The Swansea Jewish community — the first century

Abstract

The   town and port of Swansea (in Welsh, Abertawe) was the location of the first Jewish community in Wales, although its origins are a matter of tradition rather than of definite evidence. There is a general view that the origins of provincial Jewish communities in Britain start with pioneering visits by hawkers, travelling in the countryside. Some of them, it is said, would settle down to open fixed shops in favoured towns. It is possible that this might have been Swansea’s story. The first name available is said to be that of Solomon Lyons who had a business of some sort there in 1731. He may have been a pedlar earlier but nothing else is known of him. A second name, in the same decade, was that of Lazarus David, who was born in Swansea in 1734; he went to Canada and helped to found the Montreal community of Shearith Israel.