Welcome To Beth Tefilah!

In 1967, Beth Tefilah ("House of Prayer"), the first Orthodox congregation in the city was founded. Isaac Moskowitz was one of about six or seven Orthodox Jews of European descent who came to London. He approached Dr. Yitzchak Block. who had established a Shabbat and Sunday morning minyan in a basement apartment near the campus for himself and about a dozen students. Upon Moskowitz's suggestion, the two groups began to meet in the basement of his house on Taylor Street. Thus was Beth Tefilah born.  Dr. Block would become a steadfast congregant. A Lubavitch Hassid, he was born in Nashville, Tennessee and came to London in 1961 to teach philosophy at the university - being, at first, the only Jewish person on faculty. Dr. Block didn't attend services at either B'nai Israel or B'nai Moses (London synagogues at the time).  Instead, he gave Torah classes at B'nai Israel and spoke regularly to its Sunday morning Men's Club. Before long he was helping the B'nai Brith chapter establish a Hillel program at Western for the estimated seventy Jewish students then on the campus.

Spiritual leaders of Beth Tefilah have included Rabbis Mandelbaum, Stollman, Lawrence, Kurz, Kestenbaum, Zweig, Rosenberg, Cohen and the current rabbi, Lazer Gurkow, who joined the synagogue in 2000 and, has become the synagogue's longest-serving rabbi for 24 years. At its height, the congregation had as many as 130 families, but the number included numerous "transient" families who stayed in London for only a few years. Current membership is about ninety families, and about forty people attend services on an ordinary Shabbat.  Rabbi Shalom Kurz, who served at Beth Tefilah from about 1986 to 1992, assisted in renewing and improving London's eruv, a demarcated area within which it is permissible to carry things outside the home on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. The eruv, is still in existence and undergoes regular inspection and maintenance, according to Rabbi Gurkow.  Beth Tefilah built its current building about 1967.  Until recently there have been few changes to the physical structure: a community mikvah was built in the late Seventies and beautifully renovated in 2023.   As well, a children's room was added in 2010.

 Rabbi Eliezer Gurkow is a dynamic, personable and brilliant speaker who creates a beautiful ruach and a heimish community.  He and his wife Rebbetzin Basie, are revered by the congregation.  Rabbi Gurkow has lectured on many topics and has been invited to speak to audiences throughout Israel and North America. Gifted with the ability to present the complicated in easily understood language, Rabbi Gurkow has successfully lectured to university students and community groups.  A prolific writer, he is the author of more than three hundred articles that appear regularly in both online and print publications. He is the author of a weekly Torah essay that is distributed via email and is published on numerous websites.

We invite you to come to our heimish Shabbat services and attend are various special programmes.  Please contact the synagogue or our Rabbi to let us know you are coming.  We look forward to seeing you soon!