Wales’ oldest surviving synagogue will have a second life as a Jewish cultural centre after receiving nearly £4 million in funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The money makes up the bulk of the £6 million needed for the project, with the rest of it coming from Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, which has given £1.7m, and grants from several leading charitable organisations.
First established in 1876, Merthyr Tydfil Synagogue is the only one in the UK built in the Northern Gothic style. It functioned as a synagogue until 1983, before a stint as a Christian centre and then as Merthyr’s main fitness centre. The transformation cost the synagogue its prayer hall, ark and parts of its flooring to accommodate gym equipment.
It closed permanently in 2004 and rapidly deteriorated until it was acquired by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage in 2019. Since then, the foundation has worked to save the building as a heritage site and community facility. A new charity, the Welsh Jewish Cultural Centre, was also established to lead the redevelopment project in partnership with the foundation.
Now with a £3.9 million National Heritage grant, the premises will be fully restored into the Welsh Jewish Cultural Centre – due to open in autumn 2028 – providing educational programmes and community engagement, as well as jobs and voluntary opportunities.
David Bearman, chair of trustees of the Welsh Jewish Cultural Centre, said: “We are delighted to have received funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to save the historic synagogue in Merthyr Tydfil, the most important Jewish heritage site in Wales.
“Lottery support will allow us to reopen the building to the public and establish a new Welsh Jewish Cultural Centre, with an exhibition that tells the stories of the contribution of Welsh Jewish communities to social and economic development in Wales, and with a diverse programme of learning, events and activities. We thank all Lottery players who have made this possible.”
The centre will make a unique contribution to the cultural and educational landscape of Wales
According to the book The Jews of South Wales, edited by Ursula R.Q. Henriques, Jewish workers migrated to Merthyr Tydfil during an industrial boom but began to move away as opportunities dried up in the twentieth century. Besides European Jewish refugees, escaping Nazi persecution and Blitz evacuees, the synagogue went largely unattended and was sold in the 1980s, with its sacred objects protected in a Gateshead yeshivah.
Now, alongside architectural restorations of the synagogue’s ark and balcony, a permanent exhibition will detail the building’s evolution and celebrate Welsh Jewish history. An artist will create a new stained-glass feature in collaboration with the local community, and the landscape will be fitted with a tree propagated from the Anne Frank Tree in Amsterdam.
In addition, the synagogue will host talks, tours, celebrations of Jewish festivals, and a young curator programme, which will give young people the opportunity to work in the exhibition. Local primary schools will also be able to research Merthyr’s historical Jewish population and convert their findings into artwork.
Dame Helen Hyde DBE, chair of trustees of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, said: “Merthyr Synagogue was in a very poor state when our foundation bought the building in 2019 with the vision to create a Welsh Jewish Cultural Centre that would present the 260-year history of the Jewish experience in Wales.
"We’ve been delighted with the level of interest and support this unique project has received from the local Merthyr community and across Wales. This relates especially to the National Lottery Heritage Fund Wales, whose advice, guidance and support has been crucial to the project’s progress. We are thrilled to have been awarded these final very generous delivery phase grants which will enable us to bring the project fully to fruition. The centre will make a unique contribution to the cultural and educational landscape of Wales.
Andrew White, director for Wales at the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “The Welsh Jewish Cultural Centre project will bring to life the rich and often under-told stories of Jewish communities in Wales, celebrating over 250 years of history and culture. Thanks to National Lottery players, this support will help restore and safeguard a historic Welsh synagogue and create vibrant space where these stories can be shared, explored and enjoyed by future generations.”
The project will be a significant initiative for Merthyr. Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government Jayne Bryant MS said: “We want town and city centres across Wales to be the beating heart of Welsh communities, where people can access services, shops, communal and cultural spaces.”
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