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Project description
An exploration of the future of Sunderland’s Jewish heritage sites, and how they can be - or should be - protected. What benefits might local communities gain? And how can this heritage help tell Sunderland’s story from a new perspective?
Primary participants
Principal Investigator:
Dr Rebecca Clifford, History
rebecca.clifford@durham.ac.uk
Term:
Michaelmas 2025
Sunderland was once home to a thriving Jewish community, with rich social networks rivaling those of Newcastle. This nearly forgotten history lives on in three key heritage sites: Ayres Quay cemetery, Beth Hamedrash synagogue, and Ryhope Road synagogue. Together, they tell the story of a 250-year-old community that has now almost entirely vanished—leaving these sites at serious risk.
Overview:
Sunderland was once a place of growth and opportunity, a diverse community that attracted migrants from a range of backgrounds and countries. It was a hotspot in the North East for a thriving Jewish life, with flourishing social networks that rivalled those of Newcastle and the rest of the North East. This history – almost wholly forgotten – is written on the few remaining sites of Jewish heritage in the city: the Ayres Quay cemetery, the Beth Hamedrash synagogue, and the Ryhope Road synagogue. Together these sites tell the story a Jewish community in continual existence for almost 250 years. But that community has almost completely disappeared, and these sites are now at very high risk.
This interdisciplinary team (History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Libraries and Collections) brings shared expertise to the question of what should happen to Sunderland’s sites of Jewish heritage.
Research Questions:
- How can these sites be protected for the future? Should they be protected?
- What might local communities gain from this heritage?
- How does it allow Sunderland’s story to be told from a different perspective?
Activities and Events:
A a workshop bringing stakeholders together: discussing the current state of the sites and exploring possible future avenues, as well as sites visits, whereby the stakeholders are encouraged to see the three sites, taken together, as revealing a story about the growth and decline of a community that starts in the 1750s and runs through to the closure of the Ryhope Road synagogue in 2006.