Hull:

By: Joseph Jacobs

Seaport of Yorkshire, England. It has a population (1901) of over 241,753, including about 2,500 Jews. The earliest trace of Jews there occurs toward the end of the eighteenth century, when they acquired for a synagogue a Catholic chapel in Posterngate which had been wrecked in 1780 during the Gordon riots. Dissensions in the congregation led to another house of prayer being secured near the present Prince's Dock, but the two congregations reunited in a synagogue in Robinson row, built in 1826; this remained the chief Jewish house of worship until Sept., 1903, when the congregation removed to a new synagogue situated in Osborne street. When the Russian immigration set in, one of the frequent routes was from the Continent to Hull and across to Liverpool, and a certain number of the refugees settled in Hull, necessitating the building of a second synagogue (1886) in Waltham street. This soon proving insufficient for the growing community, another synagogue, known as the "Western Synagogue," was built in Linnæus street, in May, 1903. The community has the usual charitable organizations, including a Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society, founded as far back as 1861, and a girls' school, founded in 1863.