I am proud to support the fantastic work the Jewish History Association of South Wales have been doing with their latest exhibition, Voices and Images of the South Wales Jewish Community. Touring across South Wales from June to the end of September, it will tell the stories of local Jewish communities across the area.
It is the culmination of painstaking work over the last year collecting oral histories and images from Jewish men and women whose families lived in many communities dotted across south Wales in the early part of the 20th century.
Voices and Images of the South Wales Jewish Community comes as the Jewish History Association of South Wales have launched a crowdfunding campaign (find it here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/jhasw) to raise £3,000 as part of a bid for National Lottery Heritage funding for a further project estimated at around £60,000.
Project Manager Klavdija Erzen explained: “We recorded 72 oral histories and created a digital collection consisting of more than 6,000 images. We have put together a travelling exhibition and a series of talks that will highlight their memories and try to show how they lived.”
The JHASW exhibition aims to capture the spirit of these communities through excerpts from interviews with those who were there; through the stories of their lives, and their parents’ and grandparents’ lives. Who were they? How did they live? Why did they leave?
The exhibition shows what it meant to be part of a Jewish community in South Wales, and how the members of these communities interacted with their friends and neighbours. Please visit if you have the opportunity, as it will definitely be worth your time.
The exhibition will be in the National Museum of Cardiff from 22nd– 28th of July; the Senedd from the 29th of July to the 4th of August; St Fagans Museum from the 10th – 22nd of September., as well as in many other locations across South Wales.