Reflecting on Judaism

Four different Authorities originally owned the four sites on which the school now stands: the Essex County Council, the Ilford Borough Council, the Crown Commissioners and the London Transport Board. Each of these Authorities were represented by their respective lawyers and not unreasonably they each wanted the best price they could negotiate for the land they were selling. The two Local Authorities were also represented by the County Land agent and Valuer in order to ensure that we were paying the full price. Raymond Rudie, who had to juggle between the four lawyers, and to whom a great debt of gratitude is owed by the local community, legally represented the school. The school was also represented by a local surveyor, Frank S.Jackson and by the architects Duncan Scott, Brownrigg and Turner, the firm, you may recall, that was originally recommended as being in the top class of school architects. Apart from the negotiations on the price of the land, the school could not submit outline plans until the final boundaries had been agreed and these could not be agreed until the fair price had been negotiated. Somehow the deadlock was eventually resolved. Meanwhile formal ‘section 13 notices’, notifying neighbours of the school’s plans were posted, and no objections received. This came as a great relief. Raymond maintained pressure on the Committee to complete the purchase of the small parcel of land on offer from the Crown Commissioners, as its purchase price was low and it occupied a central position, which would make it more difficult for any one else to develop the site.

          Two additional problems arose one of which caused a slight delay and the second considerable inconvenience. The London Transport land had been rented out to allotment holders and it was considered unfair not to allow them to finish the season and collect the fruits of their labour. The second problem concerned the small stream (the Cran Brook?) that ran alongside the site. When the land was originally surveyed the stream was an open one and the site’s groundwater ran into it. For safety’s sake the Council decided to culvert the stream but somehow or other the builders were not informed. As a result of this culverting ground water took longer to run away and the water level of the site rose considerably. When the builders eventually started work their equipment got bogged down in mud and this delayed the school’s completion. When the school was almost ready I invited the foreman into the hall and asked him to build an Ark to house the Sifre Torah at an extra cost. He asked what the ‘cupboard’ was for and I told him that it was to be an Ark. He replied, ‘I don’t know what you want an Ark for, the whole bloody building is an ark. All this, however, happened in the future.

          On 25th September 1963 Joe Rose met a Mr. M. Uveeler, secretary of the Claims Conference, formally known as ‘Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany Inc.’. It would appear that the meeting went well for Joe Rose, in a letter, was profuse in his thanks to Mr. Uveeler for his attitude. And he proved to be correct for in January 1964 the school was notified that, subject to the school’s Governors’ agreeing to certain reasonable conditions, the school was to be granted £11,250. At a meeting of the Governors and Committee, held on 10th March 1964, they formally accepted the conditions and from the Minutes of this meeting it appears that the sum offered was increased to £15,000. It was pointed out to the school that 1964 was to be the last year of Conference allocations and that no future applications could be accepted. The school had applied just in time.

          In November 1964 Joe Rose wrote to Mr. Uveeler informing him that the architects had completed their initial plans and that contracts for all the plots involved had been received by our solicitors who hoped to exchange contracts for two of them within the next few weeks. Full details would be sent to him when the school had negotiated the price of the remaining plots. Joe Rose also reported on the launch of our first local Dinner and School’s Appeal for funds ‘last week’. The Chief Rabbi attended the event together with local dignitaries and Joe forwarded to Mr. Uveeler a copy of the Jewish Chronicle’s report and copies of the Covenant Form and Invitation Card. The event represented a promising start as guests were invited to sign annual covenants in the sum of £5 5s 0d. many of which are still in existence.

          You may be wondering what happened to the negotiations between the school and the Torah Dept. of the Jewish Agency which commenced in 1961. I quote verbatim from a report received by me from Raymond Rudie at the time: “As far as we have been able to establish it, our negotiations with the Jewish Agency made the following progress.

March 1961             First approached.

May 1961                Draft agreement received from Jewish Agency.

January 1962           Jewish Agency is asked for £2,000 towards cost of land.

June 1962                Jewish Agency state that £4,000 now available.

Oct. 1962/Oct1963  Discussion draft agreement with particular reference as to ‘what is meant by ‘Orthodox’’.

October 1963Trustees meet.

December 1963Documents received by Ilford for signature.

March 1964Documents signed by Ilford and returned to Jewish agency.

May 1964             Meeting between Trustees and Mr. Handler, representative of the Torah Dept.

July 1965               Jewish Agency is asked for £5,000.

Since May 1964, Ilford has been unable to obtain the return of the various documents duly signed by the Jewish Agency for two reasons:-

1. Jewish Agency representatives stated to be not all available.
2. Jewish Agency wish to change the name of one party to the Deeds from Jewish Agency and Mizrachi to Yavneh.

   November 1965 received a letter from Jewish Agency asking us to re-negotiate one of the clauses.”

          Another fuller schedule prepared by Raymond Rudie shows that he was continually writing reminders to the Jewish Agency’s solicitors requesting return of the signed documents and funds to help complete the purchase of part of the land. By November 1965 no funds had yet been received. Very often his letters were ignored or he was told that the person at the Jewish Agency who was dealing with the matter was abroad.

          It was during September 1965 Raymond wrote again complaining of the delay and of the possibility of the purchase being prejudiced and it was in reply to this letter their solicitors suggested amendments to the Trust Deed and Agreement.

            In March 1965 the local Committee learned that the London Board of Jewish Religious Education was interested in establishing a primary school in the Ilford area.

Woolf Abrahams.                    

            October 2003.