We spoke to leading members of the Jewish community in Cardiff
Cardiff’s United Synagogue is a modern, bustling centre of worship and of the community.
The complex in the city’s upmarket Cyncoed district hosts 11 services a week as well as classes, study groups, events and acting as a hub for work in the community.
Yet the number of Jewish people in Wales is declining to the extent that there were barely 2,000 followers of Judaism in Wales, according to the 2011 census.
But that has not dampened spirits at the United Synagogue in the capital, one of just three active synagogues in the whole country.
“Censuses are difficult, because not everybody wants to tick the box that says Jewish, for a whole variety of reasons,” explained Stanley Soffa, chairman of the South Wales Jewish Representative Council.
“Some because they are worried about anti-semitism and figures being used, some are old enough to remember a time when Jewish people had to register, so they don’t always do so.
“[But] the Jewish community in Wales, certainly in South Wales, is declining. Newport’s, for example, is virtually non-existent.”
The census taken six years ago showed there were five times fewer Jews in Wales than the proportion in the UK as a whole.
Two in five Jews in Wales, or about 800, live in Cardiff, it indicated.
At the other end of the scale, the county boroughs of Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil between them had just 12 adherents of the Jewish faith.
There are, however, likely to be many more secular Jews who did not put themselves down on the census as being adherents of the Jewish religion itself.
“We have got a lively community and will have one for quite some time. But we have got an ageing community. The vast majority of members of both shuls will not see 50 again,” Mr Soffa said.
But Michoel Rose, rabbi at the Cardiff United Synagogue, explained that many Jews in the capital chose not to affiliate with one of the two synagogues.
“A lot of the religious younger people have moved away to have more religious amenities, but a lot who are not religious have stayed,” explained Rabbi Rose.
Born in Leeds, he has previously lived in both London and Manchester, which are home to the UK’s largest Jewish populations, whose communities are thriving.
“People who want the religious education – the schools and universities – and the social scene and restaurants have moved away.
“If Cardiff keeps growing and prices elsewhere keep on the way they are going then probably more young people will move into Cardiff.
The dynamic will shift and there will be more younger people who will have to become, and are becoming, more active in their own way.
“Obviously the community is much smaller in Cardiff, but the advantage of that is that there is much more of a family feel and people know each other.
"Everyone is united and cares for one another. And people make the effort because they know it’s a small community and so if they didn’t there wouldn’t be anything.
“People are very dedicated to the community and to the city and get involved with things.”
But what is it like following the Jewish faith in one of the UK’s capitals, but one whose Jewish population represents a tiny proportion of the city?
“The problem is that if you want to live a good, secular Jewish life, if you want to bring up your family with a lot of Jewish schools around, with Jewish delicatessens, with Jewish butchers, you can’t always do it in Cardiff,” Mr Soffa explained.
“We used to have a couple of butcher’s shops, delicatessens, greengrocers.
"But there’s no religious slaughter in Wales, so if you want to buy kosher meat you have to either go to London yourself – which a lot of people do – or order it over the phone.
"Sainsbury’s has some stuff but the choice isn’t that big.”
Social policies in this country are sometimes also at odds with the Jewish faith.
Mr Soffa added: “On organ donation, the Jewish position is that giving an organ to save someone else’s life is one of the greatest mitzvahs [good deeds] that you can do.
“But some of us weren’t happy about the presumed consent side of things [Wales became the first part of the UK to introduce an ‘opt-out’ organ donation system], though we were in good company with the former Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan, who was also against it.
“There are problems with coroners and post-mortems. Jews and Muslims have the same problem – early burial of the dead.
"But if you have to go to the coroner, and the coroner doesn’t want to work on a Saturday or Sunday and someone has died on a Friday, then you can have problems.
“We are a multi-faith society and it’s important that the voice of all religions is heard.
"We can’t have a veto on things but it’s important both national and local government understand how some legislation can affect minority communities.”
Last month both he and Rabbi Rose took part in Wales’ national Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at Cardiff City Hall, an event which also urges more to be done to stamp out whatever discrimination – including anti-semitism – still exists today.
Asked about the extent of antisemitism in Wales today, Mr Soffa said: “I don’t want to exaggerate it but I don’t want to minimise it.
"But it is here, as it is everywhere and in the same way as Islamophobia is everywhere. Our general approach is to be vigilant, as one should be.”
He briefly removed his kippah, the skullcap worn by Jews.
“You might see me wearing this at various events but I don’t wear it all the time and I don’t have a beard,” he said.
“Rabbi Rose does have a beard and does wear a hat. So some people are more noticeable.
“One of the things is not to put yourself in a position of danger. If anti-semitism is there then we try to combat it and in a number of ways, in that we have good relations with the local police.
“Our cemetery has been attacked and someone was killed 30 years ago – one of our members was stabbed to death because he was Jewish, so the issues of anti-semitism are very much there,” Rabbi Rose added.
“And, online, there’s a huge amount of anti-semitism that goes unchecked.”
Large numbers of Jews emigrated from the European continent to Wales between the 1870s and the early part of the 20th century – although Cardiff’s community is traditionally dated back to the 1840s, when the Marquis of Bute gave a parcel of land for a Jewish cemetery to be established.
A large number of Jews also arrived in Britain during the 1930s, having fled the Nazis.
Towns including Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil and Tredegar had thriving synagogues, while Cardiff’s Jewish community was primarily centred on the docks.
A significant portion of the Treforest industrial estate, near Pontypridd, was comprised of businesses set up by Jewish immigrants. Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre was named for its benefactor Harry Sherman, the son of Jewish immigrants.
But harmonious though community relations generally were, the Tredegar riots of 1911 saw some Jewish businesses in the town coming under attack. Winston Churchill, then home secretary, sent in the army to restore the peace.
Professor Nathan Abrams, of Bangor University, has researched Jewish diaspora in Europe and particularly in Wales and Scotland.
He described the events of 1911 as being the “last significant outbreak of anti-semitism” in Wales.
“The reasons for the small numbers of Jews in Wales is most likely due to economic and religious factors than anti-semitism,” Prof Abrams added.
“Wales is not such an attractive magnet as other parts of the UK where the economy is stronger and Jews, like others, tend to be drawn to where the jobs are.
"This is coupled with the desire for Jewish communal and religious infrastructure such as synagogues, Jewish schools, a strong Jewish community and kosher shops.
“However, Wales, in general, lacks these facilities particularly when compared to London, Manchester, Glasgow and north-east England.
“Taken together these factors account for the low numbers of Jews – not anti-Jewish prejudice.”
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