All the following information has been made available and reproduced here by the kind permission of the Exeter Hebrew Congregation. Frank J Gent was instrumental in all the initial work and for getting the information on to the site.

• Overview
• The Medieval Community
• The Ottolenghi Affair
• History of the Synagogue: the building; the artefacts; the people
• Plans & Drawings
• The Synagogue Archives 
• The Burial Ground
• Ezekiel A. Ezekiel and his work
• Bibliography
• West country Jewish Roots
• Exhibition: The Jews of Devon and Cornwall
• The Rise of Provincial Jewry by Cecil Roth 1950 - Section on Exeter

Holocaust Testimonies from Exeter

The majority of these of wartime experiences were recorded in 1989. Some of these people have since died. Some had never had contact with the Jewish community beforehand.

Here is a comment for a user of this site:

"I have recently read through your webpage for a project I had to do at school. We had to write a letter to a friend or family while we were there, at war, describing what it was like and so forth. I came upon your page and began reading. Moments later I found myself crying; before then I had never realized war was quite like that, I guess deep down I did know, but it took someone's real words to place that in my head. I would just like to thank you for this webpage."

Tour the Building

These photographs were specially taken in 1997 before the commencement of the recent major restoration as a record of the synagogue as it then was. You can explore both outside and inside.

About the Restoration

Exeter Synagogue was first built in 1763, which makes it the third oldest synagogue in Great Britain, after Plymouth Synagogue, built some eighteen months before, and the famous Bevis Marks Synagogue in London. It is the same age as the Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island. As it approaches its 250th anniversary this historic synagogue has undergone a major restoration programme, with renewal of the Georgian panelling behind the seats, complete reconstruction of the roof light, installation of central heating, and, most important of all, a major restoration of the synagogue's historic ark. It was at the beginning of the restoration programme that English Heritage recognised the historic importance of the synagogue by upgrading its 'listing'.

Visit the Exeter Synagogue