Merthyr Express extract titled 'Merthyr Landmarks' about the Cefn Coed Jewish cemetery, Cefn Coed 29 March 1974

Description

A Merthyr Express extract titled 'Merthyr Landmarks. £10 from Baron de Rothschild' about the Cefn Coed Jewish cemetery, dated 29 March 1974.

The land on which the cemetery now stands was bought in the 1860s by Merthyr's then large and vibrant Jewish community. The first burial took place on 29 February 1872. A small brick prayer house (Ohel) was built in 1898. The building was paid for by Mrs Jacob in memory of her husband Abraham Jacobs.

About Merthyr Jewish community.

Merthyr Tydfil was once home to one of the largest Jewish communities of the south Wales Valleys. First Jews are believed to have arrived there in the 1820s and the first synagogue was established at the rear of 28 Victoria Street, (Joseph Barnett's pawnbroker's shop), c. 1948. In 1852, work began on a larger, purpose-built synagogue at the back of the Temperance Hall in John Street, which opened in 1853. The thriving community soon outgrew the premises and a new synagogue opened on Church Street in 1877. From the 1920s to the mid-1930s, the Merthyr Tydfil Hebrew Congregation had up to 400 members, but with rapid changes in the economic conditions and the exodus that followed, the membership dropped to 175 by 1937. Services were held in Merthyr until the late 1970s.

Sources.

- Coflein, Jewish burial ground, Cefn-coed-y-cymmer (2019) [accessed 23 September 2020]

- JCR-UK: Jewish Communities & Records, The Merthyr Tydfil Hebrew Congregation & Jewish Community, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales (2016 [accessed 23 September 2020]

Newspaper article courtesy of Media Wales.

Depository: Merthyr Tydfil Central Library.