Communal Conference on the Reconstruction of Jewish Education in Great Britain. Report of Proceedings. London 1946.

1945EducationConference01This was an extremely important two-day conference, held on November 25th and 26th 1945.  The Chief Rabbi, Dr. Hertz, was ill (he died in January 1946), and delegated his chairmanship to Dayan Grunfeld.  The entire orthodox community was represented, except for the Haredi Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.

The list of the attendees, shown below from page 11, demonstrates the remarkable inclusion of organizations and Synagogues.  Missing are some of those that had been destroyed by German bombing, the Great Synagogue, for example, but now defunct Synagogues such as the Artillery Lane Synagogues, the Black Lyon Synagogue, the Philip Street Synagogue and the Vine Court Synagogue in the East End of London were included.  There was wide representation from the provincial communities, such as Birmingham, Blackpool, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester, etc.

Rabbinical representatives included Rabbi Samuel Sperber from Bachad, Rabbi Lichtigfeld from Cricklewood, Rabbi Kopul Rosen from the Federation of Synagogues, Rabbi Carlebach from the Golders Green Beth Hamedrash, Rabbi M. Nemeth, representing Hampstead Synagogue, Rabbi Yerucham Lainer from the Kehal Chassidim Synagogue and many others.

The record below includes brief reports on what the delegates had to say.

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2 thoughts on “Communal Conference on the Reconstruction of Jewish Education in Great Britain. Report of Proceedings. London 1946.

  1. This may have been billed as an “important” conference. Sounds to me as mainly irrelevant hot air, setting the scene for the disastrous J Ed in Anglo-Jewry for the following …. How many years?

  2. Although the conference was 2 years before I was born, many of the participants’ names were familiar, and each of them said what I would expect them to say. Incidentally, my grandfather, who represented Jesmond, was a chaplain in both wars. He later said that the Jewish soldiers in the second world war were more knowledgeable in Judaism than their counterparts in the first world war.

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