Photographs of the Pontypridd Synagogue, Pontypridd, 1978

Description

These are colour photographs of the Pontypridd Synagogue taken in 1978. Two photographs show the exterior only; a photograph of the front entrance focusses on a memorial plaque, which reads: ‘This stone was placed here in memory of the late George Goodman, Esq. the Founder of this congregation.’

A synagogue was first founded in Pontypridd in 1867, when a school room was converted into a place of worship, but the Jewish community dates back to at least the 1840s. Although the membership of the congregation remained small, the congregation established their own section in the Glyntaff Cemetery in the 1890s and built a synagogue in Treforest in 1895. The congregation was dissolved in 1978 and the Wood Road synagogue was sold and converted to flats.

Sources:
'The History of the Jewish Diaspora in Wales' by Cai Parry-Jones (http://e.bangor.ac.uk/4987);
JCR-UK/JewishGen (https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/community/val1_tredegar/index.htm).

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.