Long ago, there was once a large Jewish community in the North End.
The North End was once home to well over a dozen Jewish Synagogues. In fact, by the turn of the 19th century, the North End was a neighborhood of nearly two dozen Jewish Synagogues.
By the 1930’s the North End was no longer a major center of Jewish life in Boston.
Do you live where a Jewish Synagogue once was? See the timeline below. (Click image to enlarge.)
Very interesting. Did the West End have the same large Jewish population? Did the
North End precede the West End as a heavily populated Jewish area. A fascinating topic for the.
for the North End Historical Society to present.
The West End had “the same large Jewish population” as the North End, both late 1800s Eastern European – and the South End which, in the mid-1800s with German Jews, Ohabi Shalom (now Charles Play House), T Israel, etc., was where the Finance and Theater District are now. The West End Vilna Shul 18 Philips Street is now a synagogue museum. See its web site. The African American Meeting House on Joy Street was another West End synagogue. Leonard Nimoy was a born in the West End, attended T Beth El with his grandfather, and incorporated many Jewish “things” into Star Trek, not the least of which was the Cohen Shema Vulcan salute.
Do you know where the records of these congregations ended up? My great-grandparents lived in the North End (on Cherry, Moon, and then Salem Street) between 1887-1892, and I’d love to find out which synagogue(s) they belonged to.