North Church Street

Although the Sheffield Times of 1851 chides spectators for rudeness and disrespect at the funeral of a Chazan, the Jewish Chronicle twenty years later commends ‘the exceptional respect shown by a large crowd of Christians’ assembled to see the Synagogue Foundation Stone laid; ‘afraid that such a miscellaneous crowd in London would have behaved in a far less respectful manner.’

Indeed, many Christians contributed to the Building Fund of the North Church Street Synagogue. When the Synagogue was built, there were, it was claimed, only seventeen members, a large portion of them in very humble circumstances, contributing to the Congregational funds, and a few seatholders, whose contributions were mere nominal. ‘No Congregation in England is so heavily taxed with poor families as we are’ wrote the Honorary Officers, appealing for the Synagogue and School Building Fund.

The Foundation Stone of the North Church Street Synagogue was laid in 1872 by the Rev. A. A. Green. A choir was engaged to sing at the opening and a second reader engaged for the High Festivals. Rev. Mylnick was appointed chazan and teacher as assistant to Rev. Jacobs. It is interesting to note that under the terms of his contract he was allowed to trade ‘in any lottery if so inclined’. A bone of contention during the early 1870s was that the President and possibly others kept their shops open on Shabbos and Yomtov. On one occasion members of the Chevra held a joint meeting with North Church Street to discuss what action could be taken on the matter, but no satisfactory conclusion was reached.

In 1874 it was decided to set up a committee to run the Talmud Torah school, one that Sheffield’s Jewish children would attend after their regular schooling, each evening and on Sundays, separately from the Synagogue in order to try and make it function more efficiently. However when the Chief Rabbi, Dr Adler, visited Sheffield the following year in the hope of finding the school well attended and of a good standard he found it ‘utterly disorganised’.

In the same year he wrote to the Congregation warning them not to support either of the two Chevras. Apparently a number of members of the Chevra had left the congregation and begun to hold their own Minyanim. Emotions were running so high that at a Council Meeting on 19^th March 1877, ‘A rude remark was made by Lewis Isaacs by calling the whole congregation ‘scamps’.’ 

It seems evident that at the beginning of the eighties the Chevra was flourishing, for the financial affairs of North Church Street declined to such an extent that a meeting was called in 1881 to consider what steps should be taken to prevent the closing of the Synagogue. An attempt at reconciliation with the Chevra was made and a joint meeting held. However it is recorded that at the meeting the members of the Chevra were ‘unbending’ and no agreement was reached. 

In spite of the crisis in the affairs of the Synagogue a town meeting was arranged the following year in protest at the persecution of the Jews in Russia and Poland. A relief fund was set up and a substantial donation made as a practical gesture from the Sheffield Community.

The Chief Rabbi made a personal attempt to bring about an amalgamation of the Chevra and North Church Street, but this bore as little fruit as previous attempts. By 1892 immigration from the Russian Pale had increased the Community to such an extent that it was necessary to appoint another butcher to supply kosher meat. With an increased Community to draw upon, the 1890s saw an improvement in Synagogue affairs. In spite of this there were continual wrangles with the Chevra and amongst the members themselves. It was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that a period of comparative stability was achieved.

By 1908 Yiddish was pronounced officially dead if not buried. North Church Street had bred a generation who could not understand the drashah delivered when the Rev. Levine Epstein visited them on Sabbath afternoons. An English minister and a sermon in the English manner were wanted: it was thought that it would bring more worshippers to Shul and elevate the Congregation among its Christian brethren.

The outbreak of war in 1914 precipitated a feeling of financial doom that could only be resolved by cutting the meagre salaries of all congregational officials by 20%. In the wave of anti-foreign feeling, stones were thrown through Jewish shop windows and it seemed politically wise to discard the un-English names. Jews did their duty nobly in the forces as the Roll of Honour testifies and many of those who stayed behind worked in the ammunition factories in the East of Sheffield. For the first time in many years there was a little breathing space at North Church Street on Yom Kippur – not only were the boys away but Campo Lane Synagogue was now open.

About the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917, a similar revolt against established authority occurred in the Old Shul as North Church Street was then called. Mr. Finney presided over the old guard who for weekly money contributions held the voting rights and controlled the seats on the council. Their meetings were noisily picketed by younger members, who demanded representation on the Council. At the Annual Meeting the older members were mostly thrown out of office and a new rule under Mr Goldblum installed. The records do not show that any stirring changes were effected but as this was the year of the Balfour Declaration, Mr Goldblum, ever a keen Zionist, was able to send an enthusiastic message from Sheffield Jewry.

In 1918 the war was over and with it the end of an era. Many members of North Church Street were still anxious to move and called a meeting at the Grand Hotel, to suggest buying some property in William Street. Immigration was now negligible and the community, through its war service and a new English born generation had found its roots. A dozen years earlier they had been refused permission by the Lord Mayor to present an address of welcome to King Edward when he visited the city, now, thanks mainly to the esteem engendered by Rabbi Barnet Cohen, they were on surer ground with their fellow citizens.

After the Great War, the community which had substantially been centred round the two Synagogues in North Church Street and Campo Lane now began to move outwards. First to Sharrow, Nether Edge and to Broomhill. Chippinghouse Road, Montgomery Road, Broomgrove Road and Collegiate Crescent were much favoured in the 1920s whilst the next decade saw further movement into the newly developed suburbs particularly those of Ecclesall and Fulwood.

(Source: Eric Lipson, ‘Perspective on Sheffield’ (pp.8-13); David Brown, ‘Notes on the Near-Gone Years’ (pp.14-19) and Harry Glass, ‘Between the Wars’ (pp. 20-28) in Sheffield Jewish Journal, Issue 50, Tricentenary Edition, 1956)