Newport (MON) Hebrew Congregation: minutes of a Trustees' Meeting, Newport, 2 May 1996

Description

The minutes of a meeting, held on 14 April 1996 at the Synagogue Hall. The document consists of 3 pages and it includes those present, apologies, sale of furniture, sale of synagogue property, a treasurers' report, the details of a vote against amalgamation with Cardiff United Synagogue, and dispersal of assets including books, tablets and memorial windows. A request from Watford synagogue for the stained glass windows is to be accepted and Brynmawr Torah to remain on loan to Beth Hamedrash congregation in London. Newport museum is to be presented with Achei Brith Regalia. The minutes also provide information about synagogue membership numbers, burial and cemetery fund and other figures, and transfer of trusteeship from original trustees to present trustees

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.