Figtree Lane
The Industrial Revolution brought major changes to Sheffield, with the city becoming a major manufacturing centre for a variety of goods, including steel, cutlery, and textiles. During the 19th century, Sheffield’s population exploded, as workers flocked to the city to take advantage of the booming manufacturing industry. The city’s factories and mills employed thousands of people.
However, this period of prosperity was not without its challenges. The rapid growth of industry brought with it pollution, overcrowding, and poor working conditions. The streets behind the Cathedral clearly reflected this state of affairs, from the elegant buildings of Paradise Square to the squalor of the tenements in Silver Street or Campo Lane.
In this contradictory world, in 1848, the Jewish Congregation moved from a room in Holly Street, to premises acquired in Figtree Lane, where a succession of Chazanim-Shochetim ministered to the growing community with varying degrees of success.
Writing in the Jewish Monthly, Dr Cecil Roth, whose mother’s family was from Sheffield, and whose The Rise of Provincial Jewry gave one of the first definitive accounts of the community’s heritage, declared: “Anglo-Jewry of the nineteenth century was the ideal Jewish Community of the Emancipation period.” Ideal, perhaps, in comparison with other communities, but far from ideal in the absolute!
In 1850 the Shochet was suspended on half pay by the Chief Rabbi for ‘errors’. He was later fined two shillings and sixpence for entering and drinking in a public house. Another official was fined for inefficient ‘porging’ and was later sacked because of his drinking habits. In 1856 a Chazan-Shochet was found to harbour a quantity of unaccountable watches in his house and was accordingly sacked. In 1859 a meeting was dissolved owing to the uproarious conduct of some of the members. Two members were expelled on account of their misconduct. One of them was not readmitted for a number of years. He then had to pay three years arrears of membership by Rosh Hashanah and was only allowed to be present at a meeting provided that a police officer was in attendance with powers to evict him and others should their conduct warrant it. And, in 1868 Mr. Harrison was expelled for six months for bringing a mouse into Shul on Simchat Torah, it being deemed an insult to the Chatan Bereshit and Chatan Torah.
Judging by Sheffield, not very different from other communities in this respect, there was but a surface unity achieved by autocracy. In the late 19th century, newcomers from Eastern Europe were content to accept the selection made over their heads in such matters as the appointment of a Chief Rabbi, and where they felt impotent to make alternative suggestions with hope of success. Under the surface, however, itself far from smooth, was a seething dissatisfaction. If the powerful kept the honours and the honorary offices for themselves, those unable to pay arbitrary assessments permitting equal status as Registered or Privileged Members, not mere Seatholders, felt no great obligation to pay dues regularly. Thus, the newly settled “Greeners” felt in a class apart from the more established “English” Jews. Seeing clearly the limitations of those who assumed leadership, the more successful immigrants resented this keenly.
The Central Hebrew Congregation came into being as a consequence of these differences of outlook. Early known as the New Congregation, it drew numerical but little financial strength from each group of immigrants, setting a standard of learning and observance. Despite weaknesses and the Old Congregation’s contempt for the “Chevra” it supplied much value to local life.
(Sources: Eric Lipson, ‘Perspectives on Sheffield’ in Sheffield Jewish Journal, No 50, Tercentenary Edition, 1956; and Alan Hall and Alice Walton, Paradise Square, Sheffield Libraries and Information Services, 1990)
