Montagu, a prosperous banker who was pious and generous as well as practical, saw a need to unify the numerous small and mostly ill-housed congregations and chevras that had mushroomed in London’s East End following the mass influx of refugees from anti-Semitic terror in Imperial Russia.
Within half a century the pre-eminent Anglo-Jewish Historian Cecil Roth[9] was able to write:[10] “..The Federation of Synagogues is…amongst the greatest and most generous Jewish religious organisations in the world.
Lord Samuel Montagu’s model for the Federation was to provide central services for small kehillos who wished to retain their independence while enjoying the support of a communal structure.
This is exactly what is happening today—the younger generations do not want great cathedral synagogues, they want small, cosy shtiebels in which they can play a leading role.
"[11] In 1946 Rabbi Dr Yaacov Kopul Rosen, representing the Federation, testified before the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry on Palestine, asking them not to "play politics with the remnants of the Jewish people.