The Jewish History Association of South Wales/Cymdeithas Hanes Iddewig De Cymru has created a digital collection, hosted on the People’s Collection Wales platform. Its collection covers a wide range of topics documenting the cultural heritage of Jewish communities in South Wales.

Archive Description

The Jewish History Association of South Wales/Cymdeithas Hanes Iddewig De Cymru collection contains images, sound clips from oral histories, and presentations about the rich heritage of the historic Jewish communities in South Wales. The collection celebrates the large, active communities in South Wales in the early part of the twentieth century and charts the slow but seemingly inevitable decline to where they find themselves today.

The digital content comes from material JHASW/CHIDC has discovered (and in some cases rescued from imminent destruction or disposal), material contributed by local synagogues and Jewish organisations, and material from individual members of the community.

The scanned documents range from official minute books of congregations, to minutes of Jewish social, youth and sports organisations, to newspaper clippings from the local press. They include correspondence about the creation and management of Jewish cemeteries and the lack of provision of kosher food for prisoners.

Sound clips from some of the 127 interviews with people from the last generation to live and work in these communities, share memories that would otherwise have been lost. Photographs of people and places long gone are now preserved for posterity. So far, JHASW/CHIDC has uploaded over 3,973 files, which make up over 1,295 single and multipage items. They intend to continue to add to this collection in the belief that it will help illuminate the major contribution Jews have made to the South Wales area.

The majority of original documents have been deposited with local Archives and Record Offices.

Digital Accessibility

The collection is available to the public with no access limitations, under a Creative Commons license. Additional information about the project can be found on the People’s Collection Wales website.