History of Whitefield Hebrew Congregation
Whitefield Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1959 with a membership of 80 families. After a preliminary meeting at the home of Mr. N. F. Bower, in June of that year, support was confirmed at a public meeting in July and a Committee formed under the chairmanship of Mr. A. Gouldman. The Park Lane site was purchased and the original building, formerly The British School built 112 years earlier, was converted to a Synagogue with much of the furniture being donated by established Synagogues.
The first Service was held on Rosh Hashanah 1959, with Rabbi I. Freedman and Rev. E. Goodman officiating, and the first General Meeting in November 1959 elected Councillor Leslie Donn as first President of the Congregation. Accommodation was provided for Hebrew classes held under the auspices of the Central Board for Hebrew Education. The growing Jewish population necessitated an early expansion of the Synagogue to give a seating capacity of 420 persons and the enlarged Synagogue was officially opened on 11th September 1961 by Mr. I. Suppree and consecrated by the then Chief Rabbi, Dr. Israel Brodie.
By late 1962 it was apparent that more extensive accommodation would soon be needed and although alterations had been made to the classrooms to provide space for additional Services on the High Holy days, the Council agreed to set up a sub-committee to explore the feasibility of building a new Synagogue.
Eventually, a New Building Planning Committee, under the joint chairmanship of the President and Vice-President at the time, Dr. P. G. Mann and Mr. Brian Marks, presented plans to the Council which were unanimously approved. Work commenced late in 1967 on the complex of Synagogue, Classrooms and Social Hall.
The Synagogue was officially opened by Messrs. Arthur and Walter Hubert on 27th April 1969 and consecrated by the then Chief Rabbi, Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits.
Our first Minister was Rev. E. Goodman, who served in a part-time capacity from November 1959, until his death on Chanucah, 1960 and the first full-time minister was Rabbi Dr. Norman Solomon, who was with us from September 1961 to July 1966. He was succeeded in June 1967 by Rabbi Dr. Simon Herman, who left the Congregation in August, 1971.
Rabbi E. S. Weisz was appointed in November, 1972 on a part-time basis. His appointment was made full-time at Pesach 1981.
Chazan Mendel Feingold, after a period of part-time service, was appointed our first full-time Chazan in December 1966.
Rabbi P. Lefkowitz served as Minister from September 1982 until June 1985 and was succeeded by Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag B.A.(Hons) who commenced his ministry in July 1987. He was formally inducted into office in February 1988 by the then Chief Rabbi, Lord Jakobovits.
After a long period of planning by the Building sub-committee chaired by Mr. Harvey Basger, September 1991 saw the completion of an extension to the Synagogue complex. This provided the community with a purpose-built Youth Centre, an enlarged Evelyn Lubin Hall, Bridal Room and Mikveh. The event was celebrated with a visit from the Chief Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks and Mrs Elaine Sacks. A Keylim Mikveh was added at the end of 1992 and made available to the community.
Work commenced in Spring 1997 on the refurbishment of the Amelan and Verber Hall. It was completed in July of the same year, providing an enclosed access from the Synagogue foyer and excellent facilites for smaller functions and meetings.
In 1998 the Evelyn Lubin Hall was refurbished and work began on extending and re-designing the Alan Sheff Beth Hamedrash, a necessary project thanks to an increase in both weekday service attendance and Kollel facilities available to the community.
Autumn 1999 witnessed three major events in the history of our community.
After 35 years of selfless dedication to the congregation, Chazan Mendel Feingold, his wife Davida and son Jeremy made aliya to be with their extended family in Israel. Hundreds of members and non-members attended a farewell reception held in their honour.
This period also saw the completion of the building of the Eliot Levy Memorial Ohel at Philips Park Cemetery. This magnificent structure now provides us with the facilities to enhance the performance of the great mitzvah of honouring the dead. Funding for this project came from both outside and within the community.
The 40th Anniversary of the founding of the Whitefield Hebrew Congregation was celebrated in February 2000. It was marked by way of a week long exhibition of photographs, documents and other memorabilia and a special Shul Service followed by a reception. Both the Whitefield Jewish Youth Centre and Whitefield Community Kollel joined the congregation at this time, to mark their 10th and 9th anniversaries respectively.
Guest of honour at the 40th Anniversary celebrations was the Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks, who further marked the occasion by re-opening the now extended and completely re-furbished Alan Sheff Beth Hamedrash.
At a Special General Meeting of the members held in July 2001, Chazan Yosef Muller’s appointment as full time Chazan to the community was ratified. Chazan Muller, his wife Chani and their children arrived in Whitefield April 2002.
The official opening of the refurbished approach road to the Eliot Levy Ohel at Philips Park Cemetery took place in May 2004 in the presence of The Mayor of Bury and Ivan Lewis MP. The whole Congregation was invited to attend.
Our Golden Jubilee Year began on the first night of Rosh Hashana in September 2009, when Mr Leslie Berkeley, one of the original Founders of the Shul addressed the Congregation from the Pulpit.
The official Jubilee celebration took place on Motzei Shabbat 21st November 2009, when The Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks and Lady Sacks visited the Shul for a special Jubilee Service, conducted by Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag and Chazan Muller. The highlight of the service was the presentation of the Chief Rabbi’s Award to eight Senior Leaders of the Whitefield Jewish Youth Centre. The service was followed by a Cocktail Reception where the Chief Rabbi and Lady Sacks met many members of the Community.
September 2021 ushered in a new era, with a different Guttentag family becoming the rabbinic couple for Whitefield, Rabbi Ephraim and Rebbezten Malki Guttentag.
Memories from a founder
As the last remaining Trustee Founder, I have been asked if I would recall some of our past history.
The weeks of preparation that took place prior to us opening the doors of our small synagogue, which was situated onthe forecourt of our present magnificent synagogue.
There were only 17 of us at the original meeting to purchase the little building on Park Lane for £2000, which included some of the land that our present Synagogue and Evelyn Lubin Hall stands on.
Names from the past, such as Leslie Donn, Joe Glassman, Morris Goldberg, Isi Suppree , Norman Bower, and Abe Gouldman and a few others of us and our wives, arrived at the building in Sept 1959.
Together we laid the carpets, filled the bookcases with siddurim and prepared the Ark for the Sefar Torahs. We put in place the seating that had been donated to us by Stein Court Synagogue, whilst our wives were busy cleaning and polishing, turning an empty building into a beautiful little shool. We could hardly believe, that what seemed initially to be an impossible task at that time, had been achieved. Whitefield was now open for the Almighty’s work.
Going back to 1954, when Valerie and I arrived in Whitefield, we consisted of 14 Jewish families. By Rosh Hashona 1959 we opened tha Shool with a membership of 87 families.
Leslie Donn, a highly respected Councillor at that time was our first President, he held the torch high and illuminated our path and our future.
I have always acknowledged that the past is the past and it is only the present and the future that can shape and be responsible for our community and its needs. So I am happy to see that those who have taken on the mantle of responsibility for the present are training our youth to take on the future. We can learn from the past, we can enjoy the present but it is only the future that can assure our continuity here in Whitefield.
Leslie David Berkeley J.P. Founder Trustee.
Memories from Leslie Donn
Whitefield Hebrew Congregation 1959-1989 – 30 years on
by Leslie Donn J.P.
Having lived in Whitefield from 1942 and noticing that the Jewish community had increased by 1959 to a number which warranted an organised congregation I made this suggestion known through the Jewish Press.
As a result two gentlemen, who were hitherto unknown to me contacted me expressing their interest. One was the late Maurice Goldberg, who eventually became a Trustee and first Warden, and the other the late Louis Adelman who became the first Secretary with Ellis Pruchnie who left Whitefield to live in Cardiff. The three of us looked around the district to find suitable premises for a Shool …. the now demolished public house at the bottom of Higher Lane and The Beaches which became Pinfold Court.
Then one day, a very congenial character, the late Harry Saunders, wearing his usual carnation, knocked on my door and asked me to come with him to see George Gates, as he was selling the building known as the British School, next to his bungalow in Park Lane.
Although Mr. Gates said he had been offered £3,000 for the building and site, as we were going to use it for a place of worship he would accept £2,000 from us. Needless to say I purchased it and later on it was conveyed to the Trustees of the Congregation.
On 9th June 1959 a meeting was held at the home of Mr. Norman Bowers (later to become a Trustee) when it was agreed to hold a public meeting at the Higher Lane Primary School on 8th July for the purpose of establishing a Congregation to serve the community. The meeting was advertised. The families attending elected a Committee under the Chairmanship of a very experienced Synagogue officer, the late Mr.Abe Gouldman.
A lot of work had to be undertaken to transform the 112 year old British School, which had been used lately as a factory, into a Synagogue.
The enthusiastic founders did most of the work themselves, even to going down to the Steincourt Synagogue to carry back their old seating for installation in our new home. You really needed to have been there to witness and appreciate the wholehearted enthusiasm shown by all the founders. The Synagogue was only just ready for its first service on Rash Hashana 1960…. cleaning was being done until literally the last minute.
What a wonderful reward it was for the founders to see the 87 families converge on the Synagogue centre that Rosh Hashana and to experience that wonderful atmosphere of achievement and the prayers led by Rabbi Friedman and the late Rev. Goodman.
On 22nd November 1959 the first Annual General Meeting was held when the following; were elected;
President: Leslie Donn -Vice President: Joseph Glassman – Treasurer: Bernard Maure (to be followed by Isidor Suppree) – Warden: Maurice Goldberg – Joint Secretaries: Ellis Pruchnie and Louis Adelman – and Council: D.Barres, L.Berkeley, B.Cowan, B.Maurer, D.Forster, M.Jeffries, A.Gouldman, S.Greenberg, B.Herman, B.Hyman, H.Kersh, S.Levene, A.Meier, S.Orchant, J.Rosenberg and H.Saunders.
Hebrew classes and a youth club soon became established. But with a growing membership, now 147 families, the Synagogue area became too small and was enlarged to accommodate up to 420 persons.
On 11th September the Synagogue was consecrated by Chief Rabbi Dr Israel Brodie, assisted by Cantor Bornstein and Rev Goodman. The official opener was Isidor Suppree. It was a most impressive ceremony which was proceeded by a large procession to the Synagogue. A celebration reception was held afterwards at the Stand Grammar School for Girls.
At that time I had commenced to send out my own monthly bulletin to the members and in the second, in October 1960, I wrote “It is envisaged that it will not be many years before we shall have to embark on a major scheme for a new Synagogue building”.
The Whitefield Jewish Ladies Guild under the first Chairmanship of Mrs Jeanette Donn, and her successors, and the Whitefield Aid Committee, under the Chairmanships of Allan Aaronson, Jack Firman & Sidney Orchant, were busy organising fund raising functions. The first Dinner and Ball was held on 17th October 1960 at the Midland Hotel and raised somewhere in the region of £4000. This and subsequent functions provided the main funds for our new Synagogue.
At that time, in an endeavour to get better shool attendances, I coined a slogan, which was circulated in a bulletin to the members… “We need Praying members and well as Paying members”.
By 1961 the membership had grown to 203 and it was apparent that a full time minister was required. Rabbi Norman Solomons was appointed just prior to the High Festivals in 1961, the services being conducted by him together with Cantor Bornstein and a choir consisting of Morris Goldberg, Isidor Suppree, Stuart Basger, Nigel Donn and David Suppree. About this time Jack Brodie was the Secretary and the late Norman Abrahams the Collector.
The Synagogue, now with the beautiful singing of our young Chazan Mendel Feingold, attracted Jewish families to the district and naturally membership increased very rapidly.
A new Synagogue planning committee under the chairmanship of Mr Brian Marks, assisted by the late Frank Salisbury and others, got down to the serious task they had undertaken, and in 1966 the old building was demolished and a most beautiful Synagogue and Community Centre was built… a dream which the original Trustees Norman Bower, Maurice Goldberg, Isidor Suppree, Leslie Donn and many founders were spared to see come to fruition.
The new Synagogue was dedicated on 27th April 1969 by Chief Rabbi Dr Jacobivitz and opened by Mr. Arthur and Mr Walter Hubert. With the continual rise in membership on the High Festivals additional services have been held in the Social Hall ever since.
Now with a membership of over 550 families plans are afoot to extend the Social Hall to provide extra seats for the High Festivals and also to provide facilities for our young people. When this eventually takes place another milestone in the history of the Whitefield Congregation will be have been reached.
We are all greatful to our Rabbis Friedman, Solomon, Hermon, Weisz, our present incumbent Rabbi Guttentag and Chazan Feingold who incidentally will be shortly completing 25 years service, for the part they have all played in the spiritual guidance and success of our Congregation.
In my monthly bulletin of October 1961 I posed the following questions to the members;
1. Do my family and I attend the Synagogue as often as we can?
2. Do my children attend the Hebrew Classes and do they go regularly?
3. Have I signed a covenant for my subscription yet?
4. Have I given a donation yet? If not can I manage to do so whatever it may be?
5. Do I support the Congregation in all its efforts whether they may be socials, cultural activities or fundraising functions etc?
and concluded…
“If you can answer Yes to the majority of these questions, you are playing your part and there can be no doubt about the future of our Congregation.”
No nothing has really changed … the questions and the answers 30 years on still apply.
Let us now pause for a while to remember those illustrious men and women who gave their time, energy and advice, in order to secure the founding of our Congregation, and all those who are now continuing in their footsteps to ensure its future.
So as my very dear friend the late Maurice Goldberg would have said…
“See you in Shool”
Leslie Donn JP