However, perhaps the greatest break down in Cardiff’s community cohesion was the bitter dispute between East Terrace and ‘The New Synagogue’ then based in Frederick Street, though it would later go on to formal presence on Edward Place. This was an argument over a request that a boy should be circumcised in the synagogue on Yom Kippur, but reveals deeper divisions.
Jewish boys are circumcised on the eighth day, normally privately with a family party. But if the eighth day falls on the day of Atonement – the most solemn day of the year and a strict fast day – the old custom was to circumcise the baby in public in synagogue. However, by the late nineteenth century this practice had become controversial. A highly public ceremony of this nature would be regarded by many in establishment society as outlandish and was even disapproved of by the Chief Rabbi. So it seems a poor family was refused permission for public circumcision in open synagogue in the Old congregation and was promptly allowed it in the New.
On the day of Yom Kippur 1890 (despite the fact that traditionally Orthodox Jews would engage in no work including writing) a letter appeared in the South Wales Echo, claiming to be from a Jewish person present at the East Terrace Synagogue when the ritual was refused, alleging that had the supplicants been a rich family the ceremony would have been performed.
Newspaper clipping: ‘A Complaint from a Synagogue’. From South Wales Echo, 24 September 1890.
Image credit Media Wales. Image source The National Library of Wales.
