Abstract
When Jews in Florence, Italy submitted plans for a new Great Synagogue in 1872, the designs were rejected not on the usual religious or political grounds, but for stylistic reasons. The local municipality had decided that the Jewish community was not building in a ‘Jewish enough’ style, although it was not at all clear what this style ought to be. This debate over how Jews ought to build raged across Europe throughout that decade, and beyond. This essay revisits that particular historical problem, by looking at a sample of five new synagogues that were erected in England during the 1870s and 1880s: St John’s Wood Synagogue (1880–82) in London; Bradford Synagogue (1880–81) in Yorkshire; West London Synagogue (1867–70); Princes Road Synagogue in Liverpool (1872–74); and New West End Synagogue in London (1877–79). Each offered its own different way to think about the appropriate design style for a contemporary Jewish place of worship, and how this coincided, or not, with the rituals of worship and with the requirements of the various congregations involved. The essay concludes by asking what relevance such debates might have today.