Voices

Long-form testimonials, in the words of the people who know us.

The short quotations on the homepage are drawn from these longer pieces. Each was written or dictated by the person named, between 2023 and 2026, and is published with their permission.

A pair of hands resting on an open book in a wooden pew, with a brass candlestick to the left and the carved bimah just out of focus behind.
Naomi, in her seventies, photographed in a green coat against the flint wall outside the synagogue, late afternoon light.

Congregant · Mannamead, Plymouth

Naomi, 74

"I was born in Plymouth in 1951, four streets from where I now live. My parents brought me to the synagogue every Saturday morning for the first eighteen years of my life. Then I went to Bristol and London and stayed away for thirty years. The thing I had been most worried about, in coming back, was that the building would be gone — that the council would have pulled it down for a car park, or that the congregation would have folded. It is not gone. It has not folded. To walk in on a wet Friday evening and find the candles already lit — that is what BASH TRUST has given us, year after year. The quiet of it. The continuity."

Rebecca, in her late twenties, photographed in a navy coat on Plymouth Hoe with the Sound behind her.

First-time visitor · Stonehouse, Plymouth

Rebecca, 28

"I had not stepped inside a synagogue since I was a child, and even then only twice. I was nervous about coming. I came on a September Heritage Open Day in 2024 because a friend at work suggested it. I sat at the back. The wardens just nodded and made me a cup of tea. That is the most Plymouth thing I have ever known. I have been back twice since then for a Friday evening, and I am not sure yet what to make of any of it, but the room is patient. It is letting me work it out."

Daniel, in his early fifties, photographed in a tweed jacket leaning on the doorframe of the synagogue's side entrance.

Former warden · Crownhill, Plymouth

Daniel, 51

"I was a warden for nine years, from 2013 to 2022. People are sometimes surprised when I describe BASH TRUST. They expect a grand body — a panel of senior figures, a stack of documents. It is two trustees and a deed. The Trust does not announce itself. It pays the slater. It pays the printer for the prayer book. The building stands and the prayers go up and that is the whole story. I am glad of the smallness of it. We have too many large organisations in our lives."

Helena, in her late sixties, photographed in a wool cardigan in a classroom with primary-school art on the walls.

Primary teacher · Plympton

Helena, 67

"I bring Year Five children here twice a year, in February and in May. They sit on the wooden benches. They listen. They ask the strangest, most honest questions. One asked, last spring, whether God lives in the Aron Kodesh. Another asked if you could put a phone there to call God. The room does most of the teaching. My job is to stop the children fidgeting and to remind them to thank the wardens at the end. The Trust funds the bus that brings them from school and the printed handout each child takes away. That is, in essence, an entire piece of religious education that the curriculum could not otherwise reach."

Asher, in his early forties, photographed in carpenter's overalls outside his workshop with a small wooden mallet in his right hand.

Joiner · Stoke, Plymouth

Asher, 41

"My grandfather attended this synagogue. My father did not. I came back to it as an adult, partly because my wife is more observant than I am, and partly because the building is part of the city in a way that few buildings are. To work on that bimah — to take a chisel to timber laid down in 1762 — was the slowest, most careful month of my life. I will not forget it. The trustees were patient about the time it took. The wardens brought tea. I told my apprentice he would not get a chance like this again in his career. I still believe that is true."

Elizabeth, in her early fifties, photographed in a librarian's cardigan beside a shelf of leather-bound books at the Devon Record Office.

Archivist · Devon Record Office, Exeter

Elizabeth, 53

"As an archivist at the Devon Record Office I see a great many small congregational archives. Most are in very poor condition. The Plymouth Hebrew Congregation's is, by some distance, the best of any I have seen in the South West. That is not because the boxes were good. It is because, over twenty-five years, BASH TRUST has paid, in small steady amounts, for a conservator from Exeter to visit, look, and advise. That is what a long-game donor looks like. We learn from it."

Read more on the news pages.

Three of the people quoted here have also written longer essays for our news feed.

Read the essays