“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.”

Our Faiths with Matt Pointon: Judaism

Those sacred words, millennia old, echoed around walls that have not stood for a year, but both a testament to one of the most enduring faiths on earth.
North Staffordshire’s Jewish community is small in number but rich in spirit and history.

According to the community leader, Sidney Morris (pictured below), many of the first Jews in Staffordshire, his own father included, came from Poland and Russia, escaping terrible persecution. “When he was 15 my father left Poland in order to avoid being conscripted into the Tsar’s army. He travelled across Europe on only 5 roubles and found sanctuary and a new life in Stoke-on-Trent.”

The Jewish community that was founded by those immigrants evolved into a prosperous and important part of local society. It has provided us with several MPs and an MEP as well as many successful businessmen particularly in the cloth and jewellery trades. Those Jews worshipped first in a private house, then a converted Methodist chapel and then in 1922 in a purpose-built synagogue in Hanley. That building was closed down last year when they moved to Newcastle but many of the original features including the Ark have been preserved in the new synagogue.

I asked Sidney to give me a final thought and he told me that he would be happy “if we could all learn to respect one another’s differences and to give and earn respect from other communities.” Sidney, who is himself a pioneer of Inter-Faith groups, is a testament to that vision. In the Newcastle Synagogue, all are welcome but the unique Jewish traditions are preserved.

And as psalms were chanted in the ancient Hebrew tongue, the Sabbath was welcomed in.