The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, or LJS (, Qahal Kadosh Lev Chadash, "Holy Congregation New Heart"), is a house of prayer in St John's Wood, London, founded in 1911. It is the oldest and largest member of Britain's Liberal Judaism, a constituent member of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
The synagogue uses the Lev Chadash denominational prayerbook. Since its earliest days, it has had mixed-gender seating.
History
Claude Montefiore's Jewish Religious Union, established in 1902, opened a prayer association in a converted chapel at Hill Street, London 18 (Map), on 4 February 1911. Within a year, Hebrew Union College graduate Rabbi Israel Mattuck was appointed minister. By 1915, the congregation had 416 members and grew, reaching 784 in 1921. A permanent edifice at St John's Wood, with a capacity of 1,400 people and designed by architect Ernest Joseph, was dedicated on 13 September 1925. Leo Baeck, an internationally famous rabbi and Holocaust survivor, served as the synagogue's president. Lily Montagu was a spiritual as well as a lay leader at the synagogue and a member of the LJS Council from its inception until her death.
Rabbi Mattuck conducted services until 1947, retiring to function as Rabbi Emeritus, and was replaced by his former assistant, Leslie Edgar. John Rayner was senior minister between 1961 and 1989. He was succeeded by David Goldberg, who was in turn replaced by Alexandra Wright in 2004.
Current rabbis
The synagogue's rabbis are Alexandra Wright (Senior Rabbi) and Igor Zinkov.
Membership
It had 1,622 registered members in 1940, rising to 2, 600 members in 1954 before peaking at 3, 000 in the mid-1970s. Membership levels fell to 2, 300 in the mid-1980s, reflecting wider synagogue trends and as more people moved out to the suburbs. According to a 2016 study by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, the synagogue is in the category of 750 to 999 members by household.
The synagogue has long attracted strong numbers of American expatriate families and rabbis ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati (Fox 2011). Furthermore, it is considered the flagship congregation of Liberal Judaism, which in itself is considered ideologically closer to American Reform Judaism than it is to the Movement for Reform Judaism in the United Kingdom.
Rituals and edifice
Services at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue follow the prayerbooks of Liberal Judaism. The first prayerbook produced by Rabbi Mattuck appeared in 1912 and was influenced by American Reform Judaism and Rabbi David Einhorn's Olat Tamid. In 1962 a new Haggadah was produced by Rabbi John Rayner and Rabbi John Rich of South London Liberal Synagogue. In 1973 Rayner produced a new prayerbook, Service of the Heart to replace Mattuck's earlier prayerbooks. Rayner aimed to strike a balance between traditional and modern liturgical materials. The older establishment was happy to continue with Mattuck's more radical approach, while an increasing number of congregations felt the need for a more tradition kind of service and more Zionism. Service for the Heart was succeeded by Siddur Lev Chadash in 1995, again edited by Rayner. A successor, Siddur Shirah Chadashah is currently being produced. It will fulfil more closely the traditional concept of a siddur, that is a prayer book for Shabbat, the three daily services and for home ceremonies.
Over the years, there has been a gradual re-introduction of some of the traditional rituals and forms of worship abandoned by the synagogue's early leaders. In the 1930s and 1940s the synagogue began to accommodate the different traditions of an increasing number of congregants that were refugees from Europe. The greater impetus for traditional rituals also came from the context of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The conducting of the Kiddush began for the first time after the war and Friday night services were introduced in 1945. In the 1970s and 1980s, with the encouragement of Rabbi John Rayner and Rabbi David Goldberg, an increasing number of men began to wear a kippah, a practice which is now the norm. The rabbis also moved the congregation towards a greater use of Hebrew in the services.