This photocopy of an undated newspaper clipping from the Jewish Chronicle recounts the death of Ezekiel Nathan, the former president of the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation and the tender of the Newport Jewish burial ground, only three days after he learned of the desecration of the cemetery. The police suspected no racial motives behind the act, although it is noted that no Christian graves were vandalised. The incident took place in 1993.

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 their 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 their 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.