Swastika-daubed Merseyside synagogue in distressing state, says son of late cantor
Greenbank Drive Synagogue, Sefton, was closed 14 years ago and has been given permission to turn into flats - but treasured plaques and memorabilia are still gathering dust in its store rooms, 22 years after former London JFS pupil was rabbi there
The son of the former Rabbi of a derelict 85-year-old synagogue on Historic England’s “at risk” register has expressed his distress at the state of the 1,200-seat building.
Benjamin Chait visited Greenbank Drive synagogue in Sefton, Mersyside, last week to find broken windows, crumbling brickwork and flaking paintwork just 14 years after its closure.
There is also a swastika sprayed in black on the bimah.
Rabbi Chait was told he would have to pay £10 to go on the Tour of the building but has since seen a video with treasured plaques, memorial stones and documentation discarded in store rooms.
Benjamin, whose father Chazan Henry Chait was rabbi from 1975 to 1999, said: “It was very distressing to see.”
Benjamin visited for the consecrational Stonesetting of his late parents, who died within three months of each other last year.
Permission was granted to turn the structure into flats in 2017 and a 2018 scheme to install flats and a smaller synagogue in the building by consultants ECS is still on the company’s website.
Rabbi Benjamin, himself now a minister in the German city of Saarbruchen, next to the French border, said: “It remains to this day desolate and abandoned. There is a swastika daubed on the bimah, which I saw on a video taken in the building.
“When I visited, to my utter horror, I was greeted by two men behind the gates on the grounds of the synagogue standing next to a portable cabin surrounded by disregarded rubbish and overgrown trees.
“When I asked who they were, they said ‘we are gypsies’ and that they lived on the premises. ‘We will show you the inside of the old building, for just £10.’ I respectfully declined.
“In Judaism, we take great care of how we bury our loved ones, dating back to the times of Abraham when he buried his beloved wife Sara. We do this because that which is holy needs to be cared for with great love and dedication.
“On the premises of the once Greenbank Drive Synagogue are no gravestones or buried plots. But deep inside those building walls and buried in the grounds of the Greenbank Drive Hebrew Congregation are memories of Bar/Bat mitzvah’s, weddings, civic and religous prayer services, memorial consecrations, moments of Jewish joy and sadness.
“So many of us can still see the faces of our parents and grandparents walking us up into the synagogue building, feeding us the traditions of our timeless religion for us to learn and enjoy. We were proud to be from Greenbank and proud Greenbank was in Liverpool.
“Jewish artifacts, memorial plaques and even items of historical and sentimental importance seemingly still remain inside the building, disregarded and disowned.
“I merely ask, and pray, that we resolve with haste and do that which must be done, in bringing our memories and heritage to their resting place with honor.
“I believe it to be of great importance to the Liverpool Jewish community, as well as our responsibility as proud Jews in Anglo-Jewry, to take heed of this very important matter.”
Benjamin’s father Chazan Rev Henry Chait was a renowned cantor who recorded three albums of music.
Another son, Alby, said last year: “I fundamentally believe he was one of the greatest cantorial masters in Anglo-Jewish history. Non-Jewish people used to stand on the steps of the shul just to hear him.”
Rev Henry Chait was born in London, the son of Lena and Rev Abraham Chait, who served as minister and shochet at Egerton Road Synagogue, now the Bobov hasidic Bet hamedrash in Stamford Hill.
A former pupil of London Jewish Free School in Kenton, he studied at the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in London, before attending Jews’ College, where he received his cantorial diploma.
He was appointed chazan at Southport Hebrew Congregation in 1973, where he served for two years, until he was headhunted by Greenbank Drive shul.
Rev Chait met his wife under the chuppa at his future brother-in-law Max Steinberg’s wedding, which he conducted.
Helena (nee Steinberg) was maid of honour and stood in tears – which caught Rev Chait’s attention.
The couple married at Greenbank Drive on January 1, 1978, and had seven children Elizabeth (Lader), Benjamin, Eva (Grossberger), Fiona (Shorrick), Alby, Charles and Selena (Myers).
Alby, Benjamin and Charles, all chazanim, followed in their father’s footsteps.
The synagogue, Grade II* listed, built in Art Deco style, was opened in 1937 by a member of the congregation Henry Cohen, 1st Baron Cohen of Birkenhead, a president of the British Medical Association and of the Royal Society of Medicine who pioneered research into the circulation of blood through the veins.
In May 1959, a fire was started by a burglar which destroyed the Torah ark and its scrolls and damaged part of the roof’s structure. At a cost of £50,000, the building was repaired and later re-consecrated in 1961.
It was placed on Historic England’s “Heritage at Risk” register in 2020.
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