Bevis Marks Synagogue
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Bevis Marks Synagogue is the main synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Community of London, and the oldest synagogue in the British Isles. It is located off Bevis Marks, in Aldgate ward, of the City of London and is a Grade 1 listed building.
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[edit] History
[edit] Construction
In 1698 Rabbi David Nieto took spiritual charge of a congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews that met in a small synagogue in Creechurch Lane. A considerable influx of Jews made it necessary to obtain more commodious quarters. Accordingly a committee was appointed, consisting of António Gomes Serra, Menasseh Mendes, Alfonso Rodrigues, Manuel Nunez Miranda, Andrea Lopez, and Pontaleão Rodriguez. It investigated matters for nearly a year, and on February 12, 1699, signed a contract with Joseph Avis, a Quaker, for the construction of a building to cost £2,750. Avis would later decline to collect his fee, on the ground that it was wrong to profit from building a house of God. On 24 June of the same year, the committee leased from Lady Ann Pointz (alias Littleton) and Sir Thomas Pointz (alias Littleton) a tract of land at Plough Yard, in Bevis Marks, for 61 years, with the option of renewal for a further 38 years, at £120 a year.
Avis began building at once, reportedly incorporating in the roof a beam from a royal ship presented to the community by Queen Anne. The structure was completed and dedicated in 1702, and, with the exception of the roof (which was destroyed by fire in 1738 and repaired in 1749), is today as it was over 300 years ago. The interior decor and furnishing and layout of the synagogue reflect the influence of the great Amsterdam synagogue of 1677.
In 1747 Benjamin Mendes da Costa bought the lease of the ground on which the building stood, and presented it to the congregation, vesting the deeds in the names of a committee consisting of Gabriel Lopez de Britto, David Aboab Ozorio, Moses Gomes Serra, David Franco, Joseph Jessurun Rodriguez, and Moses Mendes da Costa.
[edit] Influence
The Bevis Marks Synagogue was for more than a century the religious center of the Anglo-Jewish world, and served as a clearing-house for congregational and individual troubles all the world over; e.g., the appeal of the Jamaican Jews for a reduction in taxation (1736); the internecine quarrel among the Barbados Jews (1753); and the aiding of seven-year-old Moses de Paz, who escaped from Gibraltar in 1777 to avoid an enforced conversion.
As the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community grew and moved out of the City and East End of London to the West End and the suburbs, there was demand for a new synagogue to be opened in the West End. At first this was refused, leading to the breakaway synagogue in Burton Street that later became the West London Synagogue. In 1866 a branch synagogue was opened in Bryanston Street, Bayswater, after which the attendance at Bevis Marks declined so much that in 1886 a move to sell the site was contemplated; a Bevis Marks Anti-Demolition League was founded, under the auspices of H. Guedalla and A. H. Newman, and the proposed move was abandoned.
In 1896 a new synagogue was built at Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale, as successor to the Bryanston Street synagogue. This is today the principal synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese community.
[edit] Features
The synagogue's most prominent feature is undoubtedly the beautiful Renaissance-style ark (containing the Torah scrolls) located at the centre of the Eastern wall of the building. Both in its location and in its design it is not unlike the reredos of a Wren church. Painted to look as though it is made of coloured Italian marble, it is in fact made entirely of wood.
Seven hanging brass candelabra and ten tall brass candlesticks supplied the original candle lighting. These are still lit today, but supplemented by hidden electric lights.
The synagogue contains the oldest set of Cromwellian wooden benches still in regular use.
The buildings include a substantial modern hall, part of which functions as a kosher restaurant.
[edit] The synagogue today
Today the Spanish and Portuguese community operates three synagogues. In addition to Bevis Marks there is Lauderdale Road, which is the administrative headquarters, and a smaller synagogue in Wembley, where the community's old age home "Edinburgh House" is located. There are a number of other Sephardic synagogues in Britain with associated status.
Bevis Marks Synagogue remains the flagship synagogue of the community and indeed of Anglo-Jewry in general. Although daily and Sabbath services are now less well attended, the synagogue remains a favoured venue for weddings and other landmark celebrations.
The synagogue suffered some damage in the IRA Bishopsgate bombing on 24 April 1993, but has since been restored.
On Friday 13 November 1998, Lord Levene of Portsoken became the eighth Jewish Lord Mayor of London. An Ashkenazi by birth, Lord Levene's first public act was to walk, with a retinue, from his official residence (Mansion House) to Bevis Marks Synagogue, for the Sabbath Eve service.
The tercentenary of the synagogue was celebrated in 2001, and on 13 June 2007 the 350th anniversary of the readmission of the Jews to the British Isles was commemorated by a service at Bevis Marks Synagogue in the presence of Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, the Lord Mayor, and Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The synagogue is the only one in Europe which has had continuous services for over 300 years. Dwindling attendances threaten its future, but there is some hope that modern housing projects in central London and the synagogue's newly appointed rabbi, Rav Nathan Asmoucha, may help reverse this trend.
[edit] Bibliography
- Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History;
- A. H. Newman, A Chapter of Anglo-Jewish History, 1886;
- Jacobs and Wolf, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, No. 780, p. 116; No. 1332, p. 155;
- Jewish Chronicle, May 31 and June 7, 1901;
- Gaster, History of the Ancient Synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, 1901;
- Hyamson, M., The Sephardim of England: A History of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Community 1492-1951: London 1951.
- Kadish, Sharman; Bowman, Barbara; and Kendall, Derek, Bevis Marks Synagogue 1701-2001: A Short History of the Building and an Appreciation of Its Architecture (Survey of the Jewish Built Heritage in the United Kingdom & Ireland): ISBN 1-873592-65-5
- Treasures of a London temple: A descriptive catalogue of the ritual plate, mantles and furniture of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Synagogue in Bevis Marks: London 1951 ASIN B0000CI83D
[edit] See also
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
