Come for the waterfront vista, stay for the quintessential British kiddush

Photos: MB Goldstein

Portsmouth has had a Jewish kehillah since the 1730s, although today, there is only a minyan on Shabbos in this British town, and the average age is 83. Yet there are still Jewish sailors posted here, the doomed Israeli submarine Dakar set sail from this harbor before mysteriously disappearing, and the town’s shul is the only one in the UK to boast a crest of the British and recite a unique Keil Malei Rachamim annually on Shabbos Parshas Terumah as a memorial to Jewish men drowned at sea

Sailing In

We’re driving into the great naval city of Portsmouth on England’s South Coast, curious to see if the city lives up to its reputation as a gateway to the deep blue sea and all things naval. We’re also here to experience the story of Portsmouth’s Jewish community, a historic kehillah that was one of the first Jewish enclaves in Britain. Portsmouth has hosted Jews continuously since the 1730s, when it was the third Jewish community to be established in the United Kingdom, predated by only London, the capital, and Plymouth, a town 137 miles away on the South Coast. Yet today, Portsmouth’s minyan is held only on Shabbos.

Prominent signage points to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where you can see HMS Victory, the ship on which Lord Admiral Nelson, the ultimate British naval hero, faced off with General Napoleon Bonaparte at the turn of the 17th century, won over Napoleon’s forces at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and was then killed by a French musketeer.

The docks boast an impressive retinue of five major historic ships, shipwrecks, and submarines, each of which tells its own story of men and high seas, from the wreck of Mary Rose, King Henry VIII’s favorite warship, sunk in 1545, to modern aircraft carriers.

We spot a luxury ocean liner as big as three apartment buildings floating in the docks and pass the car ferries which sail off from here to Brittany in France and to the Isle of Wight. You can spend a very packed day touring the dockyard, but my kids are disappointed that there are no sailors in sharply pressed Royal Navy uniforms striding through the streets; today’s active naval base is firmly gated and guarded. There is still a pub on almost every corner of the city, though, because what did sailors do when their frigates were moored, but come into town for a drink?