Hebrew Torah reading cards, used by the Newport (MON) Hebrew Congregation, Newport, 1900s

Disgrifiad

The Hebrew Torah reading cards used by the Newport (MON) Hebrew Congregation, Newport, 1900s. The cards are used during Sabbath and other synagogue services. Each weekly Torah reading takes its name from the first distinctive Hebrew text of the reading (often from the first verse) and is popularly known as a Parashah or Sidra. There are 54 weekly parashiyot (plural) or parshahs (anglicised plural) in Judaism and the full cycle is read over the course of one Jewish year. The readings are normally chanted by a designated reader from the synagogue congregation.

The cards featured in these images, are used as part of a calendar, to remind you that it's a day when additional prayers are said, or additional words inserted into prayers.

- Image 1: Pesach Sheni (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesach_Sheni);
- Image 2: Adar Sheni - Adar is a month (in spring) and Adar Sheni the leap month which is added immediately after it in a leap year (seven leap years in every cycle of nineteen to keep our lunar calendar in step with the solar year);
- Image 3: Marcheshvan - another month, often called just Cheshvan; in autumn.

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 the 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 the 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:
"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.