The Jewish Historical Association of South Wales has to raise £5,000 by August 4 to continue finding and preserving testimonies from community members.

Jewish life in South Wales dates back to the 1730s and since its establishment in late 2017, the JHASW has been recording oral remembrances.

From October, the plan is to record around 70 further interviews to expand its collection. The cost will be around £20,000 and although the association has received some funding, the £5,000 shortfall will have to be raised.

JHASW points out that “oral histories require meticulous planning, research, recording and transcription. If we did not have our volunteers, it would cost £1,080 per interview.”

In one testimony, recorded in 2018, Lionel Elton said: “My mother was a peasant — she could neither read nor write.

“They left Odessa in about 1903 as a result of her eldest sister witnessing the beheading of her husband. Aunt Bella had married a Cossack, a non-Jew. The Cossacks didn’t want their people to marry Jews so to make an example, he was beheaded in their cellar in front of her.”

The plan was to go to America but they did not have the money and so ended up in Cardiff.

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/jhasw-preserving-oral-history