Jewish East End Celebration Society
4A Cornwall Mews South, London, SW7 4RX
[email protected]

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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Latest news

  • Stories from the Jewish East End

    What should be a fascinating evening is coming up next Tuesday (December 10) at Sandy’s Row Synagogue when the celebrated writer Rachel Lichtenstein presents Stories from the Jewish East End: an illustrated talk exploring a lost landscape. Read More
  • More emerges about H Lotery and Co

    A while back, we had a reader asking if anyone had any information about a company his mother had worked for in the East End and which she remembered as being called Lottries. The inquiry sparked some fascinating replies, which identified the company as H Lotery and Co, and we've just had a response from the grandson of the company's Read More
  • Project seeks material and memories from the legendary Yiddish poet A.N. Stencl

    Did you know or do you have material from the Polish-born Yiddish poet Avrom-Nokhem Stencl (also known as A. N. Stencl) who was once famous in east London for selling his celebrated Yiddish magazine Loshn un lebn (Language & Life), for running his Friends of Yiddish Saturday afternoon literary society and for his many acclaimed publications of Yiddish poetry? Stencl Read More
  • Two great East End events

    Two great East End related events take place next month. First, Tower Hamlets Local History Library in Bancroft Road, Mile End, has what should be a fascinating free talk on Thursday, 5 September (18.30 - 20.00hrs) entitled “The Petticoat Lane Foxtrot”. The next day, September 6, sees the opening of a great exhibition at the Brady Arts and Community Centre, 192-196 Hanbury Read More
  • East End playwright, novelist and poet Bernard Kops dies aged 97

    Bernard Kops, the great East End playwright, novelist and poet, and honorary president of JEECS, has died at the age of 97 The son of Dutch-Jewish immigrants, Bernard was born in 1926 and brought up in Stepney Green Buildings in a world whose frontier was Aldgate East tube station, a world in which clothing from the Jewish Board of Guardians Read More
  • Seeking the human being within, behind the cloak

    Bernard Kops, the great East End playwright, poet and novelist has died at the age of 97. Honorary life president of JEECS, he was an astute observer of both the old Jewish East End and the modern world. The interview below is from the JEECS magazine The Cable in 2006 and is being republished as a tribute to a great Read More
  • A fresh look at the Siege of Sydney Street

      The Siege of Sydney Street is the subject of a new book published on March 1 that provides a thrilling account of this iconic East End event. Read More
  • From Polish immigrant to East End artist: the lost Whitechapel boy

    Morris Goldstein, a near forgotten member of the remarkable group of artists and writers that flourished in the East End in the early part of the last century, deserves wider recognition. RAYMOND FRANCIS, his son, gives us a taste of his story in this extract from his book about his father's life. This article was published in JEECS's magazine The Read More
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For the old Jeecs site, visit www.jeecs.org.uk/archive