Synagogue

There were Jewish inhabitants at an early date, a rabbi and small congregation by the late 18th century, and a greater influx after 1870, of Lithuanian Jews who knew Sunderland through longstanding coal trade connections. The town’s Jewish community peaked inter-war, at about 2,000, and it was at this time, in 1928, that the Synagogue was built on Ryhope Road.Of 12 burying grounds across the town in the mid-19th century, the Jewish cemetery at Ayres Quay was the only one not Christian.