Westminster Synagogue
| Westminster Synagogue | |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Logo | 
|
| Founded | 1957 |
| Founder(s) | |
| Dissolved | |
| Registration ID | |
| Status | |
| Headquarters | |
| Location | Kent House, Knightsbridge, London |
| Area served | |
| Services | |
| Registration | |
| Key people | |
| Website | westminstersynagogue.org |
| Remarks | |
The Westminster Synagogue (Charity number: 1133190) is an independent Progressive Jewish congregation and synagogue near Hyde Park in Central London. It is located in Kent House, a restored Victorian town house in Knightsbridge that also houses the Czech Memorial Scrolls Centre.[1][2]
History
Founded in 1957 by Rabbi Harold Reinhart, who left the West London Synagogue with 80 members to form the New London Jewish Congregation (later renamed Westminster Synagogue). Early services were held at Caxton Hall, Westminster. In 1960 the congregation acquired Kent House.[3]
It registered with the Charity Commission on 08 December 2009: Previously excepted registration.
It remains independent but uses the Movement for Reform Judaism Beit Din and has links with Liberal Judaism and West London Synagogue burial facilities.
People
Presidents
Clergy
| Ordinal | Officeholder | Term start | Term end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harold Reinhart | 1957 | 1969 |
| 2 | Chaim Stern | 1969 | 1971 |
| 3 | Albert Friedlander | 1971 | 1997 |
| 4 | Thomas Salamon | 1997 | 2017 |
| 5 | Benji Stanley | 2017 | 2025 |
| 6 | Kamila Kopřivová | 2023 | incumbent |
Trustees
| Name | Role | Date of appointment | Other trusteeships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edward Douglas Glover | Chair | 02 September 2011 | None on record |
| Dena Merson | Trustee | 04 June 2026 | None on record |
| Orit Schreiber | Trustee | 04 June 2026 | None on record |
| Dr Clare Rees | Trustee | 04 June 2026 | The British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, Sir Denis Browne Memorial Fund |
| Harriet Alexander | Trustee | 04 June 2026 | None on record |
| Leah Ansel | Trustee | 04 June 2026 | None on record |
| Jessie Kolvin | Trustee | 04 June 2024 | None on record |
| Daniel Hollis | Trustee | 04 June 2024 | None on record |
| David Connick | Trustee | 08 June 2023 | None on record |
| Ellen Miller | Trustee | 25 September 2019 | None on record |
| David Appleton | Trustee | 24 May 2018 | None on record |
Memorial Scrolls Trust
Since 1964 the synagogue has housed and supported the Memorial Scrolls Trust, caring for Torah scrolls from Bohemia and Moravia collected during the Second World War. A museum is on the third floor of Kent House. The 60th anniversary was marked in February 2024 with attendees including Israeli embassy representatives.[3][5]
Relation to Israel and Zionism
The synagogue's official values affirm "Jewish national self-determination in the land of Israel" and "a Love of Zion (ahavat Tzion)", stating members feel bound to K’lal Yisrael including in Israel and wish for peace and human flourishing.[6]
Klal Yisrael (כלל ישראל) is a Hebrew phrase meaning "the whole of Israel" or the collective community of the Jewish people.
- Jewish Peoplehood: It describes all Jews as a single, interconnected global family, regardless of geographic, political, or religious differences.
- It is rooted in the Talmudic concept kol yisrael areivim zeh bazeh, which means "all of Israel are responsible for one another".[7]
Events
It has hosted events such as the July 2025 symposium "Where Next for the Zionist Dream?" featuring speakers as follows:
Panelists:
- Natasha Hausdorff – British barrister specialising in international law and active with UK Lawyers for Israel.
- David Cohen – Former Chair of UJIA and BICOM, David Cohen is a central figure in UK–Israel relations.
- Dr Toby Greene – Director of Public Affairs at the Board of Deputies and Visiting Lecturer at Bar Ilan University.
- Nick Stalbow – Partner at Ashurst, one of the world’s leading global law firms, and Senior Warden of Westminster Synagogue.
Moderator:
- Gavin Stollar OBE – A long-time advocate for UK–Israel relations and Chair of Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel.[8]
Practical support for the Zionist colony
Post-October 2023 the community has discussed its stance on Israel extensively; rabbis have expressed love for Israel as central to Jewish life. Rabbi Benji Stanley left in 2025 to study in occupied Palestine.[9] The synagogue supports a partner community in Jerusalem and lists resources for Israeli kibbutzim and organisations.[10][11]
Donating to kibbutzim
After 7 October 2023 the synagogue’s “Ways to Support” page listed the Kibbutz Movement emergency appeal and named Gaza-envelope / western Negev communities. The page remained live as of 28 September 2026. It is a signposting list: members are directed to third-party funds (often Israel Gives), not a published schedule of grants from the synagogue charity itself.[12]
Named communities on that page:
| Name | What the synagogue text says it is for | Location / notes |
|---|---|---|
| Kibbutz Be'eri | Rebuild community; physical and emotional needs after 7 October | Gaza envelope; inside the Green Line |
| Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council | Emergency supplies and support after 7 October | Regional council, not a single kibbutz; western Negev |
| Kibbutz Nir Oz | Residents after massacre, fire and kidnappings | Gaza envelope. Synagogue copy says “in the Gaza Strip”; Nir Oz sits beside Gaza, not inside it |
| Kibbutz Kfar Aza | Missing and kidnapped; families; restore the kibbutz | Gaza envelope |
| Kibbutz Mashabei Sadeh | Supplies for 300–700 evacuees housed there | Near Beersheba; hosting evacuees, not itself the 7 October front line |
| Kibbutz Holit | Rebuild homes, farms, factory | Gaza envelope (Nirim–Holit cluster) |
| Kibbutz Re'im | Rehabilitate residents after the attack (Nova festival was nearby) | Gaza envelope |
| Kibbutz Nirim | Rebuild homes and community | Gaza envelope |
| Kibbutz Kisufim | Families of victims; homes and infrastructure | Gaza envelope |
| Kibbutz Magen | See IDF subsection below | Gaza envelope |
| Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak | Emotional care, children’s homes, property | Gaza envelope |
| Kibbutz Sufa | Rehabilitation after evacuation | Gaza envelope |
| Kibbutz Nahal Oz | Aftermath of infiltration, killings and kidnappings | Gaza envelope, adjacent to the Strip |
| Kibbutz Evron | Safe room for the Living Together kindergarten | Western Galilee, about six miles from the Lebanese border — not Gaza envelope |
None of the named kibbutzim is a West Bank or East Jerusalem settlement. They sit on the Israeli side of the 1949 armistice line (Green Line). Calling the list “illegal settlement funding” is not supported by the geography. The political issue on this page is the IDF / soldier wording, not the Green Line.
IDF language on the same page
Two appeals on the synagogue list go beyond civilian reconstruction. The first copy of this page in the Internet Archive was taken on 12 July 2025, so the page has been live since then, but most probably the IDF material has been published since early 2024.[13]
Kibbutz Magen — synagogue text:
- “The army evacuated all the members of the kibbutz to the Dead Sea. Now, only 17 Magen members are left to guard the kibbutz and take care of 200 elite unit soldiers, including their food, showers, and laundry. We need your help to financially support these brave IDF soldiers who are defending our community.”[12]
Temple Sinai Operation Tourniquet — synagogue text describes "combat" tourniquets, “direct contact with the IDF to find the supply gaps,” and tourniquets “handed … directly to soldiers throughout Israel.”[12] The appeal was organised by the Synagogue partnering with the Temple Sinai of North Dade, a Refom Judaism congregation in Miami, Dade County.
English charity law treats support for the UK armed forces as capable of being charitable. It does not treat support for a foreign army as a charitable purpose. In January 2025 the Charity Commission issued an Official Warning to Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited after a page raising funds for an IDF soldier (cash plus non-lethal kit). Helen Earner, Commission Director for Regulatory Services: “It is not lawful, or acceptable, for a charity to raise funds to support a soldier of a foreign military.” The Commission’s line, restated in later AWIS / social-media cases: “Providing aid or military supplies to any foreign armed force is not a charitable purpose, and no charity can legally undertake such activity.” Relief of poverty or ill-health among veterans can still be charitable; kit, cash or logistics for serving foreign soldiers cannot.[14][15]
Westminster Synagogue’s page points members at the Magen and tourniquet funds; it does not, on the published text, record that the synagogue charity itself transferred those sums. Whether a registered charity that only signposts an IDF-support appeal is inside the Commission’s warning is a facts-and-objects question for the regulator, not a finding already published against this congregation. The wording on the synagogue site is the same class of activity the Commission has said is not a charitable purpose if done with charity money.
Magen David Adom, United Hatzalah and NATAL on the same list are emergency-medical / trauma bodies. MDA is Israel’s statutory ambulance service and works with the IDF in wartime; Hatzalah is a volunteer EMS network. Those are not the same as “feed 200 elite-unit soldiers.” Keep the distinction.
Charities and organisations it works with
From the same Support page, plus the standing “partner community” line.[12]
Named partner
- Kol HaNeshama — Reform congregation in Bak'a / Jerusalem; “our partner community in Jerusalem.”
Israel / crisis list (post–7 October)**
- The Kibbutz Movement
- Living Together (bilingual kindergarten; safe-room appeal at Kibbutz Evron)
- Solution not Sides — UK education project on Israel–Palestine polarisation
- Parents Circle-Families Forum (Bereaved Families Forum)
- Meir Panim
- Magen David Adom (Bloomberg match advertised on the page)
- Atzum – Justice Works (year-long family support)
- UJIA Emergency Community Appeal
- United Hatzalah
- NATAL – Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center
- Tag Meir Project
- Israeli Children's Fund
- HIAS
- The Jewish Agency Fund
- Leket / Leket UK
- Temple Sinai Operation Tourniquet
- New Israel Fund crisis appeal
UK communal
- Community Security Trust (CST)
- JAMI
Lord Leigh of Hurley (synagogue president / chair in public notices) has also chaired Jerusalem Foundation UK and led a 2016 cross-party peers visit to Israel. That is office-holder activity, not a line on the Support page.[16]
Israel events
The congregation’s “Israel Events” page (retrieved 28 September 2026) advertised:[17]
- WS Symposium, Thursday 19 June (year not restated on the scrape): “What’s God got to do with it? – Searching for Hope after October 7th.” Speakers: Dr Melissa Raphael; Raymond Simonson (JW3); Rabbi Benji. Chair: member Amanda Rubin Lewis.
- Board of Deputies of British Jews hostage vigils outside Parliament, Tuesdays and Wednesdays when the House sits, 13:00–15:00 from 5 December until hostages return; CST / police coordinated.
A newsletter also recorded that the synagogue “adopted” hostage Elkana Bohbot under a Board of Deputies / Hostages and Missing Families Forum scheme, and that a Prayer for Israel is read every Shabbat.[18]
No congregational tour itinerary, dates or price appeared on the Israel Events page at the time of retrieval. Do not invent a “mission.”
Trips and visits involving office-holders
Public record of travel to Israel tied to this congregation’s officers is thin on the synagogue site itself.
- Lord Leigh of Hurley told the Jewish Chronicle in 2016, as incoming chair of Jerusalem Foundation UK and then president of Westminster Synagogue, that he would help lead a cross-party Lords delegation to Israel — “the first trip of its kind in living memory” in his words — aimed at peers “not known for their Zionist or anti-Zionist interest.”[16]
- No published Westminster Synagogue member tour (itinerary, operator, West Bank / Gaza-envelope stops) was found on the Support or Israel Events pages.
Visits to the synagogue (not trips to Israel) include Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt at Passover 2019, toured by Rabbi Benji Stanley, Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl, and Lord Leigh; Hunt called the modern State of Israel “a huge achievement for all humanity.” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch visited with Lord Leigh on Yom Kippur 2025 after the Manchester synagogue attack.[19][20]
Marches near the synagogue
Kent House, Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge SW7 1BX — independent Progressive congregation from 1957, building consecrated 1963 — sits by Hyde Park / Knightsbridge, not in a closed Jewish neighbourhood.[21]
On a Shabbat in March 2026 the Met allowed a “Together Alliance” march (advertised as anti-far-right; the Jewish Chronicle described Palestinian and Islamic Republic of Iran flags, “Death to the IDF” and “Victory to the Palestinian Resistance”) to form up about half a mile from the synagogue. Congregants leaving a Bat Mitzvah / quarterly celebration around 13:00 said they had to walk through the crowd to reach the station; one reported a “Free Palestine” shout at the door and an officer walking away. David Toube (Jewish Leadership Council) called the proximity “entirely foreseeable” and “profoundly unsettling.” The Met said the form-up was half a mile off, officers were deployed, and community contacts were “largely positive.” The Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, issued a “we stand with you” line. The article does not name Westminster Synagogue in every paragraph; the Knightsbridge / Hyde Park / central-London Shabbat geometry matches this congregation’s address.[22]
Funding
Notes
- ↑ JCR-UK entry on Westminster Synagogue
- ↑ Kent House, Knightsbridge, accessed 11 December 2012
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Access to Archives: Westminster Synagogue, The National Archives
- ↑ JC, Page 29 for 20-01-2006
- ↑ Leo Barnard, The Czech Memorial Scrolls, Jewish Virtual Library, 2008
- ↑ Our Values, Westminster Synagogue website
- ↑ https://colelchabad.org/klal-yisrael-unity-responsibility-jewish-life/
- ↑ WS Symposium: Where Next for the Zionist Dream?, Westminster Synagogue
- ↑ https://www.thejc.com/news/community/nnls-rabbi-to-take-up-role-at-westminster-synagogue-h92hq3pi
- ↑ Westminster Synagogue AGM Online Review 2025
- ↑ Ways to Support, Westminster Synagogue
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Ways to Support, Westminster Synagogue, retrieved 28 September 2026.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20250712072515/https://www.westminstersynagogue.org/support#Kibbutz#Kibbutz
- ↑ Charity Commission, Charity issued with Official Warning over support for foreign military, 9 January 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Official warning to UK Friends of AWIS, 22 July 2025.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Marcus Dysch, The peer raising millions for Jerusalem, Jewish Chronicle, 25 January 2016.
- ↑ Israel Events, Westminster Synagogue.
- ↑ Westminster Weekly (Contently / synagogue mailing), war-in-Israel section.
- ↑ Jeremy Hunt celebrates Passover at Westminster Synagogue, GOV.UK, 18 April 2019.
- ↑ Kemi Badenoch, statement on visit to Westminster Synagogue with Lord Leigh, 2 October 2025.
- ↑ Westminster Synagogue, JCR-UK.
- ↑ Jewish leaders ‘deeply concerned’ after Met Police lets anti-Israel protestors march near synagogue on Shabbat, Jewish Chronicle, 31 March 2026.