The city of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England has a Jewish community, where many notable people originated or settled. They have played a major part in the clothing trade, the business, professional and academic life of the City, and the wider world. The community numbers now fewer than 7,000 people.

Demography A community of nearly 60 Jews was present in Leeds by 1840, with their numbers rising to 219 by 1861. Around 1,000 were present prior to the increase in immigration from the Russian Empire starting in the early 1880s. In 1891 there were 8,000 Jews in Leeds, with more than 6,000 in the Leylands area alone by 1901. The concentration of Jews in some areas was so great that Templar Street was described as like a continental Jewish ghetto in the Yiddish press. The population continued to rise in the early 20th century, numbering 12 to 14,000 in 1901, and around 25,000 after 1914.

With the addition from 1933 of refugees from Nazi Germany, evacuees from the London Blitz, and later Holocaust survivors, the Leeds community may have peaked around 1945 to 1950 at 25 to 29,000 people. The population has since been in decline for many years, despite arrivals from smaller regional communities. Steady emigration to Israel began post-war and has continued, but during the 1970s Leeds still had the highest Jewish proportion of population of any British city.

The 2011 UK census recorded 6,847 people reporting their religion as Jewish in the City of Leeds metropolitan district, 0.9% of the district's population. In the Leeds built-up area, there were 6,136 (1.3% of population), concentrated in areas such as Alwoodley ward (3,270, 14.4% of population).

Development The first settlers in the 18th century were mainly German-born; many were wool-merchants attracted to this major industry of West Yorkshire. The first marriage was recorded in 1842. Early residents included Lazarus Levi.

The history of the community is closely linked with Hull, which was connected by railway to Leeds from 1840. Most of those who settled in Leeds immigrated via the Humber ports of Hull, and Grimsby, and many lived in Hull, or stayed temporarily, part of a migrant population mainly bound via Liverpool for America. As Leeds was a city undergoing economic expansion, on this migration route, and as Jews had tailoring experience or local contacts, a sizeable community developed. Settlement was primarily in the poor Leylands district of Leeds, a low-rent area which attracted immigrants. By the mid-1890s Leylands was predominantly Jewish. The great majority of Jewish immigrants in this period were Lithuanian Jews from within the Northern Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire.

Jews worked in notoriously insanitary sweatshops as tailoring became the dominant trade. With the slum clearance of 1936–7, the Jews of Leeds moved northwards, from the central Leylands area, up around Chapeltown, and then further into Moortown and Alwoodley.

Many 1930s European refugees came to Leeds, often well-educated, including in 1937 the ORT training school from Berlin,Leggett, Ruth (1999). News from the Groups. Association of Jewish Refugees Information. Vol. 54 no.7. p.8. https://ajr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1999_july.pdf and in 1938–40, Kindertransport children, followed by later survivors of the Holocaust. Before the war a local branch of the Association of Jewish Refugees was formed, and more recently the Leeds-based Holocaust Survivors' Fellowship Association.

Synagogues The first synagogue in Leeds opened in 1846 in a converted private house in Back Rockingham Street, on the site of the current Merrion Centre. In 1861 it was replaced by a purpose-built building in Belgrave Street, known as the Great Synagogue, which closed in 1983. An office block was built on the site, and the synagogue is commemorated by a blue plaque placed by Leeds Civic Trust in 1991.

A synagogue in St. John's Place, New Briggate was opened in 1876, known as the Grinner Shul. It was replaced by the New Synagogue in Chapeltown Road of 1932, built in Byzantine style; the building closed in 1985, and is now used by the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

The Vilna synagogue began in St Luke's Terrace, and moved to Exmouth Street before 1885. It merged into the New Vilna Synagogue in 1955, at Harrogate Road 1973–91, and incorporated into the Etz Chaim synagogue 1994, also on Harrogate Road, since 1982. Etz Chaim has its roots in the Leeds Jewish Workers' Burial and Trading Society of 1899, the Psalms of David Congregation originally in Bridge Street in 1884, as well as the New Synagogue.

The United Hebrew Congregation opened its current Shadwell Lane synagogue in 1986, incorporating congregations originally of the Great Synagogue, New Synagogue, New Leeds Congregation, Chapeltown United Synagogue, Louis Street Synagogue, and the Moortown Synagogue of 1937–86. The Byron Street Polish synagogue was founded 1893; moving to Louis Street around 1933, it closed in 1974.

Beth Hamedrash Hagadol synagogue, Templar Street, founded 1874, moved to Hope Street in 1886, Newton Road Chapeltown in 1937, and its present building in Street Lane, Moortown in 1969.

Shomrei Hadass Synagogue is the centre for strictly-orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Judaism in Leeds.

The Sinai Synagogue in Roundhay, Leeds was established as a congregation in 1944, and is affiliated to Reform Judaism. A new building was opened in 1960.

Cemeteries The first Jewish cemetery in Leeds was opened in 1837, with local Jews previously having been buried in nearby Hull. There are today five Jewish cemeteries in Leeds: the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol cemetery, established 1955; Hill Top Cemeteries, established 1875; New Farnley Cemeteries, established 1896; the United Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, established 1840; and the Sinai Synagogue Cemetery, established in the 1950s.

The New Farnley cemetery contains nine Commonwealth war graves of Jewish service personnel, two from World War I and seven from World War II,Cemetery Report. with an additional World War II serviceman buried in the adjacent Louis Street Polish Jewish Cemetery.Cemetery Report. The United Hebrew Congregation cemetery contains 18 Commonwealth war graves of Jewish service personnel: six from World War I and 12 from World War II.Cemetery Report.

Charities and communal organisations The first Jewish friendly society was founded in 1852. The Jewish Board of Guardians (est.1878) covered a range of activities, especially loans and grants in great numbers for immigrants to set up in business, or to continue on to North America. The Leeds Jewish Welfare Board has provided aid since 1878, and now runs a community centre and community support services, and operates a charity shop and three residential homes for adults with learning disabilities.LJWB Newsletter, Summer-Autumn 2026 The Leeds Jewish Housing Association has 500 homes. The Leeds Jewish Institute was founded in 1896, and the Jewish Young Men's Association by 1901. The Leeds Jewish Representative Council has been active since 1938.

The first Leeds Jewish trade union dates from 1876. The Amalgamated Jewish Tailors', Machinists' and Pressers' Union was officially founded in 1893, arising out of early organisations and strikes.

Schools A Jews' Free School was founded in 1876, and Gower Street and other Board Schools in Leylands was effectively taken over by Jews by 1888. Brodetsky Primary School, which dates from 1968,Leeds Gets State-Aided School. Association of Jewish Refugees. Information. (1968). Vol 23, no.8., p3. https://ajr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1968_august.pdf and the secondary age Leeds Jewish Free School, opened 2013, both in Alwoodley, are affiliated to Orthodox Judaism. The Menorah primary school in Sandhill Lane is affiliated to the Haredi Chabad Lubavitch movement.

Businesses Leeds had long been a centre of the wool trade. The first Jew in the Leeds mass wholesale tailoring business was Herman Friend around 1856. Large numbers of men and women were employed in back-room cutting and sewing, but not in the factory sector. In the 1930s, Jewish factories employed refugees from Europe.McKay, Diane (2019). Uncovering Yorkshire's... Schindler? pp12-3. Association of Jewish Refugees Journal, Vol 19. no2. https://ajr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/5904-AJR-Journal-Feb-2019-FINAL.pdf Jewish refugees also founded a law firm in Leeds in 1930.

Anti-Semitism

Mocking Jews in their sabbath clothes was once common-place in Leeds; and some town cafes refused to serve them. Violence culminated in the infamous riots of 1917 in the Leylands, destroying property and looting shops. Job discrimination was one reason Jews changed their names. Later, they found it almost impossible to join local golf clubs, so in 1923, they set up their own. Antisemitism continued in Leeds during the 1930s as refugees from Nazism arrived. Mosley's fascists marched in Leeds in 1936 leading to the Battle of Holbeck Moor.

Zechariah Deutch, a rabbi and chaplain at the University of Leeds, flew out to Israel in late 2023 to join the IDF. When he returned, he received death threats and police recommended to him that he go into hiding. The university issued a statement condemning the alleged threats.

Notable people Arts and entertainment Alec Baron (1913–91), filmmaker, playwright, founder of the Leeds Playhouse. Janina Bauman (1926–2009), journalist, writer, survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto. Jeff Christie (born 1946), lead singer and songwriter of Christie. Eta Cohen (1916–2012), violinist and teacher. Jeremy Dyson (born 1966), author and screenwriter. Gaynor Faye (born 1971), actress and writer best known for roles in Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Jason Feddy (born 1966), musician and cantor. Louise Finlay (1971–2014), head celebrity journalist for French weekly magazine Elle. Paula Froelich (born 1973), journalist and author of Mercury in Retrograde. Benny Green (1927-1998), jazz saxophonist, writer and broadcaster. Mark Knopfler (born 1949), singer-songwriter and guitarist of Dire Straits. Jacob Kramer (1892–1962), Russian-born Ukrainian–British painter and graphic designer James Lascelles (born 1953), musician who co-founded the Global Village Trucking Company, Sam Lee (born 1980), award-winning singer and songwriter. Elliot Levey (born 1973), theatre actor. Judith Levin (born 1936), landscape and still-life artist. Kay Mellor (1951–2022), writer and director. Philip Naviasky (1894–1983), artist in watercolour and oils. Ann Rachlin (born 1933), musician, children's author, awarded the MBE for her work with deaf children. Michael Roll (born 1946), pianist, first winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition.Young Pianist Wins Leeds Prize. Association of Jewish Refugees Information. 1963. Vol 18, no.11 .p.7. https://ajr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1963_november.pdf Bernard Schottlander (1924–99), German-born sculptor based in Leeds. Samantha Simmonds (born 1972/1973), news anchor for Sky News and BBC News. Barry Simmons (born 1948), quiz-show contestant on Eggheads and Brain of Britain. Marion Stein (1926–2014), Countess of Harewood, co-founder of Leeds International Piano Competition. Frankie Vaughan (1928–99), singer and actor best known for "Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl". Fanny Waterman (1920–2020), pianist, founder and director of the Leeds International Piano Competition, president of the Harrogate International Music Festival. Wendy Waterman (born 1944), pianist. Joash Woodrow (1927–2006), reclusive artist. Tamar Yellin (born 1963), author, winner of the 2007 Sami Rohr Prize.

Entrepreneurs and philanthropists Phillip Abrahams (1907–82), industrialist and Zionist, Chevalier of the Order of Leopold II.Association of Jewish Refugees. Information. Vol 23, March 1968. p.3. https://ajr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1968_march.pdf Montague Burton (1885–1952), founder of Burton Menswear.