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Records of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation. The records can only be accessed at LMA with prior written permission from the Congregation. Written consent should therefore be obtained from the Honorary Archivist and Chief Executive of Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation, 2 Ashworth Road, London W9 1JY. Permission to copy items from the collection should also be sought from the Honorary Archivist. Please contact staff for more information.

Records relating to the administration of the Congregation including: laws and regulations (Ascamot); orders and resolutions; minutes, agenda, indexes of minutes and attendance lists for meetings of the Mahamad, Elders and Yehidim of the Congregation and other committees; membership lists; various reports, including annual reports of the Mahamad to the Elders; correspondence of the Mahamad, Synagogue and associated organisations; records of the Portuguese Marranos Committee; records of denization relating to members of the Congregation (denization was a legal process allowing foreigners to gain the certain privileges equivalent to British subjects, including the right to hold land, through letters patent); contract books with signed agreements to supply coal, matzot and other commodities; records relating to shehita (ritual slaughter of animals in accordance with Jewish dietary laws); and 'livros dos pleitos', case books which record the Mahamad's arbitration of various disputes amongst the Congregation.

Records relating to the Synagogue's services including: registers of births; register of circumcisions; marriage registers (books of ketubot) and marriage licenses; registers of burials in the Old and New Beth Ahaim, Mile End, and lists of graves, certificates of registry of deaths and coroners orders for burial; seats lists; sermons, dictionaries and prayer books; apprentice books and records of religious classes.

Records relating to property and legal matters including: petitions to the royal family; various legal and probate documents relating to legacies left to the Synagogue and trusts administered by the Synagogue; property deeds for the land of the Synagogue and its institutions; funded property books recording the investment holdings of the Synagogue and its Trusts; rent books; and plans.

Financial records of the Congregation: account books, ledgers, journals and cash books; records of finta and offerings from the members; salary and wage books; balance sheets and annual statements; records of the London Sephardi Trust; account books for Congregational trusts and charities; subscription lists; sedaca account books (charitable funds administered by the Synagogue and money used for the upkeep of the Synagogue); and receipts.

Records of branch synagogues including: offerings books, account books and seating lists for the Lauderdale Road Synagogue (also referred to as New West End Synagogue) and minutes and byelaws and account books for the Mildmay Park Synagogue. Please note that records relating to the Lauderdale Road and Mildmay Park Synagogues may be included in the main series of Congregational records.

Related documentation including: records on the history of the Synagogue and the wider Jewish Community, papers relating to Dr Moses Gaster's history of the Synagogue, indexes and books of poetry.

Records of related organisations including:

• Barrows' Buildings Almshouses, Bethnal Green, and Cocks Court Almshouses;

• Beth Holim Hospital, Mile End (later the Home for the Aged);

• Shahare Tikvah or Shaare Tikva (translates as Gates of Hope) School;

• Villareal National Jews' School, Thrawl Street, Whitechapel (formerly the Girls' Charity School);

• Spanish and Portuguese National and Infants' School;

• Shaare Orah ve-Abi Yetomim (translates as Doors of Light and Father of Orphans) Orphan Society for poor orphaned girls (later Orphan Aid Society, alternatively Shahare Orah vaabi Yetomim);

• Medrash (Midras/Medras) Heshaim Religious College;

• Society of Honen Dalim, Menahem Abelim, Hebrat Yetomot and Hebrat Moelim (Moalim) (translates as 'Succouring the needy; comforting the mourners; society for assisting orphan girls; society for circumcisions');

• Society Mehil Sedaca (translates as cloak of righteousness) for dowering orphans;

• Mahasim Tobim (translates as good and gracious deeds) Loans Society;

• Board of Guardians;

• Hebra Guemiluth Hasadim Society for tending the sick and burying the dead;

• Spanish and Portuguese Jews Burial Society;

• Spanish and Portuguese Provident Burial Society;

• Mikveh Israel (Hope of Israel) Society for lavadores (washers of corpses);

• City of London Benevolent Society for assisting widows of the Jewish Faith (Hebra Yetom ve Almanah Ye'oded);

• Spanish and Portuguese Abel Society (until 1903 known as Tsedaka Tatzil Memavet (translates as 'Charity Delivers from Death') and from 1954 as the Provident Abel Society);

• The Montefiore Endowment, including material relating to Judith Lady Montefiore College, Ramsgate Synagogue and Ramsgate Jewish Burial Ground Society;

• Sephardi Charities Aid Society;

• Sephardic Congregational Association;

• Spanish and Portuguese Lodge no 36, Order Achei Ameth, a Jewish Friendly Society;

• London Zionist League;

• Sephardi Literary Society;

• Loan Society/Ernest Brandon Charitable Endowment;

• Gift of Moses Lara Trust;

• Holy Land Relief Fund;

• Santa Irmandade de Orah Haim;

• Associated Sephardi Congregations; and

• Congregation Shearith Israel, New York.

Again, please note that records relating to the Congregation's charities may be included in the main series of Congregational records.

Personal and family records deposited with the Synagogue, including correspondence and diaries, sermons and treaties and essays and poetry of the Meldola and de Sola family.

Records of Sephardic Jewish Congregations in Barbados, Bordeaux, Amsterdam, Venice and Germany, including: minutes, petitions, byelaws, correspondence, accounts and service records for the Barbados Congregation (Nidhe Israel); photocopy of the minute book of the Bordeaux Congregation; and account books and papers relating to a loan for the Venice Congregation.

Records relating to Public Appeals, correspondence with other organisations namely the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and papers relating to associated congregations in Manchester and Ramsgate.