Difference between revisions of "Federation of Synagogues"

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(Federation history additions from Alderman (1987, 2018), part 1 of 6)
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Post-1948, the Federation recovered from wartime destruction, forming its Beth Din in 1966 and expanding suburbs. Modern leadership under [[Shraga Fievel Zimmerman]] maintains strict Orthodoxy.<ref name="FedSite" />
 
Post-1948, the Federation recovered from wartime destruction, forming its Beth Din in 1966 and expanding suburbs. Modern leadership under [[Shraga Fievel Zimmerman]] maintains strict Orthodoxy.<ref name="FedSite" />
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=== The Montagu presidency and the Chief Rabbinate dispute, 1911–1917 ===
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Geoffrey Alderman, in his centenary history of the Federation, records that on 28 February 1911 the Federation's Executive Committee elected [[Louis Montagu]], the eldest son of the founder, [[Samuel Montagu]], and heir to the Swaythling title, as its second President. Unlike his father, who had been 'Acting President', he took the title President from the outset. According to Alderman, the Executive Committee considered that the Federation's increasingly independent stance towards the [[United Synagogue]] called for a peer of the realm as President, and hoped that the Montagu family would continue to support the Federation financially; Montagu's younger brother Gerald became Treasurer. Alderman judges in retrospect that the choice was a mistake.<ref name="Ald87p42">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 42.</ref>
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Alderman points to an earlier dispute as showing the Federation's insistence on orthodoxy and its impatience with its representation on communal bodies. In February 1905 the Federation severed its links with the Jewish Religious Education Board, after the Board took no action against one of its Vice-Presidents, [[Claude Montefiore]], whom the Federation's report for 1905–06 accused of publicly attacking 'the genuineness of the Decalogue'. Its resolution stated that the Federation, 'being an orthodox body', could not contribute to a Jewish education board that had elected such a leader. With a gift of £1,000 from Samuel Montagu it set up a Trust to finance Talmud Torah teaching. The rift lasted six years, and in 1911 the Federation returned to the Board 'on its terms'.<ref name="Ald87pp43-44">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 43–44.</ref>
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The death of Chief Rabbi [[Hermann Adler]] in July 1911 raised the question of how far the Federation would take part in choosing his successor. Alderman records that in June 1910 the honorary officers of the two bodies had met at New Court to discuss avoiding friction over an eventual election; Samuel Montagu offered a formal merger on terms which Lord Rothschild rejected because Federation representatives would have formed a majority on the United Synagogue Council. The United Synagogue wished votes at the electoral conference to be apportioned by financial contributions to the Chief Rabbinate; the Federation argued for representation in proportion to membership, which its Secretary, Joseph Blank, put on 23 November 1911 at 6,500 members in 51 synagogues. The Federation was offered 28 votes, against 75 at the disposal of the United Synagogue's honorary officers and about 340 for the United Synagogue and its constituents. On 30 May 1912 Blank gave the Federation's definitive response, that the Board could not adhere to a scheme securing the election or dismissal of the Chief Rabbi to the United Synagogue, which he said represented only about one-sixteenth of the Jews of the United Kingdom. [[Joseph Hertz|Joseph H. Hertz]] was elected Chief Rabbi on 16 February 1913 without Federation participation, and the Federation then declared that it would no longer contribute to the Chief Rabbi's Fund.<ref name="Ald87pp44-45">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 44–45.</ref>
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Alderman records several consequences. Rabbi Chaikin was permitted to rejoin the Beth Din of the United Synagogue as a full Dayan at a salary of £100 a year, an appointment the Federation's Board approved on 6 December 1911; Alderman describes this as one of the few formal links then existing between the two bodies. Chaikin served on the Beth Din for fifteen years and resigned in August 1926 to settle in Palestine.<ref name="Ald87p46">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 46.</ref> The Federation appointed its own Chief Minister, Dr Meir Tsevi Jung of Ungarisch Brod (Moravia), chosen by Louis Montagu under the terms of his father's trust deed and confirmed by the Board of Delegates on 6 March 1912. He was installed on 16 June 1912 at the Philpot Street Great Synagogue, the first time a Federation minister had been installed in one of its own affiliated synagogues.<ref name="Ald87pp46-47">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 46–47.</ref> Jung founded the Va'ad Harabbonim (Council of Rabbis) of the Federation, with Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook of the Machzike Hadath community as honorary president, and from January 1913 until July 1915 he also acted as religious mentor to the Spitalfields Great Synagogue, which provided a link between the Federation and the [[Machzike Hadath]].<ref name="Ald87p47">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 47.</ref> His other initiatives, as listed by Alderman, included a Jewish Trade School opened in December 1912, which paid boys at least 7s 6d a week while teaching them a trade and religious subjects and which closed because the money needed to keep it going was not forthcoming (an appeal for £500 failed); a network of Sinai Associations and the Sinai League; a branch of [[Agudas Israel]] in the East End (July 1914); a Tomchei Torah Society for elderly scholars; and 'Sabbath Observance Halls'.<ref name="Ald87pp48-49">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 48–49.</ref>
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Alderman describes the Federation's relations with the Chief Rabbi's office as strained by disputes over kashrut: the sale of forbidden fat (chelev) in hindquarters meat, and doubts about matzot and mikvaot under the Beth Din's supervision. In December 1913 the United Synagogue refused an offer that Jung serve on its Beth Din as an additional Dayan with his salary still paid by the Federation. In March 1920 the Va'ad Harabbonim offered to supervise shechita; the United Synagogue replied on 28 April 1920 that any complaint against a butcher should go to the [[London Board of Shechita|Board of Shechita]], and Alderman writes that the Va'ad's status was never acknowledged.<ref name="Ald87pp49-50">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 49–50.</ref> Jung died in June 1921; Alderman gives the date as 21 June on one page and 20 June on another.<ref name="Ald87p50">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 50.</ref><ref name="Ald87p53">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 53.</ref> Alderman records that the Slaughter of Animals Act 1933, after pressure from the Federation and from the Adath Yisroel congregation, replaced the Chief Rabbi as sole licensing authority for shochetim with a Rabbinic Commission of ten rabbis: four nominated by the United Synagogue, two by the Federation, one by the [[The Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations|Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations]] and two by the President of the [[Board of Deputies of British Jews]]. In October 1934 the Chief Rabbi prohibited the sale of unporged hindquarters meat, and in June 1935 Rabbi Yecheskiel Abramski of the Machzike Hadath became a Dayan of the Beth Din.<ref name="Ald87pp50-51">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 50–51.</ref>
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=== The end of the Montagu presidency, 1917–1925 ===
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The Joseph Cohen Antiques history cited above says that Louis Montagu was removed in 1925 for non-observance and anti-Zionism.<ref name="JosephCohen" /> Alderman's account is more detailed and places the end of the presidency in a dispute over the Secretary's administration. He records that criticism of Montagu's conduct on Zionist questions began in 1917 and that in April 1919 he was one of ten leading members of the League of British Jews who wrote to the ''Morning Post'', in a letter Alderman describes as mischievously worded, about allegations that Russian Jews in Britain were agents of Bolshevism. Alderman treats the letter as a turning point in the deteriorating relationship between the Federation and its President, which nevertheless lasted six years or more, a fact he attributes to the esteem in which the Swaythling family was held by older members.<ref name="Ald87pp52-53">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 52–53.</ref>
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The Federation's finances changed in the same period. Alderman writes that by the early 1920s the Federation had outgrown its reliance on the Swaythling family's wealth, partly because synagogues were repaying capital advanced by the founder, which could be lent on, and mainly because of its Burial Society, whose contributions were the major source of its income. From 1 April 1920 the Society paid the Federation one penny a week for every subscriber, which brought £1,646 0s 1d in 1921 and made the Federation, in Alderman's words, 'entirely self-supporting'.<ref name="Ald87pp53-54">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 53–54.</ref> On 21 May 1921 the Board of Delegates appointed a Finance Committee of East End synagogue representatives. Alderman writes that its members showed little deference to Montagu and were increasingly restive at the autocratic way in which Blank, the Federation's first Secretary, conducted the Federation's affairs, holding few meetings: in 1920 the Board of Delegates met only twice and the Executive Committee once. He records that the Jewish Year Book for 1904 listed Blank as Secretary of the Jewish Congregational Union, described there as 'initiated and founded under the auspices of the Federation of Synagogues'. Alderman identifies that body with the Jewish Religious Union founded in 1902 by Claude Montefiore, Lily Montagu and others, from which Liberal Judaism developed, and calls the statement astonishing in view of the Federation's opposition to Montefiore's theology.<ref name="Ald87pp54-55">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 54–55.</ref>
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When suspicions were raised about Blank's administration of the finances of the Federation and its Burial Society, Montagu defended him, and the criticism turned into a call for the honorary officers to go. Alderman cites the Yiddish newspaper ''Die Tsait'' for the formation, by January 1925, of a 'Vigilance Committee' seeking an end to the Swaythling administration. A Board of Delegates meeting on 13 May 1925, attended by 172 delegates, dismissed Blank but asked Montagu to continue for the time being. At a Board meeting on 25 November 1925 Montagu and Councillor Harry Kosky were re-elected, but their insistence that Blank receive a substantial pension was ignored; they resigned and stated that their decision was irrevocable. At that meeting a resolution moved by [[Morry Davis|Councillor Morry Davis]] that any delegate who wished to address a Federation meeting in Yiddish be permitted to do so was carried, and Alderman records Montagu's reply that 'he could not understand Yiddish' and so could not be responsible for proceedings in a language he did not know. Alderman reads the controversy partly in terms of class antagonism and as a victory of the immigrant classes over the Anglo-Jewish gentry. Louis Montagu died on 11 June 1927, aged 57.<ref name="Ald87pp55-56">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 55–56.</ref>
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=== The Davis presidency, 1925–1939 ===
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Alderman describes [[Morry Davis]] (born 1894), a Labour member of Stepney Borough Council from 1920 and Mayor of Stepney in 1930, as a new type of East End Jewish leader. At the Board of Delegates in May 1925 he voiced the mood of no confidence in Montagu and obtained the most votes (53) in the election of a three-man sub-committee to find a new Secretary. In November 1925 he was elected a Treasurer of the Burial Society, a member of the Finance Committee and the Federation's representative to the Board of Shechita and the Board of Deputies; in January 1926 he was elected an honorary officer. Davis was elected President of the Federation and Treasurer of the Burial Society on 20 March 1928, by 79 votes to 51, at a meeting attended by over 200 delegates. Alderman notes that some members hoped to persuade Montagu to return, that approaches were made to other prominent figures without success, and that some feared the concentration of offices in one man.<ref name="Ald87pp56-57">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 56–57.</ref> Julius Jung, Rabbi Jung's son, took office as joint Secretary of the Federation and its Burial Society in November 1925 and remained, later as Executive Director, until 1959.<ref name="Ald87p57">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 57.</ref>
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Alderman reports that in 1926 Federation synagogues had on their books 12,565 families, representing over 50,000 people, and that by 1937 the number of families had risen to about 13,000 and the number of affiliated synagogues, 51 in 1912, to 68. He describes the Federation as the largest synagogal body in the United Kingdom between the wars, and gives the United Synagogue's male membership in 1930 as 8,310. Later he gives the number of affiliated synagogues as 69 at the General Council of 30 June 1938.<ref name="Ald87pp57-58">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 57–58.</ref><ref name="Ald87p62">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 62.</ref> A revision of the Federation's objects in 1934 included interest-free loans to affiliated synagogues for building or redecoration, support for Talmud Torahs and yeshivot, representation on the Board of Shechita, grants to Jewish and other charities, and 'the upbuilding of Eretz Yisroel'. A revised constitution created a General Council of synagogue presidents and elected members, which elected an Executive Committee of sixteen. Davis carried the changes in 1934, arguing correctly that the tax authorities required new rules before they would consider charitable status; the status was granted and a refund of over £900 obtained. Alderman comments that the constitution made possible, in theory, rule by an oligarchy or even by one person.<ref name="Ald87pp58-59">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 58–59.</ref> The abolition of interest on loans to synagogues followed a motion by B. Simons of the Bethnal Green Synagogue, carried at the Board of Delegates on 28 February 1927.<ref name="Ald87p59">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 59.</ref>
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Representation on the Board of Shechita was doubled from five to ten delegates after negotiation, and in July 1931 Davis became one of its Vice-Presidents. On 29 October 1928 the Federation withdrew from the Talmud Torah Trust, criticising its inspection of Talmud Torahs, and resumed grants in 1930 when the Trust was reconstituted with seven of the ten places on its executive allotted to the Federation.<ref name="Ald87pp59-60">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 59–60.</ref> In August 1929 the Federation obtained representation on the management of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva, with a grant of £250. Alderman lists beneficiaries of Federation grants in these years, among them the London Jewish Hospital, the Home for Aged Jews, Jews' College and the British Fund for Polish Jewry (£10,000 in 1936), and records that on 24 April 1932, following a visit from Chief Rabbi Hertz, the first time a Chief Rabbi had addressed the Federation, a grant of £1,000 was made to the Bayswater Jewish Schools.<ref name="Ald87p60">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 60.</ref>
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Alderman records that on 22 May 1933 the Board of Delegates sent the British government and the League of Nations a resolution condemning persecution of Jews in Germany; that between 1933 and 1935 the Federation contributed £17,000 to the Central British Fund for German Jewry; and that it took a leading part in forming the Jewish Representative Council for the Boycott of German Goods and Services, inaugurated in November 1933, which the Board of Deputies did not join. He also credits Julius Jung, as Chairman of the Board of Deputies' Aliens Committee, with helping bring many refugees from Nazism to Britain.<ref name="Ald87p57" /><ref name="Ald87p61">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 61.</ref>
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Congregations admitted to the Federation in the inter-war period, as listed by Alderman, included Central Hackney (July 1927); the Clapton Synagogue and the Stamford Hill Beth Hamedrash (12 August 1928); Walthamstow (October 1928); Fulham and Kensington (September 1929); Gladstone Park and Neasden and Leytonstone (April 1932); Willesden (December 1933); Bermondsey (March 1935); Forest Gate (July 1937); and Springfield, Upper Clapton (January 1938). In 1936 the Federation acquired a site of 106 acres at Rainham, Essex, for burial; it was consecrated on 20 February 1938.<ref name="Ald87p62" /> As Jews left the East End, Alderman records, smaller synagogues ran into financial difficulties and some fell behind on loan repayments; in April 1936 the General Council withdrew a rebate of one-eighth of Federation contributions from synagogues that did not repay on time. In December 1936 the General Council voted by 52 votes to 44 that any synagogue seeking admission or a loan must agree that at least one of its trustees be appointed by the General Council; Alderman describes the change as subtle but not retrospective, and the narrow majority as showing how contentious it was. At the General Council of 30 June 1938 amalgamation of smaller synagogues was discussed for the first time at such a meeting; of the founding congregations of 1887, only three remained among the 69 affiliated synagogues.<ref name="Ald87pp62-63">Geoffrey Alderman, ''The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987'', London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 62–63.</ref>
  
 
=== Timeline ===
 
=== Timeline ===

Revision as of 14:08, 11 November 2026

Orthodox Jewish synagogal organisation in the United Kingdom with historical Zionist ties

Federation of Synagogues

Type Synagogal organisation
Headquarters 65 Watford Way, Hendon, London NW4 3AQ, United Kingdom
Website Official website


Federation of Synagogues is an Orthodox Jewish synagogal organisation in the United Kingdom, founded in 1887 by Samuel Montagu to unite immigrant Orthodox congregations in London's East End. It provides religious services, kosher supervision, burial facilities, and communal support to its member and affiliated synagogues, emphasising adherence to halacha in modern Britain. With 18 constituent members and 26 affiliates as of recent records, the Federation operates a Beth Din, KF Kosher division, and educational programmes, serving Central Orthodox communities primarily in London and surrounding areas.[1] As the official Federation website states, its mission centres on strengthening Orthodox communal life through Torah-focused services.[2]

Historically established to serve Eastern European immigrants excluded from the United Synagogue, the Federation offered affordable burials and modest worship spaces. It has evolved into a key provider of halachic authority and community resources, though its past leadership and donations reflect support for the Zionist entity.

The Federation's relation to Zionism shows early ambivalence, with founder Samuel Montagu's son Louis Montagu ousted in 1925 partly for anti-Zionist views, replaced by Zionist Morry Davis. Under Davis, the organisation donated to the Jewish National Fund and Hebrew University, and launched the Palestine Emergency Fund after the 1929 Hebron Massacre.[3] Such actions aligned the Federation with support for the Zionist colony, critiqued in anti-Zionist frameworks protected under Miller vs University of Bristol (2024) as mechanisms entrenching settler colonial ties.

History

The Federation emerged in 1887 when Samuel Montagu united minor synagogues for East End immigrants rejecting the United Synagogue's practices. Montagu funded improvements and acquired burial land in Edmonton.[3]

By 1911, membership exceeded the United Synagogue's in some metrics. After Montagu's death, his son Louis Montagu presided briefly but was removed in 1925 for non-observance and anti-Zionism.[3] Morry Davis, a Zionist, took over, expanding influence through Shechita Board representation and anti-Nazi protests.[3]

Post-1948, the Federation recovered from wartime destruction, forming its Beth Din in 1966 and expanding suburbs. Modern leadership under Shraga Fievel Zimmerman maintains strict Orthodoxy.[2]

The Montagu presidency and the Chief Rabbinate dispute, 1911–1917

Geoffrey Alderman, in his centenary history of the Federation, records that on 28 February 1911 the Federation's Executive Committee elected Louis Montagu, the eldest son of the founder, Samuel Montagu, and heir to the Swaythling title, as its second President. Unlike his father, who had been 'Acting President', he took the title President from the outset. According to Alderman, the Executive Committee considered that the Federation's increasingly independent stance towards the United Synagogue called for a peer of the realm as President, and hoped that the Montagu family would continue to support the Federation financially; Montagu's younger brother Gerald became Treasurer. Alderman judges in retrospect that the choice was a mistake.[4]

Alderman points to an earlier dispute as showing the Federation's insistence on orthodoxy and its impatience with its representation on communal bodies. In February 1905 the Federation severed its links with the Jewish Religious Education Board, after the Board took no action against one of its Vice-Presidents, Claude Montefiore, whom the Federation's report for 1905–06 accused of publicly attacking 'the genuineness of the Decalogue'. Its resolution stated that the Federation, 'being an orthodox body', could not contribute to a Jewish education board that had elected such a leader. With a gift of £1,000 from Samuel Montagu it set up a Trust to finance Talmud Torah teaching. The rift lasted six years, and in 1911 the Federation returned to the Board 'on its terms'.[5]

The death of Chief Rabbi Hermann Adler in July 1911 raised the question of how far the Federation would take part in choosing his successor. Alderman records that in June 1910 the honorary officers of the two bodies had met at New Court to discuss avoiding friction over an eventual election; Samuel Montagu offered a formal merger on terms which Lord Rothschild rejected because Federation representatives would have formed a majority on the United Synagogue Council. The United Synagogue wished votes at the electoral conference to be apportioned by financial contributions to the Chief Rabbinate; the Federation argued for representation in proportion to membership, which its Secretary, Joseph Blank, put on 23 November 1911 at 6,500 members in 51 synagogues. The Federation was offered 28 votes, against 75 at the disposal of the United Synagogue's honorary officers and about 340 for the United Synagogue and its constituents. On 30 May 1912 Blank gave the Federation's definitive response, that the Board could not adhere to a scheme securing the election or dismissal of the Chief Rabbi to the United Synagogue, which he said represented only about one-sixteenth of the Jews of the United Kingdom. Joseph H. Hertz was elected Chief Rabbi on 16 February 1913 without Federation participation, and the Federation then declared that it would no longer contribute to the Chief Rabbi's Fund.[6]

Alderman records several consequences. Rabbi Chaikin was permitted to rejoin the Beth Din of the United Synagogue as a full Dayan at a salary of £100 a year, an appointment the Federation's Board approved on 6 December 1911; Alderman describes this as one of the few formal links then existing between the two bodies. Chaikin served on the Beth Din for fifteen years and resigned in August 1926 to settle in Palestine.[7] The Federation appointed its own Chief Minister, Dr Meir Tsevi Jung of Ungarisch Brod (Moravia), chosen by Louis Montagu under the terms of his father's trust deed and confirmed by the Board of Delegates on 6 March 1912. He was installed on 16 June 1912 at the Philpot Street Great Synagogue, the first time a Federation minister had been installed in one of its own affiliated synagogues.[8] Jung founded the Va'ad Harabbonim (Council of Rabbis) of the Federation, with Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook of the Machzike Hadath community as honorary president, and from January 1913 until July 1915 he also acted as religious mentor to the Spitalfields Great Synagogue, which provided a link between the Federation and the Machzike Hadath.[9] His other initiatives, as listed by Alderman, included a Jewish Trade School opened in December 1912, which paid boys at least 7s 6d a week while teaching them a trade and religious subjects and which closed because the money needed to keep it going was not forthcoming (an appeal for £500 failed); a network of Sinai Associations and the Sinai League; a branch of Agudas Israel in the East End (July 1914); a Tomchei Torah Society for elderly scholars; and 'Sabbath Observance Halls'.[10]

Alderman describes the Federation's relations with the Chief Rabbi's office as strained by disputes over kashrut: the sale of forbidden fat (chelev) in hindquarters meat, and doubts about matzot and mikvaot under the Beth Din's supervision. In December 1913 the United Synagogue refused an offer that Jung serve on its Beth Din as an additional Dayan with his salary still paid by the Federation. In March 1920 the Va'ad Harabbonim offered to supervise shechita; the United Synagogue replied on 28 April 1920 that any complaint against a butcher should go to the Board of Shechita, and Alderman writes that the Va'ad's status was never acknowledged.[11] Jung died in June 1921; Alderman gives the date as 21 June on one page and 20 June on another.[12][13] Alderman records that the Slaughter of Animals Act 1933, after pressure from the Federation and from the Adath Yisroel congregation, replaced the Chief Rabbi as sole licensing authority for shochetim with a Rabbinic Commission of ten rabbis: four nominated by the United Synagogue, two by the Federation, one by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations and two by the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. In October 1934 the Chief Rabbi prohibited the sale of unporged hindquarters meat, and in June 1935 Rabbi Yecheskiel Abramski of the Machzike Hadath became a Dayan of the Beth Din.[14]

The end of the Montagu presidency, 1917–1925

The Joseph Cohen Antiques history cited above says that Louis Montagu was removed in 1925 for non-observance and anti-Zionism.[3] Alderman's account is more detailed and places the end of the presidency in a dispute over the Secretary's administration. He records that criticism of Montagu's conduct on Zionist questions began in 1917 and that in April 1919 he was one of ten leading members of the League of British Jews who wrote to the Morning Post, in a letter Alderman describes as mischievously worded, about allegations that Russian Jews in Britain were agents of Bolshevism. Alderman treats the letter as a turning point in the deteriorating relationship between the Federation and its President, which nevertheless lasted six years or more, a fact he attributes to the esteem in which the Swaythling family was held by older members.[15]

The Federation's finances changed in the same period. Alderman writes that by the early 1920s the Federation had outgrown its reliance on the Swaythling family's wealth, partly because synagogues were repaying capital advanced by the founder, which could be lent on, and mainly because of its Burial Society, whose contributions were the major source of its income. From 1 April 1920 the Society paid the Federation one penny a week for every subscriber, which brought £1,646 0s 1d in 1921 and made the Federation, in Alderman's words, 'entirely self-supporting'.[16] On 21 May 1921 the Board of Delegates appointed a Finance Committee of East End synagogue representatives. Alderman writes that its members showed little deference to Montagu and were increasingly restive at the autocratic way in which Blank, the Federation's first Secretary, conducted the Federation's affairs, holding few meetings: in 1920 the Board of Delegates met only twice and the Executive Committee once. He records that the Jewish Year Book for 1904 listed Blank as Secretary of the Jewish Congregational Union, described there as 'initiated and founded under the auspices of the Federation of Synagogues'. Alderman identifies that body with the Jewish Religious Union founded in 1902 by Claude Montefiore, Lily Montagu and others, from which Liberal Judaism developed, and calls the statement astonishing in view of the Federation's opposition to Montefiore's theology.[17]

When suspicions were raised about Blank's administration of the finances of the Federation and its Burial Society, Montagu defended him, and the criticism turned into a call for the honorary officers to go. Alderman cites the Yiddish newspaper Die Tsait for the formation, by January 1925, of a 'Vigilance Committee' seeking an end to the Swaythling administration. A Board of Delegates meeting on 13 May 1925, attended by 172 delegates, dismissed Blank but asked Montagu to continue for the time being. At a Board meeting on 25 November 1925 Montagu and Councillor Harry Kosky were re-elected, but their insistence that Blank receive a substantial pension was ignored; they resigned and stated that their decision was irrevocable. At that meeting a resolution moved by Councillor Morry Davis that any delegate who wished to address a Federation meeting in Yiddish be permitted to do so was carried, and Alderman records Montagu's reply that 'he could not understand Yiddish' and so could not be responsible for proceedings in a language he did not know. Alderman reads the controversy partly in terms of class antagonism and as a victory of the immigrant classes over the Anglo-Jewish gentry. Louis Montagu died on 11 June 1927, aged 57.[18]

The Davis presidency, 1925–1939

Alderman describes Morry Davis (born 1894), a Labour member of Stepney Borough Council from 1920 and Mayor of Stepney in 1930, as a new type of East End Jewish leader. At the Board of Delegates in May 1925 he voiced the mood of no confidence in Montagu and obtained the most votes (53) in the election of a three-man sub-committee to find a new Secretary. In November 1925 he was elected a Treasurer of the Burial Society, a member of the Finance Committee and the Federation's representative to the Board of Shechita and the Board of Deputies; in January 1926 he was elected an honorary officer. Davis was elected President of the Federation and Treasurer of the Burial Society on 20 March 1928, by 79 votes to 51, at a meeting attended by over 200 delegates. Alderman notes that some members hoped to persuade Montagu to return, that approaches were made to other prominent figures without success, and that some feared the concentration of offices in one man.[19] Julius Jung, Rabbi Jung's son, took office as joint Secretary of the Federation and its Burial Society in November 1925 and remained, later as Executive Director, until 1959.[20]

Alderman reports that in 1926 Federation synagogues had on their books 12,565 families, representing over 50,000 people, and that by 1937 the number of families had risen to about 13,000 and the number of affiliated synagogues, 51 in 1912, to 68. He describes the Federation as the largest synagogal body in the United Kingdom between the wars, and gives the United Synagogue's male membership in 1930 as 8,310. Later he gives the number of affiliated synagogues as 69 at the General Council of 30 June 1938.[21][22] A revision of the Federation's objects in 1934 included interest-free loans to affiliated synagogues for building or redecoration, support for Talmud Torahs and yeshivot, representation on the Board of Shechita, grants to Jewish and other charities, and 'the upbuilding of Eretz Yisroel'. A revised constitution created a General Council of synagogue presidents and elected members, which elected an Executive Committee of sixteen. Davis carried the changes in 1934, arguing correctly that the tax authorities required new rules before they would consider charitable status; the status was granted and a refund of over £900 obtained. Alderman comments that the constitution made possible, in theory, rule by an oligarchy or even by one person.[23] The abolition of interest on loans to synagogues followed a motion by B. Simons of the Bethnal Green Synagogue, carried at the Board of Delegates on 28 February 1927.[24]

Representation on the Board of Shechita was doubled from five to ten delegates after negotiation, and in July 1931 Davis became one of its Vice-Presidents. On 29 October 1928 the Federation withdrew from the Talmud Torah Trust, criticising its inspection of Talmud Torahs, and resumed grants in 1930 when the Trust was reconstituted with seven of the ten places on its executive allotted to the Federation.[25] In August 1929 the Federation obtained representation on the management of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva, with a grant of £250. Alderman lists beneficiaries of Federation grants in these years, among them the London Jewish Hospital, the Home for Aged Jews, Jews' College and the British Fund for Polish Jewry (£10,000 in 1936), and records that on 24 April 1932, following a visit from Chief Rabbi Hertz, the first time a Chief Rabbi had addressed the Federation, a grant of £1,000 was made to the Bayswater Jewish Schools.[26]

Alderman records that on 22 May 1933 the Board of Delegates sent the British government and the League of Nations a resolution condemning persecution of Jews in Germany; that between 1933 and 1935 the Federation contributed £17,000 to the Central British Fund for German Jewry; and that it took a leading part in forming the Jewish Representative Council for the Boycott of German Goods and Services, inaugurated in November 1933, which the Board of Deputies did not join. He also credits Julius Jung, as Chairman of the Board of Deputies' Aliens Committee, with helping bring many refugees from Nazism to Britain.[20][27]

Congregations admitted to the Federation in the inter-war period, as listed by Alderman, included Central Hackney (July 1927); the Clapton Synagogue and the Stamford Hill Beth Hamedrash (12 August 1928); Walthamstow (October 1928); Fulham and Kensington (September 1929); Gladstone Park and Neasden and Leytonstone (April 1932); Willesden (December 1933); Bermondsey (March 1935); Forest Gate (July 1937); and Springfield, Upper Clapton (January 1938). In 1936 the Federation acquired a site of 106 acres at Rainham, Essex, for burial; it was consecrated on 20 February 1938.[22] As Jews left the East End, Alderman records, smaller synagogues ran into financial difficulties and some fell behind on loan repayments; in April 1936 the General Council withdrew a rebate of one-eighth of Federation contributions from synagogues that did not repay on time. In December 1936 the General Council voted by 52 votes to 44 that any synagogue seeking admission or a loan must agree that at least one of its trustees be appointed by the General Council; Alderman describes the change as subtle but not retrospective, and the narrow majority as showing how contentious it was. At the General Council of 30 June 1938 amalgamation of smaller synagogues was discussed for the first time at such a meeting; of the founding congregations of 1887, only three remained among the 69 affiliated synagogues.[28]

Timeline

Activities

The Federation offers kehillah services, KF Kosher certification, Beis Din rulings, burial at Edmonton and Rainham cemeteries, and shiurim. It supports eruvim and communal welfare.[2]

Relation to Zionism

Early leadership divided: Louis Montagu anti-Zionist; successor Morry Davis Zionist vice-president of Jewish National Fund.[3] Donations supported Zionist institutions and Palestine relief, linking diaspora Orthodoxy to the Zionist regime.[3] No evidence of institutional anti-Zionism; support for the settler colony persists through historical precedents.

Associated individuals

```wiki

Associated Individuals
Name Role Brief Biography
Samuel Montagu Founder Liberal MP; philanthropist uniting immigrant synagogues; supported modest Orthodox worship.[3]
Louis Montagu President (1911–1925) Son of founder; non-observant and anti-Zionist; ousted by board.[3]
Morry Davis President (1928–1944) Zionist Labour politician; vice-president Jewish National Fund; expanded Federation influence.[3]
Morris Lederman Post-war President Oversaw suburban recovery and growth.[3]
Arnold Cohen Moderniser President Boosted prosperity and Beth Din prestige.[2]
Shraga Fievel Zimmerman Current Av Beis Din Gateshead-educated; leads halachic authority.[2]

Members

The Federation lists eighteen members and twenty six affiliates an increase since June 2025 from 17 and 23.[29]

Anshei Shlomo | Beis Gavriel | Clapton Synagogue | Croydon Synagogue | East London Central Synagogue | Eitz Hachaim | Finchley Central Synagogue | Hendon Beis Hamedrash | Ilford Federation Synagogue | Kehillas Netzach Yisroel | Machzike Hadath Synagogue | Netzach Yisrael | Nishmas Yisroel | Ohr Yerushalayim | Ohr Yisrael | Shomrei Hadath | Sinai | Yeshurun Edgware

Affiliated Communities

Aish | Chabad of Bricket Wood | Chabad of Brighton | Chabad of Elstree and Borehamwood | Chabad of Golders Green | Chabad of Hampstead Garden Suburb | Chabad of Islington | Chabad of Radlett | Chabad of West Hampstead | Chazak | Congregation of Jacob | Edgware Sephardi Beis Hamedrash (ESBH) | Finchley Road (Sassover) | Hashkama Minyan at EAYC | JLE | Kesher Kehillah | Kesser Torah | Leytonstone and Wanstead Synagogue | Loughton Synagogue | Nefesh Hatorah | Seed Shul | Springfield Synagogue | Stamford Hill Beth Hamedrash | Tiferet Eyal | Torah Action Life | Torat Moshe

List of member and affiliated congregations

The Federation states that it 'comprises 18 constituent and 27 affiliated kehillos'; its affiliates include organisations and minyanim as well as synagogues.[30] The table lists 44 active congregations: 18 constituents and 23 affiliates on the Federation's current list, two Manchester congregations that JCR-UK records as Federation constituents,[31] and Dvash in Finchley, which is not on the current list.

Federation of Synagogues congregations (44)
Congregation Town Charity no. Chabad-Lubavitch Status
Aish Community Synagogue London (Hendon) – affiliate
Anshei Shlomo London (Hendon) – constituent
Beis Gavriel Lubavitch London (Hendon) CC 1129679 yes constituent
Beis Hamedrash Nishmas Yisroel London (Hendon) CC 1136805 constituent
Chabad Brighton Brighton & Hove CC 1192044 yes affiliate
Chabad Lubavitch of Radlett Radlett – yes affiliate
Chabad Lubavitch of West Hampstead London (West Hampstead) CC 1201417 yes affiliate
Chabad of Borehamwood and Elstree Borehamwood – yes affiliate
Chabad of Bricket Wood & Surrounding Villages Bricket Wood CC 1198884 yes affiliate
Chabad of Golders Green London (Golders Green) – yes affiliate
Chabad of Hampstead Garden Suburb London (Hampstead Garden Suburb) CC 1193647 yes affiliate
Chabad-Lubavitch of Islington London (Islington) CC 1164760 yes affiliate
Chazak London (Hendon) – affiliate
Clapton Federation Synagogue London (Upper Clapton) – constituent
Congregation of Jacob Synagogue London (Whitechapel) CC 1208500 affiliate
Croydon & District Synagogue Croydon – constituent
Darchei Avot London (Hendon) – affiliate
Dvash London (Finchley) CC 1185002 affiliate (not on current Federation list)
East London Central Synagogue London (Stepney) – constituent
Edgware Sephardi Beis Hamedrash (ESBH) Edgware CC 1197604 affiliate
Eitz Hachaim Edgware – constituent
Finchley Central Synagogue London (Finchley) – constituent
Hashkama Minyan at EAYC Edgware – affiliate
Hendon Beis Hamedrash London (Hendon) – constituent
Ilford Federation Synagogue Ilford – constituent
JLE London (Golders Green) – affiliate
Kehilas Kol Yaakov Greater Manchester – constituent (JCR-UK; not on current Federation list)
Kehillas Netzach Yisroel Edgware CC 1120294 constituent
Kesher Kehillah London (Golders Green) – affiliate
Kesser Torah Edgware – affiliate
Leytonstone and Wanstead Synagogue London (Leytonstone) CC 1185624 affiliate
Loughton Synagogue Loughton CC 1188590 affiliate
Machzike Hadath Synagogue London (Golders Green) CC 289999 constituent
Netzach Israel Synagogue London (Golders Green) – constituent
Ohel Torah Congregation Salford CC 1136772 constituent (JCR-UK; not on current Federation list)
Ohr Yerushalayim Salford CC 1078745 constituent
Ohr Yisrael Synagogue Borehamwood – constituent
Shomrai Hadath Synagogue London (West Hampstead) – constituent
Sinai Synagogue London (Golders Green) – constituent
Springfield Synagogue London (Upper Clapton) CC 1207000 affiliate
Tiferet Eyal Synagogue London (Hendon) CC 1116736 affiliate
Torah Action Life London (Golders Green) CC 1145908 affiliate
Torat Moshe London (Golders Green) – affiliate
Yeshurun Synagogue Edgware – constituent

See also

United Synagogue Jewish National Fund Kehillas Netzach Yisroel

External links

Official website

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Powerbase, Federation of Synagogues Powerbase, accessed 13 February 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Federation of Synagogues, Home Federation of Synagogues, accessed 13 February 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 Joseph Cohen Antiques, The History of the Federation of Synagogues Joseph Cohen Antiques, 18 July 2025.
  4. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 42.
  5. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 43–44.
  6. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 44–45.
  7. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 46.
  8. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 46–47.
  9. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 47.
  10. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 48–49.
  11. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 49–50.
  12. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 50.
  13. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 53.
  14. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 50–51.
  15. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 52–53.
  16. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 53–54.
  17. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 54–55.
  18. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 55–56.
  19. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 56–57.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 57.
  21. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 57–58.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 62.
  23. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 58–59.
  24. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 59.
  25. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 59–60.
  26. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 60.
  27. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, p. 61.
  28. ↑ Geoffrey Alderman, The Federation of Synagogues 1887–1987, London: Federation of Synagogues, 1987, pp. 62–63.
  29. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20240417195421/https://www.federation.org.uk/communities/
  30. ↑ Federation of Synagogues, Communities, Federation of Synagogues, accessed 29 October 2026.
  31. ↑ JCR-UK, The Federation of Synagogues, JewishGen, accessed 29 October 2026.
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