Letter from Israel Rocker to the Judaic Religious Community of Uzhgorod, Newport, 19 July 1999

Description

With this letter, the chairman of trustees of the Newport (MON) Hebrew Congregation, Israel Rocker responded to the Ukrainian Uzhgorod Jewish community's plea for help, passed on to him by a member of the Newport congregation who had recently visited the Uzhgorod synagogue. Rocker notes that at the time, the Newport (Mon) Hebrew community only had around twenty members left.

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.