Letter from Home for Aged Jews in Cardiff to Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation asking for donations, 19 July 1962

Disgrifiad

The letter is from the Home for Aged Jews to the Honorary President, Mr Phillips of the Newport Mon Hebrew Congregation asking the congregation to donate money for a bed at the home.

Pencare (formerly known as 'The Trustees of Penylan House') is a charity which offers care for elderly people of the Jewish faith and is currently based in Cardiff, although the catchment area for the home covers South Wales and the West of England. Pencare has been working with Linc Cymru to redevelop their care home, Penylan House, to ensure high quality care to Cardiff's elderly Jewish community and extending the care to elderly people not of the Jewish faith.

Mr. Henry Silver and other members of the Cardiff Jewish community had originally founded a Home for the Aged in Canton, which then moved to Penarth, its official opening being 5 December 1948 to provide a larger space for its large number of applications. Despite the beautiful surroundings, the Home in Penarth was quite isolated, so the difficult decision was later taken to move the Home to Penylan Road in Cardiff, meaning many residents were now closer to their friends and relatives. Residents moved to Penylan House in 1958.

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:
Cajex, Magazine of the Association of Jewish Ex-service Men and Women (Cardiff), Vol. IX, No. 1, Ninth Year - March 1959, pp. 60- 65;
"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.