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30 Jul 2010 / 19 Av 5770     

David Barnett

My name is David Barnett. I became involved in the Synagogue at its inception when it started at the Bromley Common Village Hall, a few hundred yards from my home. It seemed sensible to join a synagogue on my doorstep rather than to schlep the children 10 miles to Streatham Liberal Synagogue (where I had been a member for nearly 20 years) to Cheder. Since becoming involved in Bromley I have held every office on its Council (now the Board) including four years as Chairman in the ’70s.

Desirée and I have been married for 54 years, having met at the Ner Tamid youth club at South London Liberal Synagogue, a veritable marriage bureau, and have two children, Richard and Alison, who grew up in the Synagogue, which had very active youth clubs, and were bar and bat mitzvah there. They are still in contact with friends they made there. They now play a very active part in North West Surrey Synagogue. They each have two children who were and are also very active in that community before two of them went off to University.

More recently, I have been involved in the management of building of our extension, the refurbishment of the Synagogue itself and the functions hall. We are now at the last stage – that of completing the garden area.

I have been retired from full time work for 15 years now but, prior to that, I was for 43 years in Her Majesty’s Customs & Excise, a department with an outstanding history, which has now been absorbed into a new department, Revenue & Customs – a sad change.

From 1984 to 2002 I sat in Bromley as a Magistrate. Jews and, in particular, our Synagogue are over-represented on the Bench, we Jews pulling well over our weight in an organisation which should roughly represent the profile of the community as a whole. I still do various other voluntary jobs and, one way or another, keep myself very busy.

Desirée and I mostly attend Friday night services to augment the numbers at the evening services rather than Saturday mornings, so many of you may not recognise us.


This member profile originally appeared in Highlight, the monthly newsletter of Bromley Reform Synagogue, in May 2008.  It was correct at the time of going to print.


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