Communal Records | Cultural | Jewish Life | ReligionPartially online Leo Baeck College Library The Victor Tunkel Jewish Music Collection • Leo Baeck College Library Leo Baeck College Library, part of Leo Baeck College, contains 60,000 volumes exploring Jewish civilisation. The great texts of Jewish tradition are supported by traditional commentary, cutting-edge scholarship and reference works. Jewish history, thought, practice and culture are explored through professional, academic and popular literature. Texts come from across the religious spectrum, around the world and throughout Jewish history. Its archival holdings includes material relating to leading figures in British and Progressive Jewry, local history, Jewish life and culture. Archive Description The Library’s Archive Collections preserve sermons, lectures, eulogies, photographs and papers recording the thinking and practices of rabbis, scholars and teachers who have had an impact on British and Progressive Jewry. This includes Rabbis John Rayner, Israel Mattuck, Willy Wolff, Vivian Simmons, Bruno Italiener, and H.I. Bach, Samuel & Stephen Krauss, Irene Bloomfield and Cantor Samuel Alman. It also holds some of their personal libraries as well as those of Rabbis Leo Baeck, Albert Friedlander, Sheila Shulman, Lionel Blue and others. The Leo Baeck College Audio Archive includes over 1200 recordings of lectures and seminars given at the college between 1985 and 2005. Delivered by rabbis, academics and professionals they present a fascinating picture of British Jewish life and learning. The Library holds the Victor Tunkel Jewish Music Collection which includes sheets music, musicology, cantor’s manuscripts, Tunkel’s papers and concert programmes. Other Special Collections include rare books going back to the 16th century with a significant inheritance from the Hochshchule institute in Berlin along with other material that survived the Holocaust. The collections contain more than 6000 pamphlets reflecting 150 years of European Jewish thought, and specialist collections in biblical commentary, Anglo-Jewry, liturgy, Progressive thought, Wissenschaft des Judentums and Jewish pedagogy. Access Information The archives are open to members of the general public through in-person appointments. Appointments are usually available Monday-Thursday 10am-4pm during the College’s teaching terms. No identification is required but appointments need to be made a few days in advance. Online Accessibility An online catalogue is available but different archival collections have been catalogued to different levels. Item level cataloguing is available through the library catalogue and details about each collection is available on the Archive Collections pages. Online enquiries can be submitted by email at: library@lbc.ac.uk. Digital Collections Rabbi John Rayner’s Sermons and Lectures are available online as well as digital editions of the magazine, Manna: the Forum for Progressive Judaism. Street Address Leo Baeck College Library80 East End RoadLondonN3 2SY https://lbc.ac.uk/library-resources/
Family History | Historical Documents | Holocaust | Interfaith relations | Local History | ReligionPartially online Lambeth Palace Library Lambeth Palace Library is the historic library of the Archbishops of Canterbury. The vision of Lambeth Palace Library is to collect, preserve and make accessible the memory of the Church of England, so that its cultural and religious history can be explored and enjoyed by all. Archive Description Lambeth Palace Library’s archives are broadly religious with a strong element of institutional corporate records. The library holds a large and varied collection including manuscripts, Archbishops’ archives, records of the central institutions of the Church, archives of churchmen and societies, and printed books. Much of the Jewish-related archival material held focuses on the interface between the Church of England and Judaism, and can be found in the Archbishop Papers, papers of other bishops/churchmen/societies, and manuscripts. Online Accessibility An online catalogue for Lambeth Palace Library’s collections can be found here. The Library also has a research guide to its Jewish holdings available here. Digital Accessibility Over 30,000 images and fully digitised volumes from Lambeth Palace Library collections can be viewed online. Access Information Access to the Library’s collections is freely available to the public. We strongly recommend that readers book an appointment at least two days in advance of any visit. On their first visit, users must register as a reader. Registration is valid for two years and allows access to all classes of material, with the exception of some restricted material. Opening hours: Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10am -5pm, Tuesday 11am-5pm, Thursday 10am-7.15pm Check website for dates of closure and detailed information regarding ID requirements, Reading Room rules, order limits, fetching times, restricted material, and facilities. Enquiries can be made by email to archives@churchofengland.org Street Address Lambeth Palace Library15 Lambeth Palace RoadLondonSE1 7JT https://www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/
Cultural | Holocaust | ReligionPartially online JMI Archive Jewish Music Institute (JMI) is the home of Jewish music in the UK, dedicated to the celebration, preservation and development of the living heritage of Jewish music for the benefit of people of all ages and backgrounds. The organisation supports musicians playing Jewish music across the UK enabling them to preserve this traditional heritage, create new work and reach the widest audiences both domestically and internationally. Archive Description The JMI Archive is a unique and valuable research tool which documents Jewish music from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the UK and overseas as well as the activities of The Jewish Music Institute itself over the last 40 years. It includes records, CDS, LPs, tapes, books, programmes, memorabilia and much more. We hope that the archive collection will be of value to communities, organisations and academic researchers at local, national and international levels. The JMI collection is currently managed by JMI staff members. Access Information JMI is in the process of fully cataloguing and digitising the archive with the aim of making the entire archive accessible by the end of 2025. Access to much of the material is currently restricted because the majority of the archive is currently held in storage Some archive material can be accessed at the JMI office at SOAS. This is by appointment only and must be arranged with a JMI staff member in advance by emailing jewishmusic@jmi.org.uk Street Address Jewish Music InstituteSOAS University of LondonThornhaugh StreetRussell SquareLondon, WC1H 0XG jmiarchive.org
Family History | Jewish Life | Local History | ReligionOnly online Jewish Gilroes Jewish Gilroes is an archival project run by the Leicester Hebrew Congregation. It consists of an online database documenting the lives of the Jewish population of Leicester through records from the only Jewish cemetery in Leicester and the surrounding areas. Archive Description Jewish Gilroes is based on research from a Heritage Lottery funded project called Lives Behind the Stones. The aim of that project was to catalogue all the burials at Leicester’s Jewish Cemetery and place the information onto a website. The database of genealogical searchable information is now available, with photographs and basic details of all the stones online, plus a selection of stories written about the people buried there. Online Accessibility The database is accessible to members of the public on the project website. For more information you can contact them on their website. https://jewish-gilroes.org.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,BirminghamB1 2EA https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/archives
Communal Records | Family History | Local History | ReligionPartially online Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre The Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre is the local government archive and library for the London Borough of Camden and holds a large collection of material about historic Jewish life in the Borough, including organisational records, a newspaper archive, and books to aid in research. Archive Description The archive and library hold materials relating to the London Borough of Camden area including books, local authority archives, archives of organisations, archives of individuals, reports, directories, newspapers, periodicals, census records press cuttings, ephemera, posters, maps, plans, photographs, illustrations, videos and oral histories. Many of these relate to Jewish communities and individuals who lived in the Borough, including information about the Jewish Museum in Camden, a large collection of books about Jewish geneology, and the Jewish Free School (JFS) until 2002. Access Information The archives are open to members of the public by appointment. One hour appointments are available on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. No photographic identification is required, but no pens may be used and prior permission must be given before copying documents. Enquiries can be made to the Local Studies email address: localstudies@camden.gov.uk. Online Accessibility The archive has an online catalogue, available here. Some material may be accessed online free of charge, but there are charges for using material outside of research and for providing copies. Street Address 2nd Floor, Holborn Library32-38 Theobalds RoadLondonWC1X 8PA https://www.camden.gov.uk/about-the-local-studies-archives-centre
Family History | Jewish Life | Local History | ReligionPartially online Lily’s Legacy Project The Lily’s Legacy Project is a heritage project organised by Liberal Judaism. It is deposited at the London Metropolitan Archive and online, and supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Archive Description Lily’s Legacy: The Radical History of Liberal Judaism is a faith community heritage project that documents and showcases Liberal Judaism’s rich heritage as well as its contribution to British society, while preserving legacy for future generations. It examines how Liberal Judaism embodies the vision of its founders – and in particular Lily Montagu – today and throughout its history. The collection includes oral histories, transcripts, films, photographs and educational resources. As part of the project a groundbreaking multi-media exhibition ‘Voices and Visions of Liberal Judaism’ was created and it features memories and mementos of Liberal and Progressive Jews in the UK. Digital Accessibility More information about the project can be found on the website, and there is an online exhibition available. Home
Communal Records | Jewish Life | Local History | Religion | SocialPartially online Hackney Archives Hackney Archives holds the archives and local history collections of the London Borough of Hackney. Alongside the records of the local authority, the archive collection holds records of local businesses, clubs, societies, religious organisations, families and individuals. It holds a number of historic Jewish collections that evidence the contributions of the Jewish residents to the fabric of Hackney. Archive Description Collections of Jewish interest include: Deeds evidencing the consistent presence of Jewish residents of Hackney, including of the Da Costa and Rothschild families; the papers of Jewish Councillors and Mayors of Hackney and predecessors including of Sir Louis and Lady Sherman, Councilor John Stanton JP and Sam Cohen; material from Jewish societies including minute books and membership records of The Workers Circle Friendly Society and printed material of the Lubavitch Foundation; Jewish family collections including chemist and local historian Israel Renson, and the Kinn family who were members of the Hasidic Jewish community in Stamford Hill; Council records include information about the administration of specialist services and funds for the Orthodox Jewish Community; and the records of Hackney Downs School, once described as the ‘Jewish Eton’ by the Jewish Chronicle, including editions of the school magazine, clubs and administrative records. The local history library located on-site includes reading on Jewish communities in the East End as well as a wide ranging collection of pamphlets. Access Information The archive is open to members of the public, weekly Wednesday to Friday. Access requires one form of photographic ID and one proof of address. Enquiries can be made to archives@hackney.gov.uk Digital Accessibility An archive catalogue can be found online. The archive’s image database – searchable through the catalogue – has a collection of photographs of the area, including shop fronts of Jewish businesses and religious buildings. The images are free to browse but the archive charges for non-watermarked copies. They are looking to expand their digital offering with digitised documents but this is not currently available. Street Address Dalston CLR James Library, Dalston SquareDalston, LondonE8 3BQ https://hackney.gov.uk/archives
Jewish Life | Local History | ReligionPartially online Liberal Judaism Archives The Liberal Judaism Archives are open to members of the public by appointment and contain historical material from 1898 to the present day, from both the national movement and the Liberal Jewish communities of Britain. Archive Description The archives hold the communal records of the national movement which began as the Jewish Religious Union in 1902, was later renamed the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues, and is now known as Liberal Judaism. There is also information on activities that led to the formation of the Union, and its communities. This includes correspondence on potential communities that were not formed and communities that have since left Liberal Judaism. The earliest holdings are manuscripts from 1898 and the collection continues to the present day. It has items both from the national movement and from our communities around the United Kingdom, and elsewhere in Europe. Some of these are in large cities and towns and others are in smaller, more rural places. The archive includes prayerbooks and service booklets, minutes, letters and correspondence, press cuttings, circulars, newsletters and magazines, cash books, oral histories, leaflets and pamphlets, youth movement magazines, flyers, t-shirts, badges, memorabilia from events, students packs, outreach reports, CDs, DVDs, photographs, posters, trophies, and much more. Access Information The archive is open to the public by appointment only. A lot of the more frail material has been passed to the The London Archives, also in Central London, on long-term loan and may be viewed there by arrangement. The archive has listings of this and of other material that has been deposited at the Anglo-Jewish Archives at the University of Southampton. The Archivist can send out the catalogue in hard copy or email on request, and can be contacted here. Access requires two weeks advance notification. Street Address The Montagu Centre21 Maple StreetLondonW1T 4BE https://www.liberaljudaism.org/resources/lj-historical-archive
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
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.
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 CollectionsQueen’s University BelfastUniversity Road, BelfastBT7 1NNNorthern Ireland Jewish Heritage in Northern Ireland