Newport (MON) Hebrew Congregation: newsletter, September 1997

Description

This newsletter of the Newport (MON) Hebrew Congregation from September 1997 discusses the sale of the Queens Hill Crescent Synagogue and the congregation's move to the Risca Road Synagogue. People who participated in the move are thanked and events, including services, related to the move are mentioned.

The newsletter also lists October 1997 services and discusses topics such as the proposed reduction of the number of trustees; the outline of a future budget and financial plan; issues pertaining to the use of the new synagogue; restarting the synagogue library; and the enlargement of The Cardiff Jewish Representative Council into South Wales Jewish Representative Council, which now also incorporates Newport. Request is also made for donations or long term loans of records or artefacts to the Holocaust Museum at the Imperial War Museum.

Attached to the newsletter is a paper slip containing the management committee's new year's greetings to the members of the Newport Hebrew Congregation.

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.