According to this newspaper’s archives, Jewish convicts were transferred to the prison between 1894 and 1895 after the closure of the nearby Portsmouth Prison.
“It’s not one of those quirky bits of knowledge somebody says on hearing that you’re the coroner for the Isle of Wight and knows that you’re Jewish,” said Ms Sumeray.
“There are always Jewish prisoners and there are visiting chaplains who go to prisons to administer to the pastoral needs of these prisoners but I had never been aware of an English prison where there are so many Jewish prisoners that they can get a minyan together and require a rabbi for services,” she said.
Around a decade ago, a Sefer Torah, pile of Sedorim and tallisim were discovered in a hidden cupboard in a chapel on the prison grounds.
“I actually transported the Sefer Torah from the Isle of Wight to the United Synagogue in Finchley,” recalled Jewish chaplain Brian Weisman, who regularly visited prisoners at HMP Parkhurst until 2015.
“It was an honour to bring it back. The Sefer Torah had been sitting there for so long, probably 20 odd years and it was just discovered by the chaplain.”
Mr Weisman said the former shul closed decades before his time, possibly in the seventies or eighties. “They had quite a good Jewish population but the numbers dwindled ... and they had to close the shul.”
The Isle of Wight is home to around 124 people who identified as Jewish in the last census. The island has no active synagogues nor any sources of kosher food.
