Audio clip from an oral history interview with Leonard Mars: Leonard discuss the redevelopment of the synagogue in Ffynone, Swansea, by the Life Point church, and the decline of Jewish congregations in provincial communities, Swansea, 28 January 2019

Description

This is an audio clip from an interview with Leonard Mars in which he discuss the redevelopment of the synagogue in Ffynone, Swansea, by the Life Point church, and the decline of Jewish congregations in provincial communities.

In his interview, Leonard talks about working as a Civil Service for two years, before he went on to study social anthropology at Edinburgh University. As a doctoral candidate, Leonard worked on a project led by anthropologist Max Gluckman which took him to Israel. While there, Leonard met his wife Agi, whose family had immigrated to Israel from Romania following the end of the Second World War. In this interview, Leonard discusses his doctoral fieldwork in Israel, his and Agi's experiences of living in a border village during the outbreak of the Six Day War, as well as their subsequent move to Swansea. Leonard also discusses his grandfather Moses Abel who was taken to court for bigamy in the late nineteenth century, Leonard's later academic work, and the declining Jewish congregation in Swansea today.

Depository: The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.