Alan Schwartz explains what the shofar is used for:

“This is a Ram’s horn shofar. It is over 100 years old and was used at Cardiff’s Cathedral Road Synagogue from the 1890s to the 1980s. The Shofar is blown in ceremonies to celebrate Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), and also at the end of Yom Kippuer (Day of Atonement) to signal the end of the day.

The synagogue played an important part in the lives of the Jewish settlers in Cardiff. Cardiff United Synagogue is the synagogue of the Orthodox community in Cardiff – the older of the city’s two Jewish communities. It is the result of a merger of two congregations – the ‘Englisher’ Shul in East Terrace, Bute St, and the ‘Furriner’s (foreigner’s) Shul that opened in 1889 in East Terrace to serve the recent, poorer and mostly Eastern European immigrants.”

Image: Shofar

Image: Group of Jewish men, c. 1910.

The first Jewish settlers in Cardiff were thought to have arrived in 1813.

Image: Trade directory, 1894-95

Jewish settlers worked in a range of industries and started businesses as watch brokers, jewellers, pawn brokers, clothiers and landlords. This trade directory features many Jewish names as registered pawn brokers.

John Minkes sounding a shofar