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The JC letters page, 22nd December

Danny Pine, Judith Nemeth, Steven Isaacs, Sharman Kadish, Leila Cumber, Terry Bernstein, Pamela Melnikoff, Dr David Fligg and Lynette Ordman share their views with JC readers

December 21, 2017 15:41
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6 min read

Save our shuls!

What a contrast! Go-ahead real-estate developer Michael Levine has saved a “redundant” synagogue that “only” dates from the 1950s in a provincial city in America: Phoenix, Arizona. Besides his own drive and vision, his cause has undoubtedly been helped by “linking in” with the defunct congregation’s celebrity son — Hollywood film director Steven Spielberg, who was barmitzvah there.

Britain’s heritage of historic synagogues goes back much further than America’s. Over the past 30 years since I became involved, the conservation challenge has largely moved on from Georgian and Victorian synagogues to the 20th Century. The older ones that have survived have mostly benefited from statutory protection through Listing/enhanced Listing (four are now Grade I) and generous public funding, primarily through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Synagogues of the 1900s, 1920s and 1930s are currently the most endangered category: three languish on Historic England’s annual Heritage At Risk register: Liverpool’s Greenbank Drive and Manchester’s Withington Sephardi (in the south) and (in the north) Higher Crumpsall. Edwardian seaside shuls at Blackpool and Bournemouth (unlisted) are in immediate danger.

Post-war synagogues (1950s, 1960s and 1970s) are only now beginning to be considered for heritage protection — a 30-year rule applies before Listing. Innovative modern buildings, or examples designed by famous architects, are sadly few and far between, unlike in America. So far, three British synagogues dating from the 1960s have been Listed, most recently Belfast’s Somerton Road. The first in the country designed on a Star of David hexagon plan (by Czech refugee Eugene Rosenberg), Belfast was singled out for praise more than 30 years ago by the same Professor Carol Krinsky of New York University who is supporting Levine’s campaign to save 333 East Portland Street, Phoenix.