FROM THE ARCHIVES:The Greenville Hall synagogue at Dublin's South Circular Road closed just short of its 60th anniversary: Katrina Goldstone recalled the community it had served. – JOE JOYCE
THE CLOSURE of the synagogue signals the passing of an era; the end of an epoch when the close-knit Jewish community was concentrated almost entirely in the one small area and Greenville Hall was the centre of that compact universe. In a time when the community’s population is rapidly decreasing, there are no longer the numbers to justify three synagogues in Dublin city.
Jack Segal, President of Greenville Hall, as was his father before him, is saddened by the closure, and yet is philosophical about it: “You’ll see very few shuls in the British Isles as nice as it is . . . Everyone’s asking how can you close down such a beautiful shul. But the lifespan of a shul, to me, is a generation. The next generation move on . . .”
The exterior of the building has deteriorated somewhat but the interior is still a source of wonder, with its pillars and ornate blue and cream plasterwork, the domed stain-glass roof-section in a kaleidoscope of colours and, the main attraction, a golden dome dully glowing over the Ark of the Covenant. (The synagogue was damaged in an air-raid in 1941, and by an ironic twist of fate, the repair bill was footed by the German Government of the time).
It was originally built to unite the expanding number of immigrants in and around the warren of streets which are off the South Circular Road. Some were fleeing Russian pogroms, some feared the threat of conscription; all of them arrived with bags packed full of hopes, dreams and a fair share of ambition. Most had not a word of English. Some unfortunates believed they were in America.
They had fallen victim to unscrupulous boatmen who conned them out of their savings and then dropped them in Ireland.
By the beginning of the 20th century there were enough immigrants in Dublin to warrant at least six conventicles – in St Kevin’s Parade, Lombard Street, Oakfield Place, Lennox Street, Camden Street and Walworth Road. It was the need to unite these fragmented congregations that prompted various members of the community to band together to build a shul.
For the Jewish community it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Those who lived in the area during the period 1925-1940 remember it with the greatest affection.
Baila Erlich, who runs one of the two Jewish shops left in Clanbrassil Street (at one time there were over 20) said: “People were wonderful in those days. They had great will-power. hatever there was, herrings, potato, you shared it . . . there were sing-songs on Saturday night, Hebrew lessons on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays and the Tennis Club in Parkmore Drive.”
The exodus was imperceptible, at first. Families prospered and when their kids grew up and married they tended to move to more prestigious areas like Terenure.