A few weeks ago three of Cardiff’s four MPs came to Cardiff New Synagogue for the annual Shabbat lunch the Reform community holds in honour of local dignitaries.
In his official role, Stanley Soffa, the chairman of the South Wales Jewish Representative, happily welcomed one of his guests, the Labour MP for Cardiff Central, Jo Stevens.
But in his private capacity as a Liberal Democrat campaigner, he is helping to plot her political demise as his party hopes to recapture the seat they lost in the last election two years ago.
Anecdotally, Mr Soffa has found no great enthusiasm for next month’s election among people he has spoken to.
“They would prefer there wasn’t one. The Prime Minister has a working majority and the European Union has said a stronger one wouldn’t make a difference to the negotiations.”
Despite that, he believes his co-religionists will not succumb to apathy and stay at home.
“Jews will go out and vote because they always do,” he said.
Wales’ 2,000 or so Jews, with 800 in the capital, are too few to have much influence on any particular constituency. But the highest concentration live in Cardiff Central, and Mr Soffa will be hoping to persuade a few more to vote for the Lib Dems to help overturn Labour’s majority at the last election of 4,981.
The Lib Dems reduced the Labour majority to under 1,000 in the constituency in last year’s vote for the Welsh Assembly — although the turnout was two-thirds of that at the last general election.
Both synagogues are in Cardiff Central and the two wards where most Jews live are Lib Dem areas. While Wales in general voted in favour of leaving the European Union a year ago, Cardiff recorded 60 per cent support for Remain.
From his conversations, Mr Soffa believes most local Jews would have been Remainers too.
But he anticipates little support among the community for Labour.
“When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, you could say eight of 10 Jews would have voted Labour. But over the years, there has been a trend away. There aren’t many Jewish Labour voters in Cardiff.”
He can only think of one or two who would vote for the current Jeremy Corbyn-led party — and they are not in Cardiff Central.
