March 25, 2013

(JTA) — The city of Liverpool has announced plans to spend $100,000 on saving a 77-year-old synagogue. 

The Greenbank Synagogue in South Liverpool, which was built in 1936, was listed as being “at risk” in 2010, three years after the area’s Jewish community stopped using it, the Liverpool Echo reported, but the city hopes to secure its long-term future and help find a new use for it.

Its decline was partly due to the falling Jewish population in the city, which over the last century went from about 11,000 to 3,000, according to the paper.

“Greenbank Synagogue is an important, historic building, but it has become a worsening grot spot within the Sefton Park area in recent years,” Malcolm Kennedy, Liverpool’s council cabinet member for regeneration, said, according to the Echo. “It’s great news that this vital work is being carried out.”

English Heritage, a public body, is providing about $77,000 in grants for the renovation and the council will give the rest. Work is due to start this month and is scheduled to finish later this year.

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