Communal Records | Databases | Family History | Historical Documents | Jewish Life | Local History | ReligionOnly online

Jewish Communities and Records – United Kingdom (JCR-UK)

Chart of the Past & Present Officers of Dalston (Poets’s Road) Synagogue, London, circa 1910 • JCR-UK

Jewish Communities and Records – United Kingdom (JCR-UK) is an online project whose aim is to record details of all Jewish communities and congregations that have ever existed in the British Isles.

Archive Description

Jewish Communities and Records – United Kingdom (JCR-UK) was established in 2002 as a joint project between the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain (JGSGB) and JewishGen. Its aim is to record details of all Jewish communities and congregations that have ever existed in the United Kingdom, as well as the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar, in order to preserve the information for posterity and to make this information freely available online.

JCR-UK comprises a wide range of scanned communal documents, photographs, articles, conference papers; databases, lists and other information and data covering London and some 250 provincial or regional Jewish communities, encompassing nearly 1,200 existing and defunct Jewish congregations of every persuasion, each with its own page, together with a new efficient search engine.

Some specific examples of the wide range of material available on JCR-UK are: an extensive Bibliography of books on Anglo-Jewry; the Susser Archive of the late Rabbi Dr. B. Susser; archives of Exeter Synagogue; historic communal documents of the Bristol Hebrew Congregation; the papers of the 1975 conference on Provincial Jewry in Victorian Britain (including the 1845 Chief Rabbi’s Census); Jewish Listed Heritage Sites and much more.

In addition, apart from its own database – the All-UK Database, operated by JewishGen, JCR-UK is host to a growing number of community Hosted Databases, generally providing ready access to burial records, gravestone images and cemetery maps. So far the communities covered include Belfast, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster, Grimsby, Harrogate, Leeds, Liverpool, Merthyr Tydfil, Newcastle, South Shields, Swansea, Sunderland and Whitley Bay, as well as the burial records of London’s Federation of Synagogues’ cemeteries, with several further community cemeteries in the process of being added.

The latest ongoing project within JCR-UK involves the enhancing, reformatting and expanding of each of the congregation pages (there is one for each congregation) to include a more detailed history, lists of ministers and officers and other data, coupled with links to a new Rabbinic Profiles section, containing profiles of the ministers listed. By mid-2025, pages for over 660 congregations (more than 55% of the total number) have been enhanced, listing over 2,000 different ministers.

Online Accessibility

JCR-UK is available to the public online with no access limitations.

Visit the What’s New page to read about the latest developments on JCR-UK.

https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk

Communal Records | Jewish Life | Local History | ReligionPartially online

Birmingham Hebrew Congregation Collections

Architectural drawing • Birmingham Hebrew Congregation

The Birmingham Hebrew Congregation Collections are a selection of archival collections held by Birmingham Archives & Collections, Library of Birmingham as part of Local Authority archives. The collections contain a wealth of information about Jewish life in Birmingham and the community’s involvement with the arts, social work, politics, business, charities and societies.

Archive Description

Birmingham Archives & Collections holds a number of Jewish collections including the records of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation, mainly relating to Singers Hill Synagogue and the Hebrew School/King David School. The archive includes minutes of the committees which governed the synagogue including Council, whose minutes date from the 1820s and are the oldest in the collection. The collection also includes school records, correspondence belonging to the Secretary of the synagogue, marriage and death registration records, plans of the synagogue, the schools, and other buildings owned by the Congregation, ledgers, cashbooks, and other records of synagogue finances along with photographs that date from the 1940s and some published material such as orders of service. Other Jewish collections includes the papers of The Birmingham Jewish Literary and Arts Society which grew from a number of Jewish arts societies set up in Birmingham in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and personal archives such as Zoe Josephs, the founder and leading personality of the Birmingham Jewish Historical Research Group.

Access Information

The archives are open to members of the general public and can be accessed by appointment at the Wolfson Centre for Archival Research, Level 4, Library of Birmingham. The archives are open Tuesdays 11am – 7pm, Wednesday and Thursday 11am – 4.30pm. Proof of current address and a signature, such as a driving license is required and it is necessary for users to request documents a week in advance. Appointments can be made with the archive at this email address: appointments@birmingham.gov.uk.

Digital Accessibility

A full archive catalogue is available online, and a list of the Jewish collections can be found here. The archive also holds scanned material, some of which comes from the Jewish collections.

Street Address

Library of Birmingham,
Centenary Square,
Broad St,
Birmingham
B1 2EA

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/archives

Communal Records | Jewish Life | Local HistoryPartially online

Brady Photographic Archive

Dymchurch Camp, 1949 (A0003B) • Brady Photographic Archive

The Brady Photographic Archive is an online photography, memorabilia, and oral histories archive documenting the history of the Brady Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs.

Archive Description

The Archive constitutes a collection of hundreds of photographs taken between the 1930s and the late 1970s at the Brady Boys’ Club in Durward Street E1 (est. 1896), and Brady Girls’ Club in Hanbury Street E1 (est. 1925) in London’s East End. In 1960 the Brady boys joined the girls in Hanbury Street.

This archive of photographs, memorabilia and oral histories is based on a cache of several hundred photographs that had been ‘lost’ for many years. The initial collection of photographs had been rescued by journalist and former editor of the Sunday Times Hannah Charlton (who had an interest in youth culture) when the Museum of Labour History in Limehouse closed. They were stored in an attic awaiting the right project but subsequently forgotten for nearly 40 years until Hannah rediscovered them in 2016, when they found their way back to the East End and to Susan Andrews, Reader in Photography at the Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University.

In 2017, in order to discover more about the history of the photographs, an exhibition entitled, ‘Nostalgia is Not Enough’, was organised at the former Art School building opposite the Whitechapel Gallery, during which a group of old Bradians visited. Consequently, a committee was established to identify the photographs and re-establish connections with former Brady Club members. Since then, the committee has worked to produce further exhibitions examining the histories of the Brady Boys’ Club, the Brady Girls’ Club, and the legacy of the Clubs.

The Brady Photographic Archive website contains a greatly expanded selection from the cache of ‘lost’ photos that forms the basis of the collection, held at the Bishopsgate Institute in London, where the physical collection can be viewed by the public. The online collection continues to evolve as former Brady members contribute photographs, their personal histories, and memorabilia from their personal collections. Further items of Brady Clubs’ photographs, memorabilia, and particularly magazines and architects’ plans, can be found at Tower Hamlets Library and Archives.

Online Accessibility

The archive photographs can be found freely available on the Brady Archive website. A growing collection of edited oral histories that provide context to the Brady story and the lives of its members is available at the Brady Memory Map. You can stay up to date with the work of the Brady Photographic Archive on Instagram.

Enquiries about the archive collection can be made on the website’s contact page.

https://www.bradyarchive.co.uk

Commercial | Communal Records | Holocaust | Jewish Life | Religion | SocialNot online

Leeds Jewish Archive

This archive is currently closed.

The Leeds Jewish Archive has been assembled by Makor Jewish Culture, Leeds. Its holdings cover over one hundred and fifty years of Jewish presence in Leeds.

Archive Description

In 2010, the Leeds Jewish community celebrated the 150th anniversary of the first custom built synagogue in Leeds. To commemorate this and leave a legacy for Leeds’ rich Jewish history, Makor Jewish Culture launched the search for Leeds archive material.

The Centre conducted a large number of interviews with people whose families had lived for generations in Leeds, producing a wealth of interviews containing many anecdotes that would not normally have been preserved. The archive holds material that includes all aspects of Jewish religious, social, economic and political life, including local history, refugee experiences, wars and conflict, the Holocaust and relationships with Israel.

This includes audio-visual material from TV stations such as ITV, Chanel 4 and the BBC have searched their archive for information to enrich Leeds based documentaries.

Access Information

This archive is currently closed.

Commercial | Communal Records | Cultural | ImmigrationPartially online

Ben Uri Archive

Invitation to a Simchas Torah evening 1932 • Ben Uri Collection

The Ben Uri Archive is a specialist archive accessible to the public held by the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, based in London. It holds the records of the Gallery and Museum.

Archive Description

Ben Uri is the UK’s oldest Jewish cultural organisation, founded in 1915 as an art society serving newly-arrived Yiddish speaking ostjuden in London’s East End,by Russian émigré artist-craftsman, Lazar Berson. The main function in its distinctive 100-year plus heritage is the exhibition of artworks by artists of mostly Jewish descent, within the broader context of Jewish migration, London’s Jewish community, and British and European modern art history. The archives provide important traces of the early careers of major Jewish artists in Britain, such as the Solomon dynasty, David Bomberg, Mark Gertler, Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff, and Gustav Metzger.

Numbering several thousand items, the archive consists primarily of exhibition catalogues, invitations and material concerning exhibition planning; council and committee minutes; correspondence; annual reports; press cuttings; photographs, and ephemera relating to cultural and social events, including concerts, lectures and fundraisers. The underlying narrative reflects the financial status and social and political interest of the London (British) Jewish community at the time, with particular reference to waves of immigration from Russia at the turn of the 20th century / pre-First World War, and then from central Europe, pre- and post-Second World War.

In 2014-16 funding from the Rothschild Foundation enabled two consecutive short-term archivists to catalogue the above items, creating an archive database, which is available online, while translation of Yiddish material (including Ben Uri’s earliest minutes, held in YIVO, New York) was undertaken by the Department of Jewish Studies, UCL, London. The archive also contains Ben Uri’s contemporary record ssince 2000, as yet not catalogued, relating to day-to-day administration, governance and finance, strategic shifts in width of focus, and mental health and school/family learning programmes.

Access Information

The archives are open to the general public. Users are requested to provide two days advance notice for physical access, and up to a weeks notice if the items are located in the archive’s stores. Enquiries can be made online.

Online Accessibility

During 2019-20, Ben Uri undertook an ambitious programme, digitising a portion of their archive material, resulting in around 10,000 pages of scans which are available online via Ben Uri’s research portal.
The archive’s catalogue is also available online and is searchable by artist’s name and by a number of other criteria, including Jewish subject matter online.

Street Address

Ben Uri Gallery
108a Boundary Road
London
NW8 0RH

http://www.benuri.org

Communal Records | Jewish Life | Local History | ReligionPartially online

Queen’s University Belfast, Special Collections & Archives

Special Collections & Archives at the McClay Library, Queen’s University Belfast, has been developing collections on Jewish history in Ireland, with a particular focus on Northern Ireland..

Archive Description

At Special Collections, our Irish Jewish heritage collections comprise manuscript collections, book collections and digitised material, such as historic journals and an oral history collection.

Reaching back to 1897, the Belfast Hebrew Congregation archive (MS 61) covers nearly a century’s worth of minutes and records.

The Ross-Rosenzweig Collection was a 1957 bequest by John Ross (formerly Rabbi Jacob Rosenzweig) of his collection of monographs, periodicals and facsimiles relating to a variety of Hebrew and Jewish subjects and studies. It was believed at the time to be the most complete collection of books about the Dead Sea Scrolls in Northern Ireland.

The Rosenfield Collection comprises articles, scripts and other miscellaneous material belonging to Judith and Rachel Rosenfield – two Jewish Belfast sisters who were journalists, writers and critics of art, drama and literature.

We have published two Jewish Irish journals online. The Jewish Gazette (Jan – Dec 1933 and Feb 1934), and Belfast Jewish Record (1954 – 2019), are incredible resources for anyone interested in the Jewish community in Northern Ireland during the 20th century and onwards. They provide content as wide-ranging as spiritual guidance, political concerns, Rosh Hashanah recipes, children’s interest, theological discussions, and a variety of fundraising and social events.

The Jewish Oral History Archive was a project undertaken by Dr David Warm during the 1990s and early 2000s. The interviewees were a range of Jews who were living or had lived in Northern Ireland. Many were refugees who had arrived on the Kindertransport. These interviews have been digitally preserved and can be accessed on campus.

We also have a wide range of modern books on the Irish Jewish community in our Hibernica Collection.

Access Information

The archive is open to members of the public. Non-digital collections and the oral histories are available for reference only under supervised access in the Special Collections Reading Room at The McClay Library. An appointment must be made with specialcollections@qub.ac.uk to request access with at least one working day’s notice.

The archive can be visited Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm. New users are required to provide photographic identification and proof of access.

Digital Accessibility

The archive holds digitised copies of the Jewish Gazette and the Belfast Jewish Record which are available to browse online for free.

Street Address

Special Collections
Queen’s University Belfast
University Road, Belfast
BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland

Communal Records | Family History | HolocaustPartially online

Holocaust Centre North (Huddersfield)

Holocaust survivor Arek Hersh (second on left back row) playing football in Manchester, 1953 • Holocaust Centre North

Holocaust Centre North is based at the University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The Centre promotes Holocaust education through the lived experiences of Holocaust survivors and refugees. It is part of the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association (HSFA), a charity originating in 1996 to support Holocaust survivors and refugees in Leeds.

Archive Description

The Holocaust Centre North Archive has a growing collection of material relating to the history and activities of the charity as well as personal papers of Holocaust refugees and survivors who have made the North of England their home.

From cocktail shakers to correspondence, telegrams to travel documents, photographs to filmed testimonies, the Centre preserves and safeguards these individual stories and rare materials for future generations and makes them available for education and research.

The Centre actively collects physical and digital records, including:

  • Material up to the end of the Second World War
  • Records which tell the story of survivors and refugees post-war, e.g., naturalisation or compensation papers
  • Recorded testimonies (video and audio)
  • Original documents, e.g., passports, certificates, ID papers
  • Correspondence, e.g., letters and postcards
  • Photographs
  • Objects – the toys, household items and mementos on display really help bring the history to life

Research Strengths

The collections are a rich resource for educators, creative practitioners, and researchers of Holocaust history. Collection themes include: 

  • Jewish life in pre-war Europe
  • Impact of the Nuremberg Laws
  • Emigration attempts, migration routes
  • Kindertransport and child refugees
  • Internment as enemy aliens in Britain
  • Ghetto and camp experiences, slave labour
  • Liberation and displacement
  • Making a new life in the North of England
  • Culture shock and assimilation
  • Faith and identity
  • Intergenerational relationships and trauma
  • Memorialisation, post-memory

Access Information

The permanent exhibition is open to the public for free. The Archive is accessible to the public by appointment, please contact: collections@hud.ac.uk Opening times are Monday to Thursday 10.00-16.00.

Online Accessibility

The collections are being developed through preservation, cataloguing, and digitisation so that they will be more accessible for different audiences. Descriptions for 70 of the 130+ personal paper collections are available via an online catalogue as part of the National Archives and the Holocaust Centre North website features a selection of survivor stories and photographs.

Street Address

Holocaust Centre North
Schwann Building Level 2
The University of Huddersfield
Huddersfield
HD1 3DH

https://hcn.org.uk

Communal Records | Cultural | Historical Documents | Jewish Life | Local HistoryPartially online

University of Leeds Cultural Collections

[Yiḥus avot]. [יחוס אבות]. [Illustrated account of the holy places in Palestine, written in Casale Monferrato]. Classmark: MS ROTH/220, University of Leeds Cultural Collections

The University of Leeds Cultural Collections is housed in the Brotherton Library, Leeds, and is open to public access. It contains a number of historic Jewish collections.

Archive Description

One of the largest Jewish collections is the Cecil Roth Collection of around 360 manuscripts from 13th-20th century, collected by the British Jewish historian Cecil Roth. They contain a large number of early modern written texts including prayer books, marriage contracts, letters and deeds in Hebrew and other languages. These extraordinary records document the daily lives of Jews and their culture around the world.

Other collections include:

  • The Esther Simpson correspondence and papers includes her personal papers, photographs, press-cuttings and correspondence.
  • Papers relating to the Leeds Academic Assistance Committee founded in 1933 to support academic refugees from Germany.
  • The Papers of Janina and Zygmunt Bauman contains material relating to Jewish organisations including Yad Vashem and the Leeds based Holocaust Survivors Friendship Association.
  • Czech Torah Scroll no.68 is from Brno, the Czech Republic and dates from 1890. It’s on loan from the Memorial Scrolls Trust and contains the Pentateuch.
  • The Marilyn Fetcher Collection contains Shifra papers, correspondence and photographs.
  • The Porton Collection of printed material dates from 1553-1980. It covers all aspects of the religion and culture of the Jewish people and includes works in Hebrew, Yiddish and English. The foundation of the collection is the library of Rabbi Moses Abrahams to which was added part of Joseph Porton’s library, a Leeds printer and stationer.
  • The Travers Herford Collection is a small collection of books published 1935-1948 on Jewish history acquired by Robert Travers Herford, a rabbinical scholar.

Access Information

The collections are open to the public, although some items have special handling requirements. External visitors are required to register with the Library and on their first visit will need to provide photographic identification with confirmation of signature and present address.

The collection also requires advance notification of at least two days. Notifications and questions can be sent to the Library through an online form.

Online Accessibility

Part of the Cecil Roth Collection has been digitised and is available on their website. The Cultural Collections catalogue is also available online.

Street Address

Cultural Collections
Brotherton Library
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
Leeds, LS2 9JT

https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/1500/special_collections

Communal Records | Historical Documents | Local HistoryNot online

Hull History Centre

Opening of Hull Central Synagogue • Hull History Centre

The Hull History Centre is a partnership between Hull City Council and the University of Hull. It is open to the public and contains the records of Hull’s Jewish community.

Archive Description

This collection houses the papers of Hull’s Jewish community between 1767 and 2012. It includes records from 1860-2011 relating to various Hull-based Jewish organisations responsible for regulating and overseeing the lives and wellbeing of the community’s members as well as records from 1852-2010 relating to the administration and activities of individual Congregations and Synagogues in Hull. It also has additional printed material about the Hull Jewish Community including biographical works relating to some members of the community.

Access Information

Hull History Centre is open to the public Tuesdays-Thursdays 9.30am – 4.30pm and on the first and third Saturday of each month 9.30am – 12.30pm. You can find opening times here.

Users will need to bring photographic identification and proof of address. No appointment is necessary but it is advised that you contact the archive in advance. Enquiries can be made to hullhistorycentre@hcandl.co.uk.

Digital Accessibility

The archive has a digitised catalogue available for download on their website.

Street Address

Hull History Centre
Worship Street
Hull
HU2 8BG

http://www.hullhistorycentre.org.uk

Communal Records | Cultural | Jewish Life | ReligionPartially online

Sandys Row Archive

Sandys Row Archive is a digital archive held by the Bishopsgate Institute Archives. It contains the records of Sandys Row Synagogue and the Synagogue’s judaica collection.

Archive Description

Sandys Row Synagogue was founded in 1854 by Dutch immigrants from Amsterdam, in the heart of the former Jewish East End. It is now London’s oldest Ashkenazi Synagogue and the last functioning synagogue in Spitalfields.

The Sandys Row Archive has been digitised as part of the Our Hidden Histories project which celebrates the unique story of this historic community. Users can explore the extensive Digital Archive on the website which includes: excerpts from the oral history collection, searchable and downloadable marriage records, minute books, seat registers and more, along with photographs of its collection of Judaica.

Access Information

The physical material the archive is created from can be found in the Bishopsgate Institute Archives.

Online Accessibility

The archive is available online at the project’s web page.

Commercial | Communal Records | Local HistoryPartially online

Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives

Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives is a local government archive in East London. It holds the records of a large number of different Jewish community and religious organisations in Tower Hamlets.

Archive Description

The Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives holds a variety of collections. The Princelet Street Synagogue records cover the period 1884-1988 and include marriage records and membership records. It also holds the records of the Loyal United Friends Friendly (or Benefit) Society, the Society for Chanting Psalms and Visiting the Sick, and the records of the Brady Clubs (Jewish youth clubs originally based in Whitechapel). These include membership records from the 1940s to the 1960s, records relating to camps and photograph albums of club activities.

Perhaps the most significant body of records in the archive relating to the Jewish East End are the records of the Stepney Borough Council. This local authority was created in 1901 and survived until 1965 when the London Borough of Tower Hamlets took over. The Jewish East End was largely within the boundaries of the Borough of Stepney and the archive holds the minutes of Borough’s Housing Committee, Maternity and Child Welfare Committee and Markets Committee.

Access Information

The archives are open to members of the public. New users are required to register on their first visit and to provide photographic identification and proof of address.

The archives are open Tuesday-Thursday, and on the first and third Saturday of the month. Opening hours can be found on the website and access enquiries can be made via email to localhistory@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

Online Accessibility

The Tower Hamlets Library and Archive catalogue can be found online and the archive also holds several digital collections. These include:

Street Address

277 Bancroft Road
Tower Hamlets
London E1 4DQ

https://www.ideastore.co.uk/local-history

Commercial | Communal Records | Family History | Local History | ReligionNot online

Merseyside Jewish Community Archive at Liverpool Record Office

The Merseyside Jewish Community Archive, collected by the Merseyside Jewish Representative Council, is housed at Liverpool Record Office in Liverpool Central Library.

Archive Description

Liverpool Record Office holds the archives of the Merseyside Jewish Community from the mid 18th century to the present day. The records are of tremendous significance as the Liverpool community is considered to be the first organised Jewish community in the north of England, and until the mid-19th century it was the largest Jewish community outside of London. Liverpool’s Jewish community established their first synagogue around 1745 and there has been a continuous Jewish presence in the city since then. The archive holdings reflect the vibrancy and activity of the community which has contributed to Merseyside life and national and international organisations. The Jewish archive is also one of the largest community collected archives held in the Liverpool Record Office. In 2025, it was the 50-year anniversary of when the community first started depositing documents to the Central Library in 1975.

One of the most extensive collections in the Merseyside Jewish Community Archives is the records of the Old Hebrew Congregation. The earliest archive of a Jewish organisation in Liverpool is found in this collection, namely the ‘Register Book of the Jews in Liverpool’ which records births, deaths and marriages from 1804 to 1816. The register also includes retrospective information on members of the community from as early as 1722. The 1789 indenture also provides the full history of the development of the Upper Frederick Street synagogue and burial ground. The records of the Old Hebrew Congregation capture the development of the community from the 18th century and give an insight into the life of many of the early members of the Liverpool Jewish Community.

In 2024-2025 a funded joint project of Merseyside Jewish Representative Council and Liverpool City Council’s Libraries Service took place to sort, catalogue, preserve, and make available to the public additional material that has accumulated in the community over the last 20 years. The collection now celebrates 280 years of the history of the Liverpool community. The goals of the MJRC as regards their archive are to act as a facilitator between the community and the local authority and to represent civic, cultural and religious Jewish communities in Merseyside. The archive now consists of around 200 collections, mostly representing an organisation: a synagogue, welfare, professional, philanthropic, social, cultural, or political group.

Access Information

The Archive is open to the public and can be accessed through the public search room in Liverpool Central Library. Opening times are available on their website.

Readers will need to be a member of Liverpool Libraries and can join on the day with proof of address. We require at least two days’ notice for access to the collections. Requests for access and information can be made to: archives@liverpool.gov.uk.

Online Accessibility

The archive catalogue is available online.

Street Address

Liverpool Central Library
William Brown Street,
Liverpool,
L3 8EW

Jewish archives – Liverpool City Council