The Jewish History Association of South Wales has created a digital archive, 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 archive 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 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 72 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 has uploaded over 3,250 files, which make up over 1,080 single and multipage items. They intend to continue to add to this archive in the belief that it will help illuminate the major contribution Jews have made to the South Wales area.

Digital Accessibility

The archive 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.