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

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The distinguished Oscar-winning film director and illustrator Arnold Schwartzman OBE has sent us the following fascinating reminiscences.

I may take the claim to be the sole survivor of the Battle of Cable Street!

Aged 9 months, I was fast asleep upstairs in my grandfather Michael Finkleson’s boot repair shop at 292a Cable Street as the battle raged along the street.

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On September 7 1940 I was four years old living with my parents in Sidney Street, in London's East End, on the first day of the London Blitz.

I recall that it was a hot evening and my mother had set three salads on the kitchen table when I noticed out of the window that on the neighbouring flat roof there was a man stripped to the waist washing his face in an enamel bowl. 

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Join Vivi Lachs historian and Yiddish speaker on Thursday 26 March from 7pm-8.30pm at Finchley Church End Library, Finchley, Barnet showcasing the book 'East End Jews: Secret tales from the London Yiddish Press’ it offers an unparalleled view into the life, labour, and the joys of London's Jewish East End, from its heyday in the 1890s until the 1950s.

Drawing from a column in the London Yiddish press, these deceptively accessible, often humorous urban sketches capture incisive and sometimes cheeky encounters with challenges and debates of the time.

This entertaining talk with performed readings paints a new picture of the Jewish East End.

Free tickets at https://barnet-libraries.played.co/venues/63aff2ec-f2d5-4474-90d4-69c74695f118/sessions/131b5944-4bd3-419a-993e-1d3039bfa08a

See more details on our events page.

This is not a jEECS event but one we're pleased to publicise.

 

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Professor Jason Shela MBE recently contacted us about a research project he is currently conducting to collect the oral histories of people who grew up in London’s East End (which include his father, grandparents and great grandparents).

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Do you or your family have connections with the cinema in the East End? If so, Isabelle Seddon would love to hear from you.

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JEECS has been asked if anyone knows the name of the Gramophone Man, pictured here, his back story, when he retired, and the sort of music he played.

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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 owner. You can read all about it here: https://www.jeecs.org.uk/readers-help/162-can-you-help-identify-lottries     

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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?


DD Stencl 1950

Stencl with his friend and collaborator Dora Diamant, in 1950

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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 Street, London,  E1 5HU, celebrating the rich legacy of the East End’s Brady Girls Club.

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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 East Ender. 

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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 and food from the soup kitchen played a big role.

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Andrew Whitehead book A Devilish Kind of Courage FC revised 1

 

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.

  1. From Polish immigrant to East End artist: the lost Whitechapel boy
  2. East End Brady days
  3. Exhibition celebrates the Brady Girls' Club
  4. Sikh peddlers in the Jewish East End

Keep in touch

Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jewish-East-End-Celebration-Society/176990939962?fref=ts 

Email us at [email protected]

 

 

Latest news

  • Asleep through the Battle of Cable Street

      The distinguished Oscar-winning film director and illustrator Arnold Schwartzman OBE has sent us the following fascinating reminiscences. I may take the claim to be the sole survivor of the Battle of Cable Street! Aged 9 months, I was fast asleep upstairs in my grandfather Michael Finkleson’s boot repair shop at 292a Cable Street as the battle raged along the… Read More

  • Escape from the East End Blitz

    On September 7 1940 I was four years old living with my parents in Sidney Street, in London's East End, on the first day of the London Blitz. I recall that it was a hot evening and my mother had set three salads on the kitchen table when I noticed out of the window that on the neighbouring flat roof there was a man stripped to the waist washing his… Read More

  • East End Jews: Secret tales from the London Yiddish Press

    Join Vivi Lachs historian and Yiddish speaker on Thursday 26 March from 7pm-8.30pm at Finchley Church End Library, Finchley, Barnet showcasing the book 'East End Jews: Secret tales from the London Yiddish Press’ it offers an unparalleled view into the life, labour, and the joys of London's Jewish East End, from its heyday in the 1890s until the 1950s. Drawing… Read More

  • Oral history of the Jewish East End

    Professor Jason Shela MBE recently contacted us about a research project he is currently conducting to collect the oral histories of people who grew up in London’s East End (which include his father, grandparents and great grandparents). Read More

  • Cinema book author needs your help

      Do you or your family have connections with the cinema in the East End? If so, Isabelle Seddon would love to hear from you. Read More

  • Do you know the Gramophone Man?

    JEECS has been asked if anyone knows the name of the Gramophone Man, pictured here, his back story, when he retired, and the sort of music he played. 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
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For the old Jeecs site, visit www.jeecs.org.uk/archive