Part 4
The Jews of Chapeltown
Jews have lived in Leeds since about 1750. The largest influx of Jews happened after the pogroms of 1881 in Russia. The Czar, the emperor of Russia, and his government used to incite pogroms in order to divert the people’s resentment away from his autocracy and onto the Jews. The Jews would be beaten and murdered by mobs and their homes burnt down.
The Russian Jews would set off to America, stopping in England on the way. They landed at Hull, came to Leeds intending to go on to Liverpool but finding that their tailoring skills could earn them a living in Leeds, they decided to stay. The Jews again suffered hostility, leading them to form an enclosed community or Ghetto, in the Leylands area south of North Street, with Bridge Street as its main thoroughfare. The Jewish sweatshops of the Leylands became notorious for their overcrowded houses, long hours of work and low pay.
As the Jews became more prosperous and accepted by the local population, they moved northwards up Chapeltown Road, finally settling around Moortown and Alwoodley, and especially in Street Lane.
The synagogue next door to Leopold Street, which is now the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, was opened in 1932. This building been listed as being of architectural merit; it was designed in a Byzantine style with a large dome and minaret (see picture below).
Original design of synagogue, with minaret
There was another synagogue in Louis Street. In Leopold Street itself there was the Herzl-Moser Hospital at number 9, set up in 1905, which cared for Jewish patients recovering from treatment; at number 11 there was the Home for Aged Jews, which was taken over by the hospital in 1940. At number 21 Leopold Street there was the Synagogue of Spanish and Portuguese Jews. In fact in the 1940s Chapeltown contained more Jews than any other district of Leeds.
The synagogue next door to Enmoor Lodge on Chapeltown Road. It was opened in 1932 and is now the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.
In 1924 a group of Jewish gentlemen clubbed together and bought number 1 Leopold Street. These 'gentlemen' were mostly actually workingmen from Chapeltown, Harehills, and Sheepscar: they included nine tailors, a machinist, a drayman, a furnisher, and a jeweller. One, Harris Goldfine, was from Islington in London. Another was Hyman Morris, a wallpaper manufacturer, who was to become an alderman and in 1941 he became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Leeds.
Hyman Morris, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Leeds, 1941.
The Jewish partners paid £1,500 for number1 Leopold Street and then proceeded to have the house converted into flats. The Electoral Register of 1928 lists residents of Flats 1,2,4 and 5, at number 1 Leopold Street. At flat 5 there lived Joseph and Lily Cohen, and in 1929 they were joined by Jack and Gershon Cohen; in Flat 7 a Rhoda Ginsberg resided. The fact that there were now Jewish tenants at number 1 Leopold Street was a reflection of the movement of the Jewish community into Chapeltown at this time.
By 1934 seven of the original Jewish partners had died and the house was sold for £1,500 to a Jewish friendly society, called the King David Independent Friendly Society. In 1959 the council bought number 1 Leopold Street for £2,250, and it became council flats.
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After the Second World War more immigrants came to Chapeltown. These included Poles, Latvians, Serbs, Asians, and, of course, Afro-Caribbeans. In 1966 Stanislav and Helen Szostak lived in flat D, number 1 Leopold Street. They were probably Polish. In flat C, Calvin and Viris Jobson lived, a couple from the Caribbean.
In February, 1998, number 1 Leopold Street was bought by Leeds Action to Create Homes, a local charity which provides housing and support to the homeless. Over th enext few years LATCH carried out extensive alterations to the house and converted it into 6 modern flats for young people in housing need. The work was carried out by the new tenants or "self-builders", volunteers, and workers on training schemes. An official opening ceremony was held in January 2001 and the tenants were able to move in, thus completing another chapter in the history of this seemingly unremarkable Leeds house.
Number 1 Leopold Street.
THE END