Seder Night at Penylan House, Cardiff, April 2012

Description

Two photographs (in colour) are of identical Seder Night menu, one leaning against a vase of flowers and one close-up. The menu details melon or liver and soup for the first course, chicken, beef and vegetables for the second course and pavlova and fruit for desert, with a vegetarian or fish option also being available.
A separate sheet of paper on similar coloured paper and in a similar font to that of the menu (therefore presumably from the same year), states that Seder Night was on 6 April 2012.

Seder Night is a Jewish ritual feast which marks the beginning of the Jewish Holiday of Passover. This date normally falls on the fifteenth day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. The word 'Seder' means 'order'.

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 Cardiff Jewish community had originally founded a Home for the Aged in 1946 in Canton. In December 1948, the Home moved to Holme Towers in Penarth to provide more 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 February 1959.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_Seder;
https://reformjudaism.org/what-expect-passover-seder;
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.