Balance sheet and accounts for the Newport Hebrew Congregation (incorporating Brynmawr Hebrew Congregation), Newport, 1966

Description

The balance sheet and accounts for the Newport Hebrew Congregation dated 31 October 1966. This document includes the date and times for the general, trustees, and council meetings, followed by a four point agenda. The liabilities and assets are covered, as well as the income and expenditure accounts. The statement for members' subscriptions, donations, and offerings expands across one joint page, using an asterisk based key to highlight the status of certain paid expenses. Balances of the charities account, the cemetery care account, the miscellaneous receipts, the miscellaneous offerings, and the list of repairs are enclosed. On the last page, the miscellaneous accounts of the Board of Deputies, the Board of Guardians, Chevra Kadisha, and the Orphan Aid Society are featured. The last section presents plot reservations: cost, paid, and balance are the three headings utilised.

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.