Letter to Mr P. Philips of the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation from Joan Stiebel of the Combined Overseas Rehabilitation and Refugee Appeal, 23 June 1959

Description

Letter to Mr P. Philips of the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation from Joan Stiebel of the Combined Overseas Rehabilitation and Refugee Appeal, (CORRA), 23 June 1959. The letter refers to a promise of support from the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation and a draft letter to be sent to members (not included). The letter also clarifies that any donation for CORRA will be a donation for World Refugee Year.

The World Refugee Year (1959-1960) was an initiative approved by the United Nations in December 1958. It primarily focussed on four refugee groups: first, the refugees who were living in camps, mainly in Germany and Austria, after the end of the Second World War. A second consisted of Palestinian refugees. The third group was Chinese refugees in Hong Kong. A final group was made up of several thousand elderly refugees of Russian origin who left Soviet Russia for China in the wake of the 1917 Revolution. The aims were to encourage additional financial contributions from governments, voluntary agencies and the general public, and to support permanent refugee solutions through voluntary repatriation, resettlement or integration.

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:
United Nations Year Book 1960, Office of Public Information United Nations (New York, 1960);
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Civic_Centre;
"History of our Shul. The First Hundred Years", published by Newport Congregation in 1959;
Oral history interviews with members of the Newport Mon Hebrew.

Depository: Gwent Archives.