Cardiff New Synagogue Newsletter, June 1993

Disgrifiad

A newsletter for the congregation of Cardiff New Synagogue (later Cardiff Reform Synagogue), dated June 1993. The newsletter contains descriptions of past services along with the details of future synagogue events, Sabbath Readings for upcoming services, reports and opinion pieces.

This newsletter includes:

An opinion piece by Rabbi Elaina Rothman exploring the concept of adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Rothman acknowledges how certain members of a congregation may have missed their opportunity to partake in the ceremony when they were thirteen. She advocates the right of all Jews over the age of thirteen to act as priests and be able to read Torah or lead a service.

A piece by Myer Wyman describing the Holocaust Memorial Service that took place at the Cardiff New Synagogue on 17 April 1993 - the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day or Yom Ha-Shoa. Three survivors of the Holocaust were present at the service.

An advertisement for a guide to interfaith relationships : 'I'm Jewish, My Partner Isn't', which is available to buy at Reform Synagogues. Unlike Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism does not prohibit interfaith marriages. Cai Parry-Jones discusses this difference in attitude in his thesis 'The History of the Jewish Diaspora in Wales'. He describes how while interfaith marriages have become a reality for many Welsh Reform Jews, in Orthodox Judaism they remain undesirable and continue to be prohibited ('The History of the Jewish Diaspora in Wales' by Cai Parry-Jones, p.291, http://e.bangor.ac.uk/4987).

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).

The depository: Glamorgan Archives.