Glasgow Women’s Library

To Build a Home

What makes a home? Scottish visual artist Martha Orbach reflects on this question in her latest show. To Build a Home comprises drawings, prints, sculptures and storytelling that explore the artist’s environmentalist upbringing, Jewish heritage and role as a mother.

Until 17 January

0141 550 2267. www.womenslibrary.org.uk

Sunday 8 February

The Last Days of Budapest: Spies, Nazis, Rescuers and Resistance – 1940-1945

Journalist Adam LeBor reimagines life in 1943 Budapest in his recent book, The Last Days of Budapest: Spies, Nazis, Rescuers and Resistance. Hear from and discover a variety of perspectives, including that of SS officers, Hungary’s most popular actress, a rebellious teenager and a Jewish entrepreneur who negotiated with Adolf Eichmann. The city was home to spies and agents but was also a place where allied prisoners of war and Jewish refugees sought sanctuary. Following the Nazi invasion in 1944, it collapsed into anarchy, with the surviving Jews forcibly relocated to overcrowded houses marked with yellow stars, and Hungarian death squads roaming the streets.

7.30pm. £10. Edinburgh location provided upon booking. www.ejls.org

Sunday 22 February

Jewish Languages and Book Culture

Judith Olszowy-Schlanger and César Merchán-Hamann discuss the linguistic richness of Judaism and the way in which different dialects were used within literature in their recent book. Jewish Languages and Book Culture journeys through Cairo, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East looking at how Jews have used Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-French, Judeo-Italian, Yiddish and Ladino in everyday life, but used Hebrew letters to write these languages down.

7.30pm. £10. ONLINE & Edinburgh location provided upon booking. www.ejls.org

Sunday 22 March

An Unbreakable Bond: The Targu Mures Holocaust Survivors and Their Scottish Saviours - A Story That Had to be Told

Sharon Mail’s 2024 book uncovers the history of Targu Mures, a Transylvanian town that housed a ghetto for over 7,500 Jews before deporting them to Auschwitz, where fewer than 1,200 survived. It was discovered by a Glaswegian Jew who went on to set up the Targu Mures Trust, which provided long-term support to those who had suffered. Mail discusses why she wrote An Unbreakable Bond: The Targu Mures Holocaust Survivors and Their Scottish Saviours, how the camp was found and how the survivors and their saviours developed a beautiful friendship in the aftermath.

7.30pm. £10. ONLINE & Edinburgh location provided upon booking. www.ejls.org

Sunday 30 November

Works of Emancipation: Jewish Themes in the Operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer

Jewish musician Giacomo Meyerbeer was one of the most famous opera composers in the world in the 1800s. Despite being tied to the Jewish Enlightenment (a German movement that sought to integrate Judaism into Western society), he lived a secular life but refused to convert to Christianity. Rabbi Mark Solomon leads this talk, featuring musical snippets, exploring how despite having Christian, historical themes, Meyerbeer’s works reflected concerns about Jewish emancipation, enlightenment, conversion, intermarriage and persecution.

7.30pm. £10. Edinburgh location provided upon booking. www.ejls.org

Sunday 11 January

Klezmer: Now and Then, There and Here

Musician and academic Phil Alexander examines eastern European Jewish klezmer music, looking back from its origins to today, exploring the different ways in which it’s performed worldwide.

7.30pm. £10. Edinburgh location provided upon booking. www.ejls.org

Available indefinitely

Garnethill Refugee Trail

A self-guided walking tour that traces the lives of the hundreds of Jewish refugees who arrived in Scotland before World War II. Created by the Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre, this tour includes sites such as Scotland’s oldest synagogue and ‘the house on the hill’, where refugees would meet alongside native Glaswegians to discuss politics and culture. The trail is free and available to download or from the SJHC in person. Read more about the Garnethill Refugee Trail in the Spring issue of JR.

FREE. www.sjhc.org.uk

Sunday 15 February

West End Project

Discover the ancient and modern tales of the Glasgow’s diverse West End and find Jewish connections in unexpected places.

11am. FREE. Glasgow location provided upon booking. www.westendproject.org.uk