5. Bevis Marks, Rev'd Benjamin Artom, and Bevis Marks

At the beginning of March (6th) letters were sent out on behalf of the committee to the Elders (governing committee) of Bevis Marks Synagogue, Sir Moses Montefiore, and to the Reverend Benjamin Artom, Haham (1) of the Sephardim in Great Britain (the names of the intended recipients appear in this order in the minutes reflecting no doubt the perceived importance of each to the Committee in Manchester) informing them of the project to build 'the first instance of a provincial Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue being formed in Great Britain.' The letter included details of the monies already promised and raised as an indication of the earnestness of their intent, and the intended cost of the building; £2,500 (2).  

As the oldest synagogue in Great Britain and the chief synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews,(3) the Manchester Sephardim would naturally look to Bevis Marks as a spiritual head and as a model for the constitution and practice of a Manchester Sephardi synagogue. As they expressed it in the letter to Montefiore, they wished the new synagogue to be 'constituted in every respect the same as the ancient and parent synagogue.' And,no doubt, in presenting their plans to Bevis Marks and to the respected and wealthy philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore, they hoped that the support received might be more than simply spiritual. In this they were not to be dissappointed.

Of the copies of the answers received, R. Artom's appears last in the minutes although it was the first to be sent. Artom expresses; 'the pleasure which I feel in seeing that you are disposed to carry out what I have long considered a real and great מצוה [religious duty]' and stated that it thought it 'wise' on the part of the committee to place themselves 'under the guidance and protection of the Mother Congregation.' He promised to make it 'a duty to second [their] efforts for the attainment of [their] religious aims.'

Rabbi Benjamin Artom (1835-1879), Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Great Britain.

The Elders of Bevis Marks informed Manchester that they had met to consider the 'memorial' they had received and had unanimously approved it. However, although they agreed that would assist 'as soon as premises are purchased and contracts entered into for the construction' and promised the sum of 300 guineas (approx. £24,000 today) this was to be dependent on two conditions being met: firstly the new synagogue was to place itself under the 'control and superintendence of the Ecclesiastical Authorities of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of London,' and secondly that it was to be 'distinctly understood that no pecuniary responsibility whatever is at any future time to be incurred by this congregation [Bevis Marks] by reason the Manchester Synagogue being the supervision of our Ecclesiastical Authorities.' That is to say that, whilst Bevis Marks was to become the competent authority over Manchester for all spiritual matters, that assumed authority would in no way make Bevis Marks financially liable for the new Synagogue. The Elders hoped that the 'desire evinced by the Authorities of [the Manchester] congregation ... will influence our Yehidim [Heb: 'members'] in responding to the appeal ... and that it may result in your establishing a place of Divine Worship for our Brethren in Manchester.'

Sir Moses Montefiore had delayed his response until he had heard that Bevis Marks had given its approval, but, having heard that it had been granted, he expressed himself to 'heartily approve of the good intention of my Brethren in Manchester and cordially wish them success in their pious undertaking' and continued that he was 'happy to subscribe the amount of £50 on the same conditions as have been specified by the Elders.'

Meeting again at the end of March (31st), the committee resolved to send letters of thanks to both Bevis Marks and Sir Moses Montefiore, and that an appeal be sent for publication in the Jewish Chronicle, with copies of the appeal to be sent to the the Yehidim of Bevis Marks and 'other Jewish Gentlemen in the Metropolis and elsewhere.' Hopefully, Haham Artom was not too put out that they overlooked replying to his letter of support.

Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885)

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(1) The title 'haham' (Hebrew, 'wise or learned man') is customarily used by Sephardim in preference to 'rabbi.' However in London the title was only given to the rabbi of Bevis Marks with the approval of the Mahamad (governing committee), and not all rabbinic leaders of Bevis Marks were so honoured by the Mahamad. 

(2) In terms of the Retail Price Index this would be equivalent toady to some £190,000, but a fairer comparison to modern building and labour costs would be close to £2,000,000.  

(3) The long-maintained opposition of Bevis Marks to another Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London that had contributed to the 1840 schism and the founding of the (reform) West London Synagogue, had finally been overcome in 1853 with the opening of a branch synagogue in Wigmore Street, London. This was followed in 1865 with the opening of the Essex Road Synagogue which Solomon Andrade had built in his garden. Previously he only other Sephardi synagogue in Great Britain was Sir Moses Montefiore's private synagogue at his home in Ramsgate built in 1833.

4. Syrian Dissension

After the initial meeting on the 4th, a second meeting was held the same week. The previous meeting had agreed to meet again on Tuesday 6th, but the minutes have Wednesday 8th which cannot be right as the 8th was a Thursday. Regardless, with Isaac Belisha now firmly in the chair, Habib Ades was co-opted onto the committee along with Jacob Guedalla whose family like Belisha's had moved to London from Morocco. The name of the Synagogue was decided to be 'The Manchester Congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews,' in English, and in Hebrew, שערי תפילה, Shaare Tephilah, 'The Gates of Prayer.' Belisha and Guedalla resolved to proceed to London for the 'purpose of having an interview with the officials of the Mother Synagogue of that place [i.i. Bevis Marks] and solicit their support and countenance of our object' (MB R).

The minutes for the 4th in the Red Minute book list some twenty further subscribers who had promised and (except for Mr. Bersi) paid to the synagogue fund:

£52 10s   E. M. Levi & sons (firm founded by the father of Marco Levi).

£31 10s   Joseph Anzarut.

£26 5s     Baruch Bensusan, David Politi, Ezekiel Sutton (only £10 0 0 paid).
£25 0s     Adda & Co. 

£15 15s   Joseph Besso, Marc Dente.
£10 10s   Salomon Anzarut, Isaac Bensaud, J. Guedalla & M. Benoliol, Henriques & Co., Jacob Piza.
£5  5s      I. Bersi (unpaid), Abraham Israel, N Samana Jeune.

The donations from the Henriques must have been out of sympathy for their fellow Sephardim, it certainly did not indicate they would be abandoning the Reform Synagogue. Of the other new names who would involve themselves with the new venture the Anzaruts were Aleppans and Ezekiel Sutton a Syrian from Damascus; Abraham Israel was from Tetouan, Guedella's family from Mogador, Benoliol from Gibraltar; the Bensusans and Bensaud were also Moroccans; the others were Greek except for Jacob Piza whose family were old Spanish and Portuguese from Amsterdam who had moved to the St. Thomas in the Caribbean where Jacob had been born. That only two Syrian families had pledged support after the first meeting is notable, but it even more significant that only two of the Syrians (Ades and Abadi) who has pledged money on the 4th had actually paid up.

Quite clearly the Syrians were aggrieved about something, but it impossible to know from the minutes what this may have been. A General Meeting was called for the 25th March, probably in some haste as Isaac Belisha was absent from Manchester and Moses Messulam had to take the chair. There were about 'thirty gentlemen present' (MB R). Evidently the question of whether a synagogue was really necessary had been raised by the Syrians, who were meeting in a building owned by Ezra Sharim, because Messulam first point to the meeting whether they considered 'it necessary that a synagogue be erected.' Assured that that was the wish of the assembled gentlemen, he continued that 'owing to the dissension of the Aleppo gentlemen a great delay had been incurred in the execution of the pious undertaking' and he 'begged the gentlemen present to consider such dissenters as "Karaites,"' a term used among Moroccan Jews for those who cause unnecessary division and discord. Three Aleppans, Habib Ades, Saul Bigio and Abraham Abadi were present and Ades took exception to the term. Messulam withdrew the expression and then went on to dissolve the previous committee. As Belisha was re-elected despite not being present and as the Aleppan committee members Moses Esses and Ezra Sharim were not elected on to the new committee, and are not mentioned in the minutes, it seems likely that they were not present and the new committee was therefore meant to exclude them.

The manner in which decisions had been taken 'acclamation' at the earlier meeting also seems to have been a bone of contention, as Abadi specifically asked for a reassurance that resolutions would be passed by "ballot" [sic]. Assured that they would he recommended that a smaller committee of five be elected. A ballot was therefore taken, the results being:
Isaac Belisha and Moses Messulam (27 votes each), J. Guedalla and Marco Levi (26), Victor Levi (25), Habib Ades (23), Raffael Besso (19), Mardocheo Besso, Saul Bigio, A Bensusan and E. Negrin (13). The first five were considered duly elected, only for Messulam to recommend that the number of the committee be increased to seven adding Raffael Besso and Habib Ades as 'committee members' being the two next in the voting results (1).

Guedalla proposed that Victor Levi continue as Treasurer and this was accepted. He then proposed that the absent L. A. Cohen be elected to the committee as Honorary Secretary. Bigio objected to this preferring that 'Mr. Cohen (then absent) would to be elected until his return to Manchester as the Committee had been elected Mr. Cohen's name was not mentioned.' The matter was put to the meeting and L. A. Cohen was elected, Messulam undertaking to get him to accept the office (again).

With the disquiet of the Syrians effectively sidelined, the way was clear for Belisha to return to Manchester and take the chair of a meeting four days later on Wednesday, 29th February that resolved to send out a circular inviting people to enrol as members at a nominal subscription of 10/- (ten shillings) per annum (2) until the membership fees were decided upon. Only those who had returned the form and paid being entitled to vote at the proposed General Meeting on April 4th. In the meantime an account was to opened at the Manchester and Salford Bank for the 'Building fund of the Mancheser Congregation of spanish and Portuguese Jews' with Isaac Belisha and Victor Levi jointly authorised to sign cheques on the account.

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(1) Messulam may have wanted the committee to reflect the traditional 'seven good men of the city' שבעה טובי העיר (Babylonian Talmud Meg. 26a, 27a).

(2) Approx. £38 in today's terms.

3. First Meeting: 4th February 1872 (25 Scebat [sic MB P] 5632)

The circular that Elia Negrin, 'the acting warden of the present (temporary) place of worship' (MB), had sent round the previous Friday brought thirty men to a meeting at the Old Jews School at 78 York St. (now Cheetham Hill Road) on Sunday, 4th February. There are two copies of minutes for this meeting. The first (MB P, a notebook donated to the Museum by Mr. Pereira in 1984) has only the minutes of this meeting and would seem to be the original minutes. The second (MB R) is contained in a red-bound notebook with minutes of the committee meetings from the initial meeting until July 1874. As the minutes for the 4th include information of subscriptions raised after the 4th, this minute book must have been started at a later date with the early minutes being supplied from notes elsewhere. Subsequently this book was titled in gold on its front board 'Minute Book of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation from its foundation on the 4th February to the 19th July 1874' as a mark of its historical significance. 

The names of the gentlemen present at the meeting with Elia Negrin are set down in alphabetical order in the copy of the minutes in MB P:

Abraham Belisha, Habib Ades, Isaac D. Belisha, Barrow Belisha (Isaac's son), Mardocheo Besso, Haim Besso (Mardocheo's son), Raffael Besso (a second cousin), Mattatia Besso, Moses Bianco (son-in-law of Ezra Sharim), Saul Bigio, Behor Cattan, Joshua Cohen, Levi A. Cohen, M Cohen, Moses Esses, Moses Farache, Shalom Laniado, Raphael Laniado, Isaac Laniado (1), Victor Levi, Sabbato A. Levi, Gabriel Mattatia, the brothers Moses and Nissim Ben Messulam, Moses Raffael, Abraham Semo, Ezra Sharim, and the brothers Abraham and Raphael Silveira (2).

The men were all relatively young. Most were in their thirties or forties. Only four men were over fifty; Behor Cattan (52), Joshua Cohen (approx. 66), Raphael Laniado (approx. 53)  and Elia Negrin (approx. 54). The youngest was Isaac Belisha's son, David Barrow Belisha, aged only 18. All lived in Cheetham Hill or close by in North Broughton (Ezra Sharim), the Bessos occupying two residences in 'Mardocheo Terrace', a property they themselves had had built.

All were merchants. Their relative economic standing (with today's approximate equivalent in brackets (3)) may be gauged by the amounts twenty-three of the men pledged to an initial subscription fund:

£52 10s (£4,000) I. Belisha, R. Besso, S. Bigio, M. Esses, V. Levi, M. Messulam, E. Sharim.

£31 10s (£2,500) Habib Ades.

£26 5s   (£2,000) A. Abadi, M. Besso, M. Raffael.

£15 15s (£1,200) M. Bianco,  J. Cohen, L. A. Cohen, E. Negrin.
£10 10s  (£800)   B. Cattan, M. Farache, S. Laniado, I. Laniado, S. Levi, N. Messulam, A. Semo.
(missing from the list of subscribers are: C. Cohen, R. Laniado, R. Mattatia and the Silvera brothers).

The geographical origins of the Sephardim would play a significant part in the affairs of the community, so it is interesting to note the national groups and their relative strengths. The Messulams were from Constantinople, and the Belishas, L. A. Cohen and Moses Farache were from Morocco, but the others were divided between a group from Corfu and Greece (10 men: the Bessos, V. Levi, S. Levy, G. Mattatia, M. Raffael, A. Semo and Elia Negrin), and the close-knit group  of Aleppans from Syria (14 men) who were led by Ezra Sharim, at whose home a separate Syrian minyan had been meeting.

Out of politeness Elia Negrin was naturally voted to chair the meeting as it had been his initiative and he proposed that the meeting should see to the 'mode of improving the present place of worship, the better organisation of conducting it with a view of ultimately erecting a more suitable synagogue' However after discussion it was decided that the building a new synagogue should be the immediate concern and that a committee should be appointed to carry that out. The motion was carried by 'acclamation' and the committee duly appointed:
Isaac Belisha (President), M. Messulam (Vice President), victor Levi (Treasurer), L. A. Cohen (Honorary Secretary), B. Belisha, (Assistant Secretary) and members; M. Besso, R. Besso, M. Esses, S. Bigio, E Sharim, E. Negrin, A. Abadi.

It was proposed that all 'private prayers rooms should at once be closed,' thus banning all other Sephardi minyanim and with a vote of thanks to Mr. Negrin the meeting closed to be convened again on Tuesday evening, 6th February.

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(1) Collins speculates that the 'R.' and 'I. Laniado' in the minutes are Shalom Laniado's brothers. An Isaac and Raphael Laniado are recorded in the 1871 census, but both later left Manchester (Collins p. 239).

(2) Biographical details from Collins.
(3) Before decimalisation of the currency in 1971, the pound sterling (£) was divided into 20 shillings (s), each shilling being made up of 12 pennies (d). The 'guinea' was often used as a measure of account, 1 guinea = £1 1s. It is not simple to gauge the relative worth of money in the past. There are a number of indexes that can be used. I have used the simplest here, the RPI (retail price index) (http://www.measuringworth.com/) but it must be noted that simple prices do not reflect the massive difference in relative earnings between rich and poor at this period. 

2. Manchester Jewry and the Sephardim before 1872

There is some evidence that Spanish and Portuguese Jews held service in Liverpool in the mid 18th century, but the old Spanish and Portuguese Jews of London were not attracted to the burgeoning cotton-manufacturing trade that transformed Manchester in the 19th century. However many foreigners particularly Germans did set up business in Manchester, among them many German Jews. These German Jews congregated on the rise of land overlooking the city that led up from the old town centre by the cathedral, along the northern road up Cheetham Hill, an area that was still a leafy, and desirable suburb.

William Wylde: View of Manchester from the North (1857)

In 1857-8 the community was established but divided and they built two synagogues; an Orthodox synagogue, on the other side of the main road from Cheetham Town Hall, known as the Manchester Hebrew Congregation or the Great Synagogue (sadly vandalised and demolished in 1981) and a Reform Synagogue, the Manchester Congregation of British Jews (destroyed during the war (1)), a little further down the road at Park Place.

Manchester Hebrew Congregation: the Great Synagogue, Cheetham (1857-8)

Although there were ritual and ideological differences between the two congregations, the two communities of anglicised German Jews remained on amicable terms, indeed the justly admired, mixed choir of the Reform Synagogue was often invited to perform at events in the Great Synagogue as late as the 1930s - seemingly a lost world of old Anglo-Jewish tolerance.

The opening of sea links between Manchester and the Levant, the import of Egyptian cotton (Manchester's second source of raw cotton after North America) and the export of finished textile to the Middle East and beyond after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought many Levantine merchants to Manchester. In the space of a few decades the city had become remarkably cosmopolitan, with colonies of Greek, Armenian, Syrian and North African merchants, adding to the  well-established colony of Germans. Among the Levantines were a growing number of Sephardi Jews from around the Mediterranean; the Maghreb (Gibraltar and Morocco), Syria (mainly Aleppo),   Egypt, Constantinople and Greece (3).  

Despite the fact that the Reform movement in the UK had begun in 1840 when the West London Synagogue was founded as a break-away from Bevis Marks, and that the movement had tried to overcome the division between German and 'Portuguese' Jews by calling themselves the Congregation of British Jews, Manchester Reform Synagogue had little appeal for Manchester Sephardim (2). The few Sephardim that were in Manchester in the 1850-60s became members of the Great Synagogue. These included Sabbato Besso, Issac Azula, Elia Levy and Isaac Belisha (1865), Felice Naggiar (1868), Saul Bigio (1869), Moses Messulam (1870) and Raphael Besso (1871), most of whom would play a large part in the new Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue (Williams, p. 320). However there was one thing that would link the Sephardim to the Reform Synagogue and that was its architect and member, Edward Salomons, for Salomons would later design the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. The Reform Synagogue at Park Place already showed signs of the 'Moorish' style that he was to put to such good use in the Sephardi Synagogue in the horse shoe arches of the exterior and interior.

Manchester Reform Synagogue, Park Place: Exterior

Manchester Reform Synagogue, Park Place: Exterior

A much more serious rift opened up in the Great Synagogue in 1872 that was probably the catalyst for the Sephardim to separate themselves from the Ashkenazi synagogue. The increasing number of poor immigrants from Eastern Europe were a cause of concern to the affluent members of the Great Synagogue. In particular, the manners of these Yiddish-speakers were very different and quite alien to those of the anglicised Germans, and doubly more so to the Sephardim. A group of members decided to relocate to South Manchester away from the crowds of poor Jews to the well-healed suburb of Chorlton-on-Medlock (now All Saints) where they bought a building to convert into the South Manchester Synagogue (to become known in the north as the Englisher Shul because of the decorous British middle-class manners of its members). A number of Sephardi who would later join the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation were associated with the foundation of the South Manchester synagogue (Abraham Abadi, Isaac Bensaud, Joseph Besso, Moses Bianco and Saul Bigio (Williams p. 354)), but others had been coming together in private minyanim observing the Sephardi customs. There had been minyanim organised successively in Southall Street (on a site subsequently occupied by the Woolpack Hotel), 59 Cheetham Hill Road (in the 'Hayshop Shul' above a provender shop) and the old building of the Jews School at 78 Cheetham Hill Road (then called York St.) and a Syrian minyan met in the house of Ezra Sharim in Petworth Street (Hist 23, p 18-19). A reporter from the Jewish Chronicle wrote of one these meetings that he was  "delighted with the good order ... maintained in their private prayer room ... it speaks well for the a community that is formed of so many different nationalities" (JC, 30 Aug. 1872)

It seems, however, that the feeling among the Sephardim was now that there was enough of a community to form a congregation of their own in which they would feel more comfortable as so in February 1872 one of their number, Mr. Elia Negrin, sent around a circular inviting people to a meting the Old Jews School on the 4th February "... in order to bring forward a discussion as to the mode of improving the present place of worship, the better organisation of conducting it, with the view of erecting later on a more suitable place of worship" (SPC MB 4 Feb 1872). The Congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews was about to be born ...

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(1) The only Jewish building in the UK to be destroyed by enemy action during WWII. 

(2) The Henriques family, an old Spanish and Portuguese family were, however, committed members Manchester Reform Synagogue.

(3) 'The Millet of Manchester: Arab Merchants and Cotton Trade': Fred Halliday, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2 (1992), pp. 159-176. 

1. INTRODUCTION

Over the next six months I will be a researcher in residence at Manchester Jewish Museum which from 1874 until 1981 was the former Synagogue of the Manchester Congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews and which, preserved and restored by a team of local enthusiasts led by Manchester University historian Bill Williams, opened as a Museum in 1984. I will be working through the 140 years worth of minute books and following the development and eventual decline of this unique community and its building and I will be posting here everything I find of interest in those records. I welcome any comments, particularly further information about the synagogue and its community.

THE 'SEPHARDIM'

The term 'Sephardi' strictly means someone who is descended from Jews who were expelled from Spain or forced to convert in 1492 when the 'Catholic monarchs' Ferdinand and Isabella issued the Alhambra decree  - or those subsequently expelled or forced to convert in Portugal in 1497. Many of these exiles spread throughout the Mediterranean finding refuge in the Arab lands to the south, (Morocco, Algeria and Tunis), and in the lands under the Ottoman Sultan (Greece, Istanbul, Syria and Egypt). In later years they were joined by others who had maintained a secret connection to Judaism in Spain and Portugal, many of whom, however, preferred to emigrate to more tolerant European countries and formed 'Spanish and Portuguese' communities in Amsterdam, London, South West France, and later in the Americas and Caribbean. These Spanish and Portuguese Jews developed their own variation of the synagogue liturgy based on the old liturgy of Spain but drawing on contemporary European musical forms. This beautiful liturgy can still be heard today at London Bevis Marks Synagogue, the oldest surviving synagogue built in England after the readmission of the Jews in the 1650s. Bevis Marks thus became the 'Mother Synagogue' of all Sephardi communities in England.

Entrance to Bevis Marks Synagogue, London

Because the Sephardim often took a leading role in the communities to which they emigrated it has become customary to call all Jews who do not originate in Germany or Eastern Europe (called Ashkenazim in Hebrew) 'Sephardim' even when the individual or community has not historical link to Spain and I will be following that usage in this blog - so please, no posts explaining to me what Sephardis really are! The term 'Spanish and Portuguese' I will use of those old families who were linked to Bevis and Marks and of the liturgical and other customs (minhag) that they followed and that were adopted in the main (and not necessarily whole-heartedly) by the Manchester community.

ABBREVIATIONS

MB - 'Minute Book': SPC - Spanish and Portuguese Congregation, OHC - Old Hebrew Congregation, SMC - South Manchester Congregation

JC - Jewish Chronicle    MG - Manchester Guardian

Alderman - (1998) Geoffrey Alderman, Modern British Jewry, Clarendon: Oxford.
Collins - (2006) Lydia Collins, The Sephardim of Manchester: Pedigrees and Pioneers, Shaare Hayim; Manchester.
Hist. 23 - (1923) Rev. B. Rodrigues-Perreira and R. J. Perreira-Mendoza, History of the Manchester Congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, 1873-1923, Manchester.
Hist. 49 - (1949) anon., History of the Manchester Congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, Supplement, Manchester.
Hyamson - (1951) Albert M. Hyamson, The sephardim of England, Methuen: London.
JHE - (2006) Sharman Kadish, Jewish Heritage in England: An Architectural Guide, English Heritage (in association with Jewish Heritage UK).
Kadish - (2011) Sharman Kadish, The Synagogues of Britain and Ireland, YUP: New Haven, London.
Lipman - (1990) V. D. Lipmam, A History of the Jews in Britain since 1858, Leicester UP: Leicester.
Williams - (1985) Bill Williams, The Making of Manchester Jewry 1740-1875, MUP: Manchester.