Promotional booklet for Remembrance Sunday Dinner for the Jewish Home for the Aged, Sherman Hall, Penylan, 24 October 1982

Description

A promotional booklet for a fundraising dinner run by the Cardiff branch of A.J.E.X. It was to be held at The Sherman Hall Penylan, Cardiff on Sunday, 24th October 1982. The logo of AJEX is featured at the top of the cover: A.J.E.X. (the Association of Jewish Ex-servicemen and Women), is a group dedicated to the remembrance of Jewish men and women who had lost their lives serving with the "armed forces of the crown". Annually (since 1930), Ajex holds a parade and ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London and maintain the Jewish National War Memorial at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire.

The cover details the guest speaker as Rt Hon Sir Hugh Fraser, MBE, MP. Also, the cover states that proceeds were to be shared equally between the Jane Hodge Holiday Home for Physically Handicapped Children and the Jewish Home for the Aged, Penylan, Cardiff.

Many advertisements are featured inside the booklet, some even occupying a whole page. Companies include F. W. Morgan Ltd, R. P. Joinery, Lisvane Mini Market, L. C. Brown Light Preservation Services and the Welsh Travel Centre. The advertisement on the back page is for Webbplant Hire and Sales, who hired and sold building and DIY goods and were based in Whitchurch, Cardiff.

There is a page thanking Mr Alf Soffa for his 25 years dedicated service to A.J.E.X. Soffa had served in India and been promoted top the rank of Sergeant in the Indian Army. He joined A.J.E.X. to try and create an "understanding between Jew and Gentile" and became honorary treasurer in 1957. It states that this page was donated by Mrs A. Sherman, MBE of Merthyr Tydfil, in memory of Elliot Fine, her nephew, who had worked with Alf Soffa in the Sherman Organisation for many years.

Another page gives information about Sir Hugh Fraser, MBE, MP. He joined the Loval Scouts in World War Two and later served with the Phantom and Special Air Service in North Africa and Italy. He became MP for Stafford and Stone. On the following page is a list of sponsors (not companies), followed by the menu and list of toasts.

Pencare (formerly known as 'The Trustees of Penylan House') is a charity, which offers care for elderly people of the Jewish faith and is currently based in Cardiff, although the catchment area for the home covers South Wales and the West of England. Pencare has been working with Linc Cymru to redevelop their care home, Penylan House, to ensure high quality care to Cardiff's elderly Jewish community and extending the care to elderly people not of the Jewish faith.

Mr Henry Silver and other members of the community had originally founded a Home for the Aged in 1946 in Canton, which then moved to Penarth, its official opening being 5 December 1948, to provide a larger space for its large number of applications. Despite the beautiful surroundings, the Home in Penarth was quite isolated, so the difficult decision was later taken to move the Home to Penylan Road in Cardiff, meaning many residents were now closer to their friends and relatives. Residents moved to Penylan House in 1959.

Sources:
https://www.jewishlegacy.org.uk/charities/ajex/;
http://opencharities.org/charities/243968 http://www.housingcare.org/downloads/facilities/generated-brochures/134508-penylan-house-nursing-home-cardiff-wales.pdf.;
Cajex, Magazine of the Association of Jewish Ex-service Men and Women (Cardiff), Vol. IX, No 1, Ninth Year - March, 1959, pp. 60- 65.

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.