The forerunner of this congregation was a chevra which opened in St. Alban's Street in 1869. The founders included tailor, Morris Goodman and Moses Raisman, a pioneer of the large Matzo industry which was established in Leeds prior to the First World War. In 1876 it moved to St. John's Place, New Briggate. For a long time it retained its immigrant outlook and piety with Yiddish as its lingua franca, and for this reason was known as the Grinner Shul by the vast majority of the community.
In 1873 the congregation purchased a plot of land on Gelderd Road for its own cemetery, now known as the Hill Top Cemetery. Some years later, in spite of opposition from the Great Synagogue, the congregation was able to appoint a marriage secretary and hold its own marriages. In 1900 Rabbi Israel Hirsh Levinson died and his obituary mentioned that he had been a rabbi in Leeds for 27 years and for most of that time the only rabbi in Leeds. He was buried in the Hill Top Cemetery.
In 1897, the Amalgamation of Synagogues was formed which included the New Briggate Synagogue together with The Psalms of David, Chevra Sefard, Lokover and Vilna Synagogues. Rabbi Isaac Hertzog (grandfather of the ex President of Israel) was appointed spiritual head based at New Briggate and served for 13 years until he was called to a position in Paris in 1911. In the grand tradition of squabbling, endemic in the Leeds community, this Amalgamation came into dispute in that year with another body, The United Synagogues of Leeds, composed mainly of the Great Synagogue and BHH. For a time each group sponsored its own rival Beth Din. An interesting wedding took place at the synagogue in 1910 when both bride and groom were deaf and dumb, whilst six years later, Lazarus Rosenberg gave up the Presidency after 10 years. The Rev. Simon Manson, who was for many years secretary of the Leeds Hospital Fund, also had a long association with the synagogue as second reader, from 1885, whilst the main chazzan was Rev. Casriel Kahan.
Like the other synagogues, after the First World War, the movement of the Jewish population dictated a move of the synagogue to Chapeltown, and overtures were made to the Great Synagogue with a view to amalgamation in erecting a new building. These were rejected 'with regret' but the New Briggate synagogue had already drawn up plans to build in Chapeltown. A house (called Brandsby Lodge and belonging to Sir Charles Wilson M. P.) with adjoining land, at the corner of Louis Street and Chapeltown Road, was purchased and at a meeting of the synagogue building committee on, 25th October 1927, the decision to appoint local architect, J. Stanley Wright was adopted - the projected cost to be 23,000. Unfortunately, money ran out to pay for the ambitious project and the Great Synagogue agreed to help complete it by joining the two congregations to form the United Hebrew Congregation. The first meeting of this new body's executive took place on 4th January 1931 and a little later the names for the combined body (United Hebrew Congregation), and the synagogue (New Synagogue) were adopted. It was intriguing, but perhaps inevitable, that these two long-time rival congregations, their differences largely blurred by the passage of time, should amalgamate. The synagogue closed in 1927 and, until the New Synagogue was opened, the congregation used Brandsby Lodge for worship.
Courtesy: Murray Freedman, UHC 150th Anniversary Brochure