Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter No 22 November 2006 page 5 (of 6)
Letters
I am wondering if you can help me. I am part of the North Western reform Synagogue in London and we were donated some years ago two large windows that were part of a set, I believe from the Middlesbrough Synagogue.
We did display them for a while but since we have been rebuilt and refurbished they are really not in keeping with our building and we are wondering where they could find a home.
The donor would obviously like then to be looked after as they were part of his family history, he is now our member, Roger Selby.
I wonder if you have any ideas – or could you circulate this to your members?
Thanks in advance, Brenda Freedman London, England
David Simon replied as follows
Your message has been sent to me as there is no Middlesbrough congregation left. I have no official position. - actually I am President of Stokesley.
How about a museum, an art gallery, a chapel in a hospital or a school ?
If you are absolutely stuck, there is the Middlesbrough room in Gateshead . it has some windows already . It is controlled by Rabbi Trepp.
I think you may have 3 windows. David Simon Stokesly, England
I'm trying to tie a knot in the family tree. It's loose and flying in the wind and hard to tie down - people dying or forgetting and so on.
Michelle's father [Ed note: Louis Smollan] couldn't remember his grandfather's name or uncles.
Also, does anyone know how I can contact Martin Craster. His mother was a Smollan and I want to know the names of her parents and grand parents. Zelick and Michelle Mendelovich Bournemouth, England
I am doing a project on old buildings in Middlesbrough, I have been told that the building which currently stands at 23 Newport Road, was at one time a Jewish Synagogue.
Does anyone have any information on this? Robert Grimwood Middlesbrough, England
Letters
In November [2005] I went up to Middlesbrough and had a look at both the "old" and "new" cemeteries to see whether there had been any more damage after the last attack on the "old" cemetery.
At the "old" cemetery, the hedge had been cut down so that vandals could be seen, which is good. The gravestones have been laid flat as promised by the council, but the area looks very sad. It was difficult to find some of the stones and on many of them the writing was hard to read. Such is life!!!
No more damage has been done to the "new" cemetery. The stone masons - Lords, are now inserting metal posts into the gravestone heads and inserting them into the curbs which should stop them from being pushed over again. Fine for new burials but tough on the older ones. Joyce Lucas
Congratulations! You have been sorely missed. I am doing some public sessions in Middlesbrough Reference Library in September [2006] called "The story behind the Stone" - a challenge to discover the life story of someone from Middlesbrough from the detains on their gravestone. I should like to use a printout of one of the graves as part of that. Any objections? [Ed note: None whatsoever]
I haven't made any firm decisions yet as it depends on being able to get corroborative evidence from census returns, etc. I have looked so far at Sarah Aronson and Joseph Berger. They join Thomas Parrington born 1818 in pre- Middlesbrough and buried at Kirkdale, Moses Carpenter, visiting Mohawk Indian, the 3 men who suffocated in a well at Marton in 1812, and Bartholmew Rudd. A nice mixture of the famous, the peculiar and the very ordinary. Your pictures, by the way, are by far the best quality The potential dates for these sessions so far are 7th and 14th September. I'll let you have a report of how they went Jenny Parker Local Studies Librarian Middlesbrough, England
Please add this photo of my great-grandfather Chaim's gravestone to the old cemetery list.
Also you will find Zelik Smollan's stone has been put vertical courtesy of me and my sons. Please replace the one with the stone on the ground on the list. David Greenberg