This letter from the Midland Bank Limited notes that deeds received on the previous day from the solicitors, H. Meyrick Williams & Co. have been placed in safe custody on behalf of the Newport (MON) Hebrew Congregation. Attached is a schedule of deeds and documents received. The documents in question are two conveyances, dated 4 November 1943 and 5 September 1956, pertaining to land at St. Woolos Cemetery. Both were used to extend the original Jewish burial ground, donated to the community by Lord Tredegar in 1859.

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.