Speech marking the birthday of Professor Alfred Moritz, given by Rabbi Elaina Rothman, Cardiff, 2001

Disgrifiad

The documents relating to a speech given by Rabbi Elaina Rothman for the joint Shabbat and 80th birthday celebration of Professor Alfred Moritz at the Cardiff New Synagogue. For the service, Rabbi Rothman had invited all those who had been bat or bar mitzvah in the last 11 years. The list of people can be found on the back of the document. The series of documents also includes a brief biography of Doris Moritz and Alfred Moritz.

The biography of Doris Moritz begins with her evacuation from Germany on the Kindertransport in 1939. She later arrived in Cambridge, where she studied and went into office work. Her parents later arrived to join her and her sister. They had family and friends spread across the world after fleeing Germany, in South America and New Zealand.

Alfred Moritz was sent to England along with his brother, before war broke out in Germany, by their parents, whom he would never see again. Having travelled from Cologne, the brothers arrived in London, and began their education, Alfred later went on to study Classics at Oxford University. He married Doris in 1949 and they lived and taught in Oxford before moving to Cardiff. They joined the Cardiff New Synagogue and Alfred was a Warden in 1955. After spending two years on secondment in Ghana, they returned in 1960. Alfred Moritz later went on to become the Dean of the Faculty of Classical Studies in 1971.

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).

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.