Letter to congregants of the Cardiff New Synagogue from Rabbi Kenneth L. Cohen, announcing an overnight biblical study group for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, Cardiff, 15 May 1981

Description

This letter from Rabbi Kenneth L. Cohen to the congregants of the Cardiff New (Reform) Synagogue, announcing that for the first time they will be having an overnight study of biblical and post-biblical selections from the anthology ‘Tikun Lel Shavuot’, for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Rabbi Cohen took over from Dr Gerhard Graf who had led the Cardiff Reform Jewish community for 31 years.

Shavuot is a Jewish holiday that takes place over a two-day period, commemorating the time when the Torah was given by God to the Jewish people. It includes the consumption of special dinners including, customarily, dairy products, as well as candle lighting, and late-night studying of the Torah; this is a custom referred to as ‘Tikun Leil Shavuot’.

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:

Chabad.org: What is Shavuot (Shavous) (2024) https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/609663/jewish/What-Is-Shavuot-Shavuos.htm [accessed 14 March 2024]

JCR-UK: Jewish Communities & Records, Cardiff Reform Synagogue, Cardiff, Wales (2020) https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/card1/index.htm [accessed 14 March 2024]

Parry-Jones, Cai, The History of the Jewish Diaspora in Wales (doctoral thesis, Bangor University, 2014)
https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/20579001/null [14 March 2024]

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.

• http://cardiffreformsynagogue.uk/ (link opens in new window)