Ystalyfera Jewish Community

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Village of Ystalyfera

Ystalyfera is a village, with a population of about 3,000, about 8 miles north of Neath and 13 miles northeast of Swansea. It is located on the river Twrch and the Swansea Canal, close to the border with the county of Powys.

Until 1974, Ystalyfera was part of the rural district of Pontardawe in the county of Glamorganshire. From 1974 until 1996, it was part of the Lliw Valley District in the county of Mid Glamorgan. Since 1996, it has been within the county borough of Neath Port Talbot - a unitary authority (in the ceremonial, or preserved, county of West Glamorgan).

The Ystalyfera Jewish Community

There was a small Jewish community in Ystalyfera in the late nineteenth century. However, "despite claims made by a variety of sources, there was no synagogue constructed in Ystalyfera. Rather it appears that Jews living in the industrial village were 'country members' of the Swansea Hebrew congregation.... Since the distance between Ystalyfera and Swansea (approximately 13 miles) made it impractical to travel regularly to Swansea for synagogue services, a minyan was often formed at [Tobias] Shepherd's Ystalyfera home by Jewish men living in the village and those scattered across the Swansea valley, such as Israel Neft of Neath."⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾ Tobias Shepherd was a Polish yeshiva student, who lived in Swansea in the late 1880s and who set up as a furniture dealer in Ystalyfera in about 1890.

There was no Jewish cemetery in Ystalyfera, the nearest being at Swansea.