Our History

The Tayside and Fife Jewish Community is the new name for the Dundee Hebrew Congregation that was established in 1878, when the first synagogue in the city was open. A hundred years later a new synagogue opened its gate to community members at the current address. The building, designed by non-Jewish architect, Ian Imlach, was seen as a rare example of experimentation in post-war synagogue architecture.

The strong congregation, including these young members who came together in 1951, slowly declined with many families moving away from Scotland all together. To read more about our history see the article by Dr Abrams entitled “Jute, Journalism, Jam and Jews: the Anomalous Survival of the Dundee Hebrew Congregation“.

To read different perspectives on events concerning Jews in Dundee see publications by Dr Sarah Glynn and Dr Albert Jacob.

The Dundee synagogue closed in 1998, and many of its artefacts were distributed to other Jewish communities in Scotland. We now have services in the University Chaplaincy in St Andrews..

Nowadays, our members live across Tayside and Fife for a variety of reasons, including professional, lifestyle and family choices. We aim to provide them with a communal Jewish identity and a central meeting point for Jewish holidays, celebrations, Shabbat services and cultural activities in an environment which brings all the Judaic denominations together.