Casgliadau Arlein
Amgueddfa Cymru
Chwilio Uwch
Recordiad sain / Audio recording: David Fisher
Oral history recording with David Fisher collected as part of The Hineni Project, an insight into the life and stories of a Jewish community in all its diversity. Hineni was a collaborative project between Cardiff Reform Synagogue and Butetown History & Arts Centre.
I was born in Croydon, south London in 1948, and grew up in St Albans. My father worked for Tesco’s and we later moved to Bournemouth. Though my mother was Jewish, I was brought up not knowing I was Jewish. I did know there was Jewish blood in my family but it was never talked about. My grandmother once said to me, “If the Germans had got here you wouldn’t be here.” As a child it never registered, but in later life I started to think about things. I had a feeling there was something missing; something wasn’t connecting in my life. In 1967 I enlisted in the British Army Catering Corps as a chef. Off and on I spent fifteen years in Germany. I did three tours in Northern Ireland, and before I left the army, I went to Cyprus with the United Nations. The last of my overseas postings was in West Berlin, a really fantastic city. My total service was twenty-seven years. I met my wife, Doris, on leave from Germany in 1968, and we married in 1969 and had three children. Even while I was in the army, people were assuming that I was Jewish and I was getting frustrated with it. I didn’t know my family history, and towards the end of my army service, my daughter, Angie started asking questions so I said, “We’ve got to do something about this.” I tried asking my mother. The only thing she said to me was, “I had you circumcised eight days after your birth. That’s it, that’s all you need to know.” Then I started to read about it and I started making enquiries about the Jewish way of life. We got in touch with a synagogue in Maidenhead where Jonathan Romain was the rabbi. He’s a very nice man, full of energy. He looked into my family tree and told me I was Jewish. I said I didn’t know anything so both my wife and I did the conversion class under his guidance. I’m proud of my roots. We all have different paths to follow. It has come by a very different route, one that as a child I would never have thought of. We came to Cardiff in 2000. I find the community here quite friendly, and both Doris and I have slotted in and we feel comfortable. We attend more functions than we ever did before, and over the years we’ve become more connected with the community. One of my grandchildren went into the Jewish Lads and Girls Brigade. We go to synagogue about once a fortnight, mainly when Cardiff City is playing at home so I can go and watch the football afterwards. That’s one of my passions, following Cardiff City. To go to Israel is another major passion of mine at the moment, apart from my deep interest in the Roman Empire and the Classical world. The other passion that both Doris and I share is wildlife. We put the bread out for the birds and sit in the kitchen for hours watching them, and often go up to the wetlands in Newport to walk the dog and watch the wildlife. When I first came out of the army, like most ex-servicemen, I found it very hard to adjust for the first few years. I’ve been lucky I met a girl who’s been fantastic. I couldn’t be where I am without her.