The Beatles are once again in the news, as they have finally allowed their music to be streamed on such music services as Spotify and Apple Music. What was the Jewish connection to the Cavern, the Liverpool nightclub where the Beatles performed regularly at the start of their career?
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A. The Cavern was originally opened by the Jewish Labour Movement organization as a club for young Jewish teens to socialize. The food served was kosher, and the club was closed on Friday nights, only reopening on Saturday night after sundown. The underground club was named The Machpelah, referencing the Biblical Cave of Machpelah, the burial place of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs. The club was later sold to local businessmen who converted it into a music club and renamed it the Cavern in homage to its original name.
B. The Cavern was owned by a Jew, Alan Sytner. Sytner, a member of the Greenbank Drive Synagogue (where Brian Epstein’s family were members), knew that many local Jews kept kosher. Therefore, he allowed them to just buy pastries and coffee at the Cavern’s cafe, rather than the full meals that patrons usually had to purchase.
C. The Cavern was originally an air raid shelter, built during World War II. From 1940 until the end of the war, the space was used on Saturday mornings as a synagogue by the Jews of Liverpool. Among its members were Harry and Queenie Epstein, parents of Brian Epstein, who went on to manage the Beatles career and rise to stardom.
D. The Cavern was located around the corner from the Greenbank Drive Synagogue, where Brian Epstein’s family were members. On Kol Nidre night in 1961, Brian snuck out of services, where he never really felt comfortable, and went to the Cavern to hear music. This was where he discovered the Beatles, who were performing that night, and he eventually went on to manage the group.
E. The Cavern was owned by a Jew named Alan Sytner. In 1958, he hosted his son’s Bar Mitzvah party at the club and hired the Quarrymen, a regular club act, to play at the affair. The Quarrymen consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Shotton. At the party, Lennon spontaneously started singing a ditty he made up on the spot: “As I read this Torah, Send my blessings to you. Remember that I’ll always be in love with Jews.” Four years later the Beatles recorded the reconfigured “P. S. I Love You.”