Newspaper clipping detailing Rabbi Kenneth Cohen's induction to the Cardiff New Synagogue, Cardiff, 1980

Description

A newspaper article from the South Wales Echo, 23 October 1980, detailing Rabbi Graf's retirement and departure from the Cardiff New Synagogue (now known as the Cardiff Reform Synagogue) and the arrival and induction of Rabbi Kenneth Cohen, which took place on Sunday, 19 October 1980.

Rabbi Cohen was inducted into the Cardiff New Synagogue in 1980 and served as Rabbi until 1983. He had studied at Georgetown University and received a master's degree from Baltimore Hebrew University. He was ordained at Leo Baeck College in London.

Rabbi Dr Louis Gerhard Graf was head of the Reform community in Cardiff for 31 years. He was born in Berlin on 28 March 1912, where he lived until 1939 when, along with his wife, he left Germany and was welcomed in Manchester. He was Minister of the Bradford Synagogue from 1940 to 1948. He moved to Cardiff in 1948, where he began to take services in the newly formed Reform Jewish community. He died in December 1986, aged 74.

The Cardiff Reform Synagogue was founded in 1948 as the Cardiff New Synagogue. The following year, it became a constituent member of the Movement for Reform Judaism. Born in reaction against the more restrictive traditions of the Orthodox Judaism of Cardiff Hebrew Congregation, such as the prohibition of driving on the Sabbath and the ban on interfaith marriages, the new Synagogue appealed to the immigrants who had fled the war-torn Europe, where the Reform movement was already well-established. The congregation worships in a converted Methodist Chapel on Moira Terrace they acquired in 1952.

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/card1/index.htm).

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.

• https://cardiffreformsynagogue.uk/new/ (link opens in new window)