Westcliff Charedim reveal plans for a synagogue on warehouse site

A Chasidic group had used Southend and Westcliff Hebrew Congregation premises but the arrangement ended in 2018 with claims that the group had been made to feel “unwelcome”.

The application says: “While two synagogues already exist in the borough, there are fundamental elements and customs of the Chasidim community’s observance of Jewish law that set it apart from other Orthodox Jewish services and practices. 

“Accordingly, the Chasidim community needs its own synagogue dedicated to worship, teaching and learning, centrally located to the settled Westcliff families that it will serve and positioned in the middle of the enclosing eruv.” 

Families were moving to the Essex coast because of overcrowding and property costs in Stamford Hill, the application noted.