The synagogue on Ryhope Road (opened in 1928) closed at the end of March 2006....

There was no Jewish community before 1750. Merchants and others moved from other parts of the United Kingdom, and Europe and a Rabbi was brought over from Holland in 1790. The community grew slowly, often as a side effect of the coal industry. The port exported coal to the eastern Baltic, but there was little return trade, and some ships accepted Polish Jews, especially from Crottingen, Poland, rather than lose money by returning empty in ballast. A plot of land was acquired in Beach Street, Deptford as a burial ground. This plot can still be seen and there are remains of memorial stones. Burials stopped in the mid 19th century when the municipal cemetery of Bishopwearmouth was opened. There is a separate Jewish section in the North West corner near the Hylton Road end. Remains from the original 'Jew's Burial Ground' were reinterred in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery. The result for this great trading port was a numerous and thriving Jewish population. The community, which was concentrated in the East End and, later, Ashbrooke, made a positive contribution to local business and culture. Sir Jack Cohen and Charles Slater, two prominent Sunderland Jews, were highly influential on local politics in the latter half of the 20th century. Slater led the city council for almost two decades until the early 1990s.

The Wearside Jewish community has been in decline since the mid-20th Century. Many Jews moved to other parts of Britain and the world, with some families emigrating to Israel. Other families moved to nearby Newcastle and Gateshead, where larger Jewish communities are in existence. At the 2001 census, 114 people of Jewish faith were recorded as living in Sunderland, a vanishingly small percentage. The synagogue on Ryhope Road (opened in 1928) closed at the end of March 2006.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunderland , http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/sunderland1/