Cardiff New Synagogue booklet, marking the induction of Rabbi Kenneth L Cohen, BSFS, MA by Rabbi L Gerhard Graf, PhD, 19 October 1980

Description

Booklet produced by Cardiff New Synagogue on the induction of Rabbi Kenneth L Cohen, BSFS, MA by Rabbi L Gerhard Graf, Ph.D, 19 October 1980. It includes list of prayers and hymns; one side in English and the in Hebrew.

Rabbi Cohen was inducted into the Cardiff New Synagogue in 1980 and served as Rabbi until 1983. He had studied at Georgetown University and received a master's degree from Baltimore Hebrew University. He was ordained at Leo Baeck College in London.

Rabbi Dr Louis Gerhard Graf was head of the Reform community in Cardiff for 31 years. He was born in Berlin on 28 March 1912, where he lived until 1939 when, along with his wife, he left Germany and was welcomed in Manchester. He was Minister of the Bradford Synagogue from 1940 to 1948. He moved to Cardiff in 1948, where he began to take services in the newly formed Reform Jewish community. He died in December 1986, aged 74.

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.

Depository: Glamorgan Archives

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