Jewish East End Celebration Society
4A Cornwall Mews South, London, SW7 4RX
[email protected]
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- Holocaust Memorial Day Walk: January 30.
Covid has ruled out the normal events in the East End this year. However I shall be doing my annual walk, The Jewish East End – World War 2 and the Holocaust, on Sunday January 30. This is a free event, but needs to be booked through my email, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will meet at Aldgate tube station, departing at 11am.
- Isaac Rosenberg bust
The search for an appropriate site for the planned memorial to the great East End war poet and artist continues. All suggestions are welcome.
3. Leonard Montefiore Drinking Fountain, Stepney Green
Great news: the £14,000 needed to preserve and refurbish this memorial to a great East End philanthropist, is now secure. Leonard was the brother of Claude Montefiore, founder of Liberal Judaism in Britain.
The Heritage of London Trust has offered £6,000 and Tower Hamlets Council is making up any shortfall. The Council is supervising the refurbishment and tenders are being sought.
The Council has asked us to organise an unveiling ceremony, due to take place in June. Any suggestions will be welcome. Meanwhile, I am particularly seeking old photographs of the drinking fountain.
4. Honouring Bernard Kops
Playwright and poet Bernard Kops, JEECS life president, is a giant of Anglo-Jewish literature. Remaining in good health, he is now 95 and we plan to mount an event in his honour this year. I spoke to him before Christmas, and he is keen on the idea.
Again I welcome suggestions. We need a venue, a director, actors etc. I have some help but seek further volunteers. I am meeting Bernard again this month and will keep you informed.
5. Daniel Mendoza
St Margaret’s House, the Bethnal Green community charity, is organising various events this year to honour Mendoza, the first Jewish boxing champion, who was born in Whitechapel in 1764 and is known as the father of scientific boxing. Details will be supplied in due course.
6. Rudolf Rocker
Thanks to the Tottenham brewer One Mile End, you can now drink the health of Rudolf Rocker, anarchist, leader of East End Jewish workers and editor of Yiddish publications such as Der Arbayter Fraynd (The Workers’ Friend), with a beer bearing his name. Enjoy it at the White Hart at 1 Mile End Road, on the Mile End Waste. I shall be contacting the brewery to see how we can further honour Rocker.
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The revitalisation of Petticoat Lane, London’s oldest Sunday street market still in operation, continues apace with the unveiling next week of the community banners, commemorating many aspects of market life, along Wentworth Street and into Middlesex Street.
The banners project has been spearheaded by the City of London’s community engagement department.
It has also involved Tower Hamlets Council, the Leyden Gallery and the textiles department of London Metropolitan University – as well as many members of the local community and others with fond reminiscences of the market who submitted their thoughts and ideas.
There is an open invitation to the informal launch at 2pm on Wednesday October 13 on the corner of Wentworth and Commercial Street. Or, just pop down and enjoy them at your leisure.
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Barry Davis, the Yiddish actor and scholar, who was a very good friend of JEECS, has died.
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You published this photo of my father, Sholem Shrensky, and (it is assumed) of L. Gensheroff in issue 24, 2014 of The Cable in the hope that someone might know the location of the Gensheroff premises. Retired Detective Inspector Terry Abrahams astutely found, through the 1911 census, that the family of Isaac Gunscheroff (a close enough re-spelling of the name) resided in London at 9, Union Street, Mile End Old Town, and he kindly informed me of this fact.
My son Mark and I then Googled until we found that this Union Street (there are others) changed its name to Adler Street in 1913. Much of Adler Street was destroyed by the Luftwaffe bombings in World War Two and all of it had been rebuilt. Number 9 is now part of the 1-13 Adler Street complex.(https://surveyoflondon.org/map/?highlight=308.
See also http://www.londonancestor.com/maps/bc-milend.htm -- scroll down to get details of the change of name.)
Incidentally Terry Abrahams wrote about his family on page 11 of the same issue of The Cable.
Yoel Sheridan
Netanya Israel
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www.tenterbooks.com
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JEECS is working with an American film company making a feature film on the life of Daniel Mendoza, known as the father of scientific boxing.
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We’ve a terrific evening coming up, with an all-star cast of actors, musicians and poets, devoted to the life of the East End poet/artist Isaac Rosenberg. There is also a guided walk of Rosenberg’s Whitechapel. Full details are below. Do come to one or both, and tell your friends and family.
Isaac Rosenberg evening.
Sunday November 27. 6.00 till 8.00pm.
Beveridge Hall, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Isaac Rosenberg was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the poets of the First World War, and the only one to write from the viewpoint of the ordinary soldier. He was also a very fine artist and one of that loose grouping of writers and artists who became known as the Whitechapel Boys. JEECS is working to erect a statue to commemorate this remarkable figure and to mark the centenary of his death on the Somme on April 1 1918.
This event is a celebration of his life in images, words and music, devised by his biographer Jean Moorcroft Wilson and featuring Miriam Margolyes, the poet Elaine Feinstein, Alexander Knox, Simon Haynes, Philip Bells, and Vivi Lachs and her band.
It promises to be a wonderfully entertaining evening. We hope to see lots of you there. Proceeds will go to the Rosenberg statue appeal.
Tickets are £25 (concessions £15), which includes a drink. Book on Eventbrite at http://tinyurl.com/j3jjfzu or call 07941 367 882 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Malet Street is close to close to Goodge Street, Russel Square and Euston Square tube stations.
See the poster for more details of the evening.
Walk: Isaac Rosenberg's Whitechapel
Friday November 25
This takes place on the 126th anniversary of the birth of the great East End poet /painter. Clive Bettington will discuss how the milieu in which he grew up helped to produce one of the greatest British poets of the Great War. His poetry and paintings will be examined. Meet at Aldgate Tube 11.00 am. £12 (JEECS members £10). Booking essential. Call 07941 367882 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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October 3. Finborough Arms (below Finborough Theatre), 118 Finborough Road, Earls Court, London SW10 9ED.
Event for audience members at that evening's performance of Treasure (see below). Free for ticket holders for Treasure.
For more information: visit http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/ or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Leah Lehrman was just 16 when she was killed while cycling from her East End home to central London and her job as a tailor. Now, 100 years after her death in a Zeppelin raid, her tomb has a headstone after a 20-year search by her niece, Janet Foster, for the resting place of the aunt she never knew.
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Regrettably, with the winding down of JEECS, we are no longer able to enroll new members.
You can follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook
To the left is a photo of the former Vine Court Synagogue. Vine Court amalgamated with nearby Fieldgate Street Synagogue in 1965.
Jeecs has been involved with:
- The restoration of the Minnie Lansbury clock on the Electric Building in Bow
- The erection of the plaque to Daniel Mendoza (the father of scientific boxing) at Queen Mary's College Mile End
- The rediscovery, restoration and erection of the New Road Synagogue foundation and Great Garden Street Synagogue plaques at Nelson Street Synagogue
- Innumerable play readings, book presentations, music evenings, and educational seminars on all aspects of life in the Jewish East End of London
- The Siege of Sidney Street 100th anniversary commemoration at the Museum of London Docklands
- Organisation of Holocaust Memorial day events in the East End
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Welcome to theJewishEastEndCelebrationSociety
The Jewish East End Celebration Society is a registered charity dedicated to recording and remembering the cultural heritage of the Jewish East End. Our aim is to focus attention on the history of Jewish life and culture as they developed in London’s East End and their legacy today. Our work includes the on-going documentation in print and on video of the architecture, music, literature, theatre, religious practices and daily lives of the Jewish community in the East End; the commissioning of projects in literature, performance and the visual arts; and the creation of a permanent heritage centre and archive. With the changes in population living and working in the East End today we work closely with local authority and local community groups, and to establish links with other organisations whose work covers similar themes.
JEECS was founded on March 3, 2003 to save what remains of the rich Jewish heritage of the East End. The fact that only some 2,000 Jews were still in the East End did not deter us as the Jewish East End was the very cradle of the Anglo-Jewish community. It was essential not only to save the remaining buildings of the Jewish East End but to record the history of the people who had lived there and the events that had taken place there. We have not always achieved our aims, but we have had some notable successes.
We have organised numerous walks, curated an exhibition on the Siege of Sidney Street at the Museum of London Docklands, organised seminars on Cable Street (twice) Zionism, Isaac Rosenberg, Israel Zangwill and much more. We originated the Holocaust Memorial events in the East End. We have also taken up the cudgels in defence of Jewish interests in the East End. We played a prominent part in stopping the so-called “hijab” gates in Brick Lane and an important part in saving Bancroft Road library and in the abortive campaign to save Mother Levy’s maternity home in Underwood Road. We always co-operate with other Jewish cultural groups in London and with other faith groups in Tower Hamlets.
Who we are
Honorary Life President until his sad decease on February 25, 2024.
Bernard Kops z/l
Chairman
Clive Bettington
07941 367882
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Magazine editorial
David Walker
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Contact
Jewish East End Celebration Society
4A Cornwall Mews South, London, SW7 4RX.
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The Cable. Dedicated to the Jewish East End.
The Cable has been the only magazine devoted to the old Jewish East End. It is lavishly illustrated in full colour (though many photographs, by virtue of their age, have to be in black and white) and jam-packed with interesting articles, personal reminiscences, and news of events and JEECS activities.