Ramsgate
© Marcus Roberts (2004 & 2008 & 2012)

Key Dates

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1749
The port of Ramsgate is built for the Channel Squadron. The town grows as a holiday resort.
1784
Sir Moses Montefiori is born
1786
The first Ramsgate Jew settles in town, Isaac Lyon, a silversmith.
1789
Noah Levi, a watch maker arrives and lives in Queen Street.
1794
Henry J. Levy, a watch-maker, arrives in 1794 and lives at Albion Hill.
1798
Benjamin Norden, the African explorer and founder of the South African Jewish community, is born.
1812
Moses Montefiori passes through Ramsgate on his honeymoon and decides to live there.
1822
Moses Montefiori leases East Cliff Lodge, a grand Gothic villa as his marital home.
1831
Sir Moses finally manages to buy East Cliff lodge.
1833
Moses Montefiori builds a synagogue at Ramsgate in imitation of his ancestral synagogue of Leghorn in Italy.
1840
Sir Moses successfully intervenes with the Sultan of Damascus to lift the charge of Blood Libel
1847
There are only 45 Jews in town.
1862
Judith Montefiori passes away at Rosh Hashanah and Sir Moses is grief stricken. He builds a mausoleum for her by the synagogue.
1869
Sir Moses establishes a memorial college for Lady Judith.
1872
The Ramsgate Jewish Burial Ground is established by Benjamin Norden.
1883
Moses Montefiori celebrates his 100th year.
1885
Sir Moses passes away at 101 years old; his funeral is a major event at Ramsgate as he is laid to rest by his wife. Joseph Sebag inherits his estate and mantle and Queen Victoria licenses him to use the Montefiori name.
1887
The cemetery is signed over to the Spanish and Portuguese congregation. Benjamin Norden the African explorer dies.
1894
In this year there are a variety of Jewish professions in Ramsgate, there are about 100 Jews in town. However tailors and keepers of boarding houses predominate.
1894
Jonas Levi a Ramsgate J.P and barrister dies.
1895
Converted Jewish children from Palestine Place in the East End of London are temporarily lodged at Ramsgate while awaiting removal to their new Mission School, Streatham Common, South West.
1896
Joseph Sebag Montefiori is given a knighthood. The Lady Judith College temporarily closes due to an administrative crisis.
1903
Sir Joseph dies.
1917
Lazarus Hart (b.1831) another J.P. and twice Mayor of Ramsgate dies.
1939-45
The War disperses the community, but the community revives briefly after the War.
1952
Judith College is used to train African Jews for the Jewish ministry.
1961
Judith Montefiori College is demolished a reflection of the general terminal decline of the community.
1964-8
A Lubavitch rabbi, Stanley Kinn, lives in Mill House and uses it for holidays and retreats.
1967
Joseph Barnett dies. He had been three times mayor of Ramsgate.
1973
The Lubavitch cease activities on the estate.
1989
The Montefiori Endowment is reformed and takes over the responsibility for the foundation from the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.
1997
There is a small Jewish community left in Ramsgate, though there is a Jewish community present across Thanet and East Kent. The Endowment has substantial assets still used to help the training of rabbinical students.
1999
There is a furor over plans to redevelop the old college site, which is now waste-land.
2008
5,000 Chasidic Jews converge on Ramsgate for the yahrzeit (anniversary) of Sir Moses Montefiore's death
2012
The Thanet and District Reform Synagogue, at Margate Road, in Ramsgate, has an active community of around 70 families, both from Ramsgate and drawn from the surrounding Thanet and East Kent areas.
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