Invitation card and a RSVP card from Cardiff New Synagogue for the Tercentenary Service, Cardiff, 1956

Disgrifiad

The first card is an invitation for the Tercentenary Service to be held at the Cardiff New Synagogue on Moira Terrace on the Friday 6 January 1956. The second card is a blank RSVP card for the service.

The Tercentenary Service marked the 300 year anniversary of when Jewish people were allowed to return to Britain. In 1290 the Jewish people were banned from living in Britain by Edward I. In 1656 a petition by a Dutch Jew, Menasseh ben Israel led Oliver Cromwell to allow the return of Jewish people to Britain.

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);
"Readmission of Jews to in 1656" by Tara Holmes published by BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/history/350.shtml.

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.