Our Rabbi, David Soetendorp, was born in Amsterdam in July 1945, just after the end of the Second World War and lived there for three years, before moving to Israel. At the age of 8 he returned to Holland. In 1965 he came to study in England, prior to entering Leo Baeck College in 1966. He married Ruth in 1971,and received Rabbinic Semicha in 1972. This was shortly after moving to Bournemouth to become the Rabbi of Bournemouth Reform Synagogue. Rabbi Soetendorp continued in this post until he retired in 2005. David and Ruth have two adult children Naomi & Joel who were born in 1972 and 1974.

During his time at Bournemouth Reform Synagogue he was involved in religious broadcasting, for Television South, and for national and local radio. He was also appointed as the first non-Christian Chaplain of Bournemouth University. This was one of many ecumenical, inter-denominational roles, including Prison Chaplain, and Chair of the Regional Council of Christian and Jews.

He began a lifelong commitment to the Jews of Russia and the Ukraine, by visiting refuseniks, starting in 1975. That involvement continues to this day with his active support of emerging Jewish communities in the Former Soviet Union. In 1988 he organised the first UK Anne Frank in the World Exhibition, which was held in Bournemouth. Later, he founded the Anne Frank Trust, which continues today to promote anti-racist education throughout the UK. He has been a regular participant at the Hartmann Institute seminars in Jerusalem.

In 1995, he embarked on a long held ambition to study psychotherapy and through a series of part-time postgraduate programmes, qualified in 2004 from the Westminster Pastoral Foundation. This enabled him to begin to develop a private therapeutic practice, where his specialism is counseling survivors of stroke or brain injury. He has published and presented conference papers on 'second generation ' issues, as well as on aspects of psychodynamic counseling.

In January 2007 Rabbi Soetedorp was appointed as the Rabbi of Hatch End Masorti Synagogue.