Severn St Synagogue

The Jewish community was expelled from England at the end of the 13th century and was not readmitted until 1656. The earliest evidence for a Jewish presence in Birmingham comes from the 18th century: there are some Jewish names in trade directories and by 1766, the community had bought land for a cemetery.

The oldest surviving synagogues in Birmingham can be found in the old Jewish quarter around Hurst St and Holloway Head. The walk begins by visiting three of them, then goes on to look at other places in the city with Jewish connections. Early descriptions of Birmingham's Jews say that they were artisans: pencil-makers, button and buckle makers, watchmakers and tailors; or pedlars who travelled around the countryside outside the city selling jewellery and metalwork. On Fridays, they would come back home to celebrate the Jewish holy day, the Sabbath, which begins on Friday evening and lasts until Saturday evening.

Their synagogue, in a damp and poor area of the city called 'The Froggery' is described by the Birmingham historian William Hutton, writing in 1780: ‘In the synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve the faint resemblance of their ancient worship. Their whole appurtenances being no more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is rather small, but tolerably well filled where there appears less decorum than in the Christian churches.’ He also says that ‘their society is almost entirely confined to themselves, except in the commercial line’. No trace of the Froggery and its buildings now survives; the area was destroyed to make way for New Street Station.

The oldest surviving synagogue building in Birmingham is the Severn St synagogue, which was dedicated on 23 September 1809 and enlarged in 1827.

In 1871, during alterations to the building, the original foundation stone was discovered. A plaque attached to it listed the names of the five principal men of the Congregation: David, son of Solomon, Judah, son of Coleman, Solomon, son of Mordecai, Jacob, son of Samuel, and Moses, son of Lyon.

The first Hebrew School was held in the vestry of this building between 1840 and 1843, until the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation was able to raise enough money for a separate building in Lower Hurst St.