Grant application from the Cardiff New Synagogue to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims, Cardiff, April, 1962

Description

Letter from Alban Levy, Chairman of the Council of the Cardiff New Synagogue (now known as the Cardiff Reform Synagogue) to Saul Kagan, the Secretary of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany Inc. The letter is an application for a grant for the religious-educational facilities of the Synagogue for the sum of £10,000. The letter includes details of the foundation of the Synagogue and its history, with information of its services and cultural activities. The grant money was requested for the building of new classrooms and a youth centre.

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 congregation worships in a converted Methodist Chapel on Moira Terrace they acquired in 1952.

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/card1/index.htm).

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.

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