Cardiff United Synagogue

Summary

The Cardiff United Synagogue, also called the Cardiff Shul, is an Orothodox Jewish synagogue, located in Cyncoed Gardens, in the Cyncoed suburb of Cardiff, Wales, in the United Kingdom.

Cardiff United Synagogue
Religion
AffiliationOrthodox Judaism
Ecclesiastical or organisational statusSynagogue
StatusActive
Location
LocationCyncoed Gardens, Cyncoed, Cardiff, Wales CF23 5SL
CountryUnited Kingdom
Cardiff United Synagogue is located in Wales
Cardiff United Synagogue
Location of the synagogue in Wales
Geographic coordinates51°30′21″N 3°09′37″W / 51.5058°N 3.1603°W / 51.5058; -3.1603
Architecture
Date established1841 (as a congregation)
  • 1853 (Old Hebrew)
  • 1889 (New Orthodox)
  • 1918 (Windsor Place)
  • 1955 (Penylan)
  • 2003 (merged)
Completed

The synagogue maintains daily prayer services, led by Rabbi Michoel Rose. The synagogue also provides educational classes, youth and festivals programming and is instrumental in interfaith work in South Wales.[1]

History edit

 
The former synagogue building on Cathedral Road; now an office block

A Jewish community existed in Cardiff by 1841, when the Marquess of Bute donated land at Highfield for a Jewish cemetery. The congregation that is now established in Cyncoed is the result of the merger of several historic congregations, and can trace its roots to the Old Hebrew Congregation, which erected a synagogue building on Trinity Street in 1853, and to the Bute Street synagogue of 1858.[2] Bute Street was the centre of the Jewish community in the nineteenth century.[3]

Former locations and ancestral congregations in Cardiff include the following:[4]

  • Original (Old Hebrew) congregation:
    • Trinity Street, Cardiff (1853–1858)
    • East Terrace, Bute Street, Cardiff (1858–1897; redeveloped 1888)
    • Cathedral Road, Cardiff (1897–1989)
  • New (Orthodox) congregation:
    • Edwards Place, Cardiff (1889–1900)
    • Merches Place, Cardiff (1900–?)
  • Windsor Place congregation, Windsor Place, Cardiff (1918–1955)
  • Penylan congregation, Ty Gwyn Road, Penylan (1955–2003)

The most architecturally distinguished of the several historic synagogue buildings was the classical/eclectic synagogue in Windsor Place.[citation needed] One of the congregation's former buildings was purchased in 1979 and converted into a Hindu temple.[5] With the diminution of the Cardiff Jewish community and a drift away from the older neighbourhoods, these congregations consolidated in the present, modern building in Cyncoed Gardens, Cyncoed, dedicated by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in 2003.[6]

Notable members edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Holt, Faygie Levy (17 September 2015). "Cardiff Rabbi Builds Sukkah Awareness Through BBC Radio Show in Wales". Chabad.org.
  2. ^ "Worship". Cardiff:The Building of a Capital. Archived from the original on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
  3. ^ Alderman, Geoffrey (1998). Modern British Jewry'. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 26.
  4. ^ "Cardiff United Synagogue". JCR-UK. 25 December 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  5. ^ Brady Williams, Raymond (2001). An Introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 222.
  6. ^ "Chief visits Bristol and Cardiff". Something Jewish. 16 December 2003. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2008.

External links edit

  • Official website
  • Official website in Hebrew
  • "Cardiff United Synagogue". Jewish Communities and Records – UK. jewishgen.org.
  • "Wales synagogue's missing stained glass windows turn-up in chicken coop". Times of Israel. 15 August 2021.