Minute book of the Newport Jewish Ladies' Benevolent Society and Guild, 11 January 1965 - 3 February 1980

Description

On the inside cover of this green Regal account book is written in capital letters: "The Newport Jewish Ladies' Benevolent Society and Guild". At the front is an alphabetical index which has a few entries including addresses for Jewish Child's Day, Newport (Mon) Old People's Welfare Committee, The Federation of Women Zionists of Great Britain and Ireland, and a monthly silver cleaning rota. The first minutes recorded are for the Annual General Meeting 11 January 1965 and the final set is for the AGM 3 February 1980. In between, general meetings were held around every two months. Meetings were held at the Nathan Harris Memorial Hall. The earlier minutes are all hand written but from 1974 many are typed and pasted into the book.

The Guild raised money for charities, provided refreshments at festivals, decorated the synagogue and cleaned the silver, and visited Cheshire Homes.
For example, the minutes for 11 January 1965 state that 16 (out of a total of 54) members attended the AGM. £450 was donated to various charities, cakes and teas provided at Purim and Chanukah, the Shul (synagogue) was decorated with flowers for Shavuot and the succah (temporary hut roofed with branches) with fruit and vegetables for Succot. 140 people were catered for at Mr Snadow's reception but there was no Old People's Tea because of a Jewish holiday. Elected officials were President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Norwood [Jewish orphanage] Collector, two Sick Visitors, two Reps on Old Folks Committee (one was also President). Two officers (the President and a sick visitor) were also on the Cheshire Home Appeal Committee. Later that year the Guild set up a monthly rota to clean the silver.

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.