Collapse in ‘Orthodox middle’ shul numbers

● Memberships drop 20 per cent overall

THE NUMBER of households affiliated to synagogues in the UK has fallen by 20 per cent over the past quarter of a century, with central Orthodoxy the biggest loser, after shedding more than a third of its members.

Synagogue membership dropped from 99,763 households in 1990 to 79,597 last year, according to a report by the Board of Deputies and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) published this week.

The overall total is “the lowest count recorded for many years,” the report says.

But while the Orthodox middle has suffered a squeeze, the dramatic growth of Charedi communities continues apace. Strictly Orthodox congregations have increased their membership by 139 per cent since 1990 and their share of the overall synagogue market has more than tripled over that time — from four per cent to 13 per cent in 2016.

Jonathan Boyd, JPR executive director

and co-author of the report, said: “Because the more Progressive wing is largely stable, representing just under a third of the total, the trends point to a future in which stricter forms of Orthodoxy will hold an increasingly prominent position, not only in synagogue membership, but in how Judaism is practised and how Judaism is seen and understood by others.”

Apart from the strictly Orthodox, the only stream to grow is Masorti, which has more than doubled its membership since 1990 and is no longer the smallest grouping, having overtaken the Sephardim.

Although the Reform and Liberals have increased their share of overall synagogue membership since 1990, both have lost numbers over time.

Membership of central Orthodox synagogues, which include those under the Chief Rabbinate, has fallen by 37 per cent over the past 26 years.

STATS 20,166 fewer household shul memberships since 1990 +139%

increase in Charedi community membership in past 27 years

Overall, the percentage of Jewish households which belong to a synagogue has dropped from around 59 per cent to 56 per cent since 2001.

But while membership has declined, the actual number of congregations has risen to “almost certainly the largest… there has ever been in Britain”.

There were 354 synagogues in 1990, but the recorded number had risen by 100 to 454 by last year. Post-war there were 415 synagogues in the UK. The Jewish population was reckoned to be at least a third larger then than it is now.

The rise in the number of synagogues is “most likely a result of a growing number of [Charedi] shtiebltype synagogues entering the system,” the report says. Shtiebls usually serve a few dozen people rather than the hundreds who belong to typical central Orthodox or Progressive synagogues.

While central Orthodox was the dominant synagogue group in 1990, representing 70 per cent of shul memin bers including Sephardim, that had fallen to 56 per cent by 2016. Over the same period, the non-Orthodox rose from 26 per cent to 31 per cent.

Rabbi Avraham Pinter, chairman of the external affairs committee of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, said: “We are proud that we have such an engaged and growing community and particularly the number of young members our synagogues have.”

It was, he added, “sad that the numbers of people who are members of the Orthodox community has declined in total and we hope that the wider community will instill pride into the younger generation and follow the pattern of our community in the future”.

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Senior Rabbi of the Movement for Reform Judaism, said the report “underlines that we are two communities going very different directions. People are increasingly rejecting a Judaism that does not reflect their values”.

A United Synagogue spokesman pointed out: “Orthodoxy continues to constitute over two-thirds of those affiliated to communities in the UK and we are aware that a small number of US members are moving to the right, with an even smaller number moving to non-Orthodox groups.”

Matt Plen, chief executive of Masorti Judaism, said he was proud the community’s youngest movement was “bucking the trend” in having increased membership from 1,226 in 1990 to 2,620 by 2016. “We have been particularly successful in attracting young families and this promises further growth in the future,” he said.

But the report, he added, “pointed to two worrying developments — lower levels of involvement in Jewish community life and increasing polarisation as evidenced by the growth of Charedi communities compared with the decline of centrist Orthodoxy”.

The Jewish population was a third larger after the war’