The Jewish Community of Swansea
Swansea
Seaport and second largest industrial city in Wales, United Kingdom.
HISTORY
The first Jewish community was established in Wales in the first half of the eighteenth century in the port town of Swansea. The earliest documented names of settlers are of David Michael, a refugee from Germany, and Nathaniel Phillips who arrived in 1741. The first house of worship was set up in a building at the back of David Michael’s house on Wind Street with seating for about 40 persons. By 1768 the community had grown sufficiently to acquire a parcel of land for a cemetery. In 1789 the Swansea Hebrew Congregation relocated to a wooden building in The Strand. In 1818 the congregation took a 99 year lease on a parcel of land on Waterloo Street and built a new synagogue with seating for 60 to 70 people.
In 1829 there is record that a shohet, Meir ben Judah, was granted authorization to practice in Swansea. In 1835 land was leased for the construction of a mikvah. By 1841 the community was sufficiently established to participate in the election of the new Chief Rabbi of Great Britain. By 1850 there were about 100-150 members of the community. The majority were silversmiths, watchmakers, jewelers, shopkeepers and craftsmen. In 1857 the expansion of the community led to the purchase of a plot of land on Goat Street and in 1859 a larger synagogue building was completed with accommodations for 120 men and 108 women.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, Jews continued to work in the traditional trades, but also entered the fields of furniture, picture dealing, picture frame making and glazing. Jews were integrating and rising in social status within the general population. Simon Goldberg of Swansea was elected in 1895 as the first Jewish Justice of the Peace in Wales. In 1896 Brahem Freedman became the first Jewish town councilor to be elected.
By the beginning of the twentieth century the Jewish population stood at between 300 and 400, but began to grow due to immigration from eastern Europe. In 1906 a group of more religiously observant Yiddish speaking immigrants established their own services within the Swansea Hebrew Congregation. This developed into a separate entity known as the Swansea Beth Hemedrash on Prince of Wales Road. It closed in 1954 and its members were reabsorbed into the Swansea Hebrew Congregation. By 1914 the Jewish population had surged to 1000 due to immigration from Russia. By 1939 however it had decreased to 565.
During the period of World War II, the German air raids of February 1941 destroyed the building of the Swansea Hebrew Congregation. It was only in 1955 that it reopened in a new building on Ffynone Street. In 1969 the community numbered 418 (0.3 % of the total population). By 1980 the Jewish population had decreased to between 200-250.
In recent years the Jewish population of Swansea has continued to decline. The synagogue building was sold to a church in 2009. Religious services are held in a small rented hall and no longer on a regular basis.
Stained glass window with the Twelve Tribes in the synagogue in Swansea, Wales, United Kindom, 1979
(Photos)Tribes of Israel in the synagogue in Swansea,
Wales, United Kindom, 1979
Photo: Tony Barnard, England
(The Oster Visual Documentation Center, Beit Hatfutsot,
courtesy of Tony Barnard, England)
COURTESY OF TONY BARNARD, ENGLAND)
Moses Hyamson
(Personality)Moses Hyamson (1862–1949), rabbi, chief dayan of the London Beth Din and acting Chief Rabbi of the British Empire (1911-1913), born in Suwalki, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire). He was brought to England by his parents in 1864 and was ordained as rabbi by Rabbi Dr. Hermann Adler through Jews' College, London. Hyamson also studied at University College London where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1882, a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1900, and a Doctor of Laws degree in 1912. He was renowned as a highly learned Hebrew scholar, author, translator, leader and erudite speaker. Hyamson served as a rabbi in Swansea, Bristol and Dalston, becoming a dayan of the London Beth Din.
In 1913 he was elected rabbi of Congregation Orach Chaim in New York, USA. He received a life contract and served the community until his death in 1949. Rabbi Hyamson founded the Board of Milah in New York in 1914, which grew to include mohel certification, conferences on circumcision, and various studies. He was also an early leader of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. He helped in the founding of a local Hebrew school and the formation of the Central Relief Committee of the Agudas HaRabbanim, which provided European yeshivas with much needed assistance during the difficult period through which they lived. The committee was the first of the organizations which developed into the Joint Distribution Committee.
Hyamson lead the battle to preserve shechita in America. He was president and a leading founder of The League for Safeguarding the Fixity of the Sabbath. He helped prevent the legislation of Calendar Reform, which on an international level would have created a "wandering" Sabbath, changing to a different day of the week each year. Hyamson met with US President Herbert Hoover, and addressed Congress and the League of Nations on the subject. He was appointed Professor Emeritus of Codes at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1915, serving until 1940.
At that time the divide between Orthodox Judaism and the traditional wings of Conservative Judaism was not vast. Hyamson translated Duties of the Heart by Bahya ibn Paquda, Books of Maimonides's Mishneh Torah, and Collatio Mosaicarum et Romanarum Legum - a 4th century compilation of biblical passages of Torah with extracts from Roman imperial juristic texts aimed to demonstrate the compatibility of the older Mosaic law with its Roman counterpart. He authored The Oral Law and numerous other writings on Jewish issues of the day.
Bristol, UK
(Place)Bristol
A seaport in south western England, UK.
Its medieval Jewish community was one of the more important in England. In 1183 it was accused of ritual murder (blood libel) but few details are extant. At the end of the 12th century, one of the archa for registration of Jewish financial transactions was set up there. In 1210 all the Jewish householders of England were sent as prisoners to Bristol and a levy of 60,000 or 66,000 marks was imposed upon them.
During the barons' wars, in 1266, Bristol Jewry was attacked and the archa was burned. Another attack occurred in 1275, though no lives were lost. At this time the Bristol community received an influx of Jews from Gloucester who were sent there after the expulsion of the Jews from the Queen Mother's dower-towns. Subsequently several Bristol Jews were hanged for coin clipping. The community came to an end with the expulsion in 1290.
Medieval scholars of Bristol include Samuel ha-nakdan (probably identical with Samuel le Pointur), and Moses, a descendant of R. Simeon the great of Mainz and ancestor of R. Moses of London and Elijah B. Menachem of London.
In the middle of the 16th century Bristol was the only English town other than London where Marranos (descendants of baptized Jews) are known to have lived. No organized Jewish community, however, was established until the middle of the 18th century. In 1786 the former weavers' hall was taken over as a synagogue. The community leader was Lazarus Jacobs, a glassmaker whose work is still sought after by collectors. His son Isaac Jacobs was glass manufacturer to King George III. A secessionist community existed between c. 1828 and 1835 before it rejoined the parent body. The present synagogue was constructed in 1870.
Eastern European Jews arrived at Bristol following the Russian persecutions in 1881, but of late the community has dwindled.
The Jewish population numbered 410 in 1968.