A bar mitzvah boy has spoken of the pride he felt when he discovered that a line from his parsha (portion) was used in the inscription stone of a synagogue founded by his great-great-great grandfather.

Joseph Stroud, 13, was doing a dress rehearsal of his parsha a week before his bar mitzvah at Finchley Reform Synagogue when he found out that verse Genesis 28:17 was engraved on the wall of Bradford Synagogue when it was consecrated by his namesake Rabbi Joseph Strauss in March 1881.

“I was really shocked when I heard this,” Joseph told the JC. “Here I was, reading a passage in one shul when [my great-great-great grandfather] had chosen the passage to go on the wall of another shul.”

It was Finchley Reform Synagogue’s warden and social historian David Jacobs who recalled that the line "Ma Norah Hamakom Hazeh, Eyn Zeh Kee Im Beit Elohim Ve’ze Sha’ar Hashamyim" ("How full of awe is this place! – This is none other than the House of God and this is the Gate of Heaven") was also written in Hebrew on the front of Bradford Synagogue, a Reform community near Leeds.

The inscription on the wall of Bradford Synagogue, which was also in Joseph Stroud's bar mitzvah portion (Photo: Bradford Synagogue)

Joseph described the coincidence as “fate” as it was only by chance that he was leyning that particular parsha, as his actual 13th birthday had been two months previously, but another child was already scheduled to have his bar mitzvah that Shabbat.

He said: “When I was reading that verse, I felt a real connection to my history. I wasn’t just reading it, I was really remembering what this line meant.”

His great-great-great-grandfather Rabbi Dr Joseph Strauss arrived in Bradford from Germany in November 1873 at the age of 28.

He was appointed rabbi of the fledgling Bradford Synagogue by a group of German Jewish textile merchants, who had moved to the city during the Industrial Revolution to develop its textile production and helped it into the “wool capital of the world”.

Rabbi Joseph Strauss, founder rabbi of Bradford Synagogue (Photo: Bradford Jewry/Bradford Synagogue)

Newly qualified, Rabbi Strauss could speak only German and Hebrew when he arrived, but quickly became proficient in English.

Synagogue services initially took place in the Old Freemasons’ Hall, but in 1880, the foundation stone was laid for Bradford Synagogue in Bowland Street.

Rabbi Strauss died in 1922, having served the community as the rabbi for 49 years.

His eldest son, Oswald, anglicised his name to Stroud before joining the army in 1914.

The Bar mitzvah boy’s father, James Stroud, told the JC: “The engraving in the stone was done when the building was put up nearly 150 years ago. My great-great grandfather was in charge of the whole thing, so it would have been his call.

"There are so many lines that would have been fitting, but he chose this one. It was fate.”

He added that David Jacobs’ discovery of the link between the parsha and Joseph’s heritage “made a truly special moment even better. It has had an impact on all of us and made it an occasion we as a family will never forget.”

Joseph Stroud on his bar mitzvah

As well as founding Bradford Synagogue, Rabbi Strauss was also an influential Zionist figure and a delegate at the Second Zionist Congress in Basle. Through his congregation, he raised the funds to open Herzliya Gymnasium, the first Jewish high school in Tel Aviv.

His son Oswald Stroud was a well-known businessman and philanthropist, who established a home in Bradford for 24 young Jewish refugees, who came to England on the Kindertransport.

Oswald’s son, Roy Stroud, and his grandson, Richard – James’ father – continued the legacy of Rabbi Strauss by serving the Bradford Jewish community. Roy was treasurer, chair and life president of the synagogue and also chair of the British Wool Textile Confederation. He was made OBE.

On the occasion of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, Richard was made MBE for his interfaith work in West Yorkshire.

Paying tribute to his ancestry, James said: “Each of those men have carried on the values of Rabbi Strauss. Looking at what they all achieved feels like a great lineage to be part of.

“During Joseph’s bar mitzvah, I felt a very strong connection to them and really felt their presence.”

David Jacobs, who has family connections to Bradford Synagogue, said: "Knowing Joseph's great-grandfather, Roy Stroud, his son, Richard, and now his son, James, and James’ son, Joseph, gave us all an additional sense of the connections through the generations. It created a deep understanding of the value of relationships within the Reform family of communities and their members."

Joseph Stroud, holding the plaque he made with his friend Tal Mizrahi for Bradford Synagogue's 150th anniversary, with his grandparents Denise and Richard Stroud

This wasn’t the only occasion when words written on the wall of Bradford Synagogue have captured the strong link between the bar mitzvah boy and his Jewish heritage.

In December 2023, when the shul celebrated its 150th year, Joseph designed a commemorative plaque with his friend Tal Mizrahi, who helped create it using a 3-D digital printer.