Newton Mearns Hebrew Congregation

Former Orthodox Jewish congregation in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire (OSCR SC009979), merged into Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue

Newton Mearns Hebrew Congregation
Type	Unincorporated association (charity)
Founded	1954
Dissolved	2025 (removed from the Scottish Charity Register on 6 March 2025)
Registration ID	SC009979 (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator)
Status	Defunct (merged into Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue)
Headquarters	14 Larchfield Court, Newton Mearns, Glasgow
Area served	East Renfrewshire
Registration	Scotland (OSCR)

Newton Mearns Hebrew Congregation (also "Newton Mearns Synagogue", and formerly "Newton Mearns & District Hebrew Congregation") was an Ashkenazi Orthodox Jewish congregation in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire, founded in 1954. Its synagogue was at 14 Larchfield Court, Newton Mearns. It was a Scottish charity (SC009979), registered on 13 July 1955 as an unincorporated association. In 2021 its members voted to merge with Giffnock and Newlands Hebrew Congregation to form Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue. Title to the Larchfield Court building passed to Eastwood Jewish Community Centres on 20 October 2022. The charity was removed from the register on 6 March 2025 with the note "Charity has been wound up/dissolved".

History

A brief history

From the Shul website in 2016:

Newton Mearns Hebrew Congregation is an orthodox community established in 1954.

The first Chairman was Arthur Lawson. The congregants originally met in a hall in the Ayr Road, which is now the site of Glasgow New Synagogue. Later, services were held in Fairweather Hall.

The former building at Larchfield Court was constructed in 1968 and its foundation stone was laid by Arnold Berkley. This building was destroyed by fire in 1973 and was re-built. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the Walton Family.

The first Minister of the Shul was Rev Saul Wiseman, followed by Rev Jack Grant, Rev Jeffrey Cohen, Rabbi Ephriam Klein, Rev Philip Copperman, Rabbi Pinchas Hackenbroch, Rabbi Danny Bergson, Rav Aharon Soudry.

From 1st January 2015, we are delighted to announce that Rabbi Eli Wolfson will be our Minister for all pastoral and Rabbinical duties.

Today, there are around 425 members. There are five Life Presidents – Sydney Barmack, Peter Cohen, Doreen Mandelstam, David Links, and Alan Hecht.

We would like to publish a more detailed history of the shul on this website. Any information you or an older member of your family can add to the above account, or photos, will be welcome. Please send your material to the shul office.

Other accounts

JCR-UK gives the congregation's earlier name as Newton Mearns & District Hebrew Congregation and its earlier meeting places as Berkeley, Edgehill, and then Beech Avenue, Newton Mearns. It lists Rabbi Eli Wolfson as minister from 1 January 2015 and gives the membership in 2015 as about 425, citing the Jewish Chronicle.

In August 1966 the Jewish Chronicle reported that the Newton Mearns Hebrew Congregation had started a synagogue at Beech Avenue, at a cost of £55,000. In April 1968 it reported that "Mr Arnold Berkley, chairman" of the congregation, hoped that the new Beech Avenue synagogue, with 500 seats, would be ready for August.

In May 2013 the Jewish Chronicle reported that the congregation and Giffnock and Newlands Hebrew Congregation had jointly recruited Glasgow's first youth and community rabbi, Eliezer Wolfson, with sponsorship from the Glasgow Jewish Community Trust, Tribe and the Queen's Park Charitable Trust. It reported that a proposed merger of the two congregations had been shelved at that time, and quoted the Newton Mearns chairman, Brian Fox, as saying that the congregations "wanted to retain their independence".

Constitution

A constitution of 18 clauses was adopted at a special general meeting of the congregation at Newton Mearns in May 1955. Under it:

• the congregation was "under the religious jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbi";
• its purpose was "to hold Religious Services and to establish and maintain a Synagogue, and religious educational classes for its Members and their children and persons of the Jewish faith";
• it was governed by an executive of a president, vice-president, chairman, vice-chairman, honorary treasurer and one or two honorary secretaries, together with a school convenor, and by a council of the executive and between four and twenty ordinary members, elected annually at the annual general meeting;
• the president, vice-president, chairman and vice-chairman could not hold office for more than three consecutive years;
• the accounts were to be audited annually, cheques were to be signed by the treasurer and the chairman (or vice-chairman), and no sum over five pounds could be paid without the council's authority.

The congregation's accounts for 2017 to 2022 state that it "is bound by the Constitution approved at the 2002 Annual General Meeting", and that the members of the executive committee act as its trustees. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator records its purpose as "the advancement of religion".

The Larchfield Court building

Jewish Chronicle, 2 November 1973: "Worshippers offer their morning prayers outside the remains of the synagogue as firemen continue to fight the blaze"

According to the congregation's website in 2016, the first building at Larchfield Court was built in 1968, was destroyed by fire in 1973 and was rebuilt. This was the synagogue that the Jewish Chronicle reported in 1966 and 1968 as being built at Beech Avenue, with Arnold Berkley as chairman. The historian Sharman Kadish wrote in 2015 that the foundation stone "at Beech Avenue", laid in June 1968, is "preserved at the current synagogue". She wrote that a bank loan of £45,000 had been refused because of "Government economic restrictions", that the Glasgow Jewish Community Trust contributed £10,000 of the estimated £65,000, and that a "prefabricated" building was put up in time for the High Holy Days in 1968. According to Kadish, the building was "almost a complete write-off" after a fire in 1973, in which a Torah scroll was destroyed. The foundation stone of a new synagogue was laid in March 1977, and the building appears to have opened the following year. Both buildings were designed by the architect Andrew William Dougall Samuel. The new prayer hall was built with seating for 500 on a "broadhouse" plan, with the Ark on the long east wall. The Jewish Chronicle reported on 2 November 1973 that the fire had been discovered shortly after 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, that the synagogue was severely damaged and its communal hall destroyed, and that worshippers arriving for the 9.15 minyan prayed outside the building. It said that the synagogue executive met that afternoon and decided unanimously to rebuild, that the congregation had about 450 members, and that it was the second Glasgow synagogue blaze in recent years, the banqueting hall of Giffnock and Newlands Synagogue having been destroyed by fire about two years earlier. On the Ordnance Survey 1:1,250 plans, a cart track ran from Beech Avenue, between the houses numbered 90 and 96, into a nursery on the site in the 1959 revision; the 1969 revision labels the building on the site "Synagogue", and the 1972 revision shows a drive leading to the site from Beech Avenue at the same point. The building, at 14 Larchfield Court, Newton Mearns, was the congregation's only property. Its accounts carried it at cost: land £5,523 and buildings £316,272, a total of £321,795, without depreciation. Fixtures and equipment costing £40,402 had been fully written off.

• 

  Ordnance Survey 1:1,250 plan NS5455NW, revised 1959: Beech Avenue at Shaw Road, with a cart track ("C T") running west between nos. 90 and 96 towards a nursery (National Library of Scotland)

• 

  The same plan, revised 1972: a drive running west from Beech Avenue between nos. 90 and 96 to the synagogue site (National Library of Scotland)

Title REN156640

The Larchfield Court property was first registered in the Land Register of Scotland as title REN156640, "Newton Mearns Synagogue, 14 Larchfield Court". The title sheet records:

• Proprietor: Eastwood Jewish Community Centres (SC048957), registered on 23 November 2022, with a date of entry of 20 October 2022 and a consideration of £200,000.
• Standard security (2016): by Bradley Kay (chairman), Brian Fox (treasurer) and Jason Fisher (secretary), as trustees for Newton Mearns Hebrew Congregation, to the members of the Finance Committee of the Glasgow Jewish Community Trust: Malcolm Livingstone, Adam Berkley, David Walton, Adam Lewis, Delia Berkley, Samuel Kingsley, Abigail Peters, Melville Robinson and Lawrence Sellyn. It was recorded on 18 March 2016.
• Standard security (2025): by Eastwood Jewish Community Centres to Mother Earth Hindu Temple, Glasgow (SC051614), registered on 16 January 2025. No amount is shown.

On 27 October 2026 ScotLIS showed the last purchase of REN156640 as 20 October 2022 at £200,000, with no pending applications.

Mother Earth Hindu Temple

The Jewish Telegraph reported in May 2025 "the completion of the agreement for the lease/purchase of the former Newton Mearns Synagogue site". It quoted the chairman of Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue, Michael Goodman, as saying that some of the "initial £60,000 payment" made since "the contract with Mother Earth was signed in January" was being used to upgrade the Giffnock hall and reception area. The accounts of Mother Earth Hindu Temple, Glasgow for the year to 31 March 2025 give its address as 14 Larchfield Court.

Ministers and officers

Ministers

The congregation's website in 2016 listed its ministers as Rev Saul Wiseman, Rev Jack Grant, Rev Jeffrey Cohen, Rabbi Ephriam Klein, Rev Philip Copperman, Rabbi Pinchas Hackenbroch, Rabbi Danny Bergson and Rav Aharon Soudry, followed from 1 January 2015 by Rabbi Eli Wolfson. In January 2023 the Jewish News described Rabbi Aharon Lemberger as a university chaplain and part-time rabbi at Newton Mearns.

Officers

• Arthur Lawson was the first chairman.
• In 2016 the life presidents were Sydney Barmack, Peter Cohen, Doreen Mandelstam, David Links and Alan Hecht.
• The 2016 standard security was granted by Bradley Kay as chairman, Brian Fox as treasurer and Jason Fisher as secretary.
• Brian Fox was chairman in May 2013.
• Lewis Orchant was chairman in 2021.

The accounts were independently examined by Aird Sakol Ltd (2018–2020) and by The Accounting Crew (Scotland) Ltd, Clarkston (2021–2022).

Finances

The congregation's accounts for the years to 31 August 2017 to 2022 show the following (£):

Year to 31 August	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Income
Members' donations	96,875	100,110	103,963	99,489	91,565	82,658
Income tax refund	22,592	20,411	22,742	19,470	20,214	17,149
Hire of hall	1,434	1,925	1,420	3,006	375	2,100
Other income	4,272	5,646	3,878	2,148	3,258	2,790
Total income	125,173	128,092	132,003	124,113	115,412	104,697
Expenditure
Remuneration of officials	43,309	45,592	51,420	48,403	46,405	49,493
Establishment and administration costs	82,942	83,517	102,016	85,913	70,486	74,277
Other expenditure	13,361	14,220	12,199	10,254	8,704	10,869
Total expenditure	139,612	143,329	165,635	144,570	125,595	134,639
At 31 August
Land and buildings at cost	321,795	321,795	321,795	321,795	321,795	321,795
GJCT loan	150,000	150,000	150,000	170,000	200,000	200,000
Total net assets	263,909	248,672	215,040	194,583	184,400	154,458

The accounts show a "GJCT Loan" from the Glasgow Jewish Community Trust as a long-term liability: £100,000 at 31 August 2016, £150,000 from 2017 to 2019, £170,000 in 2020, and £200,000 in 2021 and 2022. They describe it as "interest free and secured by standard securities over the Synagogue and grounds at 14 Larchfield Court, Newton Mearns". The Trust's accounts say that in 2015 it agreed to lend the congregation up to £250,000, and that "the loan of £200,000 is now held by Eastwood Jewish Community Centres, a connected charity, is interest free and repayable when the Synagogue sells the site at Larchfield Court".

Merger into Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue

The Jewish Chronicle reported in March 2021 that members of the two congregations had "voted overwhelmingly for merger". It gave the Newton Mearns membership as just over 300 and the Giffnock membership as around 570, and quoted the Newton Mearns chairman, Lewis Orchant, as saying "There is little doubt we will be far stronger together". The merger was approved by separate special general meetings of the two congregations on 28 February 2021. In June 2022 the paper reported that members had voted, on a turnout of more than 70 per cent, by "almost three-to-one in favour of retaining and developing the Giffnock site".

The Newton Mearns synagogue building at Larchfield Court, January 2023, shortly before its farewell service (Photo: Jewish News)

According to the history page of Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue, the last service at Larchfield Court was held in December 2022, and a closing service and dinner there on 22 January 2023 was attended by the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis. The Jewish News reported on the farewell service and quoted Jackson Carlaw MSP as saying that the synagogue had "been a fixture in the local area for decades". JCR-UK records that services were held at Larchfield Court until December 2022.

Transfer of the property

Title to the Larchfield Court property passed to Eastwood Jewish Community Centres (EJCC), with a date of entry of 20 October 2022. The title sheet records a consideration of £200,000. EJCC's accounts for the year to 31 August 2025 value its freehold property at £570,464 and show a £200,000 loan from the Glasgow Jewish Community Trust, "interest free and repayable on demand".

Final OSCR return

The congregation's final annual return to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator covers the period 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023. It states that the charity "transferred it members and assets to a merged charity Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue SC049806 with effect from 1 September 2022", which "will carry on the former activities of Newton Mearns Hebrew Congregation for its members", and that the charity "no longer requires reserves". OSCR received the return on 31 May 2024, and the register shows income and expenditure of £0 for the year to 31 August 2023. The charity was removed from the register on 6 March 2025.

See also

• Giffnock and Newlands Hebrew Congregation
• Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue
• Eastwood Jewish Community Centres
• Glasgow Jewish Community Trust
• 222 Fenwick Road, Giffnock
• Mother Earth Hindu Temple, Glasgow