RECORDS OF THE RAMSGATE JEWISH COMMUNITY 1829 – 1962 Transcribed and edited from the manuscript records preserved in the Archives of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation of London by permission of the Gentlemen of the Mahamad (wardens) of the congregation. by Miriam Rodrigues-Pereira, Honorary Archivist of the Congregation assisted by Chloe Loewe and Raphael Loewe. 2007-8 Author: Miriam Rodrigues-Pereira Published by: Benedict Kelly and Gerald Tripp, Ramsgate. Copyright © Miriam Rodrigues-Pereira 2020. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publishers. Title: Records of The Ramsgate Jewish Community 1829 – 1962. In honoured memory of The Reverend Benjamin Rodrigues-Pereira 1890-1972 Minister of the Ramsgate Montefiore Synagogue and Local secretary of the Montefiore Endowment Committee 1929-1964 and of Aaron George Gomes da Costa, 1923-2008 his pupil, lifelong friend, lay successor and sometime Chairman of The Montefiore Endowment Committee (c1960s)-2003 who both worked tirelessly for the Ramsgate Jewish Community and the whole local area. C O N T E N T S Pages Introduction 1-2 Births 1829-1914, 1928 - Alphabetical Index 3-4 Marriages 1838-1962 5-16 Index 17-22 Deaths The details of burials have been published as: Ramsgate Jewish Cemetery, by Benedict Kelly and Gerald Tripp, 2016. Judith Lady Montefiore College 23-24 RECORDS OF THE RAMSGATE JEWISH COMMUNITY 1829 – 1962 Introduction The records of the Ramsgate Jewish Community in the 19th and 20th centuries are contained in several MS books preserved in the Archives of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation London, which for over 100 years had responsibility for the Montefiore Endowment at Ramsgate [1]. The earliest book (MS 1688) is a leather-bound volume with a badly - damaged cover. A torn red leather label on the front is inscribed in gold lettering ‘MOSES & JUDITH MONTEFIORE’ with an incomplete Hebrew date. Sir Moses Montefiore evidently intended the book to record events connected with his synagogue which he had opened in 1833 [2]. It was kept at least from the later 19th century by the Minister of the Synagogue but was abandoned in 1914. Births between 1829 and 1914 and burials between 1862 and 18- 86, notably of Lady Montefiore and of Sir Moses himself, and two in 1900 are recorded. The other books contain formal records of marriages between 1838 and 1962 (MSS 148, 156) and a burial register from 1872 to the present day (MS 187) together with a Minute Book of the Burial Society (MS 1675). (There are also Minute Books of the Montefiore Endowment Committee, MSS 281, 1609, 1610). Full details of the births and marriages have been transcribed and are listed in the following sections. Details of burials have been published as: Ramsgate Jewish Cemetery, by Benedict Kelly and Gerald Tripp, 2016. Births The names of 75 children born in Ramsgate between 1829 and 1914 recorded in MS 1688 are listed below. Details of one child born in 1928 were noted on a loose sheet. The children belong to families of officials of the synagogue (e.g. Myers, Afrigan) or Collegiates of the Judith Lady Montefiore College (e.g. Amschejewitz) and of local worshippers at the synagogue. One was the child of refugees from Paris in 1914. Marriages Sixty marriages were registered in Ramsgate between 1838 and 1962 [3], mainly in families of the small Jewish community, Collegiates of the Judith Lady Montefiore College, local residents - merchants, tradespeople, teachers and the like. Before 1900 the marriages took place in private homes [4], usually those of the brides, and thereafter in the Montefiore Synagogue. They were for the most part performed by the Ministers or Collegiates. On occasion before 1910 this function was carried out by the Haham (Artom, No.5 and Gaster, Nos. 16,20) and Hazan Piza (No.10) from London. Much later in 1 the 1950s Hahain Gaon officiated at the marriages of two daughters of Rabbi Shemtob Gaguine, Principal of the College and Ab Beth Din of the London Congregation. The following list giving details of the marriages has been compiled from the duplicate Ketubot (Hebrew marriage contracts) in the Congregation's archives combined with the civil marriage registers. No duplicate Ketubot for dates before 1900 have been found but those after 1900 are included in the Congregation's Ketubot books on pages cut out and sent to Ramsgate to be completed by the Minister, signed at the ceremony and returned for re-insertion. Eleven marriages are recorded from Ketubot only, the parties evidently having had an earlier Register Office marriage. In 1939-40 a number of marriages took place of refugees then at Kitchener Camp, Richborough, near Sandwich, a few miles from Ramsgate. This military camp, unused since the First World War, was leased from the Government by the Central Council for Jewish Refugees in 1938, brought into use and run by the refugees themselves [5]. It eventually housed 5000 men [6]. The majority of them, once war was declared, volunteered to serve the Allied cause. Many were accepted into the Auxiliary Pioneer Corps; others worked in a support capacity, - the camp having become a training depot under the command of the Marquess of Reading. The brides of the refugees were mostly in domestic service, (virtually the only employment open to them), in London or other parts of the country. One bride (No.33) was a physician in a London hospital. The chronological list of marriages below is followed by an alphabetical index of participants' names; fathers and witnesses are specially marked. [1] See Cardozo and Goodman "Think and Thank" The Montefiore Synagogue and College, Ramsgate 1833 - 1933 (1933) [2] Some pages record the contents of the charity boxes at the synagogue between 1833 and 1882 and the amounts for distribution to the poor locally and through the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Rabbis in Jerusalem. [3] Since the 1960s the synagogue has been rarely used. [4] as in London before the 1860s. Except for No 19 in our list. [5] Helen Gardiner: "Historic Haven. The Story of Sandwich"; Helen C Bentwich. "History of Sandwich in Kent" [6] commemorated by a plaque on the wall of The Barbican, Sandwich. 2 MS 1688 BIRTHS Alphabetical index (Heb: name in brackets) Date Name Day of week English Hebrew Abraham, Alice 22 Sep 1830 Abraham, Elizabeth 15 Apr 1829 Abraham, Flora 9 Jul 1837 Abraham, Isaac 22 Jan 1871 Abraham, Israel 10 Oct 1875 Abraham, Michael Leon 11 Jun 1840 Abraham, Rachel Leah 6 May 1876 Abraham, Simeon Alexander 30 Jun 1835 Abraham, Simon Alexander Tues 23 Jun 1834 5595 (sic) (Shimon Aleksander bar Yisrael) Abraham, Solomon Henry 4 Dec 1846 Afrigan, Abraham 20 Jan 1873 Amschejewitz, Blanche 2 Apr 1878 5638 Amschejewitz, Dinah Rose 12 Apr 1888 Amschejewitz, Isaac 27 Dec 1885 Amschejewitz, Jacob Henry 19 Dec 1882 9 Tebet 5643 Amschejewitz, Moses Arie 9 Aug 1880 5640 Ankona, Abraham Mon 20 Jul 1834 5595 (sic) (Abraham de Baruh) Bandell, Gertrude 17 Sep 1914 Barnett, Barman 3 May 1834 5594 Barnett, Coleman 3 May 1834 5594 (Kalonymus bar Yisrael) Barnett, Ellah 18 Dec 1867 Barnett, Esther Florence 9 Jun 1876 Barnett, Frances 31 May 1840 5600 Barnett, Henriette 7 Oct 1842 (sic) 5602 Barnett, Jacob 28 Sep 1875 Barnett, Joseph Isaac Sat 19 Sept (1835) 5595 (Yoseph Yitzhak bar Yisrael) Barnett, Sarah Elizabeth 7 Nov 1869 Benjamin, Benjamin 10 Jan 1851 Benjamin, Esther Miriam 5 Apr 1865 Benjamin, Eveline 24 Jul 1878 5638 Beriro, Judah 14 Apr 1899 4 lyar 5659 Brabanda, Adah 31 May 1884 (7) Sivan 5644 Cohen, Deborah 16 Apr 1879 5639 Cohen, Rachel 11 Oct 1883 10 Tishry 5644 Davis, Eulalie Florence Frances 7 Apr 1879 5639 Kreisberg, Leon 20 Apr 1899 10 lyar 5659 Lazarus, Reuben Alexander 10 Apr 1879 5639 Michael, Kathleen Matilda 29 Jan 1914 Myers, Aron 23 Jul 1847 5607 Myers, Frances 3 Apr 1852 5612 Myers, Gabriel 1 Dec 1853 5614 3 Myers, Hannah 25 Jul 1838 Myers, Henry Isaac 12 Apr 1846 5606 Myers, Joseph s. of Emanuel 19 Nov 1836 5597 (Yoseph bar Menahem) Myers, Judith Hester 26 Aug 1848 5608 Myers, Miriam Rose 8Aug 1849 5609 Myers, Moses 3 Feb 1851 5611 Myers, Nathaniel Selim 16 Jan 1856 5616 Myers, Phineas 15 Aug 1840 Piza, David Jessel 26 Mar 1883 17 Veadar 5643 Piza, Rosetta Jessel 3 Apr 1885 18 Nisan 5645 Piza, Ruth Jessel 6 Sep 1888 Riveline, Mordecai 25 Oct 1914 parents refugees from Paris Rosenberg, Henrietta 20 Oct 1914 Rosenberg, Joseph 30 Jul 1913 Shandel, Emily (Hilda ) 3 Jan 1883 5643 Shandel, Esther 2 Apr 1888 Shandel, Jacob 18 May 1886 Shandel, Judith 22 Feb 1880 5640 Shandel, Lewis (Yehuda) 3 Jan 1879 5639 Shandel, Moses 20 Aug 1881 5641 Shandel, Solomon 1 Dec 1876 Solomon, Francis Joseph 14 Jun 1876 Tobias, Elsie 23 May1914 Tritsch, Eveline Violet 16 Dec 1877 5638 Tritsch, Flora 1 Apr 1871 Tritsch, Judah Leonard 14 Nov 1883 14 Heshvan 5644 Trit(s)ch, Rachel 25 Jul 1869 Twyman, Aaron 25 Nov 1839 Twyman, Benjamin 19 Sep 1844 Twyman, Joseph 8 Oct 1842 Twyman, Miriam 3 Mar 1846 Twyman, Sarah 7 Jul 1847 Twyinan, Rebecca 2 Feb 1849 5609 (on loose sheet) Kaplan, Rita / Rica Rosetta d. of 5 Nov 1928 5609 Alfred Abraham and Ethel Esther 4 MARRIAGES REGISTERED IN RAMSGATE 5 MARRIAGES REGISTERED IN RAMGATE Bridegrooms and Brides Ser. Date Surname & First Names Age Rank or Residences Location of No Middle Name profession Marriage 1 03-Jan-1838 Cohen Victor Isaac F Jeweller 120 High St Margate 120 High St, Magnus Henrietta F ------ High St, Ramsgate Margate 2 18-Feb-1849 Mendel Henry Abraham F Umbrella 23 Richard St, 24 Harbour St, Manufact.