Accounts book of the Newport Jewish Refugee Committee, 1939 - 1946

Description

A green accounts book with brown binding on which is written (and crossed through) "Expenditure". Each set of double pages is numbered. The accounting period runs from October to October.

The accounts are headed on the first page: "Newport Jewish Refugee Committee". Pages 1 to 16 list payments each year from 1939/40 to 1942/3 under the headings: Rent, rates, insurance; Lighting; Heating; Catering; Wages; Health & unemployment; Collector's Com[mission]; Clothing, shoes, repairs; Entertainment; Laundry; Postage, stationery; Pocket money; Travelling expenses; Telephone; Medical; Matron's PC [Petty Cash]; Repairs, renewal; Grants, presents; Education.
The following pages have a different purpose. Pages 17 to 21 list quarterly receipts from individuals each year from 1943 to 1945/6.

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.