Edgware: Jews

JEWS.

The Jewish congregations in Edgware were late in establishing themselves, but the parish has become something of a centre for the Jews of north Middlesex. In 1930 there were reckoned to be only 30 Jewish families in Edgware. (fn. 1) In 1929 the Edgware Synagogue, a constituent of the United Synagogue, was founded and in 1934 a temporary building, now used as a Jewish day school, was erected in Mowbray Road. The congregation expanded rapidly towards the end of the Second World War and during the immediate post-war period, and in 1957 the present large building in Edgware Way, which contains seats for 1,000 worshippers and 14 classrooms, was built at a cost of £180,000. (fn. 2) The congregation of the Edgware and District Reform Synagogue was founded in 1935, when Friday evening services were held in a local schoolroom; later a room in the Congregational church was used. The community was disrupted during the war, but was revived after 1945. Sidbury Lodge, in Stone Grove, was purchased in 1951. The house was registered for worship in 1953 but a modern synagogue, with pews for 250, and a large adjoining hall have been built since that date. In 1961 most of the synagogue's 680 members lived in Edgware and Stanmore, but some came from Elstree, Boreham Wood, Harrow Weald, Pinner, Bushey, and Watford. In 1963 there were plans to replace Sidbury Lodge itself with a new communal hall and a classroom. (fn. 3) The Yeshurun Synagogue, a member of the Federation of Synagogues catering for the more traditionally inclined members of the Jewish faith, was built in Fernhurst Gardens in 1948, for a congregation founded in that year, and was licensed for worship in 1950. (fn. 4)