Newspaper report detailing Cardiff business woman's bequests to Jewish organisations, 1958

Disgrifiad

An entry in the South Wales Argus detailing the will of Cecilia Leah Ash who was managing director at Joseph and Falkmans, a furniture shop in Abertillery. Her death is recorded as 28 March 1958. She left money to a number of Jewish organisations including the Newport Hebrew Congregation Cemetery Fund. Other organisations were the Home for Aged Jews in Penarth, the Cardiff Reform Synagogue and the Norwood orphanage in London.

Joseph and Falkmans was one of the largest furniture stores in Abertillery. It was established in 1900 by Joseph Falkman, a Russian Jew, who had been a furniture tradesman in South Africa before moving to England and then Wales.

The Newport Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1865 and built their first synagogue in Francis Street in 1871. They later moved to Queens Hill Crescent in 1922 till 1999 and then to St. Mark's Crescent until closing in 2006. The cemetery is located on Risca Road in Newport.

The Cardiff Reform Synagogue was founded in 1948 to provide less traditional style services to the Jewish community. In 1952 the Salem Welsh Baptist Chapel in Moira Terrace in Adamsdown, Cardiff was purchased by the congregation and converted into a synagogue.

The Norwood orphanage was known as the Norwood Home of Jewish Children in 1956. In 1795 a fund was set up to help poor Jewish people in London. The fund set up a Jewish hospital in Mile End and later an orphanage in 1831. In 1866 the orphanage was relocated to Norwood.

Sources:
https://outoftheblueartifacts.com/joseph-and-falkman-furniture-dealers/;
https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/newp/index.htm;
https://www.norwood.org.uk/pages/about/a-history-of-norwood/;
https://jscn.org.uk/small-communities/cardiff-reform-synagogue/.

Depository: Gwent Archives.