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

News that a change of use application to turn the historic Whitechapel Bell Foundry into a boutique hotel has been submitted to Tower Hamlets Council has prompted us to resurrect this interesting short article by the late Philip Walker z"l, revealing a mysterious Jewish link, from our magazine The Cable, originally published in 2013. To find out more about the plans for this historic site -- and how to register an objection -- go to http://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/02/03/a-bell-themed-boutique-hotel/  See also our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jewisheastendcelebrationsoc/

 

 

From Clive Bettington, JEECS chairman

 

1. Isaac Rosenberg Statue


I continue working on the above project as I want to ensure that the statue commemorating Rosenberg, the acclaimed East End artist and poet who is recognised as one of the finest poets of the Great War, is erected this year. JEECS has to continue until the project is completed. We have reverted to the original sculptor, Etienne Millner, one of Britain's foremost figurative sculptors who, among other project, has completed two statues of the Queen.

The beautiful East London Centre Synagogue in Nelson Street (30-40 Nelson Street, E1 2DS) now features on Wikipedia, with an entry that draws in part from an article in JEECS magazine, The Cable.

From Clive Bettington, JEECS chairman

       1. Email address change

Clive Bettington’s new email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please change your contacts lists if necessary. The previous email addresses no longer function.

Back issues of JEECS’s magazine The Cable are still available at bargain prices. Over the years The Cable has provided a unique account of the people, culture, places and events that made the Jewish East End so vibrant.

JEECS member Vivi Lachs’ new book, Whitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigrant Life in Yiddish Song and Verse, London 1884–1914 is published this month (May).

1. Vanished works by a famous Japanese artist. 
2. A quick reminder about the Rosenberg walk on Sunday April 1, now to be accompanied by a BBC journalist. 
3. Jewish events in Tower Hamlets.  

Michael Greisman, whose wonderful historic photograph compilations have featured in our magazine The Cable and on our website, has done it again with a collection of portraits of Jewish Servicemen and Servicewomen – many from the East End – who served with the British armed services during World War Two.

Barry Davis, the renowned Yiddish actor and scholar, who was a very good friend of JEECS, has died.

 

Many of you are probably puzzled that you have not heard from us for some time and that the latest issue of our magazine The Cable is the first in nearly a year. I am afraid that the committee has decided that, because of illnesses and other reasons, it has decided to wind up JEECS at the end of 2018.The latest issue of The Cable will be the last although emails will continue to be sent until the end of 2018. In short the committee feels that it just cannot continue running JEECS.

It will soon be time for one of the East End’s most spectacular events, the Great Yiddish parade, and you are all invited.

The date is Sunday November 19, when East End streets will echo with the sound of songs once sung there and forgotten for more than a century, as a marching band with singers and klezmer musicians bring Yiddish Victorian songs of protest back to the London of today.

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.

Latest news

  • 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
  • Three great films at JW3

    Three great films, including the Jewish East End classic East Endings, are being screened together at JW3, the Jewish cultural centre, in showings from Sunday April 6 through to April 10. Read More
  • Hackney History Festival returns for second year

    Not just the Jewish East End but the broader history and culture of an area that had a thriving Jewish life. Yes, the Hackney History Festival is back for its second year, even bigger and better. Running over two weekends, 10–11 May and 17–18 May, with satellite events throughout May, this year’s festival is a celebration of Hackney’s incredible past, with a jam-packed programme of Read More
  • Brady Clubs exhibition commemorates two great East End institutions

    Those great East End institutions The Brady Clubs are commemorated in what is set to be a superb exhibition at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives from March 14 to June 21. 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
  • 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
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For the old Jeecs site, visit www.jeecs.org.uk/archive