I was very fortunate to have visited the Synagogue in Belfast yesterday. I was shown around by an elder who explained the origins, the traditions and note importantly the contributions made by the community over time. I would dearly love to take part in services and to taste Jewish food. I have literally copied and pasted what is on the website as it is succinct and accurate and easy to follow. The community here is only 80 strong and is indicative of the "brain drain" which all communities and faiths have suffered. I would personally advocate all local people to visit and learn for themselves. The Jewish community is amongst Northern Ireland's oldest ethnic and religious minorities and has thrived over four or five generations. If today its numbers have declined, the Jewish community continues to play a significant role in the religious and cultural life of the province. Where did the Jews of Northern Ireland first come from? Strangely, from Germany. It was during the 1860s and 1870s and Jews first arrived because of the linen industry. A small number of German Jewish merchants arrived in Ulster and exported Irish linen across Europe and to North America and beyond. Their names included Jaffe, Loewenthal, Boas, Betzold and Portheim. The first Jewish religious services were held in the 1860s in Holywood, Co Down and the first synagogue built in 1871 on Great Victoria Street. The community's founder, Daniel Joseph Jaffe, is commemorated by the ornate drinking fountain which is located today at an entrance to the Victoria shopping centre in Belfast. His son, Sir Otto Jaffe, was twice Lord Mayor of the city. Gustav Wolff, a founder of the world-famous shipyard, Harland and Wolff, was also born into a German Jewish family but which had converted to Christianity before he was born. Are the Jews in Belfast today descended from those families? No, the decline of Ulster's linen industry after the First World War brought the end of the early German Jewish community. The Jaffe family was forced to leave Belfast because of anti-German hostility during the war. Before the war, Sir Otto had served as German consul in Belfast. In the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth, the number of Jews in what is today Northern Ireland increased to nearly a thousand with the arrival of refugees from Eastern Europe, who were fleeing poverty and persecution. Most of this second wave of Jewish immigration came from Lithuania but there was also a minority of Polish Jews. Jewish pedlars selling goods door to door became familiar figures on the streets of Belfast and across the Province. The settlers also included glaziers, cabinet makers and tailors. Was there a Jewish quarter in Belfast? Many of the new arrivals lived in North Belfast, in the streets which linked the Old Lodge and Crumlin Roads, such as Fairview Street and Bedeque Street. At first they established prayer rooms in private houses nearby and formed breakaway congregations from the established community on Great Victoria Street. In 1904, the community united under one roof when Sir Otto and Lady Jaffe built a new synagogue at Annesley Street, off Carlisle circus, which still stands today. The Jaffe family also built a school around the corner, at the bottom of the Cliftonville Road, which by their stipulation was open to Protestants and Catholics as well as children from the Jewish community. Hebrew classes were taught at Jaffe school after school hours. But the Jewish community was not limited to one particular part of the city. In the 1890s small Hebrew congregations were also established in Lurgan and Londonderry. The former lasted until the 1920s and the latter, with its synagogue on Hawkins Street, survived until the end of the Second World War. Who were the rabbis and other noteworthy members of the Belfast community? Spiritual leaders of the Belfast community include Rev Dr Chotzner, Rabbi Dr Isaac Herzog (1916-18) and Rabbi Jacob Shachter (1925 - 1954). Rabbi Herzog became chief rabbi of the land of Israel and his Belfast-born son, Chaim, was elected president of Israel in 1983. A childhood evacuee who lived in Kinnaird Street, Belfast during the First World War was another distinguished Israeli, Abba Eban. Therefore, in 1918 Belfast boasted a future chief rabbi, president and foreign minister of the state of Israel. Chaim's mother, Sarah Herzog, who came to Belfast in 1917, was a major figure in her own right. The largest psychiatric and geriatric hospital in the Middle East, the Sarah Herzog hospital in Jerusalem, is named after her. Also living on Cliftonpark Avenue around this time was Maxim Litvinov who later became foreign minister of the USSR under Stalin. One of the first Oscar winners, Hollywood producer and screenwriter, Benjamin Glazer, was born in Belfast in 1887. Please see my blog for full text read more

See all

I can't admit to knowing much about Judaism but this unusual circular building off the Somerton Road has often caught my eye and after doing some research I'd been intrigued by both it and the Star of David it features on its roof (unfortunately only viewable from above) As far as I can see, this is the only Synagogue in Belfast. It has been running for over forty years, the building having been completed in 1967. The Synagogue holds services on Friday evening, Shabbat morning and other services during the week. It is also possible to arrange for tourist visits where you can have a look around the fascinating building. The upcoming Belfast Festival annually holds events here relating to the Jewish faith, I'm sure there will be more this year so check their website if you're interested. I learnt some really interesting things whilst I was researching this Synagogue ...The former president of Israel (1983-1993), Chaim Hertzog was born and grew up in Belfast! Also, Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, he of Harland and Wolff fame was also Jewish. Well there you go, you learn something new every day! read more