The Machzike Hadath community synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

 is a Lithuanian

Lithuanian Jews

Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...

, Ashkenazi synagogue founded in 1891.

The synagogue, also known as the Spitalfields Great Synagogue, was founded in 1891 in the East End of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. In 1893, it merged with the Machzike Shomrei Shabbat Synagogue of Booth Street. In 1898 they acquired premises in Spitalfields

Spitalfields

Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to many markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, founded in the 17th century, Sunday...

, at the corner of Fournier Street and Brick Lane

Brick Lane

Brick Lane is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It runs from Swanfield Street in the northern part of Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road, passes through Spitalfields and is linked to Whitechapel High Street to the south by the short stretch of...

, where they remained for 70 years. The building, first established in 1743 as a Protestant chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 ("La Neuve Eglise") by London's French Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 community and later a Methodist Chapel, is now the Brick Lane Mosque

Brick Lane Mosque

Brick Lane Jamme Masjid formerly known as the London Jamme Masjid , is located in the area of Spitalfields alongside the street of Brick Lane and Fournier Street in east London, England...

. The synagogue moved to Golders Green

Golders Green

Golders Green is an area in the London Borough of Barnet in London, England. Although having some earlier history, it is essentially a 19th century suburban development situated about 5.3 miles north west of Charing Cross and centred on the crossroads of Golders Green Road and Finchley Road.In the...

 in 1970 where its new building was consecrated in 1983.

The first rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

 of the community was Rabbi Avraham Aba Werner (1891–1912). Later rabbis include Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook

Abraham Isaac Kook

Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...

, and Rabbi Yechezkel Abramsky

Yehezkel Abramsky

Yehezkel Abramsky , also affectionately referred to as 'Reb Chatzkel Abramsky', was a prominent and influential Orthodox rabbi and scholar, born and raised in Russia who later headed the London Beth Din for 17 years....

. The current rabbi is Rabbi Chaim Zundel Pearlman.

In the late 1920s the Machzike Hadath sponsored the publication of an edition of the Mishna Berura.

External links

- The official synagogue website

• Machzike Hadath Synagogue on Jewish Communities and Records - UK (hosted by jewishgen.org).