JEWISH EAST END OF LONDON PHOTO GALLERY & COMMENTARY

London's East End Synagogues, cemeteries and more......

My personal journey through the Jewish East End of London

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Remembering Stepney Orthodox Synagogue, Stepney Green.

 

Stepney Orthodox Synagogue came into being in 1896 as a protest against the use of a mixed voice choir in the nearby East London Synagogue in Rectory Square.  The protesters considered the use of female voices in a service an outrage against Orthodox Jewish practice.  The Reverend Joseph Stern of the East London Synagogue responded to his detractors by saying  that his mixed voice choir was in full accordance with Orthodox Jewish practice.  Nevertheless, a group of dissenters left to form their own separate synagogue in Stepney Green.  Their first premises were located in Paragon Mansions, Stepney Green.  In 1914 they acquired, converted and moved into a former Primitive Methodist Chapel a short distance away.  Stepney Orthodox Synagogue survived until 1980 when it closed to merge with Fieldgate Street Synagogue.  The building is now The Rosalind Green Hall - an amateur boxing club and skills training workshop. From the outside there is little to see other than a rather plain square building, but inside vestiges of the synagogue remain, in particular the ark and the upstairs ladies gallery.  In August 2012 I was fortunate to be invited inside with my camera, and the following photos are the result.

 

Rosalind Green Hall today - former Stepney Orthodox Synagogue	The ark of the former Stepney Orthodox Synagogue is still recognisable
Above, the view towards the ark, with the ladies gallery upstairs, Below a siddur (prayer book) from Stepney Orthodox Synagogue now in use in Fieldgate Street Synagogue	The stairs to the ladies gallery