United Synagogue Seal, Image by StuE, Found by Dave Haffenden.
Found in the Colchester area.
LONDON, UNITED SYNAGOGUE around // several lines of Hebrew script
UNITED SYNAGOGUE around the outer and LONDON across the centre. The other side has at least three lines of faint raised Hebrew script.
It is very different to the more common Plumba Kosher seals.
1870 - The five Ashkenazi Synagogues join to form the United Synagogue. History from Wikipedia:-
From 1866, Nathan Marcus Adler was instrumental in bringing together the United Synagogue, a union of the three City of London synagogues — the Great Synagogue, the New Synagogue, and the Hambro Synagogue — and their branch synagogues at Great Portland Street and Bayswater.
Its direct work has always been confined to the metropolis, but it has exercised, indirectly, considerable influence over the Jews of the British Empire and British Commonwealth. It is governed by an elected council representing the constituent congregations. In religious and ritual matters it is under the jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbi. The president of the United Synagogue in 1910 was Lord Rothschild.
The United Synagogue directs and supports educational and charitable work. The title chief rabbi is not found in the pre-expulsion records, though, before the Jews were banished in 1290, there was an official named presbyter omnium Judaeorum Angliae. The functions of this official cannot be proved to have been ecclesiastical. The title Chief Rabbi became well known through the eminence of occupants of the position such as Adler's immediate predecessor Solomon Hirschell (1762–1842).
[edit] The United Synagogue - A Brief History
1690 - Foundation of the Great Synagogue
1707 - Hambro' Synagogue established
1761 - New Synagogue established
1837 - New Synagogue moves to Great St. Helens
1845 - Nathan Marcus Adler becomes Chief Rabbi
1855 - Central Synagogue established
1863 - Bayswater Synagogue established
1870 - The five Ashkenazi Synagogues join to form the United Synagogue
1891 - Hermann Marcus Adler succeeds his father as Chief Rabbi
1913 - Joseph Herman Hertz becomes Chief Rabbi
1914 - US comprises 21 communities
1931-38 - Nineteen more communities join
1939 - US comprises 52 communities
1945-55 - Thirty more communities join
1948 - Israel Brodie becomes Chief Rabbi
1967 - Immanuel Jakobovits becomes Chief Rabbi
1991 - Jonathan Sacks becomes Chief Rabbi
1995 - 125th Anniversary Celebrations
2003 - Tribe (Young United Syangogue) launched
2008 - US comprises over 60 communities
