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.
Although the synagogue is today down to under 80 members the Belfast Jewish community continues to make a contribution to life in Northern Ireland out of proportion to its numbers.
The Jews Schmooze cultural festival, organised by Dr Katy Radford MBE, sees thousands visit the synagogue for plays, concerts and an educational display on Jewish life.
Recent rabbis include Rabbi Citron, Brackman and Singer and today Rev David Kale looks after the religious needs of the community.
Belfast boasts a thriving branch of the Council of Christians and Jews and a friendship society for elderly members of the Jewish and wider communities.
The community plays a significant part in supporting annual Holocaust commemorations in Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Friends of Israel combines Jewish and non Jewish supporters and has attracted over 6,000 people to its events since its launch in 2009.
In 2020 a society for Jewish students was established at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Jewish Heritage in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is an increasingly multicultural society today, but as a country so strongly associated with conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the existence of non-Christian groups has, until recently, been largely neglected by historians. Citizens and visitors alike may therefore be unaware that Northern Ireland has a rich Jewish heritage.
You may recognise some of these famous Jewish names with Belfast connections: Sir Otto Jaffe (elected Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1899 and again in 1904); Chaim Herzog (former president of Israel); his father Isaac Herzog (first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel) and his mother Sarah Herzog, founder of World Emunah; Chaim Herzog’s future brother in law, Abba Eban, Israel’s foreign minister was an evacuee in Belfast during the First World War; Helen Lewis (dancer and choreographer); Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (of Harland and Wolff); Isaac, Maurice and Harry Adlestone (Beaverbrooks Jewellers); Harold Goldblatt (a founder of the Ulster Group Theatre); and Judith and Ray Rosenfield (journalists/writers/arts critics).
The Jewish community in Northern Ireland began to form in the mid 19th century through German linen merchants who had made the province their home. The first synagogue in what is today Northern Ireland was established by Daniel Jaffe in Great Victoria Street in 1871. Daniel Jaffe The congregation later relocated to North Belfast, the heartland of the Russian and Polish immigrants to Belfast at the time. Smaller congregations also existed in Derry and Lurgan.
Steven Jaffe leads occasional Jewish heritage walking tours in Belfast city centre and can be contacted at belfastjewishheritage@yahoo.com
Ritual: Orthodox (Ashkenazi)
49 Somerton Road, Belfast BT15 3LH
Rev David Kale
Tel: 028 9077 5013
Belfast Jewish Community on Facebook Belfast Hebrew Congregation on Facebook (unofficial) Jewish Heritage Collections at Queens University Belfast
Pictured L-R , Rev David Kale (rep from the Jewish community) Laura Marks, Chair of the HMDT, Head of the Northern Civil Service, David Sterling, Olivia Marks-Woldman, CEO HMDT, with Holocaust survivor Joan Salter MBE, at the Holocaust memorial event
Prince Charles with Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis visiting Belfast Synagogue May 2019
photo; belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Below: Steven Jaffe guiding tours around Belfast
