Issue No. 7 of CeNeS: The Magazine of Cardiff New (later Reform) Synagogue, December 1995

Description

The seventh issue of CeNeS: The Magazine of Cardiff New (later Reform) Synagogue that came out in December 1995.

Noteworthy features:

1) The editorial is focused around the murder of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that happened several weeks before its publication.

2) The fact that the Cardiff Reform Synagogue was the twenty-second largest out of forty-one Reform Synagogues at the time that this magazine was published.

3) 'Business Ethics - Jewish Style' by Gerald Rothman.
Gerald Rothman emphasises how over one hundred of the Mitzvot (Commandments) in the Torah are concerned with how one should behave in business and honest dealings with others.

4) 'What does Judaism say about... pets?' by Rabbi Elaina Rothman.
The Rabbi draws attention to how passages about animals are popular in Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. In the Torah there are certain rules about the treatment of animals under one's care. For example: 'Do not eat before you have fed your beast'. In historical context the 'beast' referred to was most likely a camel or a similarly important animal that was needed for food or transportation and not a domestic pet!

The Cardiff Reform Synagogue was founded in 1948 as the Cardiff New Synagogue. The following year, it became a constituent member of the Movement for Reform Judaism. Born in reaction against the more restrictive traditions of the Orthodox Judaism of Cardiff Hebrew Congregation, such as the prohibition of driving on the Sabbath and the ban on interfaith marriages, the new Synagogue appealed to the immigrants who had fled the war-torn Europe, where the Reform movement was already well-established. The services were initially held in the Temple of Peace. The congregation now worships in a converted Methodist Chapel on Moira Terrace they acquired in 1952.

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.

• https://cardiffReformsynagogue.uk/new/ (link opens in new window)