The only synagogue in Manchester city centre held a 'solemn' final service this weekend (November 27), in an emotional end to the building's 70-year history. The Manchester Reform Synagogue at Jackson's Row is due to be demolished to make way for a 41-storey tower and five-star hotel backed by Gary Neville.
Tears filled the eyes of congregants who embraced during the deconsecration service which saw holy scrolls taken out of the building in a special procession. It followed the final Saturday service held at the synagogue the previous day.
"Yesterday, our sanctuary was bursting as we held our last ever Shabbat service here in this building," Principal Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen said. "Today is a quieter, more solemn service – a time for gratitude and paying honour."
READ MORE: Mixed emotions as city centre's only synagogue closes to make way for Gary Neville development
Originally based in Cheetham Hill, the UK's second oldest reform community moved to the city centre after the Park Place building was bombed in the Blitz. The only items that remain from the original synagogue are the rimonim which sit on top of one of the Torah scrolls used by the 165-year-old congregation.
The current synagogue in Jackson's Row, which was one of the first buildings to be built in central Manchester after the second world war, opened in 1953. Two members of the choir which sang at the first service returned to the bima - a raised platform - for the deconsecration almost 70 years to the day later.
Marianne Phillips, a 98-year-old holocaust survivor, also took part in the final services alongside children, displaying the synagogue's 'real diversity of ages'.
Lord Mayor Donna Ludford said she is proud to follows in the footsteps of her Jewish predecessor Abraham Moss who also attended that opening service. "For decades, the Jewish community has been a massive part of Manchester," she told the audience which included those watching the hybrid service online.
Around two decades ago, when the building was in need of refurbishment, developers were invited to come up with new plans for the city centre site. One year before the Beetham Tower was granted planning permission, plans for a new 22-storey building on the site were rejected by Manchester council.
Since then, the synagogue has seen a swathe of skyscrapers built in the city. Plans backed by former footballer Gary Neville were finally approved in 2018 following a long-running saga and work started on the site earlier this year.
The consortium developing the £200m St Michael’s project promise to bring a five-star hotel and a nine-storey office building to the site which includes the former Bootle Street police station where demolition work started this year. Having initially planned to stay on the site as part of the development plans, the synagogue's members later decided to sell the site and move elsewhere.
Former president Danny Savage said the £15m price-tag negotiated for the sale of the synagogue is double the amount of any valuation of the building. Choked up, he spoke of his 'fond memories' of the synagogue and his hope that the money it will receive through the sale will help the next generation.
The holy Torah scrolls were removed from the ark before being taken around the building in a special procession at the end of the deconsecration service. They will be taken to the community's temporary home at the Manchester Universities’ Chaplaincy on Oxford Road where service begin next week.
The community must now decide what comes next with 'everything on the table' – including merging with another reform synagogue in Whitefield. A three-month community engagement project will commence in January, but Rabbi Robyn said it is "no secret' that she would love to stay in the city centre.
In her final address to the congregation in the sanctuary of Jackson's Row, the Rabbi revealed that the deconsecration plans included a ceremonial snuffing out of the ner tamid , an 'eternal light' at synagogues which always stays on. However, no one was able to locate a switch or circuit for the red light which sits above the Torah ark and has remained on since the building first opened.
"How symbolic," she said. "The light will go out when the building's gone."
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