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A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6, Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey With Highgate. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1980.
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JUDAISM.
A Sephardi Jew, Moses Costa, lived in Finchley in 1756 but modern Judaism dates from the late 19th century. (fn. 1) Finchley synagogue, a constituent member of the United Synagogue, grew out of services begun in 1930 at no. 7 Crescent Road. A synagogue for 500 people opened in Kinloss Gardens near the North Circular Road in 1935 and was replaced in 1967 by one on an adjacent site, for 1,350. (fn. 2)
Hampstead Garden Suburb synagogue was built in 1934 by M. de Metz at Norrice Lea and registered in 1935. It is one of the largest constituents of the United Synagogue. (fn. 3)
Woodside Park Hebrew congregation, which from c. 1945 met at no. 3 Alexandra Grove, (fn. 4) registered the former Woodside hall in Woodside Park Road in 1950 and was renamed North Finchley and Woodside Park district synagogue. It is a district synagogue of the United Synagogue. (fn. 5)
A Liberal synagogue was founded in 1953, (fn. 6) meeting in North Finchley library and private houses and also using Christ Church, St. Mary's, and Moss Hall school until the existing synagogue was built in Hutton Grove in 1964. Called Finchley Progressive synagogue after 1971, the building holds 350. (fn. 7)
Garden Suburb Beth Hamedrash, a constituent member of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, began in 1953 in North Way on the Hendon side of Hampstead Garden Suburb and moved to no. 5 the Bishop's Avenue in 1955. (fn. 8)
Finchley Central synagogue, a constituent of the Federation of Synagogues, first met in 1956 at the Congregational hall in Victoria Avenue. A synagogue to hold 325 was opened in 1961 in Redbourne Avenue. (fn. 9)
Finchley Reform synagogue was built in 1961 in Fallowcourt Avenue, North Finchley, and replaced in 1974 by a new synagogue on the same site and seating 220. (fn. 10)