Balance sheet and accounts for the Newport Hebrew Congregation, Newport, 1950

Description

The balance sheet and accounts for the Newport Hebrew Congregation dated 31 October 1950. This document includes the separate dates and times for the general, trustees, and council meetings, with a brief agenda listed. The liabilities and assets are also enclosed, with an income and expenditure account that covers issues such as: repairs and reserves, education expenses, and special receipts. An in-depth statement showing the members' subscriptions, donations and offerings is featured in the document, and continues onto the next page. Lastly, cemetery fees and offerings, plot reservations, special offerings and seats (high holy days) are detailed.

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.