The Synagogue - Shakespeare Street


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A building that held a lot of mystery for me was the Synagogue on Shakespeare Street,I was invited in as a youngster and made to feel very welcome.

As far as I recall the Gentleman informed me that it was a Synagogue since the 1950's,this was quite a time ago- and went on to say there was a really old Synagogue on Chaucer Street.

'Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving' was above the doors...that grand statement fascinated me back then.

Is it still there?

Was there one on Chaucer st?

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I went in there once too, with a Jewish mate when he was preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. The Synagogue was previously on Chaucer St, half way down, south side according to 1915 map.

Some years later, Shakespeare Villas was a favourite courting place of mine, but I'll keep schtum about that lol.

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If you look at the website for the Nottingham Jewish Congregation (http://jscn.org.uk/small-communities/nottingham-hebrew-congregation/) the Synagogue moved from Chaucer Street to Shakespeare Street in 1954. The Shakespeare Street building was originally a Wesleyan (Methodist) Chapel and was bought by the Jewish congregation after the Methodist church closed. The phrase 'Enter into his gates with thanksgiving' may well have been there from the building's days as a Methodist Chapel as it comes from Psalm 100 in the Old Testament so is common to both the Christian and Jewish scriptures.

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Went to a wedding at the Shakespeare Street Synagogue back in the mid 60s. My late wife had a Jewish schoolfriend who was being married there. It was an interesting experience. The friend's dad owned a business machine company. I think the business was on the corner of Mansfield road just above the forest. There was a large cemetery across the road. I'm sure a lot of you will know where I mean. They seemed to have done very well selling business machines. Probably long gone now we are talking fifty years ago.

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Hearing of the Shakespeare Street Synagogue reminds me of back in the sixties, when I was in the accountancy profession, the Hebrew Congregation were clients of my firm. One of the audit assistants went shopping at lunchtime and returned with her purchases in a Pork Farms bag. The rabbi was non too pleased to see this on the premises and he asked her to take it outside. There the bag sat, on the side steps of the synagogue, in full view of Shakespeare Street for the rest of the afternoon!

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I left Nottingham in 71. Mr. Posaner was getting on in years then so I assume he sold out. My wife kept in touch with her friend. Christmas cards and such but she never said much about her family.

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The Posaners were our next door neighbours for about 6 years. Very kind and genuine people who took a real interest in you. They had a colour TV from the start of colour broadcasting in 1967 - when we still had a black and white set - and they regularly invited me round (as a 13 year old) to watch programmes in the new fangled colour. It took my parents another 4 years to get a colour set so I saw quite a lot of them!

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  • 3 months later...

I'm sure you are right, Phil.  Last I read of it most of the Jews in Israel are either atheist or agnostic.  Not much better for Chritianity in our various countries either, but Islam's looking good.  Oooops better not go there.

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Ooh Dave!..you are a scamp!!

Funny when my Brother worked at a large unemployment benefit office in Nottm- he told me not one person of Jewish or Chinese origin claimed benefit..the families looked after their own.

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Not only that Ian, but both parties have a far superior work ethic than a lot of us. 

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Regarding this countries so called 'work ethics '. I'm always amazed and somewhat infuriated with the now popular British way of idolising the lazy, the feckless, the shifty, the gormless, the socially useless, and the downright bone idle as shown on TV.

Rab C Nesbitt, (very funny though) Stan Ogden, once of Coronation Street. The Royal Family patriarch as played by Ricky Tomlinson, Del Boy etc. 

Even in print, Andy Capp in the Mirror. (There's a surprise)  We have this propensity to worship the antihero.

Yet people who have made good and bettered themselves educationally and financially, and have become better off with a good lifestyle are often ridiculed, derided and unnecessarily frowned upon, instead of being admired and respected. 

A strange situation indeed. 

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I think the point of the comic anti-hero is they are there to be mocked. I wouldn't say they are idolised. Andy Capp always eptitomised the useless layabout, Del Boy the clueless chancer, both hilarious in their own awful ways. It doesn't always work though. The Royle Family was absolute cobblers.

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Idolised may be too strong a word, but it's getting that way. Re The Royal Family, it was only the brilliant Sue Johnston that made it watchable. That Caroline Aherne made  my stomach churn. I couldn't stand even to hear her voice.

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The English often laugh at themselves, not much wrong with that, !

The Royle family perhaps not to everyone's taste, but if you read Ricky Tomlinsons's biography you might think differently. Considering that he had been imprisoned for standing up for his working class beliefs, unable to continue with his chosen trade he took up acting to earn a living, he aint done too bad either.

Either way, love him or loathe him, he is my hero !

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