BRIGHTON

BRIGHTON, town on the south coast of England. Jews began to settle in Brighton in the middle of the 18th century. When the town became a fashionable resort, wealthy Jews flocked there, including the goldsmid family at the beginning of the 19th century and the sassoons at its end. A congregation was first organized in 1800 but soon fell apart. It was reorganized in 1821. Jewish affairs are coordinated by the Brighton and Hove Jewish Council. The Jewish population of Brighton and Hove was estimated in 1968 at 7,500. In the mid-1990s the combined Jewish population numbered approximately 10,000. The 2001 British census found that there were 3,358 Jews by religious affiliation in Brighton and Hove, although the actual figure was probably much higher. In 2004 Brighton continued to have a wide range of Jewish institutions, including four synagogues, two Orthodox, one Liberal, and one Reform. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Roth, Rise of Provincial Jewry (1950), 34ff. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: D. Spector, "The Jews of Brighton, 1779–1900," in: JHSET 22 (1968–69), 42–52; idem., "Brighton Jewry Reconsidered," in: JHSET 30 (1987–88), 91–124; JYB, 2004. (Cecil Roth / William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)