The writer of this in the 1995 Oxford Menorah magazine was the 88 year-old uncle of Dr. John Laurie of Milton Keynes.
While the Jews of Stroud flourished for a brief three decades, they have not been entirely forgotten. Brian Torode, a local non-Jew, researched and wrote a detailed history of both the Stroud and Cheltenham community, published in 1989, to which this account of the Stroud Jews' is much indebted, and is an excellent example of the valuable local historical work that is being done.
The synagogue in Stroud still exists though little of its exterior now betrays its origins to those who are unaware of its earlier history. Perhaps more importantly descendants of Jews still probably live in Stroud and are now absorbed into the mainstream of the fabric of its community. The historian must no doubt conclude that this was a community which was created by a very specific set of historical circumstances and which since it did not diversify was destined to a meteoric rise then fall along with the local clothing industry.
