History of the Jews in Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull, on England's East Coast was, by 1750, a major point of entry into Britain for traders and migrants,^[1][2][3] second only to London for links to the continent.^[4] Around then a few Jews from German and Dutch cities lodged and settled in Hull.^[5][6][7] Selling jewellery and dealing in goods in the thriving port and market town, they maintained contacts with Europe, London, and many other, particularly Northern towns. The small community produced its own institutions and leaders, tested by anti-Jewish sentiment, and later by an influx of East-European refugees.^[5][8]

Communal efforts to support the arrivals, mostly bound for America, encouraged some to stay, who thrived particularly in retail trades, and grew a community of over 2,500.^[5][9] Although probably never more than 1% of the area population, by the end of the twentieth century the Jews of Hull had made a notable contribution to the life of the city, and to the wider world.^[10] As well as many Lord Mayors and Sheriffs of Hull, among their sons and daughters were three Fellows of the Royal Society,^[11] the world's greatest art-dealer, its largest furniture maker, and numerous doctors and lawyers, as well as actress Dame Maureen Lipman.^[12]

Culture[]

As elsewhere, Jews in Hull gathered for Hebrew rites in hastily opened synagogues,^[15] and to make arrangements for kosher meat.^[16] North-European Ashkenazim intermarried with some Dutch Sephardim, and early rival congregations united.^[17] Family, business and institutional links with Jewish communities in London and other towns were always important.^[18] Excluded from society in Britain as in Europe, they were for a time mostly poor.^[19] Their livelihoods were pawnbroking, dealing in valuables, jewellery; later, silver and gold work, watch and clockmaking, as well as importing goods. Prosperity brought better synagogues, improved access to kosher provision, and wider charitable, civic and professional activity.^[5]

Newcomers fleeing Russian oppression came via North Sea and Baltic ports – skilled tailors, drapers, cobblers, cabinet-makers, market traders and travellers. Established English and German Jews assisted those struggling in lodgings and terraces near the docks, as tensions and growing families spawned multiple synagogues.^[5][20] Jewish life in Hull came to reflect the restrained Litvak observance and eastern ("standard") Yiddish of the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania,^[21][22] a culture wiped out by the Tsars, Nazis and Soviets.^[23][24] More refugees were added by World Wars which, with the severe Hull Blitz, and the drama of the State of Israel, furthered communal spirit, as did many Jewish entertainers.^[25][26][27]

Facing the challenge of acculturation, Hull Jewry of later generations have followed varied observant, assimilated and secular lifestyles, just as elsewhere.^[28][29][30] As for many provincial communities,^[31] and most North-East ports,^{[32][33][34][35][36][37]} career and family have drawn them away into a diaspora, across the UK and abroad.^[38][39] In 2016 the Hull community gathered to celebrate its 250-year history,^{[40][41][42][43][44]} which is documented in an archive,^[45][46] a key paper,^[5] and off-line and on-line resources.^{[47][48][9][49][50][51][52][20][53][54][55][56][57]}

Demography[]

Jewish life in Hull grew right in the bustling Old Town,^[58] perhaps 40 people in 1793, 60 in 1815, and 200 in 1835, with a few trading out in Beverley, York, Scarborough and Lincolnshire towns.^[59][47] A move west, around the arterial Hessle and Anlaby Roads, and also Beverley Road, centred on Porter Street and the upmarket Coltman Street.^{[60][61][62][63]} The proportion of new young immigrants was always high,^[64] from mid-century settling around Osborne Street,^[65] growing the community to over 300 by 1851,^[44] 550 in 1870, and two thousand by 1900.^[66] These families also progressed, out along the same thoroughfares, accelerated by wartime bombing. The old housing and shops of Hull were decimated by the Luftwaffe,^[67] even before the era of slum clearance. Motor-cars enabled more Jews to reside in the western suburbs outside the City – Anlaby and Kirk Ella, as well as Willerby, Hessle and Ferriby.

By 1960 the Hull-born predominated within a peak for the whole area of 2,500, maybe 3,000 with some unlisted at synagogue or census,^[50][68] not counting the much smaller, closely-linked community in Grimsby, across the Humber.^[69][70] Jews were thus barely 1% of the City population,^[71] less for the wider district including the suburbs. Assimilation, relocation, and emigration have since taken their toll;^[31] most now live around London, Manchester and Leeds,^{[72][73][74][39]} and in Israel, with numbers in the Hull area falling to 200 or less older people in recent years.^[38][75][76]

Early history[]

Pre-1700[]

Before the expulsion of 1290,^[77] Jewish leaders at Lincoln and York,^[78][79] lent monies to nearby ports Barton-upon-Humber,^[80][81] and Bridlington Priory.^[82][83] Several of their credit agents,^[82] are recorded as named Jews of the ports of Grimsby,^[69][84] and Hedon,^[84] now just outside Hull; and at Beverley,^[82] in the Hull Valley. The same figures at Lincoln and York at times dealt or took payment in wool,^[82][85][84] as did Jacob de Hedon.^[84]

Close by, the large wool-producer Meaux Abbey,^{[86][87][88][89]} bought estates indebted to these Jews,^[86][82][90] and borrowed from them for construction,^[86] whilst also developing the Hull river-mouth as a major centre,^{[87][91][92][93]} for wool-merchants from England and Europe.^[94][95][96] Nevertheless, unlike a community in Newcastle up to the year 1234,^[97] nothing is known of any Jews in the early port of Hull.

Oliver Cromwell defended Hull during the English Civil War,^[98] before in 1656 starting the resettlement of Jews in England.^[99] Oft-repeated claims of a presence in Hull toward 1700,^{[100][101][102][103]} are discounted by scholars as based on false recollections or forgeries.^{[104][105][106]} Recorded communal memory suggests the first settlers in Hull were sometime after 1700.^[7]

Settlement[]

The first known arrival is of Israel Benjamin in 1734, claiming to be a convert, who later died in Leeds.^[107][44] Thereafter, at a time of persecution in Europe,^{[108][109][110]} it is documented that Jews came into Hull from Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, Poland and the Baltic, bound for large Northern towns or London, some claiming to be converts.^{[111][6][112][113]} Merchants came from other English ports, for Hull's Napoleonic era Naval Prize Court.^[2] Traders settled around the Holy Trinity Church marketplace,^[21] being in effect legally free in Hull to set up business;^[114] Jews ran many stalls and shops there until the late 1960s.^{[58][75][115]}

Isaac Levy of Church Lane was in 1766 the first recorded resident, founding one of many dynasties of jewellers and watchmakers, with others soon in the lanes off Marketplace;^[5] there the equestrian statue of William III was, for the 1788 Protestant Accession centenary, decorated with an elegant crown,^[116] by Aaron Jacobs, jeweller and silversmith, forbear of synagogue presidents and clockmakers.^[117] As some diversified into market bazaars and general trading, there were Jewish barbers (Abraham Levis 1791), cobblers (Michael Levy 1812), tailors (Henry Levy 1812) and cabinet-makers (Henry Meyer 1826).^[118] In 1822 Joseph Levi was a "quil and pencil merchant", and Samuel Lazarus a hatmaker.^[119] In 1831 Joseph Jacobs ran a coffee house,^[119] and in 1834 Baruchson and Fawcett were importers and dealers in cigars.^[119] See Synagogues, and Businesses.

Advancement[]

A few individuals stand out as pioneers.^[5] Moses Symons, bullion dealer and watchmaker, was a Navy Agent, and in 1810 a founder member of the Humber Lodge of Freemasons,^[120][121] which later had synagogue president and silversmith Elias Hart as its Master mason.^[122]

Philanthropist Bethel Jacobs (1812–69), son and son-in-law to community leaders Israel Jacobs,^[117] and Joseph Lyon (see Synagogues), became Master of the Humber Lodge and a Town Councillor, as well as synagogue president.^[122][123] Returned from Leipzig studies to his father's Whitefriargate silversmiths and clockmakers, he oversaw a workshop as polymath and inventor.^{[124][125][126]} A charismatic lecturer,^[127] president of Hull Literary & Philosophical Society,^[128] and the Mechanics' Institute, he led Hull at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Drawing the 1853 Association for the Advancement of Science to Hull, and after Victoria and Albert stayed at the (to be Royal) Station Hotel in 1854,^[129] Bethel became Jeweller to Her Majesty.^[130][125] Later Lieutenant of Hull Volunteer Rifle Corps,^[131] and president of Hull's Royal Institution, he founded Hull College of Art in 1861.^[132][133]

Simeon Mosely (1815–88), prominent dental surgeon, was synagogue president,^[134] a Town Councillor, captain in the local volunteer brigade,^[135] and 1864 founding Worshipful Master of the Kingston Lodge.^{[136][137][138][139][140]} Longstanding mason Solomon Cohen (1827–1907), Sheffield-born clothier and synagogue president,^[141] was a Hull Town Councillor for Marketplace ward from 1870,^[142] later an Alderman, chairman of Hull School Board and president of Hull Guardian Society.^{[143][144][145]}

See also Businesses, and Notable people.

The Great Migration[]

Emigration[]

Victorian England's lack of restriction on the entry of refugees saw port arrivals increase, especially after the continental revolutionary unrest of 1848,^{[44][146][147][4]} enabled by the transport revolution of steam-ships and trains.^[148][149] Whilst tens of millions left mainland Europe between 1850 and 1914 by taking direct liner to America,^[150] the Wilson Line and other shipping companies ensured over two million trans-migrants of all creeds traversed Hull's docks and railways, and up to a million Grimsby's.^{[150][151][152][153][149][154]} This indirect route was much cheaper, and in some ways less stressful.^{[155][156][149]}

About 1 in 4 of these trans-migrants were Jews,^{[107][150][157]} destined via Liverpool for New York or Buenos Aires, as well as for the Cape, and also British towns.^{[150][158][154]} An expanding young population of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazim was leaving Russia's Pale of Settlement;^[159] there, work restrictions, special taxes, and the forced conscription and conversion of boys were fuelling emigration.^[160] Murderous anti-Semitic pogroms (riots) after 1881, much publicised even in Hull,^[161][162] and famine in 1891/2, further escalated numbers leaving the Russian Empire into the new century.^{[163][164][165][166][8][167]}

Travelling to Hull[]

In addition to the hope of a welcoming, gilded "New Jerusalem",^[168][169] emigration was often underpinned by informative correspondence with relatives.^[165] Chain migration amongst Jews, specifically from Lithuanian towns via the Baltic to Northern English ports, has been described.^[32] Even so, passage to Hull was often booked through unscrupulous agents.^{[170][155][149]} Husbands or eldest sons left first, arduous cross-border journeys by foot, cart, and train, to Hamburg and Bremen, or Baltic ports like Libau and Riga.^{[149][171][163][2][172][173]}

Larger vessels on the Baltic had to traverse the dangerous Kattegat,^[172] until in 1895 the Kiel canal opened,^[174] before the journey onward to Hull (or Grimsby, or Goole).^{[175][167][70]} Carrying a little kosher food, such as herring with stale bread, migrants embarked onto cargo or cattle boats, for several cramped nights on straw pallets, wood boards or rolling decks, sometimes in befouled and unsafe conditions.^{[176][177][172][149][178][179]} One gale of 1845 took 26 ships off Holland;^[180] whilst the crew of a Hull-bound cargo steamer initially survived overnight lashed to the rigging, all 16 passengers had died.^[178] They were Polish Jews "chiefly in needy circumstances", mostly travelling jewellers and families. Amongst the bodies was a mother and five children, and a man reportedly stood upright, holding an open prayer book in his extended hand.^[178][180] Death and disease amongst the migrants was common.^[179]

Some lost luggage or had no onward tickets, and sometimes most arrived destitute.^{[177][181][182][183]} On landing many walked into the Old Town to temporary lodgings,^[184] like Posterngate's Harry Lazarus Hotel,^[185][186] (a grave name in Delhi Street cemetery).^[187][188] Most proceeded west, by Osborne Street to Anlaby Road, busy with horse-drawn traffic, across to the segregated Emigrant Waiting Room.^{[151][189][190][187]} Built in 1871 by the North Eastern Railway, a kosher kitchen and washing rooms were later added;^[58][184] a listed building, it is now Hull City AFC's Tigers Lair pub.^[191] Behind, Platform 13 of Paragon Station took extra-long Monday or Wednesday trains, bound for Leeds and Liverpool;^{[172][2][177][167]} London, Southampton and Glasgow were also common destinations.^[149] From 1885 the new Alexandra Dock had a water-side railway hall, in use until 1908/9.^[177][192]

Staying or moving on[]

Whilst most migrants from the "Old Country" transitted through Hull, many stayed intentionally or otherwise, for days, weeks, or for years.^{[193][154][44][194][195][196]} Often young men lodged temporarily with Jewish families in narrow lanes and terraced streets, borrowing money to work as ragged hawkers, later succeeding as jewellers and watch-dealers.^{[44][197][144][198]} As often amongst migrants, illegal marriages occurred.^[199][200] For some that stayed, their grown children eventually continued the journey, like Benjamin Hart, born Hull 1869;^[201] sailing for America in 1912, he was lost on the Titanic.^[202] He had placed in a life-boat both his wife, and their young daughter, Eva Hart MBE, who lived to 91 years, possibly the last survivor who remembered the disaster.^{[202][203][204]}

Charities and clubs[]

A large number of active Hull Jewish societies were founded, with branches of many national and some international associations, all with officers and committees drawn from the community.^{[205][206][56][207][208][209][210][211][212][213][214][215][216][217][218]} Charity fundraising was central to the social scene for many years.^{[219][220][221][222][223][224][225][226][227]}

Meeting need[]

Living in a major port, Hull's Jewish community has a history of charity both to residents, and to transient and settling immigrants.^{[5][228][229]} The Philanthropic Society of 1848 was early among many voluntary agencies, running soup kitchens and clothing shelters, giving financial relief to indigents and travellers.^[230][206] In 1854 there was a collection for poor Jews in Palestine, and women were aided by the Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Society of 1861.^[231][206] In 1869 general subscription funds were initiated for destitute sick and dying immigrants, and for the resident poor in winter.^[183][232] In the twentieth century, other groups included Hull Jewish Blind Society and an Orphan Aid Society.^[45]

Various charities had merged as the Hull Hebrew Board of Guardians in 1880, which then had 1,646 recipients.^{[233][234][206]} A hundred years or so later it was renamed Hull Jewish Care,^[235] with an elders home on Anlaby Road from the 1950s until 2013.^{[47][236][237]} In 1909 John Symons had left £20,000 to establish a home for incurables and the poor of Hull (see Notable people, Civic leaders).^[44][238] Charles Jacobs, and his son Lord Mayor AK Jacobs (see Civic leaders), created by bequest the Jacobs Homes for the elderly, on Askew Avenue.^[239][240]

Social[]

The Hull Hebrew Literary & Debating Society started in 1895, for readings and music.^[241] The Jewish Girls Club was founded in 1900, and The City Club, Wright Street in 1901.^[206] The Hull Judeans of Lower Union Street,^[53] founded 1919,^[242] later part of the Maccabi Association, organised sports such as cricket, football, table-tennis and swimming;^{[243][244][245]} whilst for elders the Hull Jewish Friendship Club began in the mid-20th century.^[237] The Jewish (ex-serviceman's) Institute at 208 Anlaby Road, later Henry's nightclub, served numerous communal functions, as from 1973 did the Parkfield Centre, later a Sikh Temple, behind the Carlton Cinema, Anlaby Road.^{[45][56][246]}

Religious[]

By the 1930s, one communal burial society (Chevra Kadisha) was run by the several synagogues, as was the Hull Board of Shechita, for the organised provision of kosher food.^[228][56] The synagogues are also constituted as charities.^[247][248] See Synagogues.

Political[]

The Hull B'nai B'rith men's and women's lodges and youth organisation provided links with other communities including Israel,^[45] whilst the Hull Jewish Representative Council after the Second World War managed political issues,^{[249][237][56]} later publishing Hull's Jewish Watchman newsletter.^[250]

Fruit-machine manufacturer Jack Lennard,^[251] founded the Hull Council for Soviet Jewry,^[75][252] and the Wilberforce Council for Human Rights,^{[253][254][255][256]} as well as the Hull Jewish Archive.^[257]

Synagogues[]

Early[]

A reference to a synagogue demolished in 1700, situated on the narrow Dagger Lane in the Old Town, has been discredited.^{[258][259][101][51][260]}

In 1780, the year of the Gordon Riots, a mob sacked a Catholic chapel on Posterngate, nearly opposite Dagger Lane;^[261] this was rebuilt and rented, a "neat and convenient" synagogue for 25 to 30 worshippers.^[262] In 1809 a larger rival was founded at 7 Parade Row (later demolished for Prince's Dock),^[17] by the respected and well-to-do Joseph Lyon (c.1765–1812) of Blackfriargate, pawnbroker, slopman (clothier) and silversmith; he funded Samuel Simon as minister (see Rabbis).^[263]

In 1825 Solomon Meyer, pawnbroker and merchant (of Hull and Sheffield), and Israel Jacobs, jeweller and goldsmith (of Hull and Scarborough), as synagogue presidents, led Posterngate and Parade Row to amalgamate into the Hull Hebrew Congregation, 7 Robinson Row (off Dagger Lane),^[17] consecrated 1827.^[264][20] Paid for by the Great London Synagogue and by mortgage, the new shul had 100 seats,^[265] and a covered passage from the narrow cobbled street.^{[266][5][58][267]} Rebuilt under the leadership of Bethel Jacobs c. 1851–1852, in Grecian-style with stained glass,^[268] it had seats for 200 men and 80 women in the gallery, but by 1900 it was overcrowded.^[68]

Later[]

Over 200 years, tensions amongst congregations came and went peacefully, except for occasional synagogue scuffles.^{[5][269][270][271][272][273][274][275][276]} It was conflict with newcomers that led established families in 1902 to the Western Synagogue for over 600, on Linnaeus Street along Anlaby Road; it was new-built in Byzantine style,^[205] the architect BS Jacobs, son of Bethel (see Professionals).^{[277][278][279][13]} The remainder from Robinson Row relocated in 1903, as Hull Old Hebrew Congregation, to an Osborne Street new-build,^[280] by then the main Jewish area. With adorned entrances and later facilities, it seated 350 men, and 350 women above.^{[281][282][283][58][284][285][286]}

About 1870 Russian Jews had gathered off School Street, in what was in 1887 consecrated as "Hull Central Hebrew Congregation", Waltham Street.^{[287][47][288]} Some joined Osborne Street in 1903, the rest in 1914 founded Cogan Street synagogue, refurbishing the neoclassical Salem Congregational Chapel, which had held 950.^{[289][290][56][291]} In 1928 a rabbinical dispute erupted in the press over bones in its crypt, only re-buried in 1946 after the Cogan Street shul was bombed out in 1940.^{[292][293][294][295]} The Central Congregation moved to West Parade, and in 1951 to 94 Park Street, formerly Alderman Cogan Girl's School, closing in 1976 to merge with Linnaeus Street.^{[295][271][291]}

The Fischoff Synagogue of Lower Union Street, opened 1928 by Lord Rothschild, closed in the 1941 Blitz.^{[296][47][297]} There were other short-lived shuls.^{[47][298][52]}

Osborne Street shul was also destroyed in the 1941 Blitz, but restored after the Second World War.^[281] It was sold in 1989 and later became part of the Heaven and Hell nightclub.^[43][299] The congregation merged with that of Linnaeus Street, taking new premises in Pryme Street, Anlaby,^[300][43] which were consecrated in 1995.^[301]

Present[]

As of 2021 the active synagogues are Hull Hebrew Congregation (Ashkenazi Orthodox) – in Pryme Street Anlaby;^[302][303] and the Reform Ne've Shalom, which opened in 1992 at Willerby, twenty-five years after the Reform Congregation's formation.^[304][305] Through the efforts of community leader and historian Jack Lennard,^[257] Linnaeus Street shul is a Listed Building, mentioned by Pevsner,^[306] now an office.^[13]

Rabbis[]

Salis Daiches,^[307] from a Lithuanian dynasty of Rabbis,^[308] served Hull to 1907;^[309] later the leading Rabbi in Edinburgh, he published the recently reprinted Aspects of Judaism (1928).^[310][311] Rabbi Mordechai Schwartz, in Hull from 1920, published sermons,^[312] and in 1926, the anti-Darwinian Faith and Science;^[313] he was involved in a major dispute over Cogan Street synagogue.^[293] In 1931 Rabbi Samuel Brod (arrived Hull 1898, d.1938) published a book of articles on the Talmud.^[314]

Rabbi Louis Miller, father of New York's Rabbi Alan Miller (see Notable people), was minister of the Hull Western Synagogue and headmaster of its Hebrew School 1920–30.^[315][316] Eliezer Simcha Rabinowitz BA was from a rabbinical line;^[317] Hull's Minister in 1953, he became the first communal Rabbi (1956–59), later of Cape Town and Manchester. Rabbi Chaim Joshua Cooper MA PhD (1917–99), born London, was renowned for his intellect as Hull's communal Jewish leader from 1960, active into the 1990s.^[318][319]

Cantors and synagogue officers[]

The earliest minister, from the 1820s to 1866, was Samuel Simon, also shochet (ritual slaughterer) and mohel (circumciser), later known as the alter rebbe (old reverend).^[320] Shul secretary and Minister Rev. Isaac Hart taught at the school around 1870.^{[321][196][322]} Abraham Elzas, educated in Holland and well-travelled, was a minister as well as master of the Hebrew school, and a mason; he published translations of several books of the Bible.^[323][324]

Highly regarded ministers still remembered include Revs. Harry Abrahams and Judah Levinson of Osborne Street;^[325][319] and Revs. Joshua Freedberg, David Hirsch, and Hyman Davies of Linnaeus Street.^[278][316]

As elsewhere, each synagogue had a sequence of not only ministers,^[4] but also presidents, vice-presidents, treasurers and secretaries.^[52] Some individual and families have featured in these roles for decades – at Linnaeus Street, the Rosenstons and Conrad Segelman;^[326] at Osborne Street Harry Shulman.^[327] Nevertheless, it was often the modest shammes (caretaker, beadle), who was the most familiar face, such as latterly at Linnaeus Street, Harry Westerman.^[278][328]

Cemeteries[]

Hull has five known Orthodox cemeteries, and a recent Reform one, with 2,500 burials in all,^[188] discounting an unsupported claim of a mediaeval Jewish cemetery.^[329] From c.1780 a small plot at West Dock Terrace (later "Villa Place") saw burials until the last in 1812, of Joseph Lyon (see Synagogues). George Alexander,^[4] community leader and synagogue president, silversmith and coin dealer, and the Levy family then opened a Hessle Road site,^[330] in use until 1858. Next to the landmark 1895 Alexandra Hotel,^[331][332] with Star of David overglazings marking a once Jewish area,^[333] it holds Israel Jacobs,^[117] and Barna(r)d Barna(r)d, jeweller, watchmaker and Navy Agent (d.1821), "buried with honour".^[188][119]

In East Hull is the 1858 larger Delhi Street site, the earliest graves lost to a 1941 German bomb.^[188] Expanded c.1900 it had a pre-burial hall and served Linnaeus Street and Osborne Street shuls. In 2002 vandals damaged 110 graves, and smashed 80 in 2011.^[188][334] In 1935 the Osborne Street congregation sought space at Marfleet Lane;^[43] buried there is synagogue secretary Phineas Hart (d.1952 age 80),^[327] who helped destitute immigrants. The Central Congregation established in 1889 Ella Street Cemetery, in the Avenues area.^[335] It is now the main Orthodox cemetery, one grave is of Annie Sheinrog headmistress (d.1985 age 94). Since 1975, the Reform Congregation has a small site in Anlaby.^[336][188]

Schools[]

In 1826 the Robinson Row shul had a makeshift school-room, and by 1852, 40 boys and girls were in a rebuilt facility there, learning Hebrew, English and arithmetic.^[337][338] In 1838 there was also a free school for the poor.^[337] Due to the work of Philip Bender, Rev. Isaac Hart and others,^{[338][321][339][340][196]} schooling for boys and girls (apart) developed further, in West Street by the 1870s,^[341] and separate institutions were established in Osborne Street by 1887.^{[342][343][280]} A girls school had first started in 1863,^[344] and with infants took 200 pupils in 1900;^[345] under headmistress Miss Annie Sheinrog this long continued,^[53][346] through to wartime evacuation in Swanland, and closure in 1945.^[347][348]

From 1870 on, boys state-schooling took hold,^[349] supplemented by early morning or evening communal Hebrew School, attached to the larger synagogues.^{[350][280][351][352][205]} The surviving Sunday morning cheder at Linnaeus Street,^[56] for boys and girls, was supplemented around 1966 by evening classes at Kirk Ella School, and soon relocated there.^[353] Latterly it was run at the Parkfield Centre, and lastly at Pryme Street synagogue,^[354] before closing around 2010. Michael Westerman was the last headmaster.^[346]

In addition to local state-schools like Kingston High in the Boulevard, Malet Lambert and Newland High (girls), and Eastfield in Anlaby Park, favoured private schools were Hymers College (boys),^{[355][356][357][358][359][360]} and to a lesser extent, Tranby Croft (girls).

Anti-Semitism[]

The Jews of Hull often report their home as, for example, an "historic and welcoming city",^[12] which has shown "maximum tolerance and understanding to religious minorities".^[361] Ironically Edward I, who had persecuted England's Jews up to their expulsion in 1290,^[362] granted Hull's charter as "King's Town".^[363][364] Anti-Semitism has a long history in England,^{[365][366][367]} and in Hull:

Religious[]

In 1769 a local pamphlet claimed that the Wandering Jew of Jerusalem, a cobbler condemned for spitting in the face of Jesus, had arrived in Hull; no chains could contain him, and he never aged, as he awaited the Second Coming.^[368] Since the expulsion of Jews from England, this was in part how they were perceived,^[369][370] leading up to the Evangelical call for the Conversion of Jews, promoted by Hull's famed William Wilberforce.^{[371][372][373][374][375]} Arrivals to the port, as elsewhere, were proffered Christianizing meetings and pamphlets in Yiddish.^[376] There was an active mission in Hull throughout the 19th century.^{[377][378][379][380][381][382]}

An 1833 petition in Hull viewed emancipation of the Jews as a threat to the Christian Sabbath.^[383] When Sir Isaac Goldsmid stood for MP at nearby Beverley in 1847, the Hull Packet saw "a radical jew" and "an anti-christian movement".^[384][385] At that time however, the editor of the Hull Advertiser,^[386] was campaigning against such religious prejudice.^[387][388]

Attacks on Jewish graves in Hull continue from the past,^[389] into the 21st century (see Cemeteries).^[188][334]

Economic[]

In the early years, settled work in Hull was largely found with other Jews or in self-employment.^[5] In 1838 bill-poster Michael Jacobs was summarily dismissed and accused of theft by a Dr. Johnson, allegations dismissed at court.^[390] A pedlar in 1841 was racially abused, assaulted and threatened with a knife over a financial dispute,^[391][392] although attacks on Jews in the street recurred for various motives.^{[115][393][394][395][396]} Later, domination of some trades and Trade Union involvement was a cause of local resentment.^{[397][398][399][400][297]} Similarly, the propensity of sabbath-observant Jews to trade or wish to trade on Sundays was an issue.^[401][402]

In 1832 Jewish leaders in Hull had been confusingly accused in print of "an offensive tax" on meat.^[403] For years local papers aired crude stereotypes,^{[404][405][406]} highlighting Jews as litigious money-lenders,^[407][408] or mocking them as comical disputants;^{[409][410][411]} they routinely regurgitated London "column-fillers", such as any Jew accused of dishonesty.^{[412][413][414][415]}

Political[]

There was popular and political support in Hull for the emancipation of Jews from their legal restrictions.^[416][417] Nevertheless, the first apparently Jewish Mayor of Hull,^[19] was both a target of an acerbic political lampoon, which focussed on his race, countenance, demeanour, intellect and loyalties,^[418] and of more subtle taunting, about missionary conversion.^[419]

Hostility to Jews in the wake of Eastern European immigration led to the Aliens Act, with effective cessation of arrivals in 1914.^[420][421] First World War xenophobic riots, worst in Hull,^[422] were directed at Germans;^[423][424] but also fell on Jews,^{[425][426][427][428]} including those in Hull.^[422][429] In 1915 Rev. Isaac Levine of Cogan Street synagogue was beaten up as a spy, dragged to a policeman by a drunk – who was himself imprisoned for five months.^[396] Hannah Feldman, past Lady Mayoress, was a victim too.^[2] Many families anglicised their German-sounding names at this time.^[430][428]

In the 1930s Fascists advertised in Hull,^[431] and attacked Jewish shops; some fought back – in 1936 Oswald Mosley fled the huge first Battle of Corporation Field.^[432][325] Anti-Semitism was widespread, even during the Second World War, in the Hull area,^[433] then suddenly taboo after 1945 newsreels of Bergen-Belsen.^{[434][435][436][437]} Nevertheless, sympathy for Holocaust survivors, and ambivalent British support for Zionism,^[438] were not enough to contain the reaction to retaliations against British forces in Mandate Palestine.^[439] The 1947 anti-Jewish summer riots,^[440][441] were worst in Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow; in Hull windows of Hessle Road shops were broken.^{[442][443][444][445]}

Hull University has one of the minority of Student Unions that have disaffiliated from the National Union of Students, triggered by the ongoing dispute about anti-Zionism and anti-semitism on campus.^{[446][447][448][449][450][451][452]}

First World War[]

War service[]

The touching letters of Marcus Segal, killed in 1917, from the trenches to his Hull-born mother, evoke life at the front.^[453][454]

There were about 50 Hull Jewish men who died for their country in the Great War, although many more survived.^{[455][456][457]} A few of the communal tragedies were the deaths of Cpl Harry and Pte Marcus Silverstone, killed weeks apart on the Somme in 1916.^[458] Pte Max Kay (Chayet) of the Royal Army Medical Corps was born in Minsk, lived on Hessle Road, and died of wounds in Mesopotamia in 1916; he was mentioned in dispatches, and is remembered on the Basra Memorial.^[459][460]

In January 1917, Cpl Harry Furman died age 20, after rescuing his pal Pte Simon Levine, who died age 21.^[461] Later that year Solomon Ellis (prev. Moshinsky) was killed, 6 months before his brother Nathan.^[458] Louis Newman was killed in France in 1917, three months before his brother Charles died at Ypres.^[462] Abraham and Joseph Sultan also both died in the war.^[463] Lt Edward M. Gosschalk, whose father had been Sheriff of Hull, died age 33 in 1916.^[464][465]

Sgt Jack Aarons was wounded in 1916, received the Military Medal in 1918, and lived until 1976.^[466] Pte Louis Shapero also received the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery in rescuing a wounded officer whilst under fire.^{[467][468][469][470]}   

The first Jew to serve in the Royal Flying Corps was Wing Commander Joseph Kemper MBE; born in Hull,^[471] he was one of five Jews who served in both the RFC, and in the RAF in the Second World War.^[472][473]

Home front[]

In addition to the stress of sons away at war, there was a surge of xenophobia at home (see Anti-Semitism, political).^[423] Bombing by German Zeppelins in Hull hit Jewish traders amidst others in Churchside marketplace,^[474][271] and homes such as that of Harris Needler's family.^[475][476]

The wartime economy offered a boom in outfitting for the military,^[477] and even aeroplane work and naval salvage.^[478][479] The influenza pandemic,^[480] and a severe post-war depression eventually tipped many of the same businesses into bankruptcy.^{[481][482][483]}

Second World War[]

Leading into war[]

Despite immigration restrictions,^[420][421] some of those fleeing Europe in the 1930s came to Britain, often via Hull.^[484] About 120 stayed in the area, at least for a time, including German-speaking doctors like Isserlin and Seewald (see Notable people).^[485][325] The Sprinz family (see Notable people) settled around Hull after Kristallnacht.^[486][487]

Local families, Jewish and Christian, initially took in 63 Kindertransport children, of whom at least 22 were brought up in Hull.^{[488][42][485][489][490][325][491]} Among them was Rudolf Wessely, father of psychiatrist Regius Prof. Sir Simon Wessely.^[56][492] Another was Fred Barshak, who had witnessed Kristallnacht in Vienna; like many he later found that all his family had been killed.^{[493][45][250][494][495]} A violin prodigy, he studied law at Oxford and became a property developer;^[496][497] his children are comedian Aaron,^[498] and composer/film-maker Tamara.^[499][500]

As other British Jews, the community in Hull dreaded a Nazi invasion, with good cause. The truth about the genocide later called the Holocaust was no secret;^{[501][502][503]} and, it turned out, German plans to round up and kill people in Britain had been drawn up.^[504] Professor Theodor Plaut, at Hull University 1933–1936, was one listed Jewish target.^[505][506]

The Hull Blitz[]

In 1940 spirits were high, with fundraising for the forces.^[507] Yet, as a major East Coast port the city had especial reason to fear not only invasion, but the bombing that came before.^[508] Hull was the British city proportionality most heavily bombed.^{[509][510][511][512]} A map of bomb sites shows where areas were hit by the Luftwaffe,^[513] with some Hull Jewish fatalities: auxiliary fireman Alexander Schooler,^{[514][515][516]} air-raid warden Abraham Levy,^[517][518] fire-watcher Louis Black,^{[519][520][521]} Mark Goltman on Beverley Road,^[522] and others in raids in Manchester,^[522] and Coventry.^[523]

Three synagogues were damaged, two badly (see Synagogues), amid a City Centre "moonscape of bombsites, craters and broken buildings".^[283] The old housing and shops around Osborne Street and along Anlaby and Hessle Roads were later subject to slum clearance; of the streets that completely disappeared,^[524] some had been Jewish strongholds – Lower Union St, Paradise Place, Day St; in this district, truly, "little, if any of old Hull is still standing".^[67]

Perhaps half the population of Hull was homeless or evacuated at some point,^[508] with Jewish children being sent away, many to non-Jewish homes, around East Yorkshire and beyond.^{[525][433][325]} Hull and Birmingham were sites of Government "operational research" into children and the civilian impact of bombing, led by Lord (Solly) Zuckerman and J. D. Bernal.^{[526][506][527][508]} The shock of the Blitz, the newsreels from Belsen, and the jubilation of VE day,^[528] were followed by events in British Mandate Palestine (see Anti-Semitism).^[444]

War service[]

There were at least eighteen Hull Jewish service fatalities, and many more decorated survivors, in the Second World War.

Capt Isidore Newman MBE CdG MdeR (1916–44), in 1938 a teacher at Middleton Street Boys, was a radio operator for SOE; betrayed on his second mission in occupied France, he was murdered by SS at Mauthausen, Austria 1944.^{[529][530][531]}

Maj Wilfred "Billy" Sugarman MC (1918–76, son of Israel Sugarman, tailor),^[532] in the first D-Day wave ashore at Normandy, sustained multiple grenade wounds but led men onward,^[533][534] and saw more action in Egypt and Burma;^[535] post-war he was a Hull headmaster.^[325] Younger brother Harold was, by a family account,^[536] a cyanide pill-carrying decoder and operative in Italy/Austria, who was pressed to stay on past 1946 as a ski-instructor.

Of the six Rossy Brothers (see Businesses), anti-aircraft Gunner Cyril Rosenthall and mechanic Aircraftsman Ronnie were both killed in 1941,^[537][538] whilst Ernie returned from Dunkirk and Burma.^[536] Morris Miller had died fighting the Spanish Civil War in 1938,^[539] before his brother L-Cpl Alfred Miller, who fell with the Royal Artillery in 1940.^[540]

Others who died were Flying Officers Harold Rathbone,^[541] and Bernard Tallerman;^[542] Lt David Queskey;^[543] Flight Sergeants Calman Bentley,^[456] and Gerald Cobden;^[544] Sgt William Hare;^[545] Co. Quarterm'r Sgt David Juggler;^[546] Lance Sjt Cyril Bass;^[547] Cpl Mark Moses;^[548] Ptes Harry Garfunkle,^[549] and Harold Harris – "table tennis champion of Hull";^[550] Signalman Benedict Korklin;^[551] and Bdr Fred Rapstone.^[552]

Leslie Kersh spent three-and-a-half years in a Japanese POW camp.^[535] Hull's Cpl Bernard Levy was amongst the first to see Bergen-Belsen. He did not speak of his experiences for 70 years.^[553][554]

The Hull Association of Jewish Ex-Serviceman and Women continued to marched annually in Whitehall into the 21st century.^[555]

After 1945 Jews played their part in the rejuvenation of the city (see Businesses, and Notable people).^[556]

Businesses[]

Jewellers, merchants, and shipbuilders[]

Leading Jewish families in Hull at one time were mostly retailers, and some craftsmen, of precious wares and branded timepieces;^[44] still-noted Victorian clockmakers are Bethel Jacobs and Isaac Lavine,^[264] also Bush, Carlin, Friedman, Lewis, Maizels, Marks, Shibko, Solomon, Symons and Wacholder.^[557][5] There were once many other jewellers (see Early history),^[44][558] later only a few like watchmaker PS Phillips,^[559][560] Chappells (became Conleys / Paragon),^[561] and Segals, which survives (est. 1919).^[562][563] Synagogue president Louis Rapstone sold antiques in the town,^{[561][564][565]} as did TV personality David Hakeney.^[566]

Mid-century trading businesses, like Lewis & Godfrey's fancy bazaar of the 1850s, Magner Bros' fancy goods dealers & importers, and Haberland & Glassman's 1867 grocers, became major merchant firms toward 1900.^{[567][568][264]} Dumoulin & Gosschalk of Finkle Street were classic "Port Jews", hide, wool and produce importers; Victor Dumoulin (Flemish b.Lille 1836) became Hull's Imperial Ottoman Vice-Consul,^[569] later consul for the Austrian Empire, and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce (see Notable people, Civic leaders).^{[570][571][572]} Major Jewish egg importers included Max Minden & Co, and Fischoff;^{[573][574][575]} as well as Saville Goldrein (father of Neville, below),^{[576][577][578][579]} Annis & Gordon,^[580] and Cecil Krotowski.^[581] Among grain importers was the Hull warehouse of the international Louis Dreyfus & Co.^[582][583]

Martin Samuelson was born in Hamburg to a Jewish merchant family, which converted to Christianity, probably in Hull.^[584][585] An iron-shipbuilding engineer,^[586] he was Sheriff and Mayor of Hull (see Notable people, Civic leaders).^[587][588] The spit of land which his major shipyard occupied is still called Sammy's Point, where Hull's The Deep aquarium now stands.^{[589][590][591][592][593]} His brother, engineer Alexander, worked with Martin in Hull;^[594] another brother, schooled in Hull, was industrialist Sir Bernhard Samuelson (see Notable people, Science and technology).

Tailors and other trades[]

Solomon Cohen (see Early history) was a successful pioneer of ready-made clothing in Hull.^[44] Tailors, mostly from Eastern Europe, were the leading trade by 1900:^[571][595] Rosenston, Sadolfsky, Shalgoskie, Goldbard, Leshinsky, Kaplan, Rosenthal, Weinstein etc.;^[45][264] later (AK) Jacobs,^[596] and Lipman & Silver.^[597] Many young women worked as seamstresses or tailor's finishers.^[44] After the depressions of 1920–1, 1929–33, and the Second World War,^[598][599] some clothiers survived – Levy's Northern,^{[600][601][602]} Gersteins,^[603] Premier Menswear,^[604] Regal Tailors (Schultz),^[605][606] and more.

Linked to Hull's prominence in importing and processing Baltic timber,^[607] second to tailors in number were many small wood-workers and cabinet-makers, like Abraham Gutenberg of Osborne Street.^[264] Similar work-shops spawned Lebus,^[608] Paradies & Co sawmill,^[609] Marks & Sugarman steam cabinet works (furniture, First War 'planes),^[478][479] Zimmerman furniture stores,^[610] East Riding Furniture Co,^[611] and Arlington (Abrahams) bar/kitchen fitters.^[612] Another major trade (using imported leather and wood) was clog- , slipper- and boot-making:^[613] Rosen's slipper- and shoe-factory was a big employer;^{[614][615][616]} John Harris and Furmans shoe-shops were well-known.^{[617][618][619]}

Visible across the town in the post-war years were chains like Zerny's dry-cleaners, est.1892,^{[75][620][621][622]} and Goodfellows supermarkets (Oppel).^{[75][623][624][625]} Jewish tobacconists included several Vinegrads sweet shops, the family also ran pre-war wholesalers, and later radio shops.^{[626][627][628]} Now-lost kosher bakers and butchers, delicatessens and fish-shops of old Osborne Street are often fondly remembered,^[286] especially Freedman the baker,^{[286][21][629]} and fryers Levine's,^[56][461] and Barnett's.^[21][461] Similarly recalled are many city names: Reuben barbers,^[630] and Rossy Bros bookmakers (see WW2 war service);^[631] Segal's,^[75] Shenker's,^[561] and Sultan's curtains;^[632] furriers Blooms, Blank, and Silver;^[633][634] Goldstones wallpaper and paint,^[635] Bennetts glass,^[636][637] Couplands carpets,^[638] and Myers wholesalers.^[639] AK Jacobs had garages pre-war,^[640] whilst Car Marks number-plates came later.^[641] Actress Mira Johnson's gown shop House of Mirelle is still celebrated.^[642][643]

Notable people[]

Civic leaders[]

It is doubtful if any other city can equal the record of Hull in the number of Jewish citizens who have filled the highest civic offices

- Arthur Tidman,^[42] editor of the Hull Daily Mail,^[56] and later The Times.^[644] As listed here, Jews were elected Sheriff eleven times, and Mayor or Lord Mayor of Hull thirteen times, drawn from less than one percent of the Hull area's population (see Demography).

– 1850–1940[]

Various Acts of Parliament gave Jews Emancipation, allowing them municipal office from 1845,^[645] such that Bethel Jacobs was a Town Councillor in Hull 1848–52 (see Early history).^[646]

Nevertheless, the first two mayors of apparently Jewish background were converts. William Henry Moss was Mayor in 1856 and 1862,^{[19][647][648]} the subject of anti-Jewish jibes.^[418][419] In 1863 he was widely praised for gifting to the town a Carrara marble statue of Queen Victoria;^{[649][650][651][652][653][654]} and he pressed for a free town library.^[655][656] Moss founded a firm of solicitors,^[657] was legal advisor to the dock company,^[658] and business partner to shipbuilder Martin Samuelson.^[659][586]

Convert Martin Samuelson, a major shipbuilder, was a Magistrate, Town Councillor in 1853, Sheriff in 1857 and Mayor of Hull in 1858.^[587][588] See Businesses - above.

John Symons, silversmith, was a Town Councillor by 1863 and Deputy Governor of the Hull Board of Guardians,^[660] an Alderman in 1873,^[144][56] and Sheriff for 1890;^[661] a local historian, antiquarian writer and lecturer,^[662][663] (and source of discredited accounts of a 17th-century Jewish presence in Hull), he was a founder of the Humber Masonic Lodge,^[122] and an Odd Fellow lodge.^[664][665] Simeon Mosely was also a Councillor in the 1860s;^[666] Solomon Cohen in 1873 became Town Councillor and an Alderman in 1903 (see Early history).^[667][144]

In the Edwardian era, merchant Victor Dumoulin was in 1902 Sheriff of Hull, as was his son Edward for 1910.^[571] Wool merchant Edward Gosschalk became Sheriff in 1905;^[668][669] The learned Henry Feldman (1855–1915), wool merchant, chief magistrate, and synagogue president, was elected Mayor of the City three times, spanning years, 1906–9.^{[670][671][672][668]}

Solicitor and mason Benno Pearlman was Lord Mayor in 1928,^[673][674] walking to his inauguration on the Sabbath;^[668] and Sheriff in 1923, 1932 and 1939.^{[675][676][677][678][21][679]}

– After 1940[]

Son of a Polish-born pawnbroker, Joseph Leopold Schultz (1900–91), lauded for promoting bomb-shelters pre-war, was Lord Mayor in 1942 and Sheriff for 1968. Sir Leo Schultz OBE "the Lion of Hull" led a Labour-run City from 1945 to 1979. He also fostered a Kindertransport child;^[489] a large bronze statue of Sir Leo later appeared at the Guildhall.^{[680][681][682][56]}

Lord Mayor in 1952 was AK Jacobs (see Businesses); and in 1958 and '59 Lawrie Science, brother of coroner Philip (see Professionals in Hull).^[237] In 1966 Marcus Segal was Sheriff, as was the cultured Dr. Lionel Rosen OBE in 1951, later Lord Mayor for 1972, and on the Board of Deputies of British Jews.^{[680][683][56][51]} Louis Pearlman was Lord Mayor in 1983.^[237]

Philip Bloom was Deputy Leader of Hull City Council in the 1980s.^[361]

– Appointments to non-locals[]

London trade-unionist Henry Solomons became Labour MP for Hull North in 1964 but died the following year.^{[684][685][686]} Not apparently connected to the resident community, Helen Suzman DBE, the anti-apartheid campaigner, was awarded Honorary Freedom of the City in 1987.^[687] Similarly, Labour's Baron Peter Mandelson, whose father was from a London Jewish family, was awarded in 2013 the ancient role of Steward of Hull, as his grandfather Herbert Morrison the Labour politician had been 1956–65.^[688]

– Beyond Hull[]

Moses Abrahams, born 1825 in Hull, lived after 1857 in Grimsby, as inaugural synagogue president, clothier, jeweller,

optician, property-owner, ship-broker, Councillor, and Mayor in 1901.^[689] 

Theresa Science Russell, sister to Hull Lord Mayor Lawrie Science and Coroner Philip Science, was 1965 Lord Mayor of Newcastle;^[690][691] also Hull born and bred was solicitor and judge, Neville Goldrein CBE, Leader of Lancashire County Council 1977–81.^{[358][578][579]}

Professionals in Hull and area[]

– Healthcare[]

By the 1830s a Jewish professional class appeared.^[692] Travelling surgeon-dentist Simeon Mosely (see Early history) patented an artificial palate,^[693][137] L.J. Levison was a dentist at that time,^[260] and Isaac Lyon a surgeon at Hull Infirmary.^[19][260] Polish-born Joel Farbstein was synagogue president and "corn doctor",^[694][695] son Henry a surgeon on Anlaby Road;^[696] grandson Lt Joel Scott Forbes died in France in 1917.^[697][360] Isaac Harris, Lewis Bergman, Izidore Hirschfield and the Bibbero brothers were dentists noted in the 1890s.^[264][698] German refugee dentists in the 1930s included Max Adler.^[699]

From 1939 GP Leslie Hardy wrote about rational theism and much else,^{[700][45][701][702][703]} and GP Dr. Seewald championed Handball.^[704][705] More recent GPs included community leader Carl Rosen, his wife Cynthia,^[706][707] synagogue president Solomon Lurie (descendant of the world's oldest-known family and the Rabbinic dynasty of Solomon Luria),^{[491][278][708]} his son Ralph, and Louis Jaffe.^[250]

Senior medics were German emigre chest physician Max Isserlin, director of Castle Hill Hospital (cousin to an important psychiatrist of the same name, whose daughter Beate was a Hull GP);^{[250][709][710]} and Philip Science, Hull City Coroner.^[711] Clive Aber was a well-known cardiologist.^{[712][713][714][715][716]}

Minister Samuel Simon sold spectacles in the 1820s, and Henry Franks was optician on Whitefriargate in 1842.^[717] Bush Opticians, still around Hull,^[718] began in Victorian jewellery days,^[719][720] whilst Sydney Burnley (also a pharmacist) and the Daniels brothers are more recent.^[721][722] Vinegrad, Winroope and Passman were pharmacists, as have been three Sugarmans.^{[723][724][725]}

– Law[]

Mayor William Henry Moss founded a firm of solicitors,^[657][658] as did Bethel's prominent son Joseph Jacobs (Jacobs and Dixon);^[117] and later Samuel Feldman and Maurice Gosschalk.^[669][726] Other Jewish practices were Lewensteins,^[727][728] Myer Wolff,^[729] and Rosen & (Benno) Pearlman.^[728] Lionel Rosen represented family of the lost trawler Gaul,^[730] along with synagogue president Max Gold,^[731][732] who also chaired Hull Kingston Rovers.^{[733][357][734]} Warren Winetroube, Leon Lurie and Ian Lanch are also recent senior solicitors.^{[735][736][737]}

Michael Rosenberg of Hull was a district judge;^[738] and Lorna Cole (wife of solicitor Carl Rosen, mother of Paul, eye-surgeon, and Sophie, solicitor and teacher) was the first female barrister on the North Eastern Circuit.^[739][740] Myrella Cohen from Manchester became Recorder of Hull in 1971, later a judge at the Old Bailey, retiring in 1995 as Britain's longest-serving woman judge, and longest-serving Jewish judge.^[741]

– Other[]

Architect Benjamin Septimus Jacobs (1851–1931), son of Bethel Jacobs (see Early history), designed many Hull buildings – the Yorkshire Penny Bank (now Café Nero) in Queen Victoria Square, as well as Linnaeus Street synagogue.^{[742][743][744][745][746][747]} Finestein, Sugarman, Deitch, and Feldman were more recent architects. Bob Rosner, a Hull Kindertransport child adopted by Councillor Leo Schultz (see Civic leaders),^[748][489] was involved with part of the design of the Humber Bridge project;^[749] the Bridge's chief architect Bernard Wex was the son of Julius Wex, a London lace merchant (of unknown background) who arrived in 1900 from Germany.^[750] Glasgow's Isi Metzstein designed Cottingham's award-winning student campus, The Lawns.^{[751][752][753]}

In living memory, Louis Seltzer, Billy Sugarman (see War service), Aubrey Gordon and Maurice Waxman were state-school headmasters in Hull.^[754] Sadofsky, Korklin, Field, and Harris are recalled as accountants.^[755][756] Goodman was a surveyor, Livingstone and Blank estate agents.^[757]

Professionals beyond Hull[]

– Healthcare[]

Amongst Hull-born doctors are antenatal-screening authority Prof. Howard Cuckle of Leeds, New York and Tel Aviv;^{[758][759][21]} and Prof. Stuart Rosen,^[760] cardiologist, of Imperial College London – son of GP parents, and brother to Jerusalem Rabbis Jonathan and Joseph.^[706][535] Hull-born cousins Paul and Emanuel Rosen are influential eye surgeons based in Oxford and Manchester.^{[761][762][763][764]}

Edward Levine was an academic oncologist in Manchester, described as brilliant and much-loved.^[765]

Leon Vinegrad was a Hull-born GP, and also a psychiatrist,^[766] years before hospital CEO Philip Sugarman.^[767][768] New York's visionary Rabbi Alan Miller, also a psychoanalyst,^[769] was born in Hull, son of Rabbi Louis Miller.^[770][771]

Rudolf Sprinz became Professor of Dental Anatomy at Edinburgh.^[772] Luci Daniels chaired the British Dietetic Association.^[773]

– Law[]

Simon Levine,^[774] brother to Dr. Edward Levine, manages global law firm DLA Piper.^[775] Son of Hull GP (and homeopath to royalty) Michael Bott, is international fraud expert Charles Bott QC.^[776][777] Prof. John Peysner, son of Osborne Street butcher Kopel Peysner, was head of Lincoln Law School.^{[778][779][780]} Mark Friend is an international commercial lawyer and authority on competition law.^[781][782] Dentist's son Adrian Flasher is a specialist prosecutor in international drug cases.^{[783][784][785]}

Israel Finestein QC (1921–2009), Deputy High Court Judge, was a leader and historian of British Jewry.^{[786][787][788][789]} Two of his Hull-born nephews also became judges – John Finestein,^[790][791] and Colin Lang (a Birmingham solicitor, and member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews).^[789] Israel Finestein's "home town" essay on the Jews of Hull is meticulously researched.^[5] He was president of the Mental Health Review Tribunal, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and the Jewish Historical Society. The Leeds branch of the latter was founded by Hull-born Bernard Silver, who in 1948 helped arrange arms-smuggling in Palestine.^[792][793]

– Other[]

Dame Valerie Strachan DCB is the daughter of Hull chemist, B'nai B'rith stalwart, and City Councillor John Jonas Nicholls (Nickelsberg); she headed UK Customs & Excise 1993–2000, and was named a Jewish Care Woman of Distinction in 1999.^{[794][795][796][797][798]}

Jacob Grantham co-chairs the Civil Service Jewish Network.^[799]

Hull GP's daughter Michelle Daniels is make-up artist to celebrities.^[800][801]

Simon Winetroube is director of English at Curtin University, Australia.^[802][803]

Clifford Harry Barnett, born in Hull 1927 was an architect, RIBA Bronze Medallist in 1947, of the firm Gillinson Barnett & Partners, known for landmark modernist leisure and shopping centres.^{[804][805][806][807][808][809]}

Science and technology[]

Sir Bernhard Samuelson (1820–1905) was brought up in Hull in a wealthy converted merchant family, and educated at Skirlaugh. He married the daughter of Hull Mayor Henry Blundell; his brother Martin was a Hull shipbuilder and mayor (see Civic leaders, above). A major iron and steel industrialist of the era, and multi-talented champion for scientific and technical education, Bernhard was an MP for 30 years, a member of Gladstone's administration, Privy Counsellor, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.^{[810][811][812][813]}

Sydney Goldstein MA PhD (1903–89) was born to the family of the Hull & East Riding Furnishing Co., Anlaby Road.^[611] A brilliant Cambridge mathematician, later professor at Manchester and Harvard, his contribution to aerodynamics and the Taylor–Goldstein equation brought Fellowship of the Royal Society age 33, the youngest since Michael Faraday.^[814][815]

Also from Hull is Prof. Malcolm Levitt BA DPhil, a world expert in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.^[816] After Oxford, MIT etc., he heads a Southampton team; he is another Fellow of the Royal Society.^[817] For doctors, see Professionals.

Hull University[]

Among continental emigres was Prof. Jacob Bronowski (1908–74), best known for the BBC's 1973 The Ascent of Man, who taught maths at University College Hull 1934–42, and lived in Cottingham.^[818][819] Another was economist Prof. Theodor Plaut of Hamburg, descendant of banking dynasties, who lectured at University College Hull 1933–1936;^[505][506] his son Gus, a pupil at Hymers College, became a noted London doctor and philanthropist, later in York.^{[506][820][356]} In the 1940s refugee Dr. Marcus Weinberger lectured at Hull,^[821] and later headed Mathematics at Canada's Operational Research and Analysis Establishment.^[822] Ludwig Lachmann, a brilliant emigre economist of the 1930s at LSE, went on to lecture in Hull in 1943.^{[823][824][825][826]} Bernhard Neumann AC FRS was born in Berlin; lecturer in mathematics at Hull 1946–8, he became a leading figure in group theory.^[827]

Raphael Powell (1904-65) was Head of Law at University College Hull 1937-49, later Professor of Roman Law at University College London.^[828][829]

The Chancellor of Hull University 1970–77 was Lord Cohen of Birkenhead, a dominant physician in the early NHS and associate of Nye Bevan; a friend in Liverpool of Hull-born Aby Furman, Henry Cohen was the first Jew and the first medic in the UK to hold a University Chancellor position.^[830][831]

Biochemist Prof. John Friend, born in Liverpool, was head of plant biology, science Pro-vice Chancellor at Hull University,^[832] and one of the signatories to the 1972 landmark environmentalist Blueprint for Survival.^[833] A founder of the Middle East Study Group at Hull University, and advocate of interfaith relations in Hull, he was a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.^[834] His son, Hull's Richard Friend, is an ethnographer and environmental fieldworker in the Far East and academic at York University.^[835][836]

Harold Silver, born in Hull, became one of the 20th century's leading writers and thinkers on the history of education and the role of education policy in social change.^{[837][838][839][840]} First a postgraduate at Hull University, later at Cambridge and the University of London, he was also a poet, linguist, columnist and writer of children's stories.^[837] Jewish MP Louise Ellman studied sociology and history at Hull University.^[841] Allan Levy QC studied law at Hull, became a barrister specialising in family law and children's rights. He chaired the Pindown Inquiry.^[842][843] Jonathan Raban, travel writer, novelist and critic, studied literature and drama at Hull.^[844]

Prof. Raphael Cohen-Almagor DPhil is chair in Politics and founding director of the Middle East Study Group at the University of Hull.^[845] A visiting professor at leading universities in many countries, he is a widely published author on democracy and human rights, peace and liberty.^{[846][847][848]}

Hull-born Valerie Sanders is Professor of English at the University, an expert particularly on Victorian women's writing and family life.^{[849][850][851]} Professor Sanders has been head of the English Department, director of the Graduate School, and featured on the BBC.^{[852][853][849]}

Dr Giles Davidson, descendant of the Hull Davidovitz/Davidson family, was a key executive in the founding of the Hull's The Deep aquarium and the Hull York Medical School,^[854] and Principal of the University's Scarborough Campus.^[855] He is currently leading the Ark-National Flood Resilience Centre project at the University.^[856]

Dr. Judith Cohen heads the Hull Health Trials Unit.^[857][858]

Literature and publishing[]

Novelist Lionel Davidson, born to a Polish tailor in Hull, started writing at The Spectator. His neglected but prize-winning spy fiction, such as Kolymsky Heights, is compared to Fleming, Le Carré and Maclean.^{[859][860][861]} Lionel's sister Edie (Edith Noble) became prominent internationally in Jewish women's organisations - see Jewish leadership below.

Distinguished national newspaper editor and publisher Mark Goulden, born in Bristol, ran regional papers as a noteworthy figure in Hull; mixing both with the Jewish community and figures like Amy Johnson, the flier, he went on in 1933 to interview Albert Einstein, warning the world about Hitler.^{[862][863][864][865]}

Hull-born Simon Clyne (d.2011) was a Fleet Street picture editor; as a centenarian he was the oldest Brit to emigrate to Israel.^[866][867]

Brought up in Hull were Norma Levinson, daughter of Rev. Levinson, who published fiction,^{[868][869][870]} including the televised The Room Upstairs; and her sister Deidre, also an accomplished writer.^{[871][872][873]}

Domini Highsmith a.k.a. Domini Wiles (1942–2003) was a Yorkshire-born Jewish novelist and local historian in Beverley, near Hull.^[874] Resident in Beverley too was collector Malcolm Shields (b.Schultz), a Hull businessman,^[604][359] he wrote about evacuation,^[525] and latterly with his partner about great local artists.^{[875][876][877]}

Joyce Kennedy née Harris (1933–2021), born in Hull, a GP and anaesthetist in Salford, was a writer on classical music who collaborated with her husband Michael, a veteran Telegraph music critic.^[878][879] She was joint editor of the multi-edition Oxford Dictionary of Music (1980),^[880] and authored books on opera.^{[881][882][883]}

Art and design[]

Baron Duveen of Millbank, Joseph (1869–1939), born in Hull, was the world's greatest art-dealer. His Dutch Sephardi father had married the daughter of a Carr Lane antiques dealer,^[884] and opened London and New York fine art and porcelain showrooms. Duveen junior bought from UK aristocrats and sold to Hearst, Morgan, Rockefeller, Getty, Frick etc., donating generously to Hull's Guildhall and Ferens galleries, the British Museum and The Tate.^{[121][885][886][887]} He was made a Freeman of the City of Hull in 1929.^[888][44]

Ellis Abraham Davidson,^[889][890] a Victorian pioneer of art-and-design teaching, and a prolific writer and lecturer on science, nature and religion,^[891] was Hull born-and-bred; as was Pat Albeck, textile designer and "Queen of the Tea Towels".^[892][893] Sir Jacobs Behrens, who lived in Hull c.1834, founded Manchester's now oldest textile company;^[894][895] and Hull cabinet-maker Louis Lebus, and son Harris (1852–1907) moved to London, to open the world's largest furniture factory, famed for arts-and-crafts.^[608][890]

Sport[]

Marcus Bibbero (1837–1910), brought up in Hull, was a world-class swimmer and cross-channel coach, who promoted life-saving and municipal baths.^[661] A somewhat eccentric figure, he first appears in British newspapers for assaulting reporters who investigated his Pepper's Ghost exhibition in Hull,^{[896][897][898]} a charge of which he was acquitted.^[899] Later styling himself as Professor or Marquis Bibbero, he became an international sensation, for feats such as swimming manacled from Brooklyn to Manhattan.^{[900][901][902][661][903]}

Handball was first introduced from Europe after the war, by emigre GP Dr. L.M. Seewald, who ran a league in Hull, and wrote the first rule book in English.^{[904][704][705]}

Born and bred in Hull was Bombardier Arthur Myerthall, who boxed as cruiserweight "Gunner Martell", winning over 50 fights in the region.^{[905][906][907][908]}

Louis Harris MBE (1896–75) played as a three-quarter for Hull Kingston Rovers, with 255 appearances, and was later the club's coach.^{[56][909][910][911]} Of many Jewish Rugby League enthusiasts,^[912][913] a few like Harris became directors at one of the two Hull clubs.^{[914][915][916][912][73]} South African Wilf Rosenberg "the flying dentist" played 86 times for Hull FC 1961–1963,^[917][918] as well for Leeds. Manny Cussins, born in Hull 1905,^[919][920] a nephew of Lloyd Rakusen, became a furniture magnate and philanthropist in Leeds, and chaired Leeds United F.C. 1972–83.

Local boy Leon "Lolly" Waters played football for Hull City AFC, and Scarborough Town.^[921] Bermitz Sports Publicity, familiar in the football world, was based in Hull.^[922][923] Reports from Hull City matches on BBC Radio Humberside were regularly given by Elliot Oppel in the 1960s and 70s.^[924] Having failed to attract Israeli manager Avram Grant in 2010,^[925][926] struggling Hull City later appointed Russian Leonid Slutsky, an observant Jew, but his tenure lasted only six months.^[927][928]

Martin Schultz played cricket for Hull CC in the 1970s, for Great Britain in the 1981 and 1985' Maccabiah Games, and still plays in London.^[929][930]

Entertainment[]

Joseph Levy of Hull, who died in 1899, was a travelling circus manager.^{[931][932][933][934][935]}

Eccentric variety artist Harry Seltzer left Hull, to appear with Trinder, Formby, Flanagan, Keaton, Chaplin etc., and become King of the Grand Order of Water Rats.^[936][937]

Jerry Gold (father to Max, see Professionals in Hull) was a rotund comedian, popular in Hull, who toured the Northern Circuit and beyond c.1928–46.^{[938][939][940]} Local Jewish entertainers of the early and mid-twentieth century in Hull ranged from dancing barbers Joe Hyman and Moishe Krantz,^[941] to soprano Lena Hyman,^[26] and hypnotist Walter Abrahams.^[942]

Mira Bibbero Johnson of Hull (family of Marcus, see Sport) was a Northern Circuit performer, on the BBC in the 1920s with skits and impersonations, often at the piano, who later opened the city's House of Mirelle.^[643] Celia Martell (Myerthall) played piano on the BBC around 1937–40,^{[943][944][945]} known now for her piano-accordion arrangement of Teddy Bears' picnic.^[946][947]

In 1870, a Monsieur Henri Hartog was conductor in Hull of the Yorkshire Amateur Concerts.^[948] From that year on,^[949] for a decade,^[950] blind 8-year old violinist Isaac Isenberg, a Hebrew School pupil in Hull,^[196] played, in the Public Rooms on Jarrett Street, on Osborne Street, and elsewhere,^[951] and was dubbed "the blind Paganini".^[952]

Later, the jazz and big band era had many Jewish contributors, including in Hull.^{[953][954][941][955]} Well-known local dance-band leaders were occasionally broadcast by the BBC – Louis Goulden,^[956][25] his protege Louis Gold,^[957] and Maxwell Daniels.^[958][959] Maxwell's brother Benny was a pre-war saxophonist with the great Jack Hylton,^[960][961] and post-war bandleader based in Glasgow,^[962] heard on the BBC 1947–68;^[963] he originally played with third brother Jack,^[964][965] saxophonist and session musician.^[966] Basil Kirchin, son of band leader Ivor Kirchin who played in Hull, was an English drummer and influential composer of avant-garde electronic and experimental music; he settled in Hull, where his father later joined him.^{[967][968][969][970]}

John Bentley was bass guitarist for Squeeze.^[971][972]

Dame Maureen Lipman DBE,^[12] is the daughter of Maurice "Mush" Lipman, tailor and naval outfitter on Monument Bridge in Hull's city centre,^{[973][974][975]} and president of Park Street synagogue.^[291] She married playwright Jack Rosenthal; her outstanding career in theatre, film, writing and TV also featured 1980s BT adverts as Beattie, a Jewish mother.^{[976][977][978][979][980][981]}

Elliot Oppel was a Hull maths teacher, regional sports reporter, and regular presenter of Top Town Quiz on BBC Radio Humberside.^[982][924] A writer and local historian,^{[52][983][984]} he also made radio broadcasts for the BBC on Jewish topics.^[985] Media producer Jonathan Levy broadcasts on Beverley FM.^[986][987]

Hull's Beryl Cobden married Leonard Steinberg, later Baron Steinberg, the Stanley Leisure bookmaking and casino magnate;^[988] Lady Steinberg is patron of such charities as the Manchester Jewish Federation and UK Jewish film.^{[989][990][991][992][993][994]}

Jewish Leadership[]

Hull's Israel Finestein QC was, amongst many roles, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews (see Law, above). Edith Noble (born Davidson in Hull in 1910) became President of the League of Jewish Women, Life President of The Alliance of Jewish Women and their Organisations (AJWO) and Vice President of the International Council of Jewish Women.^[995][996]

Non-Jews[]

There are countless Hull "gentiles" who have contributed to the life of the local Jews, or the Jewish world more widely. Sir Mark Sykes, MP for Central Hull, and Yorkshire landowner, was a passionate Zionist and key architect behind the Balfour Declaration.^[997][998]

Hull-born Sister Agnes Walsh (d.1993) sheltered and helped save a Jewish family from deportation, while at a convent in southern France during the war; she is honoured in Israel as Righteous Among the Nations.^{[999][1000][1001]}

Alex J. Kay, born in East Hull, is one of the world's leading scholars of the Holocaust era.^[1002]

Nick Evans is a historian at Hull University, an expert on migrant diasporas, who has researched the Jews of Hull.^{[1003][1004][2][150][151][154][179][184]}

Miscellaneous[]

Max Factor, the make-up king, who started in stage greasepaint, is rumoured to have come through Hull, probably because another of that name did so,^[1005] and because half-brother John Factor dubiously claimed to be born there.^[302][1006] Known as Jake-the-Barber, friend of Al Capone, and as the world's greatest swindler, John Factor broke the bank at Monte Carlo, ran a Las Vegas casino, and was later a philanthropist pardoned by Kennedy.^{[1007][1008][1009]}

Dr Samuel Kuttner (d.1908) was a German-born Manchester shop-keeper, who became in 1840 a Protestant Minister, but converted to Catholicism in 1852. Claiming to have been chaplain to the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, as a travelling lecturer with an unlikely string of qualifications, he was exposed for his frauds.^[1010][1011] He married in Hull, and in 1859 was a bankrupted shipping agent at no. 24 Humber Dock-walls;^[1012][1013] his great-granddaughter was the pianist Marguerite Wolff.^[1014]

References[]