Community
Historic Mersey shul suspends services as attendances plummet
Princes Road cancels Simchat Torah service and puts further services on hold
September 30, 2021 09:22
Princes Road cancels Simchat Torah service and puts further services on hold
September 30, 2021 09:22Liverpool’s oldest shul cancelled its Simchat Torah service after failing to secure a minyan for recent services.
Princes Road, one of only three Grade I-listed synagogues in the country, was due to hold a service for Shemini Atzeret on Tuesday — when Yizkor is recited.
But thereafter, services are suspended with trustees due to meet next week to decide how frequently they should run in future.
In a letter to members, senior warden Saul Marks said that “for the first time in my memory” it failed to attract a minyan on the Shabbat before last and also on the first day of Succot.
High Holy-Day attendance was around half of the pre-Covid number.
Since the building reopened for prayer in August after a nine month closure, a minyan had been achieved only through the “coincidental presence of one-off visitors”, he wrote.
Mr Marks told the JC the pandemic had “definitely been a catalyst” for declining numbers with some members nervous about returning.
But he observed that “in a shul which seats 824 — and when a typical congregation on Shabbat was 25 — social distancing and Covid precautions are not a problem”.
However, some members had become more infirm since the outbreak of the pandemic while others might be caring for a spouse. He also believed that some people were now “out of the habit of going to shul”.
Mr Marks told members to “do your best to attend when services resume”.
Princes Road is unique among Orthodox shuls in Britain in retaining a mixed choir, which sung during the High Holy-Days. Numbers reached 83 at peak attendance during Yom Kippur.
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