Liverpool's Jewish community doesn't dwell on yesterday

Jews lived in Liverpool long before the days of Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, and Frank Hesselberg, who owned the store where they bought their instruments. According to a timeline published by Jewish Renaissance magazine in honor of the city being this year's "European Capital of Culture," the first Jews arrived in Liverpool in the mid-18th century, probably from Germany. By 1789, 400 Jews lived in Liverpool, the numbers reaching 1,000 by 1825. At the eve of World War I, 11,000 Jews called the city their home.

After World War II, more and more Jews moved either to the suburbs, Manchester, London or Israel, causing the community to decline to about 7,000 members by 1964. In the new millennium, fewer than 3,000 Jews live in the city of 430,000 people. The downward trend has a potential snowball effect. "There are no Jewish people there anymore," said Jeremy Collins, who immigrated to Israel last year because he "doesn't like London or Manchester."

But not everyone shares this negative outlook. While she agrees that the community has shrunk over the years, Amanda Goldman - who moved to Jerusalem in 1993 but just spent her summer vacation in her native city - noted that there still is a considerable Jewish infrastructure, including two synagogues. "You wouldn't have to move [in order to live in a vibrant Jewish community]" she said. Currently, a new community center is being planned, which will bring together on one site a synagogue, a school, a youth and community center and an old age home.