A Manchester synagogue which owes its establishment to a pre-war discussion in a pub celebrates its 75th anniversary this weekend.
The Prestwich Hebrew Congregation founding members “met in the George pub in Prestwich feeling there was need for a shul in the neighbourhood, which wasn’t a Jewish one at the time,” explained 91-year-old Issy Mintz, a member for 61 years.
Now life president, he has seen membership swell to 600 by “moving with the times”.
The synagogue campus is now home to a youth centre, banqueting suite and an evening yeshivah programme. But in 1937 it was an old Victorian house called Shrubbery, which gave rise to the shul’s nickname of Shrubs.