History

A brief history of the Kingsbury community

The first recorded Jewish resident was a lady member of the Chevra Kadisha who lived in Church Lane in 1930. However, the community really started when, in 1934, Jewish people started to move onto the Valley Drive Estate and wished to start a Cheder (Hebrew Classes). A year later the embryonic Kingsbury Jewish community was formed with regular Shabbos prayers being held in people’s homes and the use of more "suitable" accommodation for the High Holydays was found. 

In 1936 an important meeting of the membership decided by a very close vote to join the United Synagogue and not the Federation.

During the war the community acquired Eden Lodge which was to serve as both a Shul and a Cheder and to provide the caretaker with suitable living accommodation. 

Around 1947 the first Kingsbury Shul was built in what is now the Louis Domb Hall and in 1966 Eden Lodge was demolished and the following year the present Shul was built.

Kingsbury United Synagogue has had many distinguished members, some of whom have played a very active role in the field of Jewish Education such as the late Gertner brothers, Harold Levy and Geoffrey Stalbow; distinguished civil servants for the wider Jewish community, such as the late Nat Levy, Chief Administrative Secretary to the Board of Deputies; fund raising for Israel was Louis Domb’s great passion and in the arts, Cyril Shaps. Today many of our members' sons have gone to Yeshiva while their daughters have studied in Seminaries in Israel and at least five of our "sons" have entered the rabbinate. Many others have chosen other areas within the Jewish community in which they have and continue to play active roles. While the community may, like others in the area, be reducing in size, Kingsbury is proud of its role as the standard bearer for “frumkeit” within the United Synagogue.