• Introduction
• History
• Key Dates
• Disability and Access

• Touring the area
• Places of interest
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The Portsmouth Jewry was based in very close proximity to the naval dockyard gates and port. The area was originally called Portsmouth Common but after 1792 it was renamed "Portsea". This area increased its population by ten times during the course of the wars and was a prime trading location, not just for Portsmouth but perhaps even nationally. It was claimed of Queen Street in particular, in 1809, that it "may be ranked among the most principal London, for the variety, opulence, and commercial returns of the dealers." The commentator also noted the bustling atmosphere of commerce in the area around the Jewish area of the docks and indeed that the Jews were very much to the fore in the commercial life of the port; "Jew shopmen, taylors and drapers jostle Christian pawnbrokers, watch-jobbers, and trinket merchants."

The fact that the Portsmouth community has until this century had such a high public profile has tended to set it apart. Many other provincial communities have been much less visible and much less willing to have a highly public presence in the town. However the tradition in Portsmouth was that Jewish business, residence and worship has, until the modern era, been egregious in the very centre of town. This may well be due to the fact that the Jewish community were generally well favoured by the civic authorities of the town (who included influential philo-Semites) and played an important part in the local economy.

A smaller outpost of the community was set up around Broad street further south by the 1790s. This extension of the community only flourished in the Napoleonic War and declined soon after. A few members of the community lived in what were then the suburbs of Landport and Southsea. Some Jews also lived a short distance by ferry across the harbour at Gosport. Some also took up opportunities in the principal ports on the north side of the Isle of Wight at Cowes and Newport. Not so far off Southampton was the main rival of the community after 1833.

The community suffered during the Napoleonic wars from prejudice and even attacks. Local feeling at the time was expressed in the official decision in 1798 not to allow local Jews to enrol in the local patriotic volunteer corps on the grounds that there were a "great number of suspicious and itinerant Jews at the time in the town". Members of the Jewish community were even accused of treason, in circa 1798 two Jews were arrested with papers relating to the practical navigation of the harbour - this was no doubt all perfectly innocent, except unless it was assumed that the Jews were intrinsically unpatriotic.

At one time a local place of amusement had a notice at its entrance reading "Jews and dogs not admitted." The famous novelist of his period, Captain Frederick Marryat - perhaps best remembered by modern readers for his Children of the New Forest - gave a low estimation of the Portsmouth Jews in his Naval novels.

The community suffered a serious decline in numbers after the Napoleonic Wars due to the lose of business in the Port. This was but part of a serious economic depression in Portsmouth which left many of the Christian community reliant on Poor Relief. The population numbers of the congregation remained relatively low for a considerable period afterwards. In the 1860s the community totalled around 150 men, women and children.

Community numbers rallied by the 1880s as immigrants came in escaping the persecution and hardships of Eastern Europe. In the last two decades of the century the Jewish population roughly doubled (with about 200 families living in the town) and remained at this level into the 1980s. The pattern of Jewish trade changed from the turn of the century with tailoring and the running of various trades and businesses catering for the public becoming more important. This sea-change in population and trades also reflected that the community lost its internal continuity. Aubrey Weinberg's research and knowledge of the community has thrown up the interesting fact that there are scarcely any Jewish families in the town who can point to antecedents from the last century. Essentially the Portsmouth Jewry entirely renewed itself in the late 19th century.

In character the community was from an early period noted for its religious orthodoxy and observance. In fact the community placed considerable pressure on its members to live strictly Jewish lives and to acknowledge the authority of the synagogue. Fines were levied for breaking Jewish laws and members could experience exclusion from the community if they were serious offenders. There were regular fines imposed on members for offenses such as breaking the Sabbath "by going on a boat", no doubt to do business on a naval vessel. In 1808 a member was fined for eating unkosher food in Plymouth and as well as the fine, they had to confess three times to their sin in the synagogue just after the Torah had been read!