<BELFAST, capital
of Northern Ireland.
The earliest
reference to Jews in Belfast dates from 1652. Mention of a
"Jew Butcher" in 1771 suggests the existence of the nucleus
of a community.
Jews are again recorded in the 1840s. D.J. Jaffe, who
settled in Belfast in 1851, established a congregation in
1869 and built its first synagogue in 1871 / 72.
Joseph *Chotzner was the first minister (1869-80; and again
1893-97).
After 1881 the community increased with the arrival of
Jewish refugees from Russia. These at first formed their own
congregation but in 1903 joined the main congregation. A
municipal Jewish elementary school was established in 1898.
Sir Otto *Jaffe, twice lord mayor and once high sheriff,
served for many years as the congregation's president and
built its second synagogue in 1904. Isaac *Herzog served as
rabbi of Belfast from 1915 to 1919, followed in 1926 by
Jacob Shachter,
[[World War I, the stock exchange collapse, unemployment,
right radical movements and World War II are not
mentioned.Probably Belfast was a spot for Jewish refugees
during WW II]].
and in 1954 by Alexander Carlebach (until 1965). In 1967 the
Jewish population numbered about 1,350. In that year, a new
synagogue building was consecrated.
Bibliography
-- B. Shillman: Short History of the Jews in Ireland (1945),
134-6
-- Carlebach, in: JHSET, 21 (1968), 261 ff.
-- idem, in: JC, Suppl. (July 30, 1965).
[C.R.]> (col. 415)
