Newsletter for the Newport (MON) Hebrew Congregation, Newport, dated June 1997

Description

Newsletter for the Newport (MON) Hebrew Congregation, Newport, dated June 1997. The newsletter confirms the exchange of contract for the sale of the Nathan Harris Memorial Hall Synagogue, Newport, with an agreed completion date of 28 July 1997. The newsletter outlines a number of proposed arrangements following this sale, including the first service at the Risca Road synagogue, the new constitution for the congregation and the transfer of the synagogue plaques.

Newport Monmouthshire Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1859 by orthodox Jews meeting at a temporary synagogue in Llanarth Street. A synagogue at Francis Street was opened in 1869 and consecrated by the Chief Rabbi Dr Herman Adler in 1871. In 1934 the congregation moved to the Nathan Harris Memorial Hall in Queen's Hill which was converted to a synagogue. In 1997 this synagogue was closed, and the congregation moved to the Prayer House by the Jewish Burial Ground on Risca Road. Within 20 years the congregation had dwindled to a few members able to attend and this too had ceased to hold services.

Sources:
"History of our Shul. The First Hundred Years", published by Newport Congregation in 1959;
Oral history interviews with members of the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation, recorded in 2018 by JHASW.

Depository: Gwent Archives.