Letter from Wlodowa Charity Trust and Benevolent Fund to Newport Mon. Hebrew Congregation regarding the use of the synagogue for youth seminars, 30 January 1983

Description

The letter is from J. Goldstein the Honourary Secretary at the Wlodowa Charity Trust and Benevolent Fund addressed to Mr Nathan of the Newport Mon. Hebrew Congregation. The letter follows after Mr Goldstein's visit to the congregation and telephone conversations with Mr Nathan. He writes that a congregations (Kehilla) future depends on its youth and that the Newport congregation has mostly elderly members. He notes that Wlodowa aim to help small communities and provide educational projects for Anglo Jewish youth. He proposes that the Wlodowa use the congregations synagogue for Jewish youth week and weekend seminars. He writes that the organisation tries to use synagogues which are no longer in use or who need help from outside people to stay open. He adds that they would not disturb the congregation and would like to arrange a meeting where everyone can participate. He asks that the letter be forwarded to the congregation.

The Wlodowa Charity Trust and Benevolent Fund was a charity which assisted Jewish institutions in the UK and abroad and helped the poor. It was connected with the Wlodowa Synagogue in Bethnal Green, London. This congregation was established in 1901 by Jewish immigrants from Włodawa, Poland. The Synagogue closed in 1987.

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;
https://www.jewishgen.org/JCR-UK/London/EE_wlodowa_ind/index.htm.

Depository: Gwent Archives.