Published: 19 March 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
NEWCASTLE, THE HEART of northeast England, is not a small city with its approximately 300,000 inhabitants.
But to the few British Jews that cast their eyes northward from Manchester and London, the city is little more than what it was in Roman times – an outpost straddling the edges of Hadrian’s Wall.
To the Romans, Hadrian’s Wall marked the edge of the civilized world. To many Jews in London, Newcastle might as well be the edge of the Jewish world.
The some 600 overlooked Jews who call Newcastle home are a microcosm of the challenges that have affected UK Jewish communities outside the London “Bagel Belt”: how to sustain a shrinking and aging community.
Yet just across the slow-running River Tyne, the redbrick houses of Europe’s last great yeshiva town are visible in the smaller neighbouring city of Gateshead.
FULL STORY The Jewish community in Newcastle, England, is shrinking. But it’s getting some unexpected help (JTA)
Photo: The Gateshead Millenium Bridge connects Newcastle from the north with Gateshead in the south over the River Tyne (Jacob Judah)
