The stark reality facing Wales' Jewish community

It is a shame the way this thread turned out, but predictable nowdays.

What I would add is, there are Jews who do not believe in God. They are still Jews. While the modern day paradigm see Judaism as a religion it is also a culture, an ethnicity, an ethical system and much more. There are many ways to be Jewish.

The Jews of South Wales have a rich history, that sadly may be in terminal decline.

I wonder if forum posters have any stories relating to the Jewish community of South Wales?

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Originally Posted by Yossi Benayoun

It is a shame the way this thread turned out, but predictable nowdays.

What I would add is, there are Jews who do not believe in God. They are still Jews. While the modern day paradigm see Judaism as a religion it is also a culture, an ethnicity, an ethical system and much more. There are many ways to be Jewish.

The Jews of South Wales have a rich history, that sadly may be in terminal decline.

I wonder if forum posters have any stories relating to the Jewish community of South Wales?

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my uncle recently moved to Cardiff from the states, and despite being very much an atheist he's a new Yorker of Jewish descent he was very surprised to find there was very little in the way of Jewish culture here.

I guess most of the South Wales towns and cities are just too small to support some of these minority communities.

There was a thriving community in Cardiff until about 1965 by which time most of the communities all over South Wales such as Merthyr, Bargoed, Llanelli and others had practically died out or moved down to Cardiff. Several Jewish cemeteries in such areas are overgrown and largely forgotten.

There was 3,000 approx Jews in Cardiff until the mid 60s. The community in 2022 total about 300 individuals in both the orthodox and reform synagogue (one of each). Since it’s heyday when I believe in Cardiff the synagogue count was 4, the numbers dwindled for these reasons:

Moving to areas of higher Jewish population in London and Manchester primarily to feel more comfortable in larger numbers.
Emigration to Israel.
Leaving the religion primarily on account of inter- marriage.
Simple loss of faith.

I’m no expert though. At the start of this thread, Yossi and others referred us to many interesting articles about South Welsh Jewry. Solomon and Gaynor is a fictional film well worth viewing about Jewish struggles in the early 20th century.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Yossi Benayoun

It is a shame the way this thread turned out, but predictable nowdays.

What I would add is, there are Jews who do not believe in God. They are still Jews. While the modern day paradigm see Judaism as a religion it is also a culture, an ethnicity, an ethical system and much more. There are many ways to be Jewish.

The Jews of South Wales have a rich history, that sadly may be in terminal decline.

I wonder if forum posters have any stories relating to the Jewish community of South Wales?

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I remember Victor Freed and Mr. Shumanski who owned shops in Aberdare and Mountain Ash in the 1950's when I was growing up there. Freed's was the “go-to” shop for all things to do with pianos, TV's and radios. See this article:

https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/1767326

Mr. Shumanski I remember as being the “go-to” man for watch repairs and also, somewhat bizarrely, records (i.e. vinyl). https://cynonvalleymuseum.wales/wp-c...orgvuxmt5e.jpg

They were both Russian Jews and were well respected members of the valley community.

I don't really know how many Jewish children there were in my grammar school. I knew one girl who was, but there must have been others because they self-excluded from morning assemblies along with Catholic kids.

There was a synagogue in Aberdare but I don't remember one in Mountain Ash.

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Originally Posted by Stanmore Bluebird

Thanks truthpaste. Most interesting and much of it is factually correct in my opinion. The simple truth is that the early settlers in 1948 rolled up their sleeves and worked like slaves to irrigate their so hard earned land.

I am not sure about G-D’s existence although hopefully there is an Almighty presence in the next world. Nobody in this life knows for sure lest we could prepare ourselves for death better than we do.

The part about the consolidation of the diverse settlers into speaking the Hebrew language around 1948 is debatable because the Hebrew shown in the fascinating summary was ancient biblical Old Testament Hebrew which only religious Israelis today understand. I have Sabre relatives over there who know and care nothing about ancient Biblical Hebrew and the dogma of the old faith. They totally.cannot read or understand this language.

What an interesting film though. 4 of the 6 prophecies coming true were absolutely correct. Besides the Hebrew language bit, not sure if the sections about Russian and Ethiopian Jews being allowed to settle in Israel is relevant as the modern day country started in 1948, well before the 2 groups of later immigrants arrived. To Israel’s shame (in my opinion) these groups have often been mistreated by the people already in situ. Too often I have heard that the Russians are lazy and I don’t believe in stereotyping people like this in the manner we have had to endure for many millenniums.

Nonetheless, all strength and well being for Israel from now on is my wish. But we must be fair to our perceived “enemies” also. Am not sure they all are!

By the way, we are well off the topic of the original thread! Being of Welsh Jewish stock, it was fascinating to read the early comments and links. It doesn’t really matter though.

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And perfectly appropriate because people need to understand WHY the Jews have thinned out among us. 30 years ago the Synagogues in Cathedral Road and Lakeside were fully functional with plenty of Jews attending; the latter has now been demolished and replaced on Cyncoed Road with a smaller one, and the one on Cathedral Road is only now used for business purposes (multiple offices).