Registered charity · 220011 · Est. 1963
BASH TRUST is a small endowment charity. Its work is to keep the fabric of the Plymouth Hebrew Congregation's synagogue sound, and to support the religious education of the families who worship there.
What we hold to
We are not many, and we do not try to be. Our scale is small by intention. These are the commitments that have shaped the Trust's work since the deed was signed in October 1963.
One
Our first duty, written into the trust deed, is to fund the necessary works on the Catherine Street synagogue — the slates and lead, the limewash, the plaster, the timber bimah. Buildings of this age demand a steady hand, not a grand one.
Two
We assist the Plymouth Hebrew Congregation in providing for the religious education of its children and adult learners — small grants for a teacher's honorarium, a set of siddurim, a Hebrew primer, a hire car to bring a visiting scholar down from London for a Shabbat.
Three
The synagogue is a Grade II* listed survivor of 1762. Its ledger is not a place for vanity projects. We work in cooperation with the warden, the architect and Historic England, and we say no, gently, to interventions that would erode what generations have preserved.
Grant Programmes
Because we are an endowment trust, our work is done through grant-making, not service delivery. Each year a modest grant budget is set aside under three headings.
Programme · Fabric
Conservation works on the 1762 synagogue — roof, render, internal joinery, and the ark itself. Awarded in small payments against estimates approved by the architect.
Read more →
Programme · Education
Small grants toward the cost of teaching at the congregation — visiting rabbis, prayer books, primers, and travel for adult learning groups.
Read more →
Programme · Heritage
Care of the synagogue's silver, textiles and archive — the small but irreplaceable record of two and a half centuries of Plymouth Jewish life.
Read more →Open appeal
In 2025 the architect's quinquennial report flagged movement in the timber framework beneath the central bimah — the platform from which the Torah has been read in this room since 1762. We are raising a small, named fund to support the carpentry, the joinery, and the consolidation work that will follow.
Every gift over £10 goes through the trust deed into the fabric account. None of it is spent on administration.
Give to the appeal
Voices
A few of the lives that touch this small place — read at length on our news pages.
Story · Plymouth Hoe
After decades in London, Margaret returned to Plymouth in 2022 to find the synagogue she had been brought to as a girl still standing, still quietly running its Shabbat services. Her piece for our newsletter became a small thing that travelled.
Read on →
Story · Stoke, Plymouth
Asher trained as a joiner and now leads the small team carrying out the bimah work. He spoke to us about the strangeness of putting his tools to a piece of timber older than any in his workshop.
Read on →
Story · Mutley, Plymouth
A history teacher at a Plymouth secondary school, Eli has been helping us catalogue the congregation's minute books. He wrote, for our blog, about reading the wardens' notes from the 1820s.
Read on →Get involved
We do not run a large volunteer programme. There are a handful of roles each year, and the people who take them tend to stay. If any of these speak to you, please write.
Tue evenings · 18.00–20.00 · two hours a fortnight
Help us sort and re-house the congregation's paper records — minute books, marriage registers, school exercise books from the 1930s. Quiet work in good company.
Find out more →Sat · 09.00–17.00 · twice a year
Welcome visitors during the September Heritage Open Days and the spring open weekend. You don't need to know everything — most of the questions are answered by the building itself.
Find out more →Occasional weekdays · 10.00–12.30
Accompany small classes from Plymouth primaries on visits to the synagogue, help with the seating and the tea, and lend a quiet ear to questions.
Find out more →Recent dispatches
Why we are raising a small named fund for the timber framework beneath the bimah, and what the work will involve in the months ahead.
A short essay marking the anniversary of the synagogue's consecration on 26 August 1762, and the long handful of years that have followed.
How a small grant under the Heritage Conservation programme is helping us re-house two and a half centuries of paper.
In their words
