It’s a Friday night in autumn and 150 people are crammed into a small synagogue hall, not a spare seat in sight. Last year, before October 7, there would barely have been two dozen people in attendance. But tonight, children squeeze onto parents’ laps and teenagers squish together to create room for new arrivals searching for seats. As the congregation sings psalms to welcome in the Sabbath, children run in and out helping themselves to biscuits and sweets from a trestle table. 

The atmosphere is filled with warmth and chat, plus a smattering of habitual Jewish chaos. At the end of the service, the crowd begins to instinctively sway, arm in arm, as they culminate the service with the psalm “Acheinu”, which translates as “‘our brothers”’. The ancient words proceed thus: “We are praying for our brothers in captivity: bring them out of the darkness and into the light.” Words that have never been more prescient when we think of the hostages in Gaza.

Rabbi Josh, who gives a weekly sermon at the service, believes the surge in attendance is instinctive: “I think it’s the need to come together in a safe space, in the comfort of other human beings,” he says. “Then there is the desire to express emotion through prayer which often takes the form of song. When we can’t find words, song is the best way to express emotion. The Friday night service is one of pure positivity – we want to look for the light.” 

As one other congregant puts it: “This is my weekly therapy. I think a lot of Jewish people have felt very isolated this year and so coming here, being surrounded by people who understand the anguish, is cathartic – especially for those who have found work, school or university to be a hostile environment.”