Liverpool will preserve abandoned synagogue

JTA — The British city of Liverpool will spend $100,000 to save a 77-year-old synagogue.

The Greenbank Synagogue in South Liverpool, which was built in 1936, was listed as being “at risk” in 2010, three years after the area’s Jewish community stopped using it, the Liverpool Echo reported, but the city hopes to secure its long-term future and help find a new use for it.

English Heritage, a public body, will provide about $77,000 in grants for the renovation; the council will give the rest. Work is due to start this month and is scheduled to finish later this year.

The synagogue’s decline was partly due to the falling Jewish population in the city, which in the last century has dropped to approximately 3,000 from 11,000, according to the paper.

“Greenbank Synagogue is an important, historic building, but it has become a worsening grot spot within the Sefton Park area in recent years,” said Malcolm Kennedy, Liverpool’s council cabinet member for regeneration, according to the Echo. “It’s great news that this vital work is being carried out.”