighbours

Religious leaders and clergy

References

Further reading

External links