Charting the history of our town’s Jewish links

Chapel, in New Mill.

A list of members of the Unitarian congregation in Fitzwilliam Street mentions five Jewish surnames: Huth, Kell, Liebeicht, Lowenthal, and Schwann. The last is the surname of Frederic Schwann, one of the founding fathers of higher education in Huddersfield.

Around 1895 Huddersfield’s Jewish community became more formalised, even if it was yet to have its own synagogue.

And far from isolating itself, the community invited non-Jewish guests to its first celebration of the Jewish New Year, which was led by Rabbi Emmanuel Grossblatt, of Leeds.

In 1902, the Jewish Year Book refers to a synagogue which in subsequent editions is revealed to have been at 11 Northumberland Street. The building will have been lost when the town centre ring road was built.

Members of the synagogue included Henry Kruger, a Prussianborn photographer who later emigrated to the US; Jacob Harris, a tailor from a part of Poland which then belonged to Russia, and Marks Kahn, a Russian draper.

In 1910, the Jewish Chronicle newspaper records that Huddersfield was a dispersal area for Jews fleeing poverty and persecution in Eastern Europe.

The first documented Jewish wedding - of Cordelia Freedman - took place at Albany Hall, Clare Hill, Birkby.

By 1939 the population was estimated to be as low as 10. Many are thought to have joined larger Jewish communities in Leeds and Bradford.

In 1941, the Jewish Synagogue and Community Centre opened at 11 Albion Street, which is now the site of Kirklees Council’s Civic Centre. It is noted that there have been no Holy Days services for 15 years. Presumably this is because there aren’t enough members for public worship; Judaism requires 10 men (known as a ‘minyan’) for this.

The synagogue had an educated set of members including four doctors, with surnames Ballon, Davis, Kahn, and Sapier, and three dentists with surnames Friend, Horwich, and Samek. Davis and Kahn are also town councillors.

The synagogue treasurer was Clara Schofield, born Clara Schoolberg in Huddersfield, in 1909. She was the daughter of a Hull-born wallpaper merchant, and the granddaughter of a Russian-born jeweller and silversmith.

The community was represented on the Board of Jewish Deputies by Marcus Shloimovitz although he appeared to be from Salford, which had (and still has) a large Jewish population.

There appears to have been no local rabbi so services were led by Mr Kahn. Rabbinical assistance for Holy Day services and weddings was provided by rabbis from bigger communities elsewhere.

There does, however, appear to have been a time when Huddersfield had a resident rabbi, one Rev Srolowitz who was almost certainly Lithuanian-born Moses Srolowitz.

In 1951, there were 70 Jews living in Huddersfield.

The Jewish population didn’t ‘decline’ as such, it just appears to have become less organised and formal. Around 1961 the last service is held at the Jewish Synagogue and Community Centre, on Albion Street. It is closed because the congregation has shrunk such that they can no longer form a minyan.

Lord Joseph Kagan, was born Juozapas Kaganas in Lithuania. Kagan settled in Huddersfield in 1946.

He invented the waterproof fabric Gannex which was worn by Huddersfield-born Prime Minister Harold Wilson as well as US president Lyndon Johnson, China communist leader Mao Zedong and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh also wore coats made from Gannex.

He became a life peer in 1976, taking the name Baron Kagan of Elland. He was jailed in 1981 for stealing from his own companies and became a campaigner for prison reform after his release. He died in 1994.

Lady Margaret Kagan, the wife of Lord Kagan, was born Margarita Shtromaite to non-observing Jewish parents on July 12, 1924, in Riga, Latvia.

She met Juozapas Kaganas while living in a Latvian ghetto. The couple, who married in 1943, managed to hide from the Nazis before coming to Britain via Romania.

They founded the Kagan textile empire in a Nissen hut with starting capital of £8. The company went on to employ over 1,000 workers and occupied a large mill at Elland which was demolished only last month.

From 1965, the family lived at Delamare, Fixby, for 30 years until the death of Lord Kagan in 1995, when Lady Kagan moved to Bradley. They also bought Barkisland Hall in 1967 for corporate entertaining. She died in 2011.

Stan Solomons was born in Stepney, East London, to Jewish parents Stan went on to join the Air Force and complete his National Service, serving in the former Rhodesia.

He moved to Huddersfield to join the West Riding News Service in 1954 with founder Alan Cooper. The pair built up the news agency covering some of the biggest stories in West Yorkshire as well as pulling off some harmless ‘stunts’ to bring a smile to the faces of tabloid readers in the 1970s and 1980s. He died in March this year.

Credits: thanks to Anne C Brook and Nigel Grizzard for the information.