A hidden history of Bradford is unveiled in a heritage trail booklet celebrating 140 Years Of the city’s Jewish community.

The booklet, launched tomorrow at the Bradford Synagogue, has been developed over the past 18 months with the support of a £49,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

It has been put together by Benjamin Dunn and Nigel Grizzard, of Making Their Mark, which raises awareness of Bradford’s Jewish history.

The city’s Jewish community has been diminishing since the 1970s, and last year saw the closure of its Orthodox Synagogue in Shipley.

This year marks the 140th anniversary of the forming of a Jewish community in Bradford, notably by German Rabbi Dr Joseph Strauss, who arrived in 1873, forming a core of community members from the many Jewish families and individuals who had settled in the city from the 1820s and 1830s, drawn here by the wool trade.

The Grade II-listed Bradford Reform Synagogue – Yorkshire’s oldest synagogue – opened in 1881, when the adjacent part of Manningham was known as Bradford’s Jewish Quarter.

The Making Their Mark project runs tours of the synagogue which also take in parts of the city centre with a Jewish connection, including Little Germany, where many Jewish merchants ran export businesses and goods warehouses.

The Bradford Jewish Heritage Trail booklet has taken more than a year to research and features articles on Bradford’s Jewish endeavours, from the connection to the wool trade to the city’s first Jewish Mayor, to the artists, actors and Bradford City footballers the community has produced.

Jews migrating to Bradford in the 19th century were from wealthy business backgrounds, attracted to the prosperous textile trade.

“They were sent to learn about the wool trade,” says Nigel.

“As well as big enterprises like Drummonds Mill and Salts Mill, owned by a Jewish family after Sir Titus Salt, there were smaller Jewish businesses; shops, tailors, jewellers, photographers.”

Bradford’s biggest Jewish population influx came after the war, when refugees settled in Manningham, Shipley and Heaton. Today there are about 200 Jewish people here.

“The Jewish population is dwindling now, as younger people have moved on.

“It remains a close-knit community though,” says Nigel.

The booklet will be launched at the Bradford Reform Synagogue, Bowland Street, tomorrow as part of the European Day of Jewish Culture and Heritage.

The event, starting at noon, includes the premier of a documentary about Bradford’s Jewish community.

For more information visit bradfordjewish.org.uk, contact Nigel Grizzard on 07798 855494 or e-mail bradfordjewish@gmail.com.