Action and money

► As the co-editor and main author of the history of the Brighton & Hove Jewish Community and as a lecturer on and guide at Brighton’s historic Middle Street Synagogue (Fears over the state of historic Brighton shul, 27 August) I have some knowledge and experience of this outstanding edifice.

Dr Anthony Dale in his Brighton Churches (1989) opined that it had “after the Royal Pavilion the most spectacular interior in Brighton”. And in her Jewish Heritage in Britain and Ireland (2015) Dr Sharman Kaddish described it as the “Opulent jewel in the crown of the South coast’s most elegant Regency resort”.

Thus the place that this currently Grade II* listed Synagogue, with its significant connections with the Rothschild, Sassoon and other such families, holds in the treasures of Anglo-Jewry is unquestionable.

Many demand that something should be done to restore and preserve this treasure. Fine words, but hardly enough. It requires raising not thousands of pounds nor even tens of thousands of pounds, but — at least — many hundreds of thousands of pounds for the critical repairs and then restoration.

That is the scale of the need. And that need is now. So no more talking, no more fine exhortations.

Already 90, I may not see the full restoration of this national treasure, but I hope to live to see at least the start of truly meaningful efforts towards that result.

Godfrey R Gould

Hon President, Sussex Branch, Jewish Historical Society of England