One of the United Synagogue’s oldest congregations, Hackney and East London Synagogue, is to close shortly after Succot.
After its Grade II-listed building in Brenthouse Road was sold in 2009, members of the community – which was founded in 1881 – had been meeting up elsewhere in the borough.
But now numbers had dropped to the point where the congregation was “no longer sustainable”, said the United Synagogue.
Benjamin Vos, head of community development at the US, said: “Hackney and East London Synagogue has had an immense and positive impact on thousands of Jews and Jewish families over almost 150 years.
“The closure of this community is not a story of failure. Failure would have been if Hackney and East London Synagogue had not served generations of Jews. For well over a century, at Brenthouse Road and elsewhere, this shul enabled people to pray, learn, celebrate, mourn and build Jewish lives and families.
“Like many communities throughout Anglo-Jewish history, Hackney was created to serve Jews in a particular place and at a particular moment. Hackney’s legacy lives on in the generations it helped shape.”
The US is launching a project to commemorate the synagogue, inviting people to share memories, personal stories and photos to collect for an online history.
The community’s remaining members are being offered transfers to other communities.
"Our focus now is on honouring and preserving the remarkable story of Hackney and East London Synagogue while supporting members as they continue their Jewish journeys within other communities. We are determined that this proud legacy will not be forgotten,” Vos added.
Hackney now boasts the biggest Chasidic community in Europe.
There is also a Progressive, a Masorti and an independent central Orthodox synagogue in the area, but the closure of Hackney and East London marks the end of the US presence – although there remains a United Synagogue shul in South Tottenham, around two miles away.
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