Jewish East Yorkshire

Who are the Jews of Hull, the East Yorkshire port that immigrants passed through on their way between the Continent and Liverpool, where they boarded ships to New York? According to Tony, the treasurer of the tiny Reform synagogue in the Hull suburb of Willerby, some immigrants didn’t have tickets that would get them all the way to Liverpool, so they stayed.

My son, Rand (Randy in the U.S.), very kindly drove us to services this evening at Neve Shalom, the Hull Reform synagogue. There were about 35 people there, middle-aged and older, no rabbi, and a lay reader whose voice resembled Gregorian chant. Lovely. There was no instrumental accompaniment, but that was more a factor of it being a lay-led synagogue. We didn’t know most of the melodies, and I often lost my place.

The service was short, with no sermon. During the oneg, social hour, we were asked about our Jewish community. I was both proud and a little embarrassed to say that we belong to a synagogue with some 1,500 members, five rabbis and a cantor. Some of the people we talked to expressed the view that America represents the future of liberal Judaism. Hull, they said, is not a place where young university-educated people stay. They move to Manchester or London. Leeds also has a larger Jewish community.

I was curious about the Jews of Yorkshire, as one of my great-grandmothers lived with her sister’s family in Sheffield before heading to St. Louis in the early 1860s, and another great-grandmother passed through, on her way to Liverpool. I often wonder what my life would have been like had my ancestors stayed in the UK, yet I have to admit that I’m quite at home in Britain. Where else can you get a wonderful scone — not like those biscuits on steroids that pass for scones in American coffee houses — and a proper cup of tea? What’s even more remarkable is that the Brits make good coffee now as well. Plus movies, songs and TV have erased some of the stumbling blocks. Nonetheless, sometimes, as Shaw said, we are two countries divided by a common language.

As we left the synagogue, some of the Brits pulled out their cigarettes as they exited. I said, "Do people still smoke here?"

Jewish East Yorkshire

Jewish East YorkshireThat got a laugh. At our synagogue, I don't think I've ever seen anybody light up in the parking lot. It's just not done. Then again, I don't have any friends who still smoke.

On to our next adventure. We’re off to visit friends in Scotland.