Manchester - born Maurice Greenberg died just after celebrating his 95th birthday at his home in Rishon-le-Zion.

Niece Barbara Paul has paid tribute to her uncle.

"He was a gentleman and very loyal to his Judaism," Mrs Paul, of Salford, told the Jewish Telegraph.

Mr Greenberg moved to Sale in the 1940s and he rented the ground floor and first floor part of a shop called Topps Tiles in Washway Road.

He ran a jewellery shop and did repairs.

Mrs Paul said her uncle, who was married to her aunt Naomi (nee Shine), wanted to form a minyan, in 1944.

"He looked in the local telephone directory for nearby Jews and that was the first step which led to the establishment of the shul," she said.

Mr Greenberg also borrowed Sifrei Torah from a shul in Red Bank, off Cheetham Hill Road.

Following the success of the service, other Jewish residents in Sale and nearby Stretford and Altrincham were sought out and a committee was formed.

Five years later a house was bought in Carlton Drive, Sale, and converted to provide the first permanent synagogue with classrooms and a caretaker's flat.

But in 1960, Mr Greenberg and his wife decided to move to Israel with their children, Doreen, Marilyn and David.

Tragically, Mrs Greenberg died in 1971, in her early 50s.

Mr Greenberg last returned to Manchester on a visit in 1999 and his niece took him to the shul's current site.

Mrs Paul recalled: "It was a very emotional moment for him.

"He was able to see the fruits of his labour and how much the community which he started had grown.

He was a modest, quiet, unassuming man who never sought credit for those early efforts to found a minyan and bring Jews together."

As well as his three children, Mr Greenberg leaves sisters, Miriam Newton, of Salford and Bernice Gal, of Kfar Sava, Israel and sister-in-law Anne Barclay, of Salford.