A cash transaction receipt from M A Rapport & Co Ltd, Bridge Street, Cardiff, dated 22 December 1953

Description

Receipt for six tins of Johnson Glo-coat paint supplied by M A Rapport & Co Ltd to John Bull Stores Ltd of Burt Street, Cardiff.

Maurice Rapport was brought up in poverty at the end of the 19th Century in the East End of London. In 1898 Maurice Rapport made his first timepiece and opened a clock and watchmaking business in London. Finding skilled workers hard to come by, in 1905 he moved to 90 Bridge Street, Cardiff where his business was known as Rapport Bros. By 1922 the company had changed their name to M. A. Rapport and moved to 100-103 Bridge Street, where they remain. The Rapport family is one of the most famous Jewish families in Cardiff and have set up several successful businesses. M A Rapport remains a family business and has now passed to its fourth generation.

This receipt is a part of the Cardiff Reform Synagogue archive.

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:
Parry-Jones, Cai., ‘The History of the Jewish Diaspora in Wales’ (doctoral thesis, Bangor University, 2014) [accessed 24 February 2021]
JCR-UK/JewishGen. Cardiff Reform Synagogue, Cardiff, Wales (2020). [accessed 24 February 2021]

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.