The Cardiff United Synagogue is the Orthodox Jewish congregation of Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, the capital city of Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

.

History

A Jewish community existed in Cardiff by 1841, when the Marquis of Bute donated land at Highfield for a Jewish Cemetery. The congregation, which is the result of the merger of several historic congregations, traces 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. Bute Street was the center of the Jewish community in the nineteenth century.

Former locations and ancestral congregations in Cardiff include the following:

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 (9 January 1955–2003)

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

Jonathan Sacks

Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks, Kt is the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. His Hebrew name is Yaakov Zvi...

in 2003.

External links

• Cardiff United Synagogue Web site
• Shree Swaminarayan Temple - current use of the old synagogue building.
• Cardiff United Synagogue on Jewish Communities and Records - UK (hosted by jewishgen.org).