ONLINE
ART
Bevis Marks: Britain’s Most Significant Synagogue
Virtually explore four galleries dedicated to the UK’s oldest synagogue that’s still active. Bevis Marks was erected in 1701 following the resettlement of Jews in the UK in 1656. Its Wren-style interior remains unchanged, reflecting the influence of the great Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam of 1675. The synagogue embraced a new Sephardi community, led by Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel of Amsterdam, who acted as a Jewish ambassador to Oliver Cromwell. The services at Bevis Marks are today made up of Jews with Sephardi, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi backgrounds.
ONLINE. www.jewishmuseum.org.uk
David Breuer-Weil: Golden Drawings
A virtual exhibition of illuminated drawings made in isolation by London artist David Breuer-Weil, who’s well known for his huge bronze sculptures. He started the series on day one of lockdown as a form of meditation. Executed in pencil on paper with gold leaf, the pieces reflect different aspects of the current pandemic and the human condition. The series is partly inspired by medieval apocalyptic manuscripts that were often illuminated with gold leaf to give an otherworldly sense of reality, and were often produced in periods of great upheaval. Read more about this project in the Jan 2021 issue of JR.
ONLINE. www.davidbreuerweil.com
Ben Uri
No Set Rules
An exhibition and publication that explores the limitless possibilities of working on paper by bringing together selected drawings, prints and paintings from the Philip Schlee collection by artists working in Britain between 1920 and 2004. Presenting 51 works by 37 artists, No Set Rules covers a wide range of subject matter, techniques and practice, from figuration to abstraction, exploring 100 years of expression on paper and proving, as David Hockney once observed, that “there are no set rules in drawing”.
No end date specified
Cartoons and Caricatures, 1950
This archive exhibition shows contributions from leading cartoonists and caricaturists presenting their renditions of celebrities, from Churchill to Stalin, harmonica player Larry Adler to conductor Sir Thomas Beecham.
No end date specified
Yalta 1945: Komar and Melamid
Launching the world tour of this seminal installation of Yalta 1945, Ben Uri presents the works of Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, graduates of the Stroganov Institute of Arts and Design. Founders of Sots Art, merging socialist realism, politicising pop, and conceptual art, the two are amongst the Soviet Union’s most important non-conformist artists. Their rich career together until 2003, and individually since, is both a challenge to the establishment and traditional in its concepts, with cutting wit and piercing satire, in a post-Soviet and -perestroika world.
No end date specified
Internment: In Memory of Eva Aldbrook – 1925-2020
On the 80th anniversary of internment in Britain, Ben Uri celebrates the many artists who were imprisoned in the UK. The sudden and dramatic implementation of the government’s mass internment policy was a result of the ‘enemy aliens’ register, listing many of those seeking refuge in Britain from Nazi persecution. In this case, internment art was born, which saw the artists use improvised materials in their work, ranging from toothpaste, vegetable dyes and brick dust mixed with oil from sardine cans, and for pigments, twigs burnt to make charcoal sticks; wiry beard hair for brushes; and newspaper to paint and draw on. This exhibition presents 16 artists who were either interned themselves or depicted former internees.
No end date specified
Painting with an Accent: German Jewish Émigré Stories
The Ben Uri Gallery and the German Embassy have come together to mark 85 years of the November pogroms and the Kindertransport with this exhibition, capturing the events that unfolded in 1938 through moving and thought-provoking works of art. During the November pogroms, Germany’s Nazi regime unleashed on Jewish citizens the terrors that would lead to the abyss of the Holocaust and to countless emigration efforts to escape the atrocities. The Kindertransport represented a beacon of humanity in inhuman times. The legacy of the various journeys by the artists featured in this exhibition, and the future of remembrance for the next generation’s interpretation of the events, is captured to remind the audience of the importance of upholding the values of democracy, respect for human rights, and fundamental freedoms that remain at the core of Germany’s key responsibilities.
No end date specified
Motherlands – Angels – Country – Bengal: Paintings, Sculptures and Drawings by Gerry Judah
Gerry Judah’s upbringing in India, surrounded by the fantastic architecture of temples, mosques and synagogues, along with the theatrical rituals of the festivals and cultural celebrations, triggered his highly creative imagination and set the tone for his artistic career. Having worked on high-profile commissions for museums and institutions, this exhibition encompasses a number of different aspects of Judah’s career.
No end date specified
Edith Birkin: The Final Journey
At the age of 14, Edith Birkin entered Poland’s Łódź Ghetto. Three years later, she was sent to Auschwitz and survived a death march to Flossenbürg camp, before being liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Upon discovering that none of her family had survived the Holocaust, Birkin recorded her experiences in the forms of literature (Unshed Tears) and art. This exhibition showcases the latter, with pieces including Entry into the Ghetto, Why, and Liberation Day.
No end date specified
Rothenstein’s Relevance
Sir Willian Rothenstein – artist, writer, teacher and consummate networker – was also a leading British artist in the years before World War I. The themes showcased in this exhibition include Jewish subjects, portraiture and figure studies, plus work from both world wars.
No end date specified
Liberators
Twelve extraordinary female artists from the Ben Uri collection are celebrated in this exhibition, with a focus on their lives, courage and strength of character across countless endeavours undertaken during the first half of the 20th century.
No end date specified
Yiddish: The Language, People and Heritage
This online exhibition explores the Ben Uri archives, with unique pieces reflecting the prevailing cultural heritage of its founders: émigré Lazar Berson and his Yiddish speaking co-religionists; Eastern-European artisans; and businessmen fleeing pogroms in the Russian Pale of Settlement.
No end date specified
Jankel Adler: A 'Degenerate' Artist in Britain, 1940-49
This is the first museum exhibition (now available virtually) of Adler’s works in Britain since 1951. The Polish painter introduced innovative styles and techniques, particularly in printmaking. He is now considered one of the most important European modernists working in mid-century Britain. Works featured include Mother and Child, Beginning of the Revolt, and Bird and Cage.
No end date specified
Becoming Gustav Metzger: Uncovering the Early Years, 1945-1959
In 2021, the Ben Uri Research Unit in partnership with The Gustav Metzger Foundation, presented the first museum exhibition exclusively examining the formative years of refugee artist, activist and environmentalist Gustav Metzger. Now you can view this display online. Showcasing 40 drawings and paintings, the majority never previously exhibited, as well as related archival material, Metzger’s artistic journey is charted while simultaneously uncovering an intriguing episode in the artist's personal life. This small selection of his work is fragile and damaged in places due to being hidden by the artist in the attic of a relative for 45 years and discovered only in 2009.
No end date specified
David Bomberg: A Pioneer of Modernism
David Bomberg, a prominent member of the Whitechapel Boys, was initially appreciated for his chromolithography (multi-colour prints). Later in life, he and Jacob Epstein co-curated the so-called “Jewish section” at the Whitechapel Art Gallery show, 20th-Century Art: A Review of Modern Movements, before serving in World War I. His post-war disillusionment is most powerfully expressed in Ghetto Theatre (1920), following which he began focusing on portraits of friends and family, as well as a series of self-portraits. He then produced many drawings and paintings about World War II and later became a teacher at Borough Polytechnic (now South Bank University).
No end date specified
ONLINE. https://benuri.org
Exile Research Centre
A Light in Dark Times
Little is known about the history of the Laterndl (Little Lantern) theatre, which, as well as the Austrian Centre in London, supported roughly 30,000 Jewish refugees who escaped Austria between March 1938 and September 1939. The Laterndl was the first and largest German theatre run by exiles in London, reuniting those who had worked together in Vienna before the annexation, and despite very few documents surviving from the time, this exhibition contains one of the most complete set of records about the theatre in existence. These documents are presented alongside materials from other sources to tell the story of the unique theatre and includes online resources and suggestions for further reading.
No end date specified
ONLINE. www.exileresearchcentre.omeka.net
John Rylands Research Institute and Library, Manchester
The Many Faces of the Rylands’ Jewish Manuscripts
Manchester university celebrates the digital revolution by compiling 30 years of Hebrew manuscripts. The 400+ articles display exemplary literary and artistic style, spanning the 14th to 19th centuries, including an early 1400s Sephardi Haggadah and a text of Nachmanides' Commentary on the Pentateuch, containing illuminations by the Florentine artist Francesco Antonio del Cherico. The curators owe their thanks to the collections of Enriqueta Rylands, who founded the John Rylands Library in 1900, and Moses Gaster, the Haham (Chief Rabbi) of the Sephardi community in London.
ONLINE. www.manchester.ac.uk
Memory Map of the Jewish East End
Artist and writer Rachel Lichtenstein and The Bartlett research units present a new digital resource that allows you to explore former sites of Jewish memory in east London. On it you will find photographs and essays of more than 70 sites in the area, plus audio interviews with residents and testimony from the collection at Sandys Row, the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in the capital.
ONLINE. https://jewisheastendmemorymap.org
Jewish Museum London
Jewish Britain: A History in 50 Objects
Highlights from the Jewish Museum London’s extensive collection. Each object tells a story about the history of the Jewish community in Britain, from medieval to modern times.
ONLINE. www.jewishmuseumlondon.org.uk
Surface Design Association
Material Flux
Akin to how humans manipulate the environment around them, this exhibition showcases artists that have reimagined their materials by using unexpected, recycled elements. Jewish conceptual artist Caren Garfen’s Moral Compass is featured, which addresses the unprecedented resurgence of antisemitism since the Holocaust, highlighting incidents occurring globally today.
Until 31 December
ONLINE. www.surfacedesign.org
University of Durham
Bridging Identities: The Cultural Odyssey of Kurdistani Jews
Kurdistani Jews weaved an intricate tapestry of experiences and stories during their migration to Israel, and this exhibition intertwines historical events and personal aspirations to tell their stories. See how languages and encounters adapt from one generation to the next and from one country to another.
No end date specified.
ONLINE. www.stories.durham.ac.uk
Wiener Holocaust Library
A is for Adolf: Teaching German Children Nazi Values
The four parts of this display – School, Experiences of Jewish Children, The Hitler Youth and Beyond School – portray the various ways that the Nazis tried to influence German children both at school and in other parts of life. Nazi propaganda sought to shape every aspect of young people’s thoughts through books, games and toys.
No end date specified
Berlin/London: The Lost Photographs of Gerty Simon
Before the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany, Gertrud ‘Gerty’ Simon (pictured) was a prominent portrait photographer. From her studio in Weimar Berlin she captured major artists and political figures, including Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, Käthe Kollwitz and Einstein. She eventually sought refuge in Britain and rebuilt her career, adding Sir Kenneth Clark, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Nye Bevan and more to her portfolio. Now, for the first time in 80 years, members of the public can again see her work at this exhibition of around 600 prints. Read more about Berlin/London in the April 2019 issue of JR.
No end date specified
Beware this Poison: Fighting Fascism in 1970s Britain
Dr Alfred Wiener, who founded the Wiener Holocaust Library, campaigned against Nazism and fascism in the 1920s and 30s. This online exhibition documents Holocaust propaganda, the consequences of the atrocities and fascism and anti-fascism in post-war Britain.
No end date specified
Dilemmas, Choices, Responses: Britain and the Holocaust
While Britain’s role in fighting the Nazis during World War II is well known, its response to the Holocaust is less familiar. The British government was aware of the mass murder of the Jews and the matter was discussed in Parliament, as well as in the press, but how long was it before they went to war? And did they go to save the Jews or for other reasons?
No end date specified
Fate Unknown: The Search for the Missing after the Holocaust
The complicated history of the search for the missing after the Holocaust and the impact today of fates that remain unknown are examined. The aftermath of the Holocaust caused European chaos, with millions of people either murdered or displaced and many missing, with the fates of some remaining undetermined more than 70 years.
No end date specified
Fighting Antisemitism from Dreyfus to Today
Curated partly in response to the worrying trends in contemporary antisemitism, this exhibition reveals the history of the fight against Jewish prejudice over the last century in Europe since the Dreyfus Affair in 1890s France. Unique and never-before-seen documents as well as photographs from CST (Community Security Trust) archives spotlight the stories of the individuals, organisations and campaigns resisting Jewish discrimination.
No end date specified
Holocaust Letters
How much did those persecuted during the Holocaust understand what was happening to them? This exhibition examines correspondence of the era to find out, looking at how people exchanged information across borders in defiance of censors, deportations and destruction. See how survivors and their relatives preserved letters from the wartime period and how seemingly ordinary objects became precious symbols of what was lost.
No end date specified
Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust
During the Holocaust, resistance groups launched attacks, sabotage operations and rescue missions against the Nazis. Understand the stories of incredible endurance and bravery of the Jewish people who, as the Holocaust unfolded around them, and at great risk to themselves, fought against the Nazis and their collaborators. Featuring names such as Tosia Altman, the Bielski brothers, Ruth Wiener and Anne Frank, learn about the experience of those with incredible endurance and bravery.
No end date specified
On British Soil: Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands
During the German occupation of the Channel Islands 1940–1945, many thousands of people were persecuted, including slave labourers, political prisoners and Jews. This exhibition tells their stories, drawing upon the library’s archival collections, files recently released by The National Archives, and items belonging to the victims of Nazi persecution themselves.
No end date specified
Science and Suffering: Victims and Perpetrators of Nazi Human Experimentation
Science and Nazi ideology worked together during the Holocaust to shape a new vision for a ‘radically pure’ Europe, with scientists seizing the opportunity to advance medical research. They did this by performing cruel and often fatal experiments on thousands of Jews and other ‘undesirables’. The coerced experimentation in Nazi-dominated Europe is explored, along with the legacy of medical research under Nazism and its impact on bioethics and research today at its core.
No end date specified
Tarnschriften: Covert Resistance in the Third Reich
The Wiener Library presents the largest collection of camouflaged anti-fascist propaganda outside of Germany. Materials containing tarnschriften (hidden writings) were concealed in everyday items such as pamphlets and books. The objects display the creative approaches that anti-Nazi resistors took to defy threats of deportation, imprisonment and death by distributing messages promoting an alternative political discourse in Nazi Germany.
No end date specified
The Boy Alone in Nazi Vienna
A cache of 40 letters discovered in a UK loft, and subsequently digitised, document the prelude to an unusual experience of the Kindertransport operation from the perspective of a child. A boy in Vienna wrote to his mother, who was already in the UK, over the course of an agonising four-month separation, during which time both were working frantically towards a reunion they could not guarantee would be able to happen.
No end date specified
The Kitchener Camp
In 1939, a now derelict army base on the Kent coast was the scene of an extraordinary rescue, saving 4,000 men from the Holocaust. The Kitchener rescue, founded and run by Jewish aid organisations that had funded and coordinated the Kindertransport, was a place of refuge to those who had to leave behind their loved ones in the Third Reich. The online project brings together scattered, uncatalogued archives to rebuild the wider history of descendent families.
No end date specified
The Perfect Hideout: Jewish and Nazi Havens in Latin America
Following the Nazi accession to power in 1933, 10 percent of the German Jewish population fled the country, creating the first wave of immigrants. By late 1941, it is estimated that half a million Jews had managed to escape Nazi-occupied territory, thousands of whom eventually emigrated to South America on tourist visas. However, Nazi propaganda fuelled the already present antisemitism there and a rise in Nazis hiding in Latin America during the post-war period changed their names to conceal their former identities.
No end date specified
ONLINE. www.wienerlibrary.co.uk
BOOKS & POETRY
Tuesday 2 December
Voices from the Heart: A Year of War
Jane Wynick discusses her recent book with Dr Jeremy Havardi, director of B’nai B’rith UK. Voices from the Heart: A Year of War documents one Jewish woman’s perspective on how her life has changed since 7 October.
8pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.bnaibrithuk.org
Sunday 14 December
Abraham: The First Jew
Anthony Julius’s new book shines a light on one of the foundational Jewish figures. Abraham: The First Jew touches on the Akedah (The Binding) – the biblical story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac in order to receive a miracle – and the unresolvable, overwhelming crisis this provoked. Julius discusses his work, exploring the underlying struggles with scepticism, faith, autonomy and dependence hidden within the early days of Judaism.
Contact for times. £10. ONLINE. ejlsoc@gmail.com. www.ejls.org
AVAILABLE INDEFINITELY
The History Podcast: Half Life
Welsh author Joe Dunthorne reads through his new book, Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance, based on the discovery of his German Jewish great-grandfather Siegfried Merzbacher’s memoir. Spanning almost 2,000 pages, Merzbacher, who manufactured radioactive toothpaste and worked on developing chemical warfare for the Nazis, documented his family’s dramatic escape from Nazi Germany. Featuring interviews with members of Dunthorne’s family, including his grandmother, and music by Jeremy Warmsley.
FREE. ONLINE. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002c4x0
Unseen: Photographs by Wolf Suschitzky, Dorothy Bohm and Neil Libbert
Three photographers, Wolf Suschitzky, Dorothy Bohm and Neil Libbert, present their responses to London, Paris and New York, photographing it without prejudice or expectation.
FREE. ONLINE. www.benuri.org
FILM & TV
Available indefinitely
Book of Joshua: Walls of Jericho
In biblical Judaism, Joshua was instructed by Hashem to lead a procession while carrying holy texts around the fortress of Jericho for seven days. This intricately animated feature film recounts the story, where poorly armed Israelites faced the fierce soldiers of the city and managed to bring the mighty walls crashing down with their faith.
FREE. ONLINE. www.partingseasproductions.com
Solomon & Gaenor
In what may be the only time you will hear Welsh and Yiddish spoken in the same film, Solomon & Gaenor is an Oscar-nominated classic shining a rare spotlight on the little-known Welsh Jewish community. The touching and memorable love story focuses on two young people –Jewish Solomon, who hides his Orthodox heritage, and Christian Gaenor, who wants to escape her stifling family life. Both risk their families’ wrath amidst a looming miner’s strike in the background, provoking tensions and prejudices, further threatening the lovers’ happiness.
£3.99. ONLINE. https://ukjewishfilm.org
Other People’s Children
A bittersweet drama following Rachel, a single Jewish woman nearing 40, who appears content with the life that sees her falling in love with Ali and his four-year-old daughter Leila. However, their relationship, while filling Rachel with joy, only serves to remind her of her own childlessness, resurfacing feelings of regret about not becoming a parent when she had the chance. A bittersweet drama following Rachel, a single Jewish woman nearing 40, who appears content with the life that sees her falling in love with Ali and his four-year-old daughter Leila. However, their relationship, while filling Rachel with joy, only serves to remind her of her own childlessness, resurfacing feelings of regret about not becoming a parent when she had the chance.
£4.99. ONLINE. https://ukjewishfilm.org
Daughter of the Waves: Memoirs of Growing Up in Pre-War Palestine
The relaunch of Ruth Jordan’s autobiography. This poignant memoir follows her upbringing in British Mandate Palestine, as well as her career as a journalist – she was the first female news presenter on the BBC World Service Hebrew Section – and beyond. Jordan’s children, Sharon and Oran Kivity, share their mother’s journey 40 years after the book’s first launch, and speak to a former colleague of Jordan’s, the journalist, author and music expert Norman Lebrecht, to remember her life and work.
FREE. ONLINE. www.youtube.com/watch?v=411_740BUBg
Birds of Passage
Hormazd Narielwalla’s 11th ‘bookwork’ (a piece of art that folds into a book) draws comparisons between certain members of gay communities and birds, both moving from country to country seeking somewhere to live safely and comfortably. It is inspired by the artist’s own motivation for migrating to the UK from India to celebrate his sexuality and creativity. Learn more in this intimate, video exploration of the artwork presented by the Ben Uri Gallery and narrated by Dr Shaun Cole, who wrote the introduction to Birds of Passage.
FREE. ONLINE. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuRrVGnoNCI
Servant of the People
When Jewish comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy co-wrote and starred in Servant of the People, a comedy series about a history teacher (Zelenskyy) who finds himself elected president, little did he know that life was to imitate art. Flash forward seven years since the show first aired, and Zelenskyy is not only Ukraine's heroic leader, but a household name internationally. It's no surprise then, that Channel 4 opted to interrupt its usual schedule of Sunday night reruns to screen the first three episodes. Catch up with them now on All 4. Read our review of Servant of the People on the JR blog.
FREE. ONLINE. www.channel4.com/programmes/servant-of-the-people
MUSIC
AVailable indefinitely
Alex Weiser: In a Dark Blue Night
Following his Pulitzer Prize-nominated album And All the Days Were Purple, a love letter to New York City, Alex Weiser introduces his new album, In a Dark Blue Night, comprising of two song cycles exploring the city from complementary perspectives. The first cycle features five settings of Yiddish poetry, written by newly arrived immigrants to New York over the 1800s and 1900s, and the second, told through the recorded memories of Weiser’s late grandmother, features vivid, buoyant adventures about childhood in the bustling world of Coney Island in the late 1930s and 40s. Combined, the two cycles explore a little-known chapter of New York City’s history.
£7.93. Online download. www.alexweiser.bandcamp.com
Faiths in Tune
Get a taste of Faiths in Tune, the interfaith music festival that takes place annually in various locations around the world. This playlist of 20 videos features previous performances from different years and countries.
FREE. ONLINE. www.youtube.com/CoexistinterfaithOrgplus
Music That Survived the Nazis
There’s a common idea that music created in Nazi Germany was only for propoganda. Historian Shirli Gibson clears up this misconception with a handful of rare and newly discovered recordings that show just how varied German musical output of the period was. In the first episode, she explores the music of the Jewish Culture League, as well two Jewish record labels, Lukraphon and Semer. Part Two is focused on music-making in the concentration camps and ghettos during World War II. Gibson takes a look at the stories that influenced the creative responses in a variety of ways.
FREE. ONLINE. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3c7z?utm
TALKS
Thursday 11 September
Revealing Suppressed Culture: Lost Histories in the Archives of The Wiener Holocaust Library
Founded in 1934, The Wiener Holocaust Library started as an anti-Nazi organisation in Amsterdam. It’s now the world’s oldest – and Britain’s largest – collection of documents pertaining to the Nazi era and the Holocaust. In this talk, hosted with B’nai B’rith UK, senior curator and head of education Dr Barbara Warnock explores some of the traces of culture that was suppressed during The Third Reich. This includes art, music and photography branded as degenerate. Warnock also reveals the stories of Jewish cultural life within ghettos, such as diaries written in Theresienstadt.
3pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.wienerholocaustlibrary.org
Sunday 19 October
Being Second Generation
Psychologist and psychotherapist Gaby Glassman brings together children of Holocaust survivors and refugees to explore how their experiences have affected their lives.
11am. £10. ONLINE. www.jw3.org.uk
Tuesday 21 October
Jews of Mosul
The northern Iraqi city of Mosul once had a thriving Jewish community dating back to the 8th-century BCE. However, today there are no Jews left there, having fled for Israel between 1950 and 1951. Nadav Yidgar discusses the difficulty in preserving the region’s Judaism, analysing the Ottoman, British and subsequent ISIS periods.
7pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.harif.org
Wednesday 22 October
The Journeys of Books
In Judaism, books have been valued as holy artefacts; they’re seen as participants within the community, enduring the same trials and tribulations as their human counterparts. Caron Sethill, programme manager at the National Library of Isael, explores some of the paths the books from her workplace have taken throughout history.
5pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.bnaibrithuk.org
Wednesday 22 October
The Rise and Fall of Imitation as a Rabbinic Literary Technique
Eliav Grosman, Professor of Rabbinics and Classical Judaism at Vanderbilt University, discusses the likenesses between early Islamic texts and the Mishnah (the earliest major collection of Jewish literature). He looks at the underlying mimicry within the two commentaries, pseudepigraphy within Judaism and the development of Islamic literacy.
6pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.ucl.ac.uk
Wednesday 29 October
Rabbis in Zoroastrian Fire Temples: A New History of Jews in the Sasanian Empire
Simcha Gross (University of Pennsylvania) shines a light on the role of Judaism within the little-known period of the Sasanian Empire, an Iranian empire that ruled from 224 to 651 AD. Sasanians, who typically followed the Zoroastrian religion, restored Persian culture by developing art and architecture, especially when it came to their fire temples.
6pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.ucl.ac.uk
Wednesday 12 November
Jews are the People of the Book: How do we Encourage the Traditions of the Book in the 21st Century?
Today’s religious Jews are under pressure to ensure that Judaism not only remains unchanged as it passes through the ages, but is also accessible and relevant to all. Rabbi Miriam Berger debates whether being people of the book roots us in stability or gives Jewish people an unrealistic responsibility of writing new chapters for every generation.
8pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.bnaibrithuk.org
Friday 21 November
LGBTQIA+ Holocaust Survival and Anti-Fascist Activism
Explore the stories of transgender and queer Holocaust survivors and their post-war experiences in this lunchtime lecture. Jaime Starr (The People’s History Museum) and Yasmin Gledhill (Wiener Holocaust Library) discuss queer resistance and post-war LGBTQIA+ anti-fascist activism.
12pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.wienerholocaustlibrary.org
Saturday 22 November
How did we Become People of the Book? Tracing the Story of a Profound Evolution
Rabbi, author and lecturer Dr Jeremy Rosen discusses a new approach to contemporary Jewish life. He advocates for the religion to be more modern, become more tolerant to individual variations and still remain committed to halacha (Jewish law).
8pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.bnaibrithuk.org
Monday 8 December
The Living Bible of the Ethiopian Jews
Professor Dalit Rom-Shiloni (Tel Aviv University) investigates the Orit, the version of the Torah followed by Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews). She’ll look at how religious leaders sanctify the Orit, which dates back at least 600 years.
6pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.ucl.ac.uk
Wednesday 10 December
Leonard Bernstein: The Jewish Works
Jewish musician Leonard Bernstein was best known for his work on West Side Story, but his other compositions were influenced greatly by Jewish culture. Fellow composer Malcolm Singer looks into some of Bernstein’s more religious pieces and explores how his identity crisis produced some of his most romantic music.
8pm. FREE. ONLINE. www.bnaibrithuk.org
Available indefinitely
The Romani Holocaust
The destruction of the Roma by the Nazi state is sparsely understood and documented. Dr Barbara Warnock, Senior Curator and Head of Education at the Wiener Holocaust Library, is featured in this documentary about the Roma Genocide, which also features a representation of the first-hand account of a Sinti survivor of Auschwitz, held in the library’s archives.
FREE. ONLINE. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6r9x
Auld Lang Schmooze
Edinburgh Jewish Cultural Centre’s podcast kicks off with an in-depth conversation with Jewish Renaissance editor Rebecca Taylor and writer David Ian Neville, talking about JR’s Summer 2023 issue and how each edition of the magazine is planned and produced.
FREE. ONLINE. www.jcc.scot
I Belong to Glazgoy
Dr Phil Alexander pieces together the story of Isaac Hirshow, a virtuosic Russian Jewish synagogue cantor and composer, who was one of thousands of Jewish immigrants who arrived in Glasgow from Warsaw in 1922. Alexander excavates Hirshow’s story through archive, oral history, poetry, early recordings and specially performed music.
FREE. ONLINE. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001n1x7
The Black Cantor
Thomas LaRue Jones, an African-American tenor, was known as the Black Cantor, singing Jewish music in the early decades of the 20th century. His soulful voice and perfect Yiddish pronunciation propelled him to fame, performing in synagogues and theatres across America’s East Coast and around Europe. However, after his death in 1954, LaRue Jones all but disappeared from history, leaving behind only one recording, made in 1923. Journalist Maria Margaronis unpacks the mystery of the Black Cantor’s career, looking at what drew him to the music, what his life tells us about race, faith and identity in America 100 years ago, and why he was so quickly forgotten.
FREE. ONLINE. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fj1ylk
The Cockney Yiddish Podcast
Historians Nadia Valman and Vivi Lachs’ new podcast explores the unknown popular Yiddish culture of London’s East End against a backdrop of stories and songs from the 1880s to the 1950s. With special guests, including broadcaster Alan Dein and actor and comedian David Schneider, the hosts journey through music halls and street markets to revive London’s old East End. There are seven episodes in the series, six in English and one in Yiddish.
FREE. ONLINE. www.cockneyyiddish.org
Jewish Quest: Between the Lines Series
This weekly podcast provides a space where Jewish conversation can be free of denominational constraints, inspiring a deep love and knowledge of Jewish learning, teaching and debate. Previous speakers include Zvi Koenigsberg, Professor Mark Leuchter, Dr Kristine Henriksen Garroway and Chazan Jaclyn Chernett.
FREE. ONLINE. https://jewishquest.org
Anne Frank’s Stepsister: How I Survived Auschwitz
This raw and unfiltered two-part documentary offers a rare insight into the Frank family’s experience during the Holocaust. It’s a personal account by Eva Schloss, Anne Frank’s step-sister and friend, who describes Anne humorously as ‘Miss Quack-Quack’ (a reference to her chatty personality). In the first episode, Schloss describes her life before Auschwitz and her family’s eventual capture. In part two, she focuses on her experience of the liberation of Auschwitz and her efforts to keep her brother Heinz’s memory alive.
FREE. ONLINE. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct1k4b
Hardtalk: David Baddiel
BBC World Service presenter Stephen Sacker speaks to writer and comedian David Baddiel, who has a gift for finding the funny in some of the darkest corners of the human psyche. Now he is taking on modern culture, which is often toxic, and asks: is comedy becoming a victim of the culture wars? Baddiel gives as good as he gets in this frank, intelligent one-to-one interview that lives up to its name.
FREE. ONLINE. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct1n6f
London’s Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony 2022
The capital marked Holocaust Memorial Day online again this year, featuring a moving address by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, alongside testimonies by Holocaust survivor Steven Frank BEM and Eric Murangwa Eugene MBE, survivor of the Rwandan genocide. Violinist Emmanuel Bach opened and closed the event with renditions of Bach’s Sola Sonatas. Watch the entire live-stream of the ceremony on the Mayor’s Office London YouTube channel.
FREE. ONLINE. www.jmi.org.uk
Opera Arias Reinvented and Holocaust Survivor Rachel Levy
Celebrate the achievements of Jewish women in this two-part podcast. Hear from violinist Charlotte Maclet about the award-winning, all-female string quartet Zaïde, and Rachel Levy, who is one of seven Holocaust survivors featured in the Portraits of the Holocaust project commissioned by the Prince of Wales.
FREE. ONLINE. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013rn0
How Things are Done in Odessa
Odessa is living through Russia’s war against Ukraine. Despite being fiercely independent from Moscow and Kiev, its legendary past and nexus of global trade has given the city a reputation of possibility and promise. Old Odessa gave rise to a flourishing creative community, including poets, writers, musicians and comedians. Musician Alec Koypt, shipping proprietor Roman Morgenshtern, journalist Vlad Davidson, translator and JR contributor Boris Dralyuk, poets Boris and Lyudmila Kershonsky and others narrate this Odesan story.
FREE. ONLINE. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ctvzj8
The Exchange - Breaking with Tradition
Emily and John, who share a common experience, meet for the first time, each bearing a gift for the other – an object that unlocks their story. Presenter Catherine Carr assists in the two sharing their personal experiences and uncovering the differences between them. Having both grown up in strict religious communities, religious laws governed everything from their clothes to diet, and each community maintained a degree of separation from the ‘secular’ world. John, raised within the Amish community of America, had minimal contact with the outside world. Emily grew up in London’s Chasidic Jewish community, speaking Yiddish and obeying strict laws about physical contact between the genders. Both John and Emily broke away from their lives and, together, they share the challenges of growing up with rules they found impossible to relate to their personal needs. Carr discusses the way in which they both adjusted to life on ‘the outside’, embracing new freedoms that were out of reach for so many years.
FREE. ONLINE. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001brqg
THEATRE
Available indefinitely
The End of the Night
A chance to stream Ben Brown’s phenomenal play, The End of the Night, directed by Alan Strachan and performed at Park Theatre. A singular meeting between a Jew and a Nazi during World War II is the main focus. As the war is coming to an end, Dr Felix Kersten, Himmler’s personal physiotherapist, uses his unique position of influence to facilitate a meeting between the architect of the Holocaust and Swedish Jew Norbert Masur, a member of the World Jewish Congress. Can Masur and Kersten turn Himmler’s thoughts away from the downfall of the Third Reich and towards a course of action that could save thousands of lives? It’s a joint attempt to release the last surviving Jews from concentration camps, contrary to Hitler’s orders that no Jew should outlast the regime. Read our review of The End of the Night on the JR blog and hear our interview with playwright Ben Brown on JR OutLoud.
From £20/a. ONLINE. https://originaltheatreonline.com
Otvetka
Under the shadow of an imminent Russian attack, a woman tries to hold her shattered life together after the father of her unborn child is killed in the Donbas region by a sniper. Suddenly, her phone pings with a delighted message from a friend on the other side of the border, inviting her to a wedding. How will she respond? Written by leading Ukrainian playwright Neda Nezhdana, this explosive monodrama confronts not only the war between Russia and Ukraine, but increased unrest sparked by fake news around the world. Dedicated to Ukrainian opera singer Vasyl Slipak, who went to war as a volunteer and died in the trenches of Donbas after being shot by a sniper, Otvetka (meaning ‘answers’ and ‘retaliation’ in Ukrainian) is currently being performed in Ukraine, despite constant interruptions from air-raid sirens. This stream is part of Finborough Theatre’s new digital initiative, #FinboroughFrontier, and part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Reading Series, a collaboration with the Theatre of Playwrights in Kyiv to read new Ukrainian plays around the world.
FREE. ONLINE. www.youtube.com/finboroughtheatre
Sunday 2 November – Sunday 7 December
The Jewish Storytellers of Broadway
Massachusetts’ Tamid of Hebrew College presents a five-week online course analysing Broadway musicals written by Jews between the early 1900s and the 1960s. Participants will explore how Jewish heritage seeped into certain productions, the wider societal context of some groundbreaking works and how they were received amongst general audiences. Featuring audio/visual excerpts and songs from a huge repertoire of legendary Jewish theatremakers.
9pm. £149.36. ONLINE. www.hebrewcollege.edu
AVAILABLE INDEFINITELY
Alex Weiser: ‘in a dark blue night’
Following his Pulitzer Prize-nominated album And All the Days Were Purple, a love letter to New York City, Alex Weiser introduces his new album, ‘in a dark blue night’, comprising two song cycles exploring the city from complementary perspectives. The first cycle features five settings of Yiddish poetry, written by newly arrived immigrants to New York over the 1800s and 1900s, and the second, told through the recorded memories of Weiser’s late grandmother, features vivid, buoyant adventures about childhood in the bustling world of Coney Island in the late 1930s and 40s. Combined, the two cycles explore a little-known chapter of New York City’s history. Read our interview with Alex Weiser in the Summer 2024 issue of JR.
£7.93. ONLINE. www.alexweiser.bandcamp.com
