Brighton & Hove
Marcus Roberts

Key Dates

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1734
Jacob Harris is reputed to have committed a murder at Ditchling near Brighton. After being apprehended and hung, his body was suspended in a gibbet at Ditchling for many years.
1750
Brighton is a Fishing Port with a population of 2,500. From this year Dr Russell starts to popularise bathing at Brighton.
1766
Israel Samuel Cohen is the first recorded Jew in Brighton. He is a silver-smith, toy man and lodging-house keeper of East Street, Brighton.
1770
An Abraham Benjamin 'of Brighthelmstone' is known from an inscription in a prayer book.
1782
Emanuel Hyam Cohen arrives direct from Bavaria and is credited with establishing the Brighton Jewish Community. He is an educated man and works as school master keeping his own school until 1816.
1783
The Prince Regent (later George IV) makes his first visit to the town and helps popularise it.
1786
A record of a circumcision in Arundel relates that 14 men from both Arundel and Brighthelmstone were present, indicating that there was a small but established group of Jews in Brighton.
1789
The first Synagogue is founded at the south end of Jew Street - a street name coined by this year. Before 1800 some six Jewish families reside in the resort. Many of the early Jewish settlers in the town were lodging house keepers catering for a Jewish tourist trade.
1794
There is a performance of Richard Cumberland's philo-semitic play, The Jew, at the Duke Street Theatre in the town.
1801
Pellegrine Treves is well-known as part of the Prince Regent's circle in Brighton, the first British Court Jew.
1807
Jewish visitors frequent Brighton as a watering hole in some numbers.
1808 circa
A second Synagogue is founded in Pounes Court, off West Street. This may have been a room or rooms in a house belonging to Isaac Levy or Abraham Benjamin.
1833
The owner of the Brighton Guardian is prosecuted and convicted for seditious libel in the famous Rex v. Cohen case. He had accused over-bearing magistrates as responsible for agricultural unrest and was fined and served a six-month sentence in Chelmsford Goal.
1835
Abraham Cohen emigrates to Australia, Several of his children and a number of his descendants, become prominent in the life of the colony.
1837
The Devonshire Place Synagogue is improved and extended to plans by David Mocatta the Architect. Apart from the synagogue, there is a residence, a school room and a two-storey work-shop.
1838
Henry Solomon is appointed the first Chief Constable of Brighton; he is the first Jewish policeman.
1841
The growth of the railways heralds further great expansion of the town.
1843
The Minister of the synagogue and his mother are arrested and accused of killing their maid-servant by poisoning. They are acquitted, but the mother is censured and they leave the town in disgrace.
1844
Henry Solomon is murdered in his own police station by a felon and madman. The death causes a national sensation and the murderer is hanged.
1846
The Brighton Hebrew Philanthropic Society is formed to relieve poverty in the community, and gives widely.
1862
There is a Brighton branch of the Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews.
1875
A new Synagogue is built at 66 Middle Street to designs by Thomas Lianson to accommodate a new influx of Jews both living and visiting. The town is host to many influential and distinguished Jews.
1876
The old Devonshire Place Synagogue is sold off.
1879
The community is now large enough to send a representative to the Board of Deputies.
1880
The Chief Rabbi, Dr Nathan Adler, lives in 36 First Avenue, Hove. He dies there ten years later.
1892
Electric light is installed in Middle Street synagogue for the first time - probably the first synagogue in England to have this innovation.
1910 - 1913
Alderman Barnett Marks ('Barny') is the first Jewish mayor of Hove
1914-18
125 Jewish men serve in World War men and 5 are killed. There is an influx of Jewish evacuees to Brighton, some of whom settle permanently in Brighton.
1921
Brighton AJEX is formed after World War I
1925
Lewis Cohen is involved in a protest to stop Brighton Trams operating out of their depot during the 'Battle of Lewes Road'.
1930s
The Blackshirts parade along the Brighton seafront and local Jews attack Mosely's followers
1935
The Progressive Synagogue in founded in Lansdown Road, Hove.
1939-45
In World War II 30 Jewish servicemen die in military service. During the War some Jews are evacuated from Brighton and Hove, others move down from London. Jewish Canadian troops also help increase numbers of Jews in Brighton. The Middle Street Synagogue is saved from incendiary devices.
1950
Golda Meir is the guest speaker at a JPA (Joint Palestine Appeal) fund- raising dinner held at the Royal Pavilion.
1950-3
One Jewish serviceman dies in the Korean War
1955
The New Synagogue (Reform) is founded in Hove.
1956-7
Lewis Cohen, later Lord Cohen of Brighton, is elected Mayor of Brighton
1966
Lewis Cohen, is created a life-peer and becomes Lord Cohen of Brighton
1968 - 1969
Councillor Norman Freedman is President of Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce
1969 - 1970
Councillor Norman Freedman is the second Jewish Mayor of Hove.
1972 - 1974
Councillor Sydney Lovegrove is elected the third Jewish Mayor of Hove
1985
There are 6,500 - 10,000 Jews in Brighton.
1995
There are 5,300 Jews in Brighton - some estimates place this figure over the 10,000 mark.
1996
Sheila Shaffer becomes first female mayor of Brighton and she appoints Rabbi Rosenbloom as town council chaplain.
1996 circa
The last kosher butcher closes in Preston Street. The kosher slaughter house in Vine Street had closed about a decade earlier.
1997
The Brighton Jewish Film Festival, is founded by Judy Ironside.
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