Issue No. 5 of CeNeS: The Magazine of Cardiff New (later Reform) Synagogue, April 1995

Description

The fifth issue of CeNeS: The Magazine of Cardiff New (later Reform) Synagogue that came out in April 1995.

Noteworthy features:

1) An article about the history of the synagogue building itself and the continuation of building work.
The building was just 100 years old in 1995 as it was built in 1895 as the Mount Tabor Chapel. Today it is about 124 years old.
It was badly damaged during the war and when it was purchased in 1951 to be converted into a synagogue it cost £3500. The overdrafts from the initial building work that followed were not paid off until the late 1960s.
The Synagogue hall was mainly newly refurbished by the time this issue of the magazine came out. However more building work was still needed including easier access for disabled people. The then recent building work had already taken around six years and cost more than £200,000.

2) A piece describing a talk given by Rabbi Neuberger after the Chavurah lunch on 11 March 1995 (Shabbat Zachor): 'Judaism and Human Rights'.
The Rabbi stated that Jews have always had a giant contribution to make to the political ideology that underlines Human Rights. She believes this to be a direct result of the Jewish escape from slavery in Egypt. She emphasises the obligatory nature of charity as stated in Jewish law: it is a duty.

3) Paul Usiskin describes a visit to the concentration camp Bergen Belsen. He admits that his post-Holocaust upbringing left him with extreme prejudice against Germans. He wonders what has been learned since the Holocaust and whether or not the people living locally to the camp really did not know what was going on.

Approximately 50,000 people died in the Bergen Belsen camp including the diarist Anne Frank and her sister Margot. It was liberated by British troops on 15 April 1945. Sources: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/bergen-belsen; https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/anne-frank-biography.

4) A notice about cremation: the four graves at the front of the Cardiff Reform section in the Western Cemetery are used for the internment of ashes.

The Cardiff Reform Synagogue was founded in 1948 as the Cardiff New Synagogue. The following year, it became a constituent member of the Movement for Reform Judaism. Born in reaction against the more restrictive traditions of the Orthodox Judaism of Cardiff Hebrew Congregation, such as the prohibition of driving on the Sabbath and the ban on interfaith marriages, the new Synagogue appealed to the immigrants who had fled the war-torn Europe, where the Reform movement was already well-established. The services were initially held in the Temple of Peace. The congregation now worships in a converted Methodist Chapel on Moira Terrace they acquired in 1952.

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.

• https://cardiffReformsynagogue.uk/new/ (link opens in new window)