Planned Agenda for Israeli Independence Day, Cardiff, 1980

Description

Letter from Michael Cutter, the Chairman of the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain (RSGB) Youth Holiday Committee, to Mr. Wyman notifying him of the events for the Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) celebration, which were to take place on Sunday, 20 April 1980. The letter includes details of the afternoon and evening functions taking place on that day, and dates and costs of the holidays organised by the RSGB for the 16+ age group in 1980.

The first organisational body to represent the Reform Jewish communities in Great Britain, the Associated British Synagogues, was formed in 1942. It evolved into the Association of Synagogues of Great Britain and, in 1958, the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain. Since 2005 this organisation has been called The Movement for Reform Judaism.

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 congregation worships in a converted Methodist Chapel on Moira Terrace they acquired in 1952.

Sources:
Archives of the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain (https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/cataloguedatabases/webguidemss302.page).

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.

• https://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/ (link opens in new window)