Papers of Rabbi H.F.Reinhart

Correspondence and papers relating to the West London Synagogue, including correspondence with individuals, papers from religious classes and papers about alterations to and the decorations of the synagogue. Correspondence and newspaper articles relating to Reinhart's resignation, 1957. Correspondence, papers and financial material for the Westminster Synagogue. General correspondence files, including material on the building of the Seymour Hall, 1934, the foundation of new synagogues within the Association of Synagogues in Great Britain, the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief and its work with refugees, and the Union of Anglo-Jewish Preachers. Sermon notes, 1911 onwards; papers on the conversion of proselytes.

Rabbi Harold Frederic Reinhart was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1891. He studied at the Hebrew Union College, Cincinatti, and was ordained in 1915. Reinhart served congregations in Gary, Indiana, Baton Rouge, Los Angeles and Sacramento, California, coming to England to the West London Synagogue in 1929. For twenty-eight years his ministry had a profound impact on the congregation and community as a whole. It ended in 1957 when a widening rift between Reinhart and the majority of the synagogue led to his resignation, together with that of his assistant ministers, three wardens and those members of the synagogue who supported his ideas. Out of this party, the Westminister Synagogue was founded. Reinhart was also active in the Jewish Peace Society and the National Peace Council. He died on 17 August 1969.

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