Newspaper obituary of Ben Hamilton, Merthyr Tydfil, 6 April 1979

Description

This obituary from The Jewish Chronicle notes the passing of Mr Benjamin Hamilton, a Merthyr Tydfil solicitor and coroner for East Glamorgan, who is well-known for having been in charge of the inquest into the Aberfan disaster. Mr Hamilton is said to have performed an important role in the Merthyr Tydfil Hebrew Congregation.

Merthyr Tydfil was once home to one of the largest Jewish communities of the South Wales Valleys. The first Jews are believed to have arrived there in the 1820s and the first purpose-built synagogue was erected either in the late 1840s or the early 1850s. The thriving community soon outgrew the premises and a new synagogue opened on Church Street in 1877. From the 1920s to the mid-1930s, the Merthyr Tydfil Hebrew Congregation had up to 400 members, but with rapid changes in the economic conditions and the exodus that followed, the membership dropped to 175 by 1937. Services were held in Merthyr until the late 1970s.

Sources:
'The History of the Jewish Diaspora in Wales' by Cai Parry-Jones (http://e.bangor.ac.uk/4987);
JCR-UK/JewishGen (https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/merth/index.htm).

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.

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