Cardiff United Synagogue
The Cardiff United Synagogue is the Orthodox Jewish congregation of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.
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. [1] Bute Street was the center of the Jewish community in the nineteenth century.[2]
Former buildings and ancestral congregations include: Original Old Hebrew Congregation): 1853 - 1858 Trinity Street, Cardiff 1858 - 1897 East Terrace, Bute Street, Cardiff (redeveloped 1888) 1897 - 1989 Cathedral Road, Cardiff
New orthodox Congregation: 1889 - 1900 Edwards Place, Cardiff 1900 - ???? Merches Place, Cardiff
Windsor Place congregation: 1918 - 1955 Windsor Place, Cardiff
Penylan congregation (synagogue consecrated 9 January 1955): 1955 - 2003 Peylan Ty Gwyn Road, Cardiff [3]
The most architecturally distinguished of the several historic synagogue buildings was the Classical/eclectic synagogue that was in Windsor Place, 1918 - 1955.
One of the congregation's former buildings was purchased in 1979 and converted into a Hindu temple. [4]
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 in 2003.[5]
Choir
The congregation has a notable choir.[6]