Conwy Jewish Community

North Wales

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congregations throughout the British Isles and Gibraltar, both past and present.

County Borough of Conwy

The county borough of Conwy, in North Wales, was formed as a unitary authority in 1996 by the merger of most of the Colwyn district of the county of Clwyd with the Aberconwy district of the county of Gwynedd. The principal towns are Colwyn Bay and Llandudno. Until 1974, Colwyn Bay was a municipal borough in the old county of Denbighshire and Llandudno was an urban district in the old county of Caernarvonshire (Welsh: Caernarfonshire).

Jewish Communities in Conwy

There were small Jewish communities in a number of towns in North Wales. Organised Jewish communities no longer exist except for Llandudno, which now serves as the centre for Colwyn Bay and the other dwindling Jewish communities of North Wales.

The Jewish Congregations

The following are the Jewish congregations that exist or existed in what is now the county borough of Conwy:

Colwyn Bay Hebrew Congregation
Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Hebrew Congregation* (formerly the Llandudno Hebrew Congregation)
Llandudno second (World War II) congregation

* An active congregation.

Search the All-UK Database

The records in the database associated with Conwy include:

UK Jewish Communal Leaders Database (as of 30 September 2021)
- 11 Colwyn Bay records; and
- 18 Llandudno records.

Bibliography, Online Articles and Other Material
relating to the Conwy Jewish Communities

on JCR-UK

Bibliography:
- Escape to Gwrych Castle, a Jewish Refugee Story (2023) by Andrew Hesketh.
- Other Welsh Bibliography.

Notable Jewish Connections with Conwy

Gwrych Castle (Tan-Y-Gopa Road, Abergele LL22 8ET, Conwy), situated about 13 miles east of Colwyn Bay, is a nineteenth century former country house used during World War II to house some 200 Jewish Kindertransport refugee children, and was run by the Bnei Akiva movement. It is a Grade I Listed Building (reference number 231) designated on 27 October 1950 (amended 12 November 1997). View listing on the website of Cadw (Welsh Government’s historic environment service).

Community Records

Register Office (for BMD): Registers currently held by Conwy Register Office in Llandudno.
- Any registers from previous register offices would now be held by the current register office.
- Register Office website

Jewish Cemetery Information

Until recently, there were no Jewish cemeteries in Conry. However, in 2010, the first and only Jewish Cemetery in North Wales was established by the inauguration of a Liberal Jewish Section of the Llanrhos Lawn Cemetery, Llandudno. For additional information, see the webpage for the Llandudno congregation and IAJGS International Jewish Cemeteries Project - Llandudno

Conwy Jewish Population Data
Year	Number	Source
2001	84	Census 2001 for England and Wales
2011	82	Census 2011 for England and Wales
2021	65	Census 2021 for England and Wales

For other Conwy Jewish Information
see under individual congregation pages

Jewish Congregations in the historic county of Caernarfonshire

Jewish Congregations in the former county of Denbighshire

Jewish Congregations in Wales, according to current unitary authorities

Jewish Communities & Congregations in Wales home page

Page created: 7 May 2006
Page most recently amended: 6 December 2024

Research and formatting by David Shulman

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