• Introduction
• History
• Key Dates
• Disability and Access

• Places of interest
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A NOTABLE RESIDENT

While there may not have been a community by the mid to late 19th century, some individual Jews were still to be found in the town. The most notable was Sidney Stern, the first Baron Wandsworth, who had a residence at Hengrave Hall.

Born in 1845 and educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he was the son of the prominent banker David, Viscount de Stern and Sophia Goldsmid (daughter of bullion broker Aaron Asher Goldsmid). Having served as a JP, in 1891 he was elected as MP for the Stowmarket before being elevated to a peerage in 1895.

Despite family connections to some of the most prominent Jewish families of the age, including the Salomons and the Mocattas, he had virtually no connection with the Anglo-Jewish community, until at 54 he became the principal benefactor for the Home for Aged Jews (now Nightingale), when he gave them new premises in Wandsworth, a site they still occupy.

While the 20th and 21st centuries offer little evidence of any Jewish activity in Bury St Edmunds, Moyses Hall serves as a prominent reminder of the town's Jewish heritage and, today, the Hall and its museum are a key tourist attraction.