Positive signs enliven the Mersey beat

Yet the community continues to support three Orthodox synagogues, an embryonic Masorti group and a Reform congregation plus a full spectrum of facilities — from the King David schools to the Stapely care home.

Liverpool Jewry is both “blessed and cursed” by the community’s proximity to Manchester,” Rabbi Natan Fagleman reflects at Allerton Synagogue.

“Families leave us for Manchester but we rely on Manchester for meat.”

Bucking the trend, Rabbi Fagleman joined Allerton at the beginning of the year from Manchester’s Sale congregation.

He says that “like many provincial communities, we are struggling in demographics. Many of the more observant have left. Numbers are good at services but the people are predominantly aged.”

His observations are supported by leaders of the other Orthodox shuls, Childwall and the historic Princes Road (Old Liverpool Hebrew Congregation), a sumptuous Grade I-listed building which was consecrated in 1874. Locals who talk up the potential for growth ruefully acknowledge the migration of some, or all their offspring to larger Jewish areas.

To illustrate the point, Wendy Blumenow and David Globe say they have been running Liverpool JLGB since 1999, partly because there is no one to succeed them. “The good ones leave Liverpool,” Mrs Blumenow admits. “If we stopped there would be no youth group here and I don’t want that.”

Yet Michelle Hayward, the indefatigable chair of Merseyside Jewish Representative Council, cites growing demand from Jewish households for places at the King David Primary as evidence of a new dawn.

Whereas Jewish pupils account for barely ten per cent of the King David High student population, the primary is experiencing an upsurge in applications for Jewish children.

Mrs Hayward — who also chairs the high school governors — wastes no opportunity to promote the latest figures for Jewish entrants to the KD reception class (26 out of 60 places), with the picture remaining positive further down the line.

The schools — whose alumni include actor Jason Isaacs, songwriter Guy Chambers and Lightning Seeds’ front man Ian Broudie — are also attracting children from Israeli families, among them Ori Solomon, a 12-year-old footballing prospect who is in Liverpool’s academy.

That’s a feather in the cap for high school head and Liverpool fan Michael Sutton. But ultimately, his goal is maintaining the high’s enviable academic reputation, as well as the good relations it forges between students from multiple faiths. “We have a social mix, a religious mix, a special needs mix.That’s the strength of the school.”

The high receives 700 applications for the 110 year seven places. “The word does get out,” he says.

Mrs Hayward notes that “non-Jewish parents know it as ‘the Jewish school’ and want their children to come here. Its results go without saying but we have Jewish, Muslim and other faiths studying together in harmony.”

And while local Jewish MPs Louise Ellman, and particularly Luciana Berger, have been in the eye of the storm of Labour’s antisemitism issues, Mrs Hayward maintains that antisemitism is not a problem in day-to-day Merseyside life. The local Labour group donated £900 towards the cost of a visit to Israel by KD pupils, she points out.

Interfaith relations are further enhanced by the many school and other groups taking tours of Princes Road. The income generated comes in handy, explains junior warden and tours manager Peter Grant, as “like any beautiful building, it’s high maintenance. We’re always in fundraising mode. There have been three of four concerts here this year. The Leonard Cohen tribute was very lucrative.”

The 180-member shul is a popular venue for chupahs but Mr Grant candidly admits that the demand for funerals is greater. “I’m 72 and one of the younger ones.”

Princes Road is around four miles from the other Orthodox synagogues. “Nobody lives around here so people travel to services by car. We’ve moved the women downstairs [to create a better atmosphere] but we don’t have a mechitzah. They wouldn’t stand for it.”

Unusually for an Orthodox congregation, Princes Road also has a mixed choir, the result of the women who made up the choir during wartime not wanting to stand aside when the men returned from duty. “It’s contentious,” suggests Mr Grant impishly.

He adds that minister Rabbi Ariel Abel is making a difference, establishing an adult cheder and reforming the Liverpool Jewish Literary Society.

It was seven years ago that the King David schools moved into a modern and spacious site in a £25 million project and the benefits have been palpable. Rebuilding has also focused the minds of leaders of Allerton and the other main Orthodox community, Childwall.

Allerton downsized its premises in 2009, creating a more welcoming environment for shul-going regulars among its 262 member families, accounting for 365 adults. Children bring the total congregation to around 425.

“If we get 60 to 70 on Shabbat it’s cosy,” says Allerton chair Jon Malits. Opening up the prayer space for Yomtov raises capacity to around 300.

Childwall (332 members, 42 country supporters) is following the same path after years of discussions and negotiations. A £1.76 million deal with a developer will see a care home built on what is currently the back portion of its cavernous site, leaving Childwall the funding to replace its decaying premises with a compact, purpose-built shul with additional communal facilities.

Showing the JC the plans for the redevelopment which were comprehensively backed by members at a recent AGM, synagogue chair Syd Edels hopes the new building will make Childwall more attractive to the unaffiliated. “We’ve got Jews, we’ve got to get them to come to shul.”

At Allerton, Mr Malits is also wrestling with the issue of how to bring in more people, especially the young.“Should we do more outreach work? Yes. Do we? No. We generally try to make life happier for the existing members.”

But Allerton is looking to the future with a commitment to engage two youth workers. Things are further down the line at the Reform community where Zara Ross declares: “We are filling up the school [King David].” And with good reason, as in contrast to other communities, there is a high ratio of children (nearly 100 from 130 member families).

Along with Steven Daniels, Ms Ross is working to strengthen youth provision. Plans include the establishment of a young people’s committee and a pre-Shabbat “cuddle-up” for youngsters. She feels it is important to stage events which bring young families together. “Some feel a sense of isolation. They don’t talk to other parents during the week because they are working.”

Reform chair and rep council vice-chair Paul Levinson reports that the shul “has twenty-, thirty- and fortysomethings who actively participate. We capture more of a range of people than Reform shuls in London.”

Whereas recruiting and retaining spiritual leaders can be problematic for smaller communities, Mr Levinson contends that losing a full-time rabbi has been “the best thing that has ever happened to us”. The shul shares the services of Rabbi Warren Elf with the Reform congregation in Southend, leaving members to fill the breach when their minister is fulfilling his duties on the Essex coast. “It means that people have had to step up.”

He also says that “relations with the Orthodox shuls are better than ever before”. This year, the congregation’s 90th anniversary, it hosted the rep council’s annual civic service, even though it was held at Princes Road.

Welfare is crucial in any ageing community and while Liverpool has the Stapely home, at Merseyside Jewish Community Care, chief executive Lisa Dolan explains its role “is to enable people to live in their own homes for longer. Their demands are not being met by the local authority so they turn to us. It places pressure on a small care staff.

“Last year, 485 people, one in five of the community, used our services.” Almost 300 people volunteer. “Without them we would not be able to do what we do.” Some 650 home visits were organised over the year, more than 200 hospital visits made and In excess of 5,000 kosher meals provided.

A refurbishment of MJCC’s Shifrin House HQ has facilitated an expansion of well-being and support services, although the charity also uses other communal venues. Ms Dolan flourishes a copy of the latest monthly programme, where events run the gamut from “sequence dance” to “memory fitness”.

The centre is also home to Citizens’ Advice Bureau surgeries, dealing with issues such as low income, redundancy and debt. The MJCC will offer small grants for “crisis situations. But if someone has run up a credit card debt of £20,000, we can’t solve that.”

Having “not received a penny from the city council since 2011”, MJCC needs to run a tight ship. It has a budget of £350,000 and an operating deficit of £50,000.

“We have our various appeals to keep things ticking over,” Ms Dolan reports. “Our community is very supportive.”

At Stapely, trustee Philip Ettinger is realistic about the prospect of generating financial support “from such a diminished community”. Mr Ettinger, whose family are in the film business, has had to deal with the fall-out from Stapely’s own disaster movie.

Speaking in the Stapely synagogue — where Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein is among the names on memorial plaques — he recalls the simultaneous double whammy of a scathing Care Quality Commission report and a critical inspection from Merseyside Fire Brigade.

The CQC rated the home inadequate overall, finding “no effective management and oversight of the service”, and placed it in special measures. The fire brigade requirements meant an expenditure of £250,000 and were it not for a major legacy, the consequences could have been dire.

“Everything you planned goes out of the window,” Mr Ettinger reflects. “It effectively closes your business down.”

The fire chiefs are now satisfied and Mr Ettinger insists the issues with the CQC were “virtually 100 per cent clerical” and have been speedily rectified, although proof of the pudding will be the next inspection findings.

The “100 per cent kosher home” relies on non-Jewish clients for around half its occupancy and Mr Ettinger says that every penny beyond the break even point is ploughed back into the building.

Despite the recent difficulties, Stapely is pressing ahead with a project for a residential village for couples with medical support on site, which he feels will appeal to the Jewish community. “It’s now a place to come to. In the past it was a place to avoid.”

So what of the community’s future? Eddie Clein, a former Liverpool Lord Mayor, cites the example of the successful Haroldeans Jewish football team as a positive indicator: “Twenty-five Jewish footballers who went to universities outside the city and have come back.”

He adds that in general terms, things have been on the up since the city was Europe’s culture capital in 2008. “It changed the whole scene.”

Masorti’s Paul Schwartz ventures that “we might be on the cusp of getting people here. Big business organisations that might have in the past gone to Manchester are now coming to Liverpool.”

But probably best for now not to expect the opening of a clutch of kosher butchers.