For information
(15.12.87)
Introduction
CONFIDENTIAL
XCCI (87) 68 Copy No.
22
PA
MEMORANDUM FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL HKD 294/1
Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance
(Chapter 53)
A-1
REGI
Y
15 JUL 1988
INDUS
FICER
PA
4Y
Taken
OHEL LEAH SYNAGOGUE
The
Members will be asked to
asked to note the contents of this memorandum which has been prepared for their information. memorandum explains the background to the declaration of the Ohel Leah Synagogue as a Proposed Monument and the subsequent developments. It also gives the reasons for the withdrawal of the declaration by the Antiquities Authority.
BACKGROUND and ARGUMENTS
2.
The Ohel Leah Synagogue was built in 1902. It was constructed in the Victorian/Hispanic style and is the only Jewish synagogue in
in Hong Kong. Historically, the Synagogue has been closely associated with the major Jewish families in Hong Kong. It symbolises the presence of the Jewish Community and is the last tangible reminder of Nineteenth Century Sino-Judaic trade connections. The site is held under an unrestricted lease for 999 years from 1859. The title is vested in the Incorporated Trustees of the Jewish Community in Hong Kong,
3.
In 1981, the Trustees called for tenders to re-develop the site in order, inter alia, to provide enhanced facilities for the community and to underwrite the cost of repairing the retaining walls and fence wall which were assessed as likely to become geotechnically unsafe. Approval for re-development had been given to the Trustees at the Annual General Meeting of the Jewish Community on 10 December 1979. The Tender Brief left open the options of retention or demolition of the Synagogue but required the tenderer to justify whichever course of re-development that might proposed. Only one tender was received. Inter alia, this envisaged the demolition of the Synagogue and its replacement by a modern one on the basis that there were structural problems with the existing building, which would render its preservation in-situ uneconomic. Moreover, even expensive measures to preserve the building could not guarantee total
success.
be
CONFIDENTIAL