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Rabbi's window on a Swansea childhood

May 27, 2010 14:00
Rabbi Yisroel Fine and Joyce Ambrose admire the transferred windows

By

Jay Grenby,

Jay Grenby

1 min read

As a six-year-old in 1956, Cockfosters and North Southgate Synagogue rabbi Yisroel Fine was pictured with his mother at the opening of a new shul for Swansea Hebrew Congregation. Now 54 years later, the Welsh shul's stained glass windows, so familiar from his childhood, have been installed in the Cockfosters building.

When the Swansea shul closed last year, Rabbi Fine was alerted to the concern of the community's few remaining members for the future of the windows - a set of nine illustrating the festivals and a further set of 12 for the tribes of Israel.

He was contacted by former Swansea member Selwyn Franks, a cousin of his late father, Rabbi Meyer Fine, one of the rabbis who served the Swansea congregation during the 1950s.

"In no time at all, we here in Cockfosters had identified the perfect place for them," Rabbi Fine reported. "There were spots in the foyer and the landing of the stairway leading to our communal hall that would accommodate them perfectly."