Transcription of entries located in the minute book of Newport and St Woolos Burial Board, Newport, October-November 1858

Description

This document is a transcription of two separate entries for the Newport and St Woolos Burial Board from 1858. The first section of the document details the precise location where the original copies are held, and a clarification that no alterations have been made to the content of the document. The first entry dated 27 October 1858 is an application to secure an allotment ground in Newport and St Woolos for burial with an exclusive walled enclosure, as Cardiff poses multiple inconveniences when transporting the deceased. The following entry dated 27 November 1858 demonstrates that the Board could not fulfil the request of a walled boundary. An additional enquiry regarding the number of Jews residing in the Parishes previously discussed is put forward.

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.