Papers relating to the Jewish Community in Ayr

• Reference:GB 1220 COM/AYR
• Dates of Creation:1940 - 2015
• Language of Material:English
• Physical Description:
  138 items

• Scope and Content

  Papers relating to the Ayr Hebrew Congregation and, after it was wound up, the Ayr Jewish Community Charitable Trust.

• Administrative / Biographical History

  By around 1900, there were over 75 Jews in Ayr and soon after, a congregation was formed by a group led by Harris Freeman, a Lithuanian immigrant who later set up a furniture business called Carrick Furniture House. A synagogue was opened in Kyle Street (later in the High Street), with a small Hebrew school and ministers included Rev. Abraham Eidlin, Rabbi Marcus Katz, Rev. Hyman Davies and Rev. Sam Knopp. By the 1921 census, there were over 120 Jewish people in the town and a number of kosher guesthouses opened to cater for the many Jewish holidaymakers from Glasgow and elsewhere, including Mount Olive, Westfield House and the Invercloy Hotel. During the Second World War, a number of Glasgow Jews moved to Ayr, including evacuated children and the community thrived. The synagogue was moved to Sandgate, and later to the Invercloy Hotel. However, by the early 1970s, the Jewish community in Ayr had declined to only a few families, and around 1975, the last tenants of the Invercloy Hotel, moved out and a successor could not be found. The congregation was dissolved in 1975, the building sold, and the proceeds used to endow an Ayr Jewish Community Charitable Trust. The Trust disbursed grants to a range of charities in Scotland and in Israel over a period of 9 years. The Trust was wound up in 1985 and there has been no formal Jewish community in Ayr since 1975.

• Access Information

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