I
was very interested in the article on the Middlesbrough Hebrew
Congregation in Menorah which I received yesterday.
I
note that the first Jews arrived there about 1862, and I wonder what
drew them there. I am particularly interested in their earliest
records as they involved my great grandfather Benjamin Levinsohn.
Benjamin
was a tailor living in Spitalfields when my grandmother Amelia was
born in 1861, but three and a half years later in April 1865 was
Minister of the Merthyr Tydfil Hebrew Congregation when his youngest
child was born there. I traced his death to 46 Garden Street,
Middlesbrough on 30th January 1868 aged 38, registered under the
occupation of 'Rabbi' and the name of Benjamin Livingstone, registered
by a Joseph Davison who was illiterate and signed with a mark. I
presume he was a Yiddish speaking member of the community, possibly a
pharmacist as he was 'in attendance' with an address 42 Sussex Street.
Since he could probably not speak much English, Levinsohn could well
have been anglicised into Livingstone by the Registrar, and I am
indebted to the current Cleveland Superintendent Registrar for
finding
the registration for me.
The
Jewish Chronicle of 21st February 1868 carried an appeal for the
assistance of the benevolent for the widow and seven children left
'utterly destitute' by 'the deceased B Levinshon, a Schochet and
Chazan, died of consumption, after a lingering illness, at
Middlesboro'. Among the donations later acknowledged was £2.15.0 from
the Sunderland Congregation (burial fees of the late Mr Levinsohn) so
I am not clear if he was Minister of Sunderland over 20 miles away,
which seems unlikely, or first minister of the new small community in
Middlesbrough who were too poor even to bury him.
Benjamin
left his wife and family behind in Merthyr Tydfil where his widow's
siblings lived as he obviously could not afford to move them but it
seems almost certain that he only moved to Middlesbrough to serve the
infant community. I imagine that Middlesbrough did not yet have a
Jewish cemetery and used Sunderland who kindly paid his burial fees.
