Letter by Henry Gledhill to the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation, remembering the Newport synagogue as a child, from 1876 to 1884, London, 26 May 1959

Disgrifiad

The letter is from Henry Gledhill who had attended the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation as a child. He states that he had attended the congregation until he was 10 years old in 1884 and regrets not being able to attend the Centenary Celebrations, which took place in 1959. He writes that he attended the school at Holford House School in Stow Hill. He also states in the letter that he had joined the synagogues choir in 1881/82 and recalls singing at the opening of a new Synagogue in Tredegar by Rev. Herman Adler in 1883 or 1884.

Holford House Training School was established in 1864 and was located at 20 Stow Hill in Newport.

The synagogue in Tredegar is the Montefiore Centenary Synagogue which was founded in 1872/73. In 1884 the congregation was reorganised and a new synagogue was opened. The synagogue closed for service in 1944.

Newport Monmouthshire Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1859 by orthodox Jews meeting at a temporary synagogue in Llanarth Street. A synagogue at Francis Street was opened in 1869 and consecrated by the Chief Rabbi Dr Herman Adler in 1871. In 1934 the congregation moved to their Nathan Harris Memorial Hall in Queen's Hill which was converted to a synagogue. In 1997 this synagogue was closed, and the congregation moved to their Prayer House by the Jewish Burial Ground on Risca Road. Within 20 years the congregation had dwindled to a few members able to attend and this too had ceased to hold services.

Sources:
http://www.newportpast.com/gallery/potpourri/php/photo_page.php?search=%20&search2=yyyyyy&pos=82;
https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/community/val1_tredegar/index.htm;
"History of our Shul. The First Hundred Years", published by Newport Congregation in 1959;
Oral history interviews with members of the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation, recorded in 2018 by JHASW.

Depository: Gwent Archives.