A Jew in Durham

Although brought up in a somewhat relaxed Orthodox Jewish home, I no longer follow most of the traditions of my ancestors. Nonetheless, I am a Jew, born of a Jewish mother and a Son of the Covenant. And grimly, I have distant relatives who died in the Holocaust.

This being the season of Passover, I thought I would check out what's happening among the Jews in Durham.

Not so much. The Jews, as you no doubt recall, were expelled from England by King Edward I in 1290. Although individuals may have been around, there was no communal presence until the 1650s and their presence was only fully legalized in the nineteenth century.

As for Durham, from what I have been able to glean, the first settlement was in 1888. There was a small synagogue for the first part of the twentieth century, but it folded in the 1950s and is today a Presbyterian chapel. Kind of says it all. It looks lovely with all the ivy, but they were not hosting any seder.

The front bit, though, with the ivy on the poles does look a bit like a sukkah.