GLASGOW

GLASGOW, city in S.W. Scotland. The first Jew to settle in the city was Isaac Cohen in 1812; however there was no sizable community or synagogue until 1833, when services were held in the house of the shoḥet, Moses Lisenheim. By 1831, 47 Jews lived in the city, most of them originating from Eastern Europe, though six had already been born in Glasgow. Four years later the community acquired its first burial ground, which was used until 1851. There was a split in the congregation in 1842 when a hall attached to Anderson College was leased for religious services; a minority of community members objected, arguing that since human bodies were dissected at the college, it was an unfit place for a synagogue. Subsequent bitterness between the two groups led to court proceedings over the right to use the cemetery; the majority won the case. However, at the election of nathan marcus adler as chief rabbi of Great Britain in 1844, both parties exercised a vote. By 1850 there were 200 Jews in the city and eight years later they consecrated a new synagogue, known as the Glasgow Hebrew Congregation. In 1879 a synagogue was built for the community at Garnethill, with E.P. Phillips as minister; it was soon followed by two others in the South Side. (In 1979 the Garnethill Synagogue celebrated its centenary.) As elsewhere in Britain, an influx of immigrants followed the Russian persecutions of 1881; in 1897 there were 4,000 Jews in the city and in 1902, 6,500. Many of the newcomers, who settled in the Gorbals district, were tailors or furriers. The community was always active in Zionism, supporting Ḥovevei Ẓion in the 19th century and Zionist associations in modern times. Mainly because of the stimulus of the habonim movement , a large number of young Glasgow Jews settled on kibbutzim in Israel. A charity board originally known as the Glasgow Hebrew Philanthropic Society (1858) and later called the Glasgow Jewish Board of Guardians also helped in the organization of the Jewish Old Age Home for Scotland, situated in the south of the city. The Glasgow talmud torah and Board of Jewish Religious Education organized classes for children (as do the individual synagogues), directed the Hebrew College (for post-bar mitzvah Jewish education), and assisted in running the yeshivah. In 1970 there was a Jewish day school at the primary level and Hebrew was taught in two municipal secondary schools; Glasgow University taught both biblical and modern Hebrew. The Jewish Echo (weekly, established in 1928) was Scotland's only Jewish newspaper until 1965, when The Jewish Times (later renamed Israel Today) was established. The community had many organizations of Jewish interest, e.g., Bnei Akiva, ORT, and the Jewish Lad's Brigade (which claimed the world's only Jewish bagpipe band). Ten Orthodox and one Reform synagogue served the community. Religious leaders of note included samuel i. hillman , Kopul Rosen, I.K. Cosgrove (1903–1973), and Wolf Gottlieb (b. 1910). Among the community's outstanding members were sir maurice bloch , sir isaac wolfson , sir ian m. heilbron , Sir Myer Galpern (b. 1903, lord provost and lord lieutenant of Scotland (1958–60) and Labor M.P. (1959), Samuel Krantz (b. 1901) and L.H. Daiches . Notable in the university as well as in the community were Noah Morris (professor of medicine), Michael Samuel (professor of English language), and David Daiches Raphael (professor of political and social theory). In 1969 the Jewish population numbered about 13,400 (out of a total of 1,045,000). In the mid-1990s the Jewish population dropped to approximately 6,700. In 2001 the British census recorded a Jewish population of 4,224. Dr. Kenneth E. Collins has written a number of important studies of Glasgow Jewry, including Second City Jewry (1990). At the beginning of   the 21st century, six synagogues functioned in Glasgow, which also had a range of Jewish institutions, mainly in the city's southern suburbs. (See also oscar slater .) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Levy, Origins of Glasgow Jewry, 1812–1895 (1949); idem, Origins of Scottish Jewry (1959), 27–29; idem, in: JHSET, 19 (1960), 146–56; C. Roth, Rise of Provincial Jewry (1950), index; J. Gould and S. Esh (eds.), Jewish Life in Modern Britain (1964), index; C. Bermant, Troubled Eden (1969), index; idem, in: Explorations, 1 (1967), 99–106. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: K.E. Collins, Be Well\! Jewish Health and Welfare in Glasgow, 1860–1914 (2001); idem., Glasgow Jewry: A Guide to the History and Community of the Jews (1993).