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.
£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.
(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).
£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.
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