Synagogue membership has stopped declining in Britain, due to a rise in the number of fervently Orthodox Jews.

Membership numbers for central Orthodox and liberal synagogues are still down from five years ago, according to a new survey by the Board of Deputies and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

But the numbers of haredim, or fervently Orthodox Jews, have more than doubled since 2005, from 4.5 percent to 10.9 percent of British Jews who are synagogue members, according to the survey.

Central Orthodox – equivalent to North America’s modern Orthodox – and Sephardim now make up 58.2 percent of the British Jewish population, down from 69.6 percent.

Britain’s non-Orthodox Jewish community, comprising Liberals, Masorti and Reform Jews, increased as a percentage of the total to 31 percent, even though their raw numbers decreased, due to the surge in growth of the haredi movements.

Nearly three-quarters of British Jews belong to a synagogue, the survey reports. That, however, represents a 20-year decline from 110,000 households in 1990 versus 83,000 today.

The authors say that later marriages among non-haredi Jews, and the resultant drop in the Jewish birthrate, may be affecting those figure

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. Make a matched gift today.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$120 $180 $360 OTHER AMOUNT