All but one (see here) were Orthodox and Ashkenazi in their foundation and ritual. This was for two reasons: primarily because most of the settlers were from Eastern Europe, but also because the establishment of Sephardic synagogues in the area was inhibited by the presence of the historic Bevis Marks synagogue on the edge of the City, representing a somewhat different style of Jewish life, which reacted nervously to the new influx. (This is the oldest synagogue in England, built in 1701 and designed by the Quaker Joseph Avis who had worked with Wren, so its style is not unlike that of Anglican and nonconformist churches of the period - deliberately so, both since this was the prevailing architectural style and also because they did not wish to draw attention to themselves. It is tucked off the main street, since at that time Jews were not permitted to build on main thoroughfares. Benjamin Disraeli's family had been members here, before a dispute which led to the children being baptized as Christians - which in due course enabled him to serve as prime minister.)  Apart from the divisions between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews, there were tensions between the various, very different immigrant groups:  for example, urban Jews from Kiev, Ukrainian farmers, those from small Galician (Austrian) towns and those from Polish ghettoes.

Willy Goldman (1910-2009), who grew up near the St George-in-the-East district and wrote East End my Cradle in 1940 and several other books about East End life, said that Rumanian and Polish Jews mutually regard each other as God's lowest creation. As one who largely rejected his religious heritage, he also wrote We Jewish children acknowledged the superiority of the Gentiles' method in one field: religion. He was practically exempt from it. With us the Rabbis dominated one part of our life as the school-teacher dominated the other. Most of their teaching, he reckoned, would have been forgotten within a week of barmitzvah.... But other East End Jewish writers (of which there are many) have a different take: Emanuel Litvinoff (1915-2011), for example, did not have a bar mitzvah because his father returned to Russia and his mother could not afford it: see Journey Through a Small Planet  (1972).

The oldest congregations in this area were on the edge of, or just within, the City, in what became the parish of St Mark Whitechapel, many of whose late-19th century clergy were actively involved in Christian-Jewish mission, but which closed a generation later for lack of a local Christian population. Here are details of several Jewish convert clergy who served at St Mark's and at Christ Church, Watney Street.

In 1887 the Federation of Synagogues was established on the initiative of Samuel Montagu MP [see above] who was concerned by the spread of worship in small, unregulated and often insanitary premises. (It also ran a burial society, with an office at 45 St Mark's Street). Those marked (1) in the second column of the table below were represented from the time of the preliminary meeting on 16 October 1887, those marked (2) from its official launch on 6 November 1887, and those marked (3) affiliated later. The title 'Great' does not mean that they were grand buildings - most were not - but rather that they were purpose-built amalgamations of small synagogues which previously met in homes or converted workshops.

In time, all those in the parish closed, amalgamating with other congregations, both local and further afield. A few remain on its borders - Nelson Street, Commercial Road and Fieldgate Street – but they are struggling to survive. However, they are actively involved in interfaith activity, through Tower Hamlets Interfaith Forum - (especially by the wonderful and ever-helpful Leon Silver, warden of Nelson Street) and an increase has been noted in young Jewish professionals living in the 'City Quarter' attending daily prayers.

The synagogues are listed in historical order of foundation.

d] right is Harris Buildings, on the corner of Golding and Burslem Streets, in 1970.

See further Peter Renton The Lost Synagogues of London (Tymsder 2000) and many others' historical and autobiographical writings about local synagogue life.