Newspaper clipping about the selling of the Queen's Hill Synagogue, Newport, 25th November 1994

Description

This photocopy of a newspaper clipping from the Friday, 25 November 1994, edition of the South Wales Argus reports the community's decision to sell the Queen's Hill synagogue and wish to move to smaller premises, due to the dwindling of the Jewish population in Gwent. The article incorporates interviews with a trustee of the synagogue and a member of the Jewish community. Also included is a summary of the anti-Jewish 1911 Tredegar riots. Illustrations include pictures of the Reverend Abraham Snadow, who served the Newport congregation for five decades; the menorah; and the synagogue.

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.

• http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk