Long Beach Jewish Life September 2016 | Page 19

You can file this under “Did you know?”, but it may surprise some members of the Greater Long Beach Jewish community to discover that when the Queen Mary first set sail in 1936, the luxury cruise ship not only had a kosher kitchen, but it was the first cruise ship in history to provide an actual synagogue (as opposed to a generic “meeting room”) to accommodate its Jewish passengers.

The on-board synagogue was dedicated by the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, J. H Hertz. It was located in the third class area of the ship, near the bow. The small (12 x 15) synagogue was designed by architect Cecil Jacob Epril, who had also designed synagogues in Cambridge and London. Trimmed in wood from Palestine, the synagogue featured an Ark with just a single door done in iron grill work. The Ark itself was designed to be small enough to fit within the confines of the 12 x 15 room.

There has been a long-standing debate about the placement of the synagogue. Some suggest that it was placed in the third class area of the ship because this is where the less wealthy Jewish passengers fleeing Hitler's Germany were typically housed. Others have suggested that the synagogue was put in third class because Cunard, the cruise line that built the Queen Mary, preferred to maximize the space in first class for revenue producing passenger cabins.

Did you know?

The Queen Mary's

Jewish Long Beach

Connection