© Marcus Roberts (2004 & 2008 & 2012)

	Moses Montefiori Synagogue and Foundation
	The Moses Montefiori Mausoleum
	The Judith Montefiori College
	Mill House
	Temple Cottage
	East Cliff Lodge - The Home of Moses Montefiori
	Townley Castle College - Chatham Street
	The Cemetery - Dumpton Park Road
	Miscellaneous Sites

1. Moses Montefiori Synagogue and Foundation

The synagogue and Montefiore Estate are in the east side of Ramsgate, close to East Cliff. The main access to the synagogue and estate is very difficult to find as it is up an adopted private road without signposts. The synagogue is off the Hereson Road. The best landmark to look for is the Honey Suckle Inn, the road up to the estate is close by starting between 101 and 103 Hereson Road (enter 51.340450, 1.426081 into the search box on Google Maps or Google Earth for exact location).

The synagogue was dedicated on 16 June 1833 and intended as pious imitation of Moses Montefiori's ancestral synagogue in Leghorn Italy. The architect was Davis Mocatta (b.1806) the noted civil and synagogue architect

The building is raised above the level of the road on a bank or terrace. It is a simple rectangle with a small apse for the Ark at the rear end and a similarly projecting entrance and foyer. The corners are angled at the four corners to meet the apse and foyer which are narrower than the main body of the building. The exterior is in a restrained Classical-Italianate style and the windows are quite plain, the most complex with severe neo-classical surrounds.

In terms of decoration one of the obvious features is an exterior clock with the inscription carried above and below the face; 'Time Flies: Virtue alone remains'. The synagogue is presently the only synagogue with an exterior clock, though in the past the old Chatham synagogue had a clock with Hebrew figures also, and the former Fournier Street Synagogue on Brick lane still has a sun dial.

The Montefiori coat of Arms is set to the left of the entrance, above the level of the door and is now increasingly weathered. There survives an ornate lamp bracket over the entrance but the lamp itself is absent. Otherwise part of the parapet-balustrade, concealing the roof-line is quite delicately fretted, almost appearing whimsical, compared to the massiveness of the moldings and decoration.

It had been originally intended not to have windows in the walls (in the medieval style of synagogue) and for the light to come from an opening in the roof. However some windows were intruded into the design, largely in the angles of the rebated corners of the building.

The interior is laid out with a ladies' gallery at the rear, a central bimah on the ground floor and the ark at the east end.

While the exterior is simple, the interior is elaborate, even rich. The entrance foyer is dominated by a magnificent marble fountain for the ritual washing of hands, set by the stairs up to the ladies gallery. The fountain is set into a recess in the wall with decorative marble surrounds. A marble basin on a free-standing pedestal receives the water from a spout concealed in a Levitical style ewer, supported by a hand projecting from a representation of a swirling mass of cloud or water. The water is supplied from a hidden pipe and tap.

Above the pedestal is a brass-memorial plaque to Captain Robert Montefiori Sebag Montefiori [sic] (b. 1882), who died in Alexandria in 1915, from wounds received by the Turks at Gallipoli. Robert was the son of Arthur Sebag Montefiori. His early death tragically cut short a promising career - a first at Balliol College, Oxford; a call to the Bar and election to the LCC for Clapham, as well as service for the Mahamad of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation.

On entering the synagogue proper, the first impression is from the marble that lines the walls, top to bottom, punctuated by classical colonnades. Mrs. Arthur Sebag Montefiori had the walls of the synagogue lined with marble in 1912, which provided a sumptuous if cold (and now damp) effect. The original walls were plain painted plaster over brick. The numerous candelabra and candle holders are highly ornate and florid. There is a prominent octagonal sky-light, with dark-red glass in the middle and on the margins, and decorative supporting iron-work for the glass.

The seating was renewed in oak on the centenary of the synagogue in 1933. Sir Moses' Chair and reading desk are still preserved in the left-hand corner nearest the Ark. His arm-chair has a cord across it, allegedly because one of the occupants of Mill House tried to sit in the revered gentleman's chair in the 1970s.

The ladies' gallery at the rear has a very high, open-lattice, wrought iron screen carried on top of the balcony rail. On the right hand side at the front is seating for the female members of the Montefiori family in the same style as that for Sir Moses.

The ark is set up on a plinth and recessed into the wall (and also the rear apse) and has imposing mahogany doors in a double severe neo-classical frame. The double recessing strongly focuses the eye on the ark. The interior is lined with pitch pine staves - like a boat - which provided a very dry interior for the scrolls. There are still numerous Torah scrolls with interesting rimmonim and some older Torah mantles. One of the originals was made from material taken from Judith Montefiori's wedding dress, a floral design hand-painted on satin. Above the ark recess are three small, circular, windows, the central of which has a representation of the Ten Commandments and the two to the sides have Stars of David.

There are a number of interesting appurtenances. Principally an ornate stone stand for a silver basin and ewer for the use of Cohanim and a metal lectern.

Until relatively recent times the synagogue was lit only by candle light, like Bevis Marks synagogue.
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2. The Moses Montefiori Mausoleum

After Judith Montefiori's death, Sir Moses made a mausoleum for her in imitation of the Tomb of Rachel on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Part of the reason for this was because his wife had shown an interest in it and arranged for its restoration on her visit to Palestine in 1839.

Sir Moses was also buried in the mausoleum, in a plain coffin, wearing a cap made for him in Jerusalem, the tallit that he had worn at his wedding to Lady Judith, as well as various souvenirs from Jerusalem and documents relating to his charitable work. He also has quantities of dust from the Valley of Jehosaphat placed in his coffin. Also when his coffin was placed in the grave a stone - thought to be from the temple - was placed beneath the head of the coffin. This had inscribed on it in Hebrew, 'Thy servants love her stones, as they look with favour on the dust of the holy land'. (Psalm, 102, 14)

The present Mausoleum is a domed structure. The dome contains a cupola with red and orange coloured glass in the form of star-burst, or sun motif, which permeates the tomb with a melancholy light, not dissimilar to that which lights the interior of the founders tomb at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. There are wooden doors with inset wrought iron screens at the entry with Moorish or eastern-style motifs. Inside are the two tombs of both Sir Moses and Judith in red granite, with a metal lattice screen, again in a Moorish style. Above the entry is a Hebrew inscription, which translated reads,

"Into His hands my spirit I consign
While wrapped in sleep, that I again may wake:
And with my soul, my body I resign;
The Lord with me--no fears my soul can shake."

There are prayer boards on the walls of the mausoleum and a ner tamid. The tombs of the Montefiori's are inscribed in both Hebrew and English. The Hebrew inscription is a poetic elegy by Montefiori to his wife.

In his later years Sir Moses spent a considerable amount of time at the mausoleum in meditation. There was a seat placed for him inside the tomb.

One additional feature of the tomb, is that it has been used to store what appear to be the only physical relics of Judith College. A long stone now in three parts, inscribed in Hebrew, resides neglected in one corner. It is probably a former lintel over the main entrance. The readable portion that faces away from the wall clearly reads 'Yeshiva'.

In recent years the tomb of Sir Moses has become a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox Jewish pilgrims.

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3. The Judith Montefiori College

The Judith Montefiori College - Yeshiba Ohel Moshe ve-Yehoodit (the Yeshiva of the Tent of Moses and Judith)

In 1860 Sir Moses brought 5 acres of land next to the synagogue on which to build his memorial college to his late wife. The college was designed by Henry Davis F.R.I.B.A. (1838-1915). The foundation stone was laid in 1865 by Sir Moses and its deeds signed in 1866. The total estate, with the synagogue and Mausoleum, was just over 8 acres in extent, and was made into a trust to be administered by a body of trustees, who were all members of his family. The actual administration of the synagogue and College was made over to the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation - though Sir Moses retained full rights over his organisation during his life-time.

The building was a Tudor pastiche with a red brick facade. There was a central block with the main facilities, a fine Library and Reading Room on the ground and a lecture hall on the top floor. The college was arranged in a crescent. To each of the sides were five residences for the scholars. Under one of the houses was included a mikveh for use in the community. The approximate location of the College Crescent is at 51.339997, 1.428278 on Google Maps and Google Earth.

The choice of ten houses and scholars was to correspond with the number of a Jewish minyan so that the college could worship daily at the synagogue with a quorum, as well as to pursue their theological study. The college was planned in its deeds of foundation in 1866, to be a traditional yeshiva on the model of Palestine and Eastern Europe. The daily timetable was to be suitably rigorous, including the midnight prayers that were still offered until early this century.

Unsurprisingly not all the candidates were up to the demands and the regime has to be ameliorated! In fact the college was to eventually become a rest home for elderly Jewish scholars. Also this sort of regime created friction with the Spanish and Portuguese Elders in London, since the traditional Sephardi house of studies in London was virtually defunct and apparently unvalued.

After the death of Sir Moses in 1885, it was decided to merge the interests and remains of the London House of studies with the Montefiori College and to use the College to train ministerial students. This caused difficulty as the Elders wanted to keep Dr. Loewe on as principal and evidently Dr. Lowe was loyal to the original vision of the college that Sir Moses had given to him to direct. The death of Dr Lowe in 1888 and the paying off and retirement of the remaining three collegiates paved the way to the reform. The new arrangements were implemented in the same year and the college was actually in operation by 1890.

Unfortunately the new seminary proved to be flawed and internal disputes led to it being closed as according to the words of Sir Joseph, '[it] was not found to answer the expectations entertained of it'. Only two students received their degree of Rabbi. The Anglo-Jewish year book of 1896 noted that the college was temporarily closed and no other mention of the Ramsgate community was made.

Afterwards in 1896-7 it was seriously suggested that the college should amalgamate with Jews' College and perhaps subsequently with Aria College as well. While this was not adopted, closer ties were established, in 1897, between Judith Montefiori College and Jews' College. This was such that an annual payment of surplus funds and loans of surplus library stock from Montefiori could go to Jews' College. Also, Elders of the Spanish and Portuguese could elect representatives to the Council of Jews' College. This lead to a fruitful arrangement, spanning many years.

With the hiving off of the training of students to Jews' College; Judith Montefiori College was reformed as a yeshiva again. After the Second World War it proved difficult to get sufficient collegiates and in 1952 the College became a training college for North African Jews. However Jews' College took over its functions and in 1961 the college was demolished.

The remaining books of the former college library, are now at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Yarnton Manor, Oxford and evidence a wide span of traditional and contemporary scholarship covered by the original library. The OCHJS will also be receiving an exceptionally important collection of Montefiori memorabilia from Switzerland to compliment the diaries of Lady Judith Montefiori, which it has already.

In the last few years there has been considerable wrangling and legal disputes over the future of the site and plans for it. It was evident that something needed to be done about the empty terraces and former lawns of the estate and to preserve the synagogue and mausoleum for the future. The trustees proposed selling off land to fund a new visitor centre and caretaker's flat, next to the synagogue. They were permitted to do this by the charity commissioners and in 2007 a new 'Montefiori medical centre' was opened on the site. However, at the same time the ultra-orthodox community has made some claim to the site, which has become important to them. In 2007, a north London businessman, Samuel Berger, succeeded in buying land adjacent to the site and touted plans to settle an ultra-Orthodox (Satmar) community of 150 families in Ramsgate and to revive the college on the site. The latter proposal, was argued by Berger to completely honour the wishes of the Will of Moses Montefiore, but was rejected by the trustees of the estate. This matter is still not resolved, but high-lights the complexities of the site and how best to plan for its future and preserve its heritage.

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4. Mill House

Mill house was a built in 1901 to provide accommodation for the Rev, H. Shandel and designed by Hinds & Son. It last use was in the 1960s when the Lubavitch leased Mill House for their activities and it was used for holidays and retreats. The Mill House had nine rooms and stood south of the main gate to the estate. Stanley Kinn was resident on the estate from 1964-8 and ran activities until 1973. Mill House was demolished in the late 1970s after it had fallen out of use and deteriorated.

East Cliff Lodge, St Lawrence Parish - The Home of Moses Montefiori, now George IV Park

Moses Montefiori brought East Cliff Lodge in 6 April, 1831, from the estate of the late Patrick Cummings. The lodge cost the princely sum of £5,500 and had 24 acres of estates attached.

The house dated from 1794 and was built in a heavily crenellated Gothic style for Benjamin Hopkins and was designed by a Mr. Bocey of Margate. The house was built around a quadrangle and included the famous Gothic Library, where Sir Moses spent much of his time, as well as the exceptionally fine dining room. In 1803 Queen Caroline used it as a summer villa.

In 1804, it was brought by Viscount Elphinstone, who was then Admiral Lord Keith. The Admiral found the house a useful place to sally forth to the Channel Squadron, which protected the coastline and downs, especially as he had special galleries and underground passages built down to the sea as well as a private jetty. He also had distinguished visitors including Pitt, and the Duke of Wellington.

He also had an Italianate Greenhouse made in 1805 against the stable block wall. This green-house was later to be used by Judith Montefiori and for many years during and after her time provided the flowers for the synagogue, particularly at Shavuot, when there were 'banks' of fresh flowers on display.

In 1814, a Russia merchant, Patrick Cummings brought the house. He was subsequently to lease it to Marquis Wellesley, the brother of Wellington. Finally Moses Montefiore leased the house, but was unable to buy it until after the decease of Patrick Cummings in 1830.

Montefiori was to entertain some very distinguished guests at his home. These included the young Queen Victoria, then Princess Victoria. She played on the lawns there and had a special gilt key to a door of the grounds.

Montefiori died at East Cliff Lodge, and indeed his taharah (ritual ablution of the deceased) was performed in one of the libraries down stairs. The old philanthropist also lay in his favourite room the Gothic Library before his interment. After the death of Sir Moses; Sir Joseph Sebag Montefiore (his nephew and chief mourner) became the resident of the lodge. Sir Joseph (b. 1822) was the son of Sir Moses' eldest surviving sister, Sarah and effectively became the successor of Moses Montefiori.

The house and grounds survived until quite recent times. However the sale of the house to the Borough was to prove fatal for the lodge. In 1954 - an era when big houses were unfashionable - the house was raised to the ground as the council did not want to maintain it and protect it against vandals.

Today the gate-house lodge of the house is still standing. This is in the same Gothic style as the original house. The earthworks of the terrace around the house and some of the steps still survive and some of the various levels of the former lawns are there too. The rare early green house, used by Judith Montefiori, also survives and is preserved, though local children seem to think that throwing stones at the early 19th century glass is deeply rewarding. There are also some other out-buildings and walls.

The remains of the house are at the east end of George IV Park and can be reached by a walk across the park from the end of East Cliff Road. The approach from town is to go east along the Promenade to the gates of the park. Alternatively one can travel east along Hereson Road, towards Dumpton Park and then turn right (south) down Montefiori Avenue.
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5. Temple Cottage

Temple cottage appears to have been built in 1837 to replace an earlier cottage and originally provided accommodation for ministers at the synagogue, firstly the brothers, the Revs. Isaac and Emanual Myers. Isaac Myers had been referred to as the 'chaplain' of Sir Moses Montefiori and his brother was Secretary and Registrar for marriages and acted as schochet. The original was divided into two, a house and a smaller cottage. Isaac Meyers ran a school, for both Jews and Christians. It eventually was reformed and called the Ramsgate Middle Class School with Myers as the Principal. His brother, Emanual, next door ran his own school, 'The Temple Cottage Academy' (est. 1854). It too was later renamed, the 'Hereson House Academy', and was attended by the children of local Sephardim.

It was rebuilt in 1891 to provide accommodation for Rev. Belasco, the chazan for the congregation.

The cottage was demolished in the 1960s following its dereliction and vandalism. The cottage stood about halfway down the access drive to the synagogue from Hereson Road. The geo-location is 51.340398, 1.426977 is the approximate site.
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6. East Cliff Lodge - The Home of Moses Montefiori

East Cliff Lodge, St Lawrence Parish - The Home of Moses Montefiori, now George IV Park

Moses Montefiori brought East Cliff Lodge in 6 April, 1831, from the estate of the late Patrick Cummings. The lodge cost the princely sum of £5,500 and had 24 acres of estates attached.

The house dated from 1794 and was built in a heavily crenellated Gothic style for Benjamin Hopkins and was designed by a Mr. Bocey of Margate. The house was built around a quadrangle and included the famous Gothic Library, where Sir Moses spent much of his time, as well as the exceptionally fine dining room. In 1803 Queen Caroline used it as a summer villa.

In 1804, it was brought by Viscount Elphinstone, who was then Admiral Lord Keith. The Admiral found the house a useful place to sally forth to the Channel Squadron, which protected the coastline and downs, especially as he had special galleries and underground passages built down to the sea as well as a private jetty. He also had distinguished visitors including Pitt, and the Duke of Wellington.

He also had an Italianate Greenhouse made in 1805 against the stable block wall. This green-house was later to be used by Judith Montefiori and for many years during and after her time provided the flowers for the synagogue, particularly at Shavuot, when there were 'banks' of fresh flowers on display.

In 1814, a Russia merchant, Patrick Cummings brought the house. He was subsequently to lease it to Marquis Wellesley, the brother of Wellington. Finally Moses Montefiore leased the house, but was unable to buy it until after the decease of Patrick Cummings in 1830.

Montefiori was to entertain some very distinguished guests at his home. These included the young Queen Victoria, then Princess Victoria. She played on the lawns there and had a special gilt key to a door of the grounds.

Montefiori died at East Cliff Lodge, and indeed his taharah (ritual ablution of the deceased) was performed in one of the libraries down stairs. The old philanthropist also lay in his favourite room the Gothic Library before his interment. After the death of Sir Moses; Sir Joseph Sebag Montefiore (his nephew and chief mourner) became the resident of the lodge. Sir Joseph (b. 1822) was the son of Sir Moses' eldest surviving sister, Sarah and effectively became the successor of Moses Montefiori.

The house and grounds survived until quite recent times. However the sale of the house to the Borough was to prove fatal for the lodge. In 1954 - an era when big houses were unfashionable - the house was raised to the ground as the council did not want to maintain it and protect it against vandals.

Today the gate-house lodge of the house is still standing. This is in the same Gothic style as the original house. The earthworks of the terrace around the house and some of the steps still survive and some of the various levels of the former lawns are there too. The rare early green house, used by Judith Montefiori, also survives and is preserved, though local children seem to think that throwing stones at the early 19th century glass is deeply rewarding. There are also some other out-buildings and walls.

The remains of the house are at the east end of George IV Park and can be reached by a walk across the park from the end of East Cliff Road. The approach from town is to go east along the Promenade to the gates of the park. Alternatively one can travel east along Hereson Road, towards Dumpton Park and then turn right (south) down Montefiori Avenue.
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7. Townley Castle College - Chatham Street

In November 2012, Terry Wheeler of the Ramsgate Historical Society, contacted JTrails to ask if we had any further information about a photograph of a synagogue he had discovered, in a unique set of photographs, of the former Townley Castle College, in Ramsgate.

While we knew and had previously described in the Ramsgate JTrail, that the Rev. S.H. Harris was listed as the Principal of the Townley Castle College, we had no further information on the college, or evidence to prove that this was a school catering just for Jews. However, prompted by the photograph, we were able to establish the Rev. S.H. Harris was regarded as one of the leading Jewish educators of his time - a Clive Lawton of his era. Coming from Newcastle, where he was the First Reader, Lecturer and School Master of the Newcastle Congregation (1871), he then became the Master of the Jew's Hospital and Orphan Asylum in 1878 - an important communal position he held for 13 years (his wife was Matron), where by all accounts he perfected his knowledge and practice of the most modern methods of education. He was also a Council member of the prestigious Anglo-Jewish Association and rubbed shoulders with leading members of the Jewish community, such as Claude Montefiore and Israel Abrahams.

He became the head and it would seem, founder and proprietor, of the Townley Castle School in 1890, which saw itself as a 'high-class' establishment, similar to Eton or Harrow. The Jewish Standard of, 5 September, 1890, declared its opening as a 'high class' boarding school, for young Jewish gentlemen, with excellent (and sanitary) facilities and grounds and whose curriculum would embrace the requirements of modern education and would enjoy the input of visiting scholars, as well as to provide moral and religious education. Crucially, a surviving prospectus for the school, also declared that 'Religious Services, too, are regularly conducted in the synagogue attached to the school', the synagogue of which we now have a photograph.

In 1890, Samuel Levene, who was born 1867, a son of Mr. H. S. Levene of Hereson, Ramsgate, became the Joint Principal of the school, an association he was to enjoy for over 45 years. He received an early education at Westminster Jews' School and was also noted as an early student at Jew's College, until 1883 and graduated from University College London, in 1884, with prizes and certificates of honour.

The Boys came from both home and abroad, including Ireland, Australia and more exotic locations such as Ethiopia. We know that in 1927 Levene paid for a black Ethiopian Jew, a 16 year old called Levi Makonnen, from Gondar, to study at Townley for four years, until his near bankruptcy caused by a law suit caused him to close his Putney School and he terminated the arrangement in 1931 and the young man was sent home.

We gain a few scant snap-shots of life in the school from the sources. On 7 May 1899, the council of the Anglo-Jewish Association, noted with approval, the creation of a branch of the association at the school. A report of c. 1900 in the Jewish press, notes that ancient school books from the Cairo Genizah were exhibited by Professor Schechter to the boys of Townley Castle School in Ramsgate.

While more work needs to be done on the 'Old Boys' of the school, several attained distinction and valour. Leonard Keysor, an Australian, was awarded the Victoria Cross for 'most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty at Lone Pine Trenches, in the Gallipoli Peninsula', 7 - 8 August, 1915

Robert Briscoe, who as an adult, was to join Fianna Éireann and later the IRA and who became the first Jewish TD and Lord Mayor of Dublin, was sent from Ireland, to the Townley Castle School, for his school education.

Little else is known about the school at present, though it appears to have continued for at least 45 years to 1935, until Samuel Levene's 70th birthday, though the evidence of letter-headed correspondence card to the Anglo-Jewish Association, suggests that the school had transferred to 59 Eton Road in Hampstead, London, NW8, by 1931, if not much earlier, and that the school was also linked to a school in Putney, as mentioned previously.

It is important to emphasise that this school, was in many ways typical of a number of small Jewish boarding schools of the period, founded by Jewish ministers and established on the South-East and South coast, which catered for the Jewish elite, or at least well-to-do and socially aspirational and which frequently had a very international flavour and both a Jewish and a modern education. The school compares well, for example, with Cohen's School in Dover.

The schools both emulated Christian boarding academies on the coast of the period and the better public schools of the time, while ensuring the boys religious needs were properly catered for, though the increasing social integration of Jews meant that these schools were eventually redundant. The last Jewish public school of this sort was the late Carmel College.

It is also important to mention that there had been a previous Jewish school at nearby Broadstairs, one which played an important part in the founding of the Judith Montefiore College at Ramsgate. Dr. Louis Loewe, who was in every sense Moses Montefiore's right-hand man and who was the first 'Head Master' of Jews College, left Jew's College in 1858, and set up his own school at nearby Broadstairs, probably at his home address of 1 and 2, Oscar Villas (probably part of the later Oscar Road which is first evidenced in the 1872 OS map of the town), Broadstairs, not much more than one and a quarter miles away, to be close to Sir Moses, in c.1859. The move to Broadstairs was almost certainly precipitated by the tragic death of his son who died of a Brain haemorrhage, while sea bathing at Brighton in 1859 and then in 1869, Sir Moses established the Judith Montefiore College at Ramsgate, and Dr. Loewe became its first Principal, and he retained this position until 1888, in which year he died.

The school was situated on the Chatham Road in grounds of around 9 acres entered through a folly gate on the Chatham Road. The building was a highly distinctive Gothic lodge, with crenulations and pointed Gothic windows. Photographs of the school suggest that the class rooms were both in the main building, but also in a wooden annex to rear of the house, across a yard. The annex was probably in the style of an iron church or village hall. The synagogue appears to have been in the main house, and was a plain affair with a central Bimah and a curtained Ark, in an arched structure which stood out from the end wall. Side benches and stalls are visible. The main appurtenances were simply constructed in wood and the synagogue had candelabrum and was also gas lit.

To find the site of the school today, the former school grounds are just north (up-hill) of the original brick buildings of Chatham House School. The flint-knapped walls are the sole, if abbreviated and rebuilt remains, of the boundary wall, and the vehicular entrance to Chatham Grammar School is the site of the original gate to Townley Castle, but much altered and rebuilt. The site of the house and the annexes is in the general foot-print of the single storey school blocks behind a grassed section nearest to the vehicular entrance.

Additional photographs of Synagogue and the school can be viewed on Terry Wheelers Facebook page 'Ramsgate Historical Society' following this link: - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ramsgate-Historical-Society/136797399711707

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8. The Cemetery - Dumpton Park Road

The cemetery of the Ramsgate community is situated in a former field near East Cliff, not far from the Municipal cemetery. It is over-looked by housings estates and allotments. The entrance and Ohel are 50 feet from and nearly opposite the junction of Dane Crescent with Dumpton Park Road (geo-location 51.342344, 1.419231).

The cemetery was founded by the famous Jewish explorer Benjamin Norden in 1872 and consisted in the first instance of a field of about a 1/4 of an Acre. It was calculated that the cemetery had space for about 480 burials. The cemetery was enlarged in 1931, when more ground was brought. Interments were made of residents of Ramsgate, Margate and Westgate and other eastern Kent Jewish communities.

The cemetery is surrounded by a wall and is entered through its ohel. The brick ohel is of considerable interest as it is largely unaltered from the Victorian era. It is a simple brick building, with a pitched roof and is entered through central double-doors. The arch above the door with its iron work is the main decorative feature along with a simple Hebrew inscription set in the apex of the arch. The roof-line has a simple dog-tooth decoration along the gables.

Inside, the ohel is wood-lined and has its original prayer boards covering the walls; all clearly bearing Benjamin and Abigail Norden's name. There is also a gas light and an old wooden bier for bearing coffins. A now antiquated gas fire replaces the original fireplace.

Benjamin Norden's grave is in the very centre of the cemetery, immediately to the right of the yew trees.

Other burials include those of the Afrigan family. Shem Tob Afrigan of Morrocco (d. 1908) had been one of Sir Moses Montefiori's personal retainers and Abraham Afrigan his son, a shamash of the synagogue for 36 years. These individuals are of interest as they were members of the 'black' Jewish community, being of North African origin.

Other long term ministers of the synagogue are to be found; Rev. Herman Shandel, who served the synagogue for 48 years.
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9. Miscellaneous Sites

The Florry Cottages

Alms houses established by Sir Joseph Sebag Montefiori - Hereson Road When Sir Joseph's youngest daughter, Floretta died he set up six alms houses, the Florry Cottages. Three cottages were for Jews, the others were for other nominees of London Organisation

Jewish Boarding Houses

The following comprises a list of some of the Jewish boarding houses listed in 1894. Some of the properties survive and can be seen.

Augusta Road - The Laurel Boarding House 7 Augusta Road, Mrs. Barnet; 10 Augusta Road, Mrs. da Costa; 17 Augusta Road, the Misses Twyman.

Victoria Parade - The Misses Solomon, 3 Victoria Parade. Mrs. M. Solomon, 5 Victoria Parade.

Shaftesbury Street - S Afrigan, 9 Shaftesbury Street.
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