Mersey shul’s tour plans after resuming services
LIVERPOOL’S HISTORIC Old Hebrew Congregation has reopened its Princes Road synagogue for services for the first time in more than nine months.
“It was wonderful to hear all the shul tunes which we’ve missed for so long,” said chairman Saul Marks after the initial Shabbat morning gathering.
Now that Shabbat services have resumed, the Merseyside congregation is also keen to restart tours of its Grade I-listed premises next month — and stage concerts from October.
But budgetary strains have left the community unable to appoint a permanent minister to succeed its former rabbi, Ariel Abel, who had stints as fulltime, and latterly part-time minister.
Rabbi Abel left the congregation in January, with the shul expressing gratitude for his services. However, the JC reported last year that there had been a rift resulting from a newspaper column he wrote suggesting that Jews should not fast on Yom Kippur as it would lower immunity to Covid-19.
The shul stressed that it had maintained an amicable relationship with Rabbi Abel.
For the moment, the Rev Yigal Wachmann is filling in on an informal part-time basis.
Mr Marks said the synagogue had faced increased expenditure at a time of reduced income because of the pandemic.
It has had to carry out urgent repairs to its main building and annexe.
A £40,000 grant from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage had been invaluable, with half the money going to repairs and renovations, £10,000 towards marketing and fundraising and the remainder on reopening expenditure and general administration. Treasurer Julian Rosenthal acknowledged that the “money came through at a very opportune moment”.
Mr Marks, meanwhile, hoped the resumption of tours and concerts would “get some money back in the coffers”, given that both were “very important income streams”.
There was also the heartening prospect of hosting its traditional High Holy-Day services. “Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at Princes Road are like nowhere else on earth,” he claimed.
After the synagogue closed its doors last October, leaders took the decision to wait until live music could be incorporated into services before reopening.