The Jews of Plymouth

This book is the first fully illustrated history of the Jews of Plymouth, a history in which the community has made a long and distinguished contribution to the city’s naval and civic life. The present-day community traces its roots to the 1720s and Plymouth Synagogue, a Grade II listed building, is significant because, not only is it the oldest synagogue outside London, but the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in the English-speaking world. Its exquisitely beautiful interior has seen continuous worship for over 250 years since it was first built in 1762. The congregation’s oldest cemetery lies on the historic Hoe, with the first recorded burial in 1744. It is here that the founder members of the community are buried: amongst them Joseph and Sarah Sherrenbeck, Abraham Joseph I and the Hart brothers. The naval connection, which goes back to Elizabethan times and Sir Francis Drake, ran deepest from the 1700s until the Second World War. Jewish pedlars were granted permission to board the ships docked in the port and sold all kinds of goods to the sailors. Their main trade was in sailors’ clothes or ‘slops’ which gave rise to the term ‘slopmen’. Figures like Abraham Joseph enjoyed the favour of royalty and was appointed slopman to HRH Prince William Henry. By the end of the nineteenth century, Plymouth and Devonport’s Jews entered local politics. Their contribution is unparalleled in other provincial Jewish communities of this period. Many served on the various Council committees or as Councillors of Wards. Myer Fredman became the first Jewish Mayor of Devonport and Arthur Goldberg elected the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Plymouth. During both World Wars, the Jews of Plymouth played their part in the British armed forces, with a number being killed in action. The first civilian casualties of the intense German bombing of the city in WW2 were Mary Smith and her niece, Esta, both members of the synagogue.