Nat, lay leader of many of our services, recalls:

Nearly 13 years ago the chief executive of the Liberal movement, Rabbi Danny Rich, came to Bournemouth to address a public meeting about the possibility of forming a Liberal community in the Wessex region. Nat chaired the meeting. By the end of the meeting Rabbi Rich had promised Rabbinic support and the loan of a training scroll.

Lloyd found us no-cost premises at the Christchurch fire station. Lloyd also prepared our website. The national liberal website provided a link to ours and enquirers were directed to Nat’s phone. Nat’s job was to make sure that information about our meeting places was not given to security risks and also to give the flavour of our community to prospective enquirers. This job is now done by Gillian. Very commonly enquirers remarked how friendly we were.

We still hear this. Surprisingly many local enquiries came from people who had been affiliated with the Liberals before coming to Bournemouth.

What appealed to people? Short synagogue services and an excellent finger food. Kiddush was certainly an attraction, particularly for members coming from outside Bournemouth and Poole. One major difference with Reform at the time was that Liberals would accept Jewish status for someone with a non-Jewish mother who was brought up as a Jew. In the last few years Reform Synagogue communities have the option of going along with this. A distinction which still exists is that Liberals will permit a non-Jewish partner to be buried in the Liberal burial ground.