The Wimbledon Synagogue (formally, Wimbledon and District Synagogue), a member of the Movement for Reform Judaism, is a

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

in the

London Borough of Wandsworth Wandsworth () is a London boroughs, London borough in southwest London; it forms part of Inner London and has an estimated population of 329,677 inhabitants. Its main named areas are Battersea, Balham, Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth, Wandsworth ...

at Queensmere Road,

Wimbledon Park Wimbledon Park is the name of an urban park in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon and also of the suburb south and east of the park and the Wimbledon Park tube station. The park itself is in area. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is immedi ...

, on the boundary with the

London Borough of Merton The London Borough of Merton () is a borough in Southwest London, England. The borough was formed under the London Government Act 1963 in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Mitcham, the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Merton ...

. Its Rabbi is Adrian Schell and its Chair is Ruth Bragman. The community was established in 1949 and was based at Worple Road,

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

from 1952 to 1997. In 1997 it moved to its present premises, adapting a 1953 building which previously belonged to Southlands College, now part of the

University of Roehampton The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...

. The building also houses a Jewish

nursery school A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school ...

, Apples and Honey. The synagogue community has been described in ''

The Jewish Chronicle ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

'' as particularly welcoming.

History

The synagogue came into being at a meeting of the local Jewish community at the Wimbledon Hill Hotel in February 1949. In its first year the membership, of 60 families, was little more than one-tenth of what it is now. Services were held in temporary accommodation. The community decided to build a new synagogue on a site at 44 Worple Road in

. The foundation stone was laid on 8 April 1951 by Ernest Abelson and Leonard Montefiore (of the West London Synagogue) and the synagogue was formally opened and dedicated on 25 May 1952 by Rabbi Dr Leo Baeck. In September 1997 the synagogue moved to its present site, adapting the former Athlone Hall (dating from 1953). In 1953 the synagogue appointed its first

minister Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...

, Rabbi Charles Berg. When he retired in 1974, the community had grown to 750 members. He was succeeded by Rabbi Hillel Avidan (1974–1980), Rabbi Daniel Smith (1982–1993), Rabbi Robert Shafritz (1993–1996) who died suddenly in office, Rabbi William Woolf (1997–2002), and Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild and Rabbi Sybil Sheridan who job shared from 2003 until 2014. Rabbi Jason Rosner was the synagogue's Rabbi from November 2015Alt URL
/ref> to September 2016. Rabbi Tony Hammond became interim part-time Rabbi in 2015 and was reappointed in 2016, serving until the appointment of Rabbi Adrian Schell as the synagogue's full-time Rabbi from November 2020.

Facilities and activities

The synagogue now has 850 members. Services are held every

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

on Friday evening and Saturday morning as well as for all Jewish festivals. Services are egalitarian; men and women sit together and take an equal role in the religious life of the community. As well as a '' cheder'' and an educational programme for children for young people, the synagogue runs a programme of arts and cultural activities, workshops and lectures. The synagogue houses three book collections. The David Nathan Library has nearly 2000 books covering Judaism, Israel, history, biography, fiction etc. The Harry Urban Holocaust Library concentrates on the personal stories of survivors of the

Shoah The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...

. There is also a children's book collection. The collections are catalogued using the Classification System for Libraries of Judaica employed by Leo Baeck College. The community has a monthly membership newsletter, ''Kehillah''. The synagogue has three sets of stained glass windows. Their abstract designs were made by Graham Jones with Peters Glass Studio in Germany. The new

acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

wood ark doors, which were part of the 2016 refurbishment, were designed with architect Allan Schwarz, who runs the Mezimbite Forest Center in

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

Social action

Wimbledon Synagogue is a

Fairtrade A fair trade certification is a product certification within the market-based movement fair trade. The most widely used fair trade certification is FLO International's, the International Fairtrade Certification Mark, used in Europe, Africa, As ...

synagogue and has been involved for many years with the Faith in Action Merton Homeless Project, a charity which works with a range of agencies to support homeless, precariously housed and other marginalised people within the London Borough of Merton. It has also accommodated local homeless people overnight as part of the Merton

Night Shelter Homeless shelters are a type of homeless service agency which provide temporary residence for homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather while simultaneously r ...

initiative.

In the media

In 2010 Wimbledon Synagogue hosted the first ever broadcast of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's '' Any Questions?'' from a synagogue. The programme's broadcast coincided with the 200th anniversary of the first

Reform Judaism Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous searc ...

service.

References

External links