Connecting Small Histories by jscnuk

Small are the gateways to a bigger world

The Pomegranate is said to have the same number of seeds as there are mitzvot (blessings) in the Torah, 613. This may depend somewhat on the individual fruit, but what we can say is that the pomegranate holds within it a bounty and a multitude, belying its small appearance.

A collaboration between Jewish Small Communities Network and Swansea University, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund Texts and images © Contributors and Jewish Small Communities Network, 2021

CC BY-ND 4.0

Cover pictures: Myer Jacobs, courtesy of the South West Heritage Trust; The Herr von Leer Orchestra, courtesy of Steven Frank; Jewish Summer School for young people at Moira House, Eastbourne, 1959, courtesy Hilary Thomas

Jewish Small Communities Network JSCN serves people in or proximate to over 100 small jewish communities, in 72 towns, across the British Isles. That covers around 55,000 people, roughly 20% of the total jewish population of the UK Working across the Jewish spectrum and offering an open door for anything to do with small Jewish communities Supporting resilience and leadership. Bringing communities together.

jscn.org.uk

Contents

Introduction: The importance of being small Ed Horwich: A St Annes Story Timelines 7

Life

Jane Warner, My Somerset Journey with Myer Jacobs (1827-1901) Hilary Thomas, Community Efforts in Wartime St Annes Rachel Lewis, Sunderland Stories Lisa Novenstern, Serving Barrow: Jewish Shops Remembered 23

Creativity

Anne Krisman Goldstein, The Sunshine Coast: Eastbourne, Jews and Music Jeremy Topaz, Pictures of Cumbria Jane Warner, A Moment in Minehead 36

Diaspora

Hilary Thomas, Evacuees in St Annes Lisa Novenstern, Cumbria: A Mosaic of Travellers’ Tales Other Refugee Stories from around our Regions Hilary Thomas, An Unsung St Annes Haven, Aishel Court 50

Connecting Future Heritage Bella Westlake, Social Media: Archives of the Future 53

Resources 54

Acknowledgements

Introduction:

The Importance of Being Small Traditional narratives of British Jewish history and heritage are dominated by work on London, Manchester and other large, cosmopolitan cities where the Jewish presence is still strong and visible. However, Jewish communities have thrived beyond those hubs, leaving their impressions in history and culture and in the fabric of towns and cities across Britain: impressions that remain embedded whether or not those communities remain intact. These small histories matter; but numerically-small communities have less resilience and risk losing their histories far more than the much larger communities.

‘Connecting Small Histories’ was born out of a desire to document and celebrate these embedded stories of Jewish life in places where that presence is diminishing, small, or already vanished, and to use those stories to raise awareness among Jewish and non-Jewish locals of the rich heritage literally on their doorsteps. The Jewish Small Communities Network, created in 2003 by Ed Horwich, works to connect present-day lives of small communities across Britain, bringing together resources and offering support to those communities, but over the years, the imperative need to record and capture these vanishing elements of Jewish pasts – these small histories – in Britain has become increasingly apparent. The ageing and diminishing Jewish population in small towns and the lack of infrastructure to support community history projects outside the larger towns and cities has made this work even more urgent. These histories may be small-scale, sometimes mundane, but nevertheless have played a critical role for smaller communities and their impact on the localities within which they lived. They deserve to be preserved, alongside more dominant narratives. They offer an opportunity for present-day small communities to connect and share common elements of their heritage with one another.

As a voluntary organisation, how could the JSCN help its members investigate their own heritage? Where should we begin? How could we help to document the proud heritage of Jewish social and economic contributions to the history of small towns and villages in Britain, connecting them with the wider world? As an existing network, we wanted not only to create new knowledge, but also to connect the work of communities and researchers to provide a richer, more textured view of small – and often very outwardlooking – Jewish communities in Britain. Through engagement with network members, we carried out a survey into the likely interest in a connected heritage project – one that brought together communities and their members, researchers and resources, to tell, and bring together, these vanishing stories.

From the responses to the survey, we were able to shape a project that would delve into these histories. We built our focus around two coastal communities (St Annes and Eastbourne), two rural ones (Somerset and Cumbria) and two which had recently dispersed due to the closure of one or more shuls, itself a sign of dwindling numbers (Bradford and Sunderland). Some had pre-existing history or heritage initiatives, others had not been considered at all. The aim was not to write comprehensive histories of Jewish life in these regions, but to explore hidden pasts and surviving memories, with the assistance of experts from Swansea University’s Public History and Heritage group. We aimed to connect these histories to each other, to pre-existing heritage projects, and to the larger narratives of Jewish history in Britain. In the event, we found Bradford had already been the subject of a great heritage project, Making their Mark, but the stories told elsewhere created their own connections between the regions, out of which the book’s structure evolved. The following pages therefore explore:

LIFE How Jewish individuals and communities have served and been an integral part of the wider community

CREATIVITY How Jewish performers and makers have enriched local cultures

DIASPORA How individuals and communities have moved and supported each other in times of crisis

FUTURE HERITAGE How social media groups are creating their own heritage archives and maintaining communities

We received a great deal of support and inspiration from other, pre-existing Jewish heritage projects (see Acknowledgements), and were fortunate to work with an amazing group of highly-committed volunteers, contributing stories, acquiring or developing existing heritage research skills, and building knowledge of their own and other people’s histories, including local landmarks whose histories had been entirely forgotten. The connection between Ed’s own family and St Annes was an added bonus, and he offers a taste of that at the end of this introduction.

Our contributors illustrate both the liveliness of the pasts that they have been working with and their own involvements, whether direct or indirect, connecting their own voices with the echoes of past communities, creating the connections that bring these small histories into the present.

Whilst the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020/1 meant that we could not take our project on the road to physical meetings, we instead built in a series of rich online training, meeting and discussion sessions that helped to shape the project and increase its reach in the UK and beyond. Against that background, it is possibly no accident that many volunteers were concerned to show how Jewish communities had coped and helped others in times of crisis, especially during wartime. Heritages that extend beyond living memory become harder and harder to find, and the voices of past communities become harder to hear. It is with delight that we can therefore present here a selection of these voices, places and traces, and in doing so we highlight the voices of the researchers and communities who have brought them to life.

The footprint of Jewish life in our selected areas points to similar footprints in towns and counties across the UK - these are not ‘singular’ stories, but local, individual testimonies that contribute the voices of small communities to the wider Jewish story in Britain. That story is one of light and shade, and shaped what stories we were able (and unable) to tell. Pride in Jewish heritage is sometimes not enough to overcome fear or prejudice should that heritage become known. But shared experiences break down barriers, and some of the personal testimonies here speak to a strong attachment to particular places as well as of Jewish heritage. This book gives a flavour of what we achieved, but much more can be found on the JSCN Heritage Hub, and we hope you will visit that too - jscn.org.uk/heritage

The Project Team Ed Horwich, Sarah May, Trish Skinner, Carter Weleminsky and Toni Griffiths

A St Annes Story Ed Horwich

The gathering and re-telling of stories has that knack of roping you in. So it was that as our project research identified St Annes as one of the six locations we intended to focus on, and Hilary Thomas took the lead for that research, I offered to share some information as my family had lived there for a few years. The history as told in my family had been a simple one, indexed in Lydia Collins’s book “The Sephardim of Manchester“. My grandfather, Elie Rahamin Salem, had come to England from Syria, married Zarifé Djeddah, and set up a home in south Manchester. From the mid-1930s their home had been St Annes on Sea and it’s during that time that my father and mother, Leslie and Céline, met and married. It was a family mystery how my grandparents had married. In Aleppo we assumed. But some years ago I discovered a wedding invitation, not to my parents wedding but to my Grandparent’s wedding, and not in Aleppo but Manchester. It was conducted at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Mauldeth Road, Didsbury. The reception was at the Midland Hotel, itself just a few years old, the height of Manchester fashion and the only hotel to have a kosher kitchen. The RSVP address seemed strange to me,. It was in St Annes. I could only guess why. Had there been an arranged marriage? Had my grandmother been found as a suitable match and brought over from Aleppo to get married and have a life in this country? It was unclear and I imagined that my great grandfather must have come over from Syria for his daughter’s wedding and had chosen to reside in St Annes for the period. And there the questioning stopped. But in preparing for my own wedding, I had acquired several documents regarding my Sephardi family. At the time I was focused only on the details that I needed for that. But now I looked with fresh eyes for details to contribute to Hilary‘s research. I had a copy of my grandparent’s civil marriage certificate and for the first time noticed that addresses for both sets of great grandparents were given as St Annes on Sea. Their residence falls between the census years, and so are not recorded there. But the extended family of brothers, uncles and cousins do appear in the census, clustered quite numerously in the leafy groves of south Manchester.

This unravelling story revealed that the greater part of my Aleppan antecedents, the Salem and Djeddah families, had moved lock stock and barrel from Syria to England. But it didn’t stop there. My great grandmother came from the Ades family and they too had made this continental shift. They numbered amongst the Syrian families of cotton merchants who had all settled in St Annes. Although they didn’t build a synagogue, it was a fully functioning community. Joseph Smouha, born in Baghdad and related by marriage to the Ades and Djeddah families, lead the community and organised Shabbat services, kosher food and a cheder. David Mordechai Ades led the services and Ezekial Dunnous was the treasurer. Joseph Smouha was a banker who went on to to work for the British government. When he left he used his contacts to undertake a major urban housing project, reclaiming marshland on the banks of the Nile in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1926. This was ‘Smouha City’, which became home to Europeans and the Egyptian elite. Two years previously, in 1924, my grandparents with my mother and her siblings, left Didsbury to live in Garden City, Cairo, for the next twelve years as the eastern arm of cotton merchants Schama, Cattan & Salem. In 1936 this part of the story comes full circle, they returned to England, this time to 2 Bromley Road, St Annes, just around the corner from today’s synagogue.

Leslie and Céline wartime wedding; Céline in St Annes c. 1936; Zerifé and Elie Salem (courtesy Ed Horwich)

Timelines includes key milestones from existing community histories

Bradford 1860s

Cumbria

Eastbourne

St Annes

Charles Semon first Jewish Lord Mayor Schiller Institute opened in 1862

1870s

German Jewish textile merchants set up business in Bradford, escaping the FrancoPrussian War

1880s

Bradford Reform Synagogue opened on Bowland Street in 1881

Whitehaven synagogue opened 1874

Birth of Rev Louis Wolfe, first minister of EHC

Somerset

Sunderland

Death of Rev Solomon Wolfe – the first ‘minister’ of Bath Old Synagogue (dedicated in 1841).

Polish synagogue closed by 1863

Myer Jacobs elected the first Jewish Mayor of Taunton

Immigration of Jews from Krettingen, Lithuania, began

‘Jewish apartments’ advertised near the Grand Hotel, 1882

1889 fire in Krettingen brought a larger influx to Sunderland

1890s 1900s

Beth Hamedrash founded 1891 (as Chevra Torah) Spring Gardens Synagogue opens

Barrow-in-Furness congregation founded c.1900

1910s

Jewish congregation forms 1912

Death of Myer Jacobs

Moor Street Synagogue rebuilt 1900

Congregation founded in 1918

1920s

1930s

Photographer Leon Balk opens his studio in the town

Kindertransport uses the Carlton Hotel

1940s

School Street Synagogue opened 1925

1922 Susans Road Synagogue purchased

The congregation is ‘officially’ founded

Hebrew Congregation moves to Ryhope Road from Moor Street

Topaz family move from Sunderland to Appleby

Albert Sandler and Leslie Jeffreys resident music directors at the Grand Hotel

The congregation meet at the Union Bank Chambers on Park Road

Minehead has large evacuee community

Penrith Hebrew Congregation active, closed by 1946

Rev Chaim Zack begins his work in Eastbourne

The congregation move to a former mission church on Orchard Road

Weston-super-Mare and Minehead had Hebrew congregations during the War

Beth Hamedrash new synagogue opens 1938

‘Windermere children’ arrive in UK 1945, Girls’ Hostel opens

1950s

A purpose-built synagogue is developed on the Orchard Road site in 1959

1960s

1970s

Spring Gardens synagogue closes

1980s

Olive Messer becomes the fourth Jewish mayor of Bradford

Barrow synagogue closes c.1974

Menashe Cohen Harounoff comes to Eastbourne, later to become President of the synagogue

Rev Chaim Zack retires

2000s

Liberal congregation founded 2001 Springhurst Road Synagogue closes 2013

Bernard Susser publishes the 1823 constitution and surveys the state of the community in 1968 Jack Rosenthal’s film The Evacuees filmed in St Annes 1975

Brief History written 1983

1990s

2010s

Death of Leslie Jeffries 1960

Liberal congregation founded 2014

Harry Lederman, leading light of Devonshire Park Theatre, dies, 2017

Beth Hamedrash closes 1984

Ryhope Road closes 2006 Somerset Jewish Cultural and Social Group founded 2011

Facebook community started 2010

Life How Jewish life has been an integral part of the wider community over a long period Jewish life has touched all facets of civic and community experience. This section explores how individuals and communities have come together in times of crisis and happiness, gathering around the congregations and institutions they have built and sustained; and held powerful positions that have shaped the wider community, creating small histories with long-lasting impacts.

St Annes drama group, 1950s, courtesy of Barbara Froomberg (2nd left, back row)

My Somerset Journey with Myer Jacobs (1827-1901) Jane Warner

Jane co-founded the Somerset Jewish Social and Cultural Group nine years ago and loves creating and sharing traditional Jewish food when they get together. For this project, she has been researching the near-invisible Jewish presence in Somerset from the 19th century to the mid-20th, focusing her explorations on Myer Jacobs, Mayor of Taunton, the county town of Somerset. Since moving to Taunton, I’d always searched for a hint of a Jewish past there. The nearest synagogues are in Bristol and Exeter, but Taunton itself never had a synagogue. Even though there is a thriving Jewish community around Bath the synagogue there is no more, though there is a strong online presence. The old cemetery there is well-tended. The general impression received is that there has been a tendency over time to move from larger, well-established Jewish communities to smaller or even barely-existent ones - a sort of leap into the halachically Terra Incognita or even ‘Here Be Dreidels’. Bernard Susser* identified that in the 1880s there was a mayor of Taunton called Myer Jacobs, and from that point on, my main focus has been on tracing his story. I’ve been like a dog with a bone about Myer Jacobs. Even my wonderful husband Terry might be a teeny bit jealous of this ‘other man’ in my life. I’m really proud of this man, who was responsible for the re-incorporation of Taunton (it had lost its charter in 1792), and becoming Mayor for three terms between 1877-79. I’ve seen this ‘retired general dealer and Alderman’ (1881 census), ‘commission agent’ and ‘retired shopkeeper’ (1891 census) go from strength to strength, and traced his journey from his birthplace, in Canterbury in 1827, to Taunton, via Gloucester and Wolverhampton, and his marriage to Matilda (nee Nathan) in Dublin in 1856. According to the Irish Jewish Genealogical society, Matilda was born in Liverpool, the daughter of John and Frances Nathan. Her father was a successful jewellery merchant and watch manufacturer. One well-publicised hurdle which Myer Jacobs overcame in 1877 was the overtly antisemitic stance of a local Anglican vicar, Rev F. J. Smith, who wrote to Myer directly, saying essentially that a Jew was not worthy of being a Mayor. During the research, I had assumed that Myer was so anglicised that it might be natural for him to reduce his sense of Jewish identity to something private and kept behind closed doors. Not a bit of it: as reported in the Jewish Chronicle Myer wrote in response that he was proud to avow himself a member of the Hebrew faith, ‘and of a people in free England who have attained some of the highest official positions in the land.’ A wider discussion ensued in the newspapers of the time, such as the Daily Telegraph, in strong support of Myer Jacobs.

The very best response, however, was the fact that Myer was re-elected the following two years - clearly the Rev. Smith was in the minority in Taunton (and the JC returned to the case several times to hold him up as an example of outmoded attitudes).

The First Corporation of the Borough of Taunton

Reproduced by kind permission of the South West Heritage Trust, document reference SHC A/DIF/119/3

Matilda died in 1895 and was buried at Balls Pond Road cemetery in London, where other family members had moved. Myer died in 1901. The Jewish Chronicle reports his funeral. It reads: ‘In the absence of a Jewish minister, the late Mr Myer Jacobs…was buried on Friday in the Church of England portion of the cemetery, the service being read by a Unitarian minister. The mourners were chiefly Jews.’ Initially, reading this upset me, but a Jew can actually be buried anywhere and not only in a Jewish cemetery. The grave must be marked and protected from harm. I’ve learned this via Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain’s column recently in the JC (I’m a former member of Maidenhead shul, where he is director and my daughter Jennie was bat mitzvah there).

Although a lot has surprised me, such as the sheer delight of making new discoveries, on reflection there have been two equally compelling things which have most surprised me. The first is how emotionally involved I was to become when trying to tell Matilda and Myer’s story and put bits of the jigsaw puzzle together. The second? It’s my wish to tell Myer’s story more widely and encourage the citizens of Taunton to celebrate what surely must be Myer Jacob’s legacy in making Taunton what it is today.

Reproduced with kind permission of the South West Heritage Trust Refs: D/B/ta/42/17 and SHC T/PH/sro/79/3

* Rabbi Bernard Susser’s extensive body of work on Anglo-Jewish history included a PhD thesis on the Jewish communities of South-West England and his work and notes remain a key resource. T The Bernard Susser Archive can be accessed at https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/susser/ Jane retired after working for 40 years as a nurse. She was also a lecturer in nurse education and a regular columnist for the Nursing Times. She has published work in clinical journals and continues to write, most recently her ‘Sister Broigus’s A-Z Guide to becoming an Invisible Practice Nurse’. Find Myer’s life journey mapped on our Somerset Google map, at the JSCN Heritage Hub jscn.org.uk/heritage Interested in more stories of civic service? Read ‘Serving Sunderland: memories of the Slaters’ on the JSCN Heritage Hub.

Community Efforts in Wartime St Annes Hilary Thomas

Hilary has been exploring how the St Annes community was involved in working to assist evacuees and refugees in WWII, and has been seeking to re-connect these hidden, and sometimes displaced, Jewish histories. She has been working with community members to collect histories and memories of the period. St Annes was ideally placed to offer refuge to evacuees sent to escape the aerial threat to the major industrial cities of the north and members of the St Annes Jewish congregation were quick to contribute to many war relief efforts within their own and the wider community. In November and December 1940, the Jewish Chronicle published articles regarding the problems facing Jewish evacuees in West Lancashire. In an inspiring sermon, Reverend H. Swift, guest speaker at St Annes Hebrew Congregation, explained the distress faced by many of their co-religionists of all age groups, who had been evacuated. He urged the community to do all in their power to give help, both practical and spiritual. Members of the St Annes synagogue, under the leadership of Hyman Weinberg, sprang into immediate action. He set up meetings with all the Fylde communities together with those from nearby Lancaster and Preston. His suggestion was that all these communities unite in a central board and pool their resources. A central office would be established in Blackpool with a permanent clerk. There would be a visiting minister and a group of volunteers who would visit the evacuees and help sort out any problems. Hyman Weinberg set up a finance committee and suggested that each West Lancashire district made a financial contribution to a central fund to help provide immediate relief. Co-operation between all the communities was vital in alleviating the distress suffered. Philip Salter, the St Annes synagogue treasurer in 1940, organised fund-raising events in aid of the local Red Cross and the YMCA. Barbara Froomberg, nee Lynn, interviewed for this project, clearly recalls taking clothes to St Annes synagogue communal hall for the refugee children. She was about six years old at the time. Groups such as St Annes Synagogue’s Jewish Women’s War Services, founded in 1940, raised money for local causes including the local Memorial Hospital and the Mayor of Lytham’s Comfort Fund for the Forces. The ladies of the charity committee worked in tandem with non-Jewish groups, making camouflage netting, assisting with Flag Days and house-to-house collections. They also organised parties and concerts for children. Hilda Goldstone and Bessie Lewis acted as billeting officers on behalf of St Annes Synagogue.

Hyman Weinberg, picture courtesy of Derek Wax; Jewish Chronicle report of the war effort, December 1941

St Annes worked closely with nearby Blackpool in the relief efforts. The Blackpool Bethesda Jewish School opened a canteen in 1941 which could cater for up to one hundred and twenty children. The St Annes and Blackpool evacuation committee organised equipment for the canteen. The Blackpool Welfare Centre for evacuees at 14 Milbourne Street, came to fruition in 1941 and was officially opened by Hyman Weinberg and consecrated by Reverend Garb. It was reported that the Welfare committee worked in close co-operation with Mr Priestly, the Chief Welfare Officer for the area. The head of the hostel’s Welfare Committee was Mrs Elsa Barnett, who had come to St Annes from London in 1940 with her husband, Montague, and children, settling in Beach Road. A report was given about some of the work done by the committee including help for expectant mothers, distribution of clothes, services of a mohel, payment of burial expenses and supply of Passover food. Hebrew education was not neglected at this time. Classes for the evacuees were held every morning at Orchard Rd. The Jewish Chronicle in March 1941 reported on the progress of the initiative. So far more than one hundred pounds had been sent by St Annes synagogue to the regional fund; employment had been found for some refugees; a sick three-year-old boy was being cared for in a local nursery; three hundred garments of clothing for women and children had been donated by Mr A. Wiseberg. The same year, the St Annes and Blackpool Zionist Ladies group set up a Knitting Guild which met weekly and provided knitted goods for the Mayor’s Comfort fund for the Forces.

As the Jewish Chronicle reported in December 1941, the efforts of the St Annes women went towards helping those within and outside the Jewish community, as all pulled together in this time of crisis. It was not only evacuees who were given refuge by St Annes’ Jewish community. Susan B’s late mother’s family, the Rosenbergs, played an important part in St Annes’ history of taking in refugees during the War. Her grandparents, Dora and Frank Rosenberg, moved to St Annes in the 1930s. They had a drapery and furrier business at 49 The Square. Susan is too young to remember the War but she knows that Dora and Frank sponsored three cousins from Vienna, namely brothers Isadore and Arthur Tennenbaum, aged twenty-five and twenty respectively, and fifty-four-year-old Spritze Hirsh.

Frank Rosenberg (left) with Arthur Tennenbaum, picture courtesy of Susan Buckley

The Tennenbaums’ immediate family were victims of the Holocaust: their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all perished in the concentration camps. Susan discovered when she was older that her mother Ruth Rosenberg and Isadore had fallen in love. They married in 1940 and went to America but the marriage lasted only a short time and Ruth eventually returned to England. Isadore changed his name to Ernest Richard Tennant and became Professor of Optometry at the University of Illinois. He died in 1989: there is no mention of his life in St Annes in his obituary. Arthur lived with the Rosenbergs throughout the War. They paid for his education at the Manchester College of Technology where he studied to become an optician. He also changed his surname to Tennant and opened a practice in Manchester where he settled after his marriage. Dora and Frank lived in St Annes for the rest of their lives. Hilary has written several books on small northern Jewish communities including those of Blackburn, Oldham, and the Manchester Jewish Representative Council. Find out more about the Jewish footprint in wartime St Annes on our St Annes Google map at the JSCN Heritage Hub jscn.org.uk/heritage

Sunderland Presidents Board, removed from Ryhope Road when it closed, photo posted on Facebook

Sunderland Stories Rachel Lewis

Rachel has been working with Sunderland’s global community, remembering the town from the Second World War until the 1970s, including her own story. Leonard left Sunderland over fifty years ago and has travelled round the world and lived in different countries. My great-grandfather came across from the Lithuanian Shtetl of Kröttingen at the end of the 19th century and lived in Durham. I have a photograph of him at that time with his family. Most of the family found their way to Sunderland, where I was born. I now live in Israel, as do my children, grandchildren and great-grandchild. Doreen was born in Sunderland. Her paternal grandparents arrived in the UK from Poland, and were somewhat ‘outsiders’ in the community, as the majority were from the residual German community, and then the later community which came en masse from Lithuania. My grandparents had a business which my father joined after the War. Most of my clothes came from there and I also worked there in the summer holidays. Generational differences were very marked, as our parents had experienced World War II and our grandparents had experienced World War I. In my grandparents’ and parents’ days, the Jewish community was thriving. By the time I left Sunderland shortly after my marriage it was dwindling quite rapidly. I arranged a Sunderland Reunion in London in 2007 which dozens of the community attended. Debra said that when she thought about Sunderland, powerful images of the Beth Hamedrash appear. They used to go to shul every Shabbat, all the Yom Tovim and events. Her strong memories are waving a flag with the apple on Simchat Torah and crazy dancing downstairs with vodka and whisky flowing. The Kiddushes on a Shabbat morning were delicious because the ladies were allowed to bake, and those women used to know how to bake! David’s first home in Sunderland was part of the Beth Hamedrash as his father was the caretaker at that time. Despite the religious atmosphere of the shul there often wasn’t a weekday minyan and it was David’s job to go to find people to help make up the minyan. David, with the permission of Rabbi Babad, was counted in the minyan despite not yet being bar mitzvah which was halachically incorrect. David and his family lived there about four years until they moved to Stratford Avenue.

Raye’s parents used to speak in Yiddish if they didn’t want the children to understand. The trouble was they were both born in England and didn’t know Yiddish well and all the relevant words were spoken in English. If the children were on the landing listening, they could follow the conversation by piecing together the English words. Moira recalled being told that great- grandmother Bobba Franks only spoke Yiddish. David’s father Beril told him when he went to Bede he had a choice of French or German and he chose German because he already spoke Yiddish fluently, but it didn’t help him with the grammar.

Chava was born in 1932 and lived in Nelson Street and then moved to Mowbray Close nearer the shul. Mowbray Close was unusual as it had gates at both ends and only residents were allowed to go through. There were terraced houses on one side and gardens on the other. The Oaks and Park Place were also similar. There were two hundred and fifty Jewish families who had the choice of two shuls, the Beth Hamedrash in Mowbray, commonly called B’smedrash and the other in Ryhope Road. If someone got annoyed in shul, they would flounce out and go to the other shul! We belonged to the B’smedrash and the Rav was Rabbi Rabinowitz. He had a lovely rebbetzin who used to bake teigelach if any family had a simcha. During World War II Sunderland was heavily bombed and we had many long air raids at night. Several of my friends were evacuated, but I was kept at home. Two of my friends were killed during the air raids together with their families and one of these families had been the caretaker of the B’smedrash at one time and had a flat at the back of the shul. They were Family Bergson who had an adopted daughter called Milly and she and I were great friends. There is a surrounded monument to this family in the cemetery.

The memorial to the victims of the air raid. Photos by James Pasby, used by kind permission of the North East War Memorials Project

There were various Jewish grocery shops and butchers and Mr Greenwald would come around in his pony and trap bringing milk to the door. An old lady with a basket of fish on her head came to the door too, but I don’t think she was Jewish. My mother’s fish and chips are a treasured memory. Ryhope Road Shul was led by Rabbi Toperoff and in the grounds of the shul there was a custom built cheder. All the children of the town, whichever shul they belonged to, went to this cheder in the evening and Sunday morning. Although, as teenagers, we moaned about having to live in a boring town like Sunderland and yearned to go to London but in fact there were many activities. There was Habonim, Bnei Akiva, the Lit and FZY. The Lit was for young adults and were self-propelling, putting on lectures plays and various activities. Quite a few marriages started out at the Lit! We may have griped about the town but get us together now and nostalgia flows. You have only to say SHOP AT BINNS and we are laughing!

Laura, whose husband was a doctor, remembers: The original practice in Roker Avenue was owned by my husband’s father and a German Jewish lady doctor named Dr Herz. There were quite a few Jewish doctors in Sunderland in the ‘50s and ‘60s, many of them related. In the ‘60s the Jewish doctors would meet in the Havelock and then the continental cafés on a Thursday morning for coffee. They all used to smoke in those days and have a good gossip. Sunderland Jewry were mainly orthodox and there was a Yeshiva for which my father-in-law was medical advisor. My husband took it over when his father passed away. That Yeshiva subsequently relocated to Gateshead. There was also a Kollel for higher Rabbinical studies, which also relocated later to Gateshead. I believe they are both still there.

Sylvia’s story: My father, Myer Refson, was a kind man with a sense of responsibility for others. He was the youngest of eight children and worked with two brothers John and Louis in a dress factory as a cutter and dyer. My father and his friend Nat Goodman paid for the Bimah to be moved to the centre of the Ryhope Road Shul and they also bought a house at 1 The Cedars to be a Yeshiva. Before he married, Myer went to study Torah each night after work. There was a man with an intellectual disability, whose parents had died, and Myer found him a job as a hotel porter where he would have bed and board and earn a living for the rest of his days. My father was on the Ryhope Road Shul committee, and the JIA committee. Dorothy, my mum, was treasurer of the Bridge Club. She and her mum, Etty Sheckman, were big workers for WIZO. My parents gave their garden annually for the WIZO [Women’s International Zionist Organization] bring- and-buy Sale. My upbringing was strict and Victorian at meal time, but absolute freedom reigned afterwards. My closest friends today mostly have a Sunderland connection.

Moira remembers how the Jewish community would regularly arrange charity jumble sales in the Ryhope Synagogue hall. Bags of jumble were collected from members of the community. I would help my mum on the stalls, which felt very grown up. I remember people queueing outside before the doors opened. The jumble sales had a reputation of selling good quality jumble and were very popular and well attended. In our teens there was Jewish Youth Voluntary Service. AJEX [Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women] used to hold a large annual tea in the Ryhope Road Shul hall and children went along to chat to the ex-servicemen. It was a huge event in the town and people used to look forward to the home-made teas made by the Jewish ladies. Pauline Z’s story: I left Sunderland in 1957 after my marriage. My parents were Lilly (Shless) and Zalman Kelly (Yankelevitz), both from Lithuania. My memories are sketchy but I remember WWII and preparations to build a shelter in the basement. Also, air raids but not much social life. Perhaps my parents were just not sociable and only spent time with family (family of Elia Cohen). My mother was involved with charities such as the Yeshiva and I remember tea parties and card afternoons raising money for these projects. For my brother’s bar mitzvah my parents donated a chicken dinner to the Yeshiva. Most of my childhood saw us in Ryhope Road Shul but in my teens I moved to the Mowbray Road Shul and was married from there. Rabbi Turetzki was Rabbi of Ryhope Road Shul after Rev Toperoff moved away and became a rabbi. Rabbi Babad and Rabbi Zahn were the leaders of Mowbray Road Shul. Rabbi Zahn was very kind to my future husband when we were courting and he would stay in Rabbi Zahn’s house! Laurence and Sharon remember the fundraising activities of the League of Jewish Women, WIZO, the Joel Intract Home, and how they all raised a lot of money. If they needed cakes for a coffee morning on a Sunday they would phone someone on a Thursday and ask them to bake a couple. Sharon found a box of her mother’s recipes which contained things like ‘Rosalind’s fruit cake’ and ‘Nikki’s slice’. Ivor Herman has also found his mother Rosalind’s recipes. They should be put down and turned into a cookbook. There were so many organisations in existence in the Jewish community – badminton, table tennis, cubs and scouts, cheder, study group, Bnei Akiva. Laurence recalled how different life was when he moved to London. It was also a class-free society in Sunderland: the Jewish community was just the Jewish community. It didn’t matter what level of religion you were. Laurence remembers the Jewish Cub Pack. After the cubs he joined the Scouts which was a joint Jewish and Christian pack (19th Sunderland 2nd Jewish). The Scout Leader was Jimmy Lee, who died at the very young age of 29, and although he wasn’t Jewish learnt all the rules of Judaism. Laurence wasn’t interested in camping but his parents made him go. The first camp was May bank holiday and it poured from beginning to end.

When he got home his mother apologised and said she shouldn’t have pushed him to go. Laurence’s response was that he had never had so much fun in his whole life! He is now happy to do things he wouldn’t normally do and felt this was due to the influence of scouting. Angela was born and brought up Sunderland and is now 71. My parents Morrie and Lorna Raymond always lived in Sunderland. My father and brother Paul died some years ago, but my mother was 100 years old in November 2020. When I was a small girl my father was the caretaker of the synagogue in Ryhope Road. He had a Punch and Judy show and used to perform it at the annual cheder picnics. Many families lived in the town then and several businesses were owned by Jewish people. Young people eventually went away to other places. My mother and I live in Washington near Newcastle where most people now reside. Anne’s story: I left Sunderland as a teenager for ‘a more exciting life’, but I am probably quite rare in that I returned years later married and with one child - another to be born in Sunderland. I had a very normal family upbringing in the 1950s. I went to Commercial Road Junior School then Bede Grammar School where we had large Jewish assemblies. Father was a lawyer, mother a housewife, and we had a comfortable but not extravagant existence. Clothes came from Wengers in Newcastle at Pesach and Rosh Hashana. Summer saw trips to the Lakes, Bournemouth or Scotland. We spent lots of time at the beach at the Cat and Dog stairs. Shabbat was shul, Kiddush with the family and a walk to Tunstall Hill with friends. When we reached fourteen we saw a huge change to our social life through the Sunderland Jewish Badminton Club. We played in leagues in the town and managed four teams. It was a social and sports club for Jewish teenagers up to ‘old’ people in their 40s. There were annual badminton club dances, the highlight of our year, and Wednesday nights in the shul hall for the Coffee Club. I had my son in 1975 and came to live back in Sunderland in 1976 where my daughter was born in 1977. A few young couples were still there and we had a nice young married social life and back to my beloved badminton club. By then there was a Jewish Menorah school which my children attended. Rachel: When I was six my family (parents Sheba and Cecil Cohen, sister Moira) and I moved from Leeds to Sunderland. My earliest memory of Sunderland was my first day at Hill View Infant School. The teacher asked someone to look after me, I recall she was Jewish, and think it may have been Ruth Levine. Shul was twentyfive-minute walk and we went via Backhouse Park. My father would remark what a wonderful walk it was. I, on the other hand, used to complain on the way back that we had to walk up a hill to get home.

There were two Cecil Cohens living in Sunderland and to differentiate my father became known as CI (Cecil Isaac) the Cubmaster. I still come across men who were brought up in Sunderland who remember dad affectionately from their time in the Cubs. My father was a salesman and he could, as they say, sell coals to Newcastle! The sale he was most proud of was after he retired and was at the time of the closure of the Beth Hamedrash. He was staying in Woodside Park, London, just before that shul was due to close for a rebuild when he enquired whether they had yet purchased a Bimah and Aron Ha’Kodesh (the Platform and Ark) for the new shul. When the answer was in the negative he set about introducing the Executive members of the two shuls to each other resulting in a successful transfer of the Bimah and Aron Ha’Kodesh from Sunderland to London. To make it even more special for him, my parents were married on that Bimah in 1946, the first wedding in Sunderland to take place after WWII.

Cecil and Sheba Cohen’s wedding, 1946, courtesy Rachel Lewis

Dorothy moved to Sunderland from Glasgow in August 1975 with her husband, seven-year- old daughter and four-year-old son. As newcomers we were warmly welcomed and very quickly felt at home. My husband was with Marks and Spencer and in 1975 an opportunity arose in the North East where my family was located. We assumed it would only be for two years or so. Our reasons to live in Sunderland and not in the larger community of Newcastle were intentional and as it happened a fantastic choice which led to an unexpectedly long sojourn of twenty-six years.

Both children attended Menorah School, firstly in Thornholme Road and then after the move to Ryhope Road Synagogue. The ethos of this school was quite special and remarkable. The children were from such a variety of backgrounds and in 1975 there were around sixty children but at the end only a handful with a village school style of mixed year groups. There were children from the two synagogues, children of members of the Kollel (College for Advanced Rabbinical Learning) and some children who were not Jewish. Laurence and Sharon felt it was their generation that caused Sunderland to shrink when they left to go to university or find jobs elsewhere. Laurence remembered his grandmother saying that the furthest she ever went was Whitley Bay, although it wasn’t true as he recalled taking her to Harrogate once! But this was the way things were and people didn’t travel far afield. His father Charles was forced to go to Newcastle University, but the next generation had the opportunity to move away and they took it. Jewish children from Sunderland tended to do well all over the world, but he felt there was something of a revolt against the tight-knit community. Sharon agreed and said she felt her generation was ready to move out and look for different opportunities and a wider range of friends, although she still has very close friends from Sunderland and they all continue to meet up socially. She felt the Sunderland link will never go away as it is an extremely close one. She can see with her own two children, who have grown up in London, that it is very different.

Rachel: It is sad that the community in Sunderland diminished so quickly while other small provincial communities still exist. I think this is because post-war baby boomers where encouraged to go away to study at university or find work, and once they left the town they didn’t return other than to visit. During the 1970-80s there was still a small, but vibrant, community of young marrieds but as their children left the town they also followed. However, you can take the mackem out of Sunderland, but you can’t take Sunderland out of the mackem and the Sunderland spirit still lives on around the world. Rachel moved from Sunderland to London in 1994 and is now involved with her local community and was editor of the shul magazine for ten years. She also formed several social groups within the shul. During the Covid-19 pandemic Rachel has been co-ordinating volunteers to support vulnerable people with their shopping and also helps sort clothes for asylum seekers. Rachel supports primary schoolchildren to develop their reading skills and now does this online. Rachel has very much enjoyed doing the Sunderland research for JSCN and in particular reconnecting with people she hasn’t seen for some time. Hearing their recollections of Sunderland has been nostalgic and brought back many happy memories of her own. Can’t get enough of Sunderland? Read ‘Reminiscences of Sunderland’ by Joe Taylor on the JSCN Heritage Hub, and use our Sunderland Google map there to see some of the places remembered by our interviewees - jscn.org.uk/heritage

Serving Barrow: Jewish Shops Remembered Lisa Novenstern

Lisa has been leading work on the hidden Jewish histories of Cumbria, and many of the stories she has uncovered remind her of her own childhood, where Jewish life was rare. Angela C lives in Broughton and remembers connecting with one local Jewish-owned business after striking up a conversation with an elderly couple who were the proprietors: From that moment, they hugged us as long-lost family, calling us Lantsmen and insisted on always giving us a discount on what we bought. In those days they spoke Yiddish, and had kosher food sent up from Manchester and Southport every week, and went to Southport for the Yomtavin. In those days it was like meeting Jews of fifty years before: they had arrived thinking they were in Scotland by mistake, settled and lived such an isolated life from other Jews. They had not changed at all, keeping everything Jewish as they had in the country they came from. We found it fascinating. Lynn G’s late parents, Abraham Morgenstern (Stern), known as Reg, and Sophie Goldschmidt (whose story features later in this book) ran a fabric shop in Barrow and continued to live in the town after their retirement. Her great uncle Harry Auerbach ran a market stall. Lynn remembers other businesses such as Alec Brown’s clothing shop, and the Davidsons’ ladies’ fashion store. Lynn recalls that all of her generation were encouraged to leave Barrow to further their education, and very few returned. Most of her family now live elsewhere.

See more Jewish footprints in Cumbria on our Google map available on the JSCN Heritage Hub - jscn.org.uk/heritage

Creativity How Jewish performers and makers have enriched local cultures From BBC broadcasts to photo studios, this section explores how Jewish performers and artists have formed the creative backbone – magic to music – of Britain, sharing talent nationally and locally. On the stage, internationally renowned musicians helped build Eastbourne’s reputation as a holiday resort, while on the high street, Jewish photographers, designers and artists created the portraits, advertisements and postcards that were the country’s backdrop.

The Herr von Leer Orchestra, courtesy of Steven Frank

The Sunshine Coast: Eastbourne, Jews and Music Anne Krisman Goldstein

Anne carried out research on the Sephardi community for the Pascal Theatre Company’s Discovering and Documenting England’s Lost Jews project, and has also interviewed inspirational women for her local museum. Anne has been researching various aspects of Eastbourne’s hidden Jewish history, including past figures in its community, its holiday hotels, entertainment and schools with Jewish connections. Sea, scooters and shechita Eastbourne is an elegant and sunny seaside resort on the south coast of England. It has a certain reputation for attracting retirees. While the Eastbourne Hebrew congregation, founded in 1918, officially opened its Susans Road Synagogue in 1922, there are signs that Jewish people started ‘going down to Eastbourne for the season’ far earlier.

Susans Road Synagogue, interior; photograph by Anne by permission of The Keep, Brighton

The Board for the Affairs of Shechita, based at Bevis Marks Synagogue, supplied kosher meat and poultry to two local butchers for Jewish seasonal holiday makers from 1878. A growing number of Victorian Jewish tourists were drawn to Eastbourne for its health benefits of sea bathing and fresh air. An 1882 advertisement in the Jewish Chronicle for holiday lets offered ‘splendid land and sea views, in warmest part, by Grand Hotel and sea.’ Another stated that a Mrs Abrams was ready to receive Jewish visitors at her suites of beautifully situated furnished apartments. By the end of the century, guests were advised to book their boarding houses early for Passover. A newspaper columnist from Durham was sourly moved to write after his trip to Eastbourne in 1885, ‘the Children of Israel dominate the place (from all generations).’ Musicians, magicians and a mouthful Jewish classical musicians and variety performers were among those who entertained the pre- World War I holiday-makers and growing local population. Each artiste had their own speciality, their foreign background used to their advantage. Illusionist, the Great Rameses - ‘the Eastern Mystic’ - was Albert Marchinsky, whose family had settled in the East End of London during the 1880s. His Egyptian costume and pyramids set design gave no clue to his poor Russian/Polish refugee roots. The audience at the Pier Pavilion in 1907 thrilled to ‘the Russian Gypsy Violinist’ Zacharewitsch, stage name of Michael Sisserman from Ostrog in Russia, who had debuted as a sixteen-year-old with Tchaikovsky. Magician Carl Rosine, born Jakob Rosenzweig in Łódź, Poland, ‘the Napoleon of Mystery’ was booked into the Hippodrome on a two-year contract. ‘Watch his thumbs’, said his 1905 theatre bills: he could catch hoops through his arms despite his thumbs being tied together. ‘The Magician of the Cello’, Auguste (Ezechiel) Van Biene from Rotterdam, always performed ‘Kol Nidrei’* on Saturdays. He had been discovered playing on a Covent Garden street by orchestra leader Sir Michael Andrew Angus Costa, also from Rotterdam, who was reputed to have Sephardi roots. Van Biene brought Eastbourne audiences his acclaimed emotional ‘Broken Melody’ three-act play in 1896, where he played a disabled musician. This was performed over 6000 times across Britain. The Eastbourne Theatre Royal patrons were brought to tears and he earned a standing ovation, yet Van Biene was unhappy with the raucous behaviour and over-vigorous clapping at inappropriate points. He berated the audience at the end, telling the ‘brainless idiots’ to stay away in future. Nevertheless, Van Biene returned three times more with the same play and his son Karl later went on to manage the Pavilion cinema in Eastbourne in the 1930s. Grandeur, glamour ... and grief Eastbourne’s iconic Grand Hotel – known as the White Palace – was opened on the sea front in 1877. Its first musical director in 1903 was Herr Von Leer - the Jewish Simon Van Lier, from The Hague. This virtuoso violinist led a Viennese orchestra, hence his assumed name. His ‘quintet’, which played while people dined, danced and relaxed, was celebrated for its power and rich tone.

Von Leer’s double horned Stroh violin, which enabled greater amplification, was a recent invention. Signatures from Von Leer’s autograph book from his time at the Grand Hotel include King Edward VII, Ernest Shackleton, Sir Winston Churchill, Haile Selassie, Dame Nellie Melba and Edward Elgar. In the band was his wife, the spirited Dutch violinist Flora Manheim, who had a national and continental reputation as a soloist and conductor. She led the tartan-clad Scottish Ladies Orchestra and had spoken out strongly about the ‘unreasonable prejudice’ shown to women conducting orchestras with men. Von Leer’s brother, Jacques Van Lier, the celebrated ‘Paganini of Cellists’, who had played with the Berlin Philharmonic, also lived in Eastbourne from the start of World War I. The family often supported local charitable events. When World War I began, they played in front of the railway station and opposite the Grand Hotel to raise funds for the local Red Cross. While new army recruits enthusiastically sang along to ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’, Flora collected money alongside a teenage Noel Streatfield, later known for the children’s classic novel Ballet Shoes. The Van Leers were secular Jews. Simon’s wife Flora died in 1942 with their daughter Felicia (Fifi) at Auschwitz, after returning to Holland. A stolpersteine (stumbling stone) in the town of Goor, in the Netherlands, remembers Felicia and her husband Machiel. Simon’s daughter Beatrix and her two sons survived Terezín (Theresienstadt) concentration camp, but her husband Leonard David Frank was murdered at Auschwitz. One son, Steven Frank, was awarded the BEM for services to Holocaust Education. Beatrix stayed in the Grand Hotel’s Van Leer Suite when she was 80 years old, a birthday present from her five grandchildren.

Flora Manheim (1877-1942) as a young woman; picture courtesy of Steven Frank

Albert Sandler and Leslie Jeffries In 1926, Albert Sandler, who led the Grand Hotel orchestra, was considered ‘the most admired of wireless violinists.’ He took the role just before the BBC started live Sunday night ‘Grand Hotel’ radio broadcasts with what was called the Palm Court Orchestra in 1925. This long- running series became a national institution. One of the first broadcast superstars, seen frequently on Pathé News, Sandler was able to buy a 1701 Stradivarius violin with his earnings. He was born Abraham Sandler in the East End of London to poor Russian and Lithuanian parents, who nurtured his talent. They bought him his first violin from a pawn shop and arranged lessons. Sandler was talent-spotted by the Grand Hotel when playing at Lyons’ Corner House in London. When he left the Grand Hotel, he declared, ‘I shall always remember Eastbourne, when I made my first big hit with the public.’ After his untimely death at 42, his Strad was auctioned, the money used to fund an annual prize for London students to craft the best stringed instrument. Unusual among most bandleaders, Sandler kept a strong public Jewish identity, releasing a record with ‘Eili, Eili’ and ‘Kol Nidrei’ in 1935 and performing in aid of Jewish charities. Leslie Jeffries, born David Yaffa, took over the Grand Hotel baton in 1934. Jeffries, the son of Russian immigrants, went to school in Bethnal Green and studied violin at the London Academy of Music. On February 8th 1953, he made his 450th BBC broadcast from the hotel with the Palm Court Orchestra. He became one of the icons of Eastbourne: a visit there was not complete without tea at the Grand Hotel and seeing him play. He died at the hotel in August 1960 after performing the day before. Leslie’s cousin Max Jaffa, son of Israel Jaffe from Latvia, also led the BBC Palm Court Orchestra broadcasts.

Cecil Sapseid and the Savona Band ‘Eastbourne’s Premier Dance Band’ were a fixture at Dale and Kerley’s fancy drapers and ladies’ outfitters (latterly T. J. Hughes). 1930s shoppers could choose a set of net curtains, buy a smart new hat from the millinery department, and then enjoy the store’s daily tea dance from four to six pm. The moustachio’d young novelty jazz band had the signature tune, ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’. The home-grown band was adored: a thousand attended Everybody’s Ball at the Winter Gardens in 1935 when half the profits – twenty-seven pounds - was given to its drummer, poorly after an operation. One of the band’s other members was Louis ‘Lou’ Morris, who played banjo, sax and double bass. He also demonstrated the latest dance craze steps. His sister Jenny was a pianist for silent films at the town’s Tivoli cinema. Lou and Jenny were the children of Alfred Morris, a founder of the Eastbourne Hebrew congregation. He and his wife Esther owned several businesses in the area, such as hairdressers’ and a sweet shop selling rock. The enterprising family, originally from Chingford in Essex, fell in love with the town when escaping the Zeppelins in 1918. During the 1920s, they ran a Jewish boarding house.

When Lou married his French wife Sonia in 1934, Eastbourne Hebrew Congregation’s first wedding, crowds of well-wishers gathered outside the building. Some over-enthusiastically came in time for the morning service. The Eastbourne Chronicle carefully described Rev Louis Wolfe’s ceremony for nonJewish readers, including the meaning of the ‘quaint ritual’ of breaking the glass. During World War II, Lou achieved the rank of Major and was mentioned twice in dispatches. After he retired, he bought two donkeys and opened a stud farm in East Sussex, becoming a leading judge in major county shows.

Cecil Sapseid and his Savona Band, Lou Morris on double bass, photo courtesy Robert Girling

By 1955 a visitor to Eastbourne looking for Jewish entertainers was spoilt for choice. In just one balmy weekend in June, visitors could dance to Geraldo and his Full Concert Orchestra. They could hear Max Jaffa (see below), the famous BBC violinist and orchestra leader, alongside the Eastbourne Girls’ Choir. At the Hippodrome was clarinettist Sid Phillips and his Jazz Band – formerly Isadore Simon Phillips from the East End of London. Coda Reverend Chaim Zack became the rabbi of the Eastbourne Hebrew congregation in 1946, retiring 51 years later. He was known for his chazanut (cantorial singing). A congregant remembers everyone in tears at his rendition of ‘My Yiddishe Momme’ at a community Chanukah party. His wife Margaret was the eldest daughter of the acclaimed cantor Jacob Kusevitsky, who had a way, it is said, of penetrating the heart of a prayer.

Larry Navon, Chair of Eastbourne Liberal Jewish Community, is a singer, a song-writer and musician. He shares his own compositions with the congregation. Through the power of music, he says, ‘we express joy, sorrow and the whole spectrum of emotions. King David was a psalmist. The Jewish soul and our ancient liturgy has a wealth of music in it’.

Anne at the Grand Hotel

*Kol Nidrei is an 1880 cello composition by Max Bruch based on the Kol Nidrei declaration.

Further Reading Irene Mensah, Eastbourne Synagogue - Tracing its Lifeline 1922-2010 (manuscript produced for the WRVS Heritage Plus Project, now available for consultation at East Sussex Record Office, The Keep, Brighton, reference ACC 10824/2/3) Anne Krisman Goldstein’s taste for research stems from playing the role of a local Jewish suffragette in a Tunbridge Wells community play. She discovered her character was related to Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols and playwright Patrick Marber. Anne is an educator of young people with special needs and has been commended in the National Teaching Awards.

Pictures of Cumbria Jeremy Topaz

Jeremy remembers his father’s role and impact as a professional photographer and studio owner in Cumbria. My father, Joseph Louis Topaz, was born in 1898 in Vitebsk, in what is now known as Belarus. When he was two years old, his father, Jacob Moses Topaz, brought him, his mother and his three sisters to England. In the database of a Jewish organization in London helping immigrants, his father’s profession was listed as carpenter. Later another son and four more daughters were born in England. Some time later still, they settled in Sunderland and eventually, Jacob established a furniture factory. Joseph, Joe as everyone called him, wanted to be an architect, and as they didn’t have money for university studies, he was apprenticed to a local firm of architects. There was at the time a competition to design a new cathedral in Liverpool, and this ambitious young man submitted a design. It didn’t win, but a drawing of his proposal hung on a wall in our house for many years. After Joe had been in this occupation for a short number of years, his father passed away suddenly. There was no one else to manage the factory so he had to give up his intended career and take it over. I think this was in 1923. At some stage, he took a partner, one Stanley Goldberg. Dad’s hobby was photography, especially portraits. He built a studio in the attic of our house and equipped it with sophisticated lighting which he made himself. He passed on to me his knowledge of electricity and that formed the basis of my chosen profession (electronics). He had photos hung in various exhibitions, and was also interested in, and was member of a club of enthusiasts of, stereo photography. War broke out in 1939, and in 1940, when bombing on Sunderland started, we moved eventually to a rented house in Appleby. At first, Dad continued living in Sunderland but came to Appleby at the weekends. Getting material for furniture production got more and more difficult and meant using inferior stuff, even cardboard. Dad had very high standards and couldn’t bear this drop in quality and at some point, he sold his share of the factory to Goldberg and came to settle in Appleby with us. It may have been before this, I don’t know, that he showed some of his photos to the local chemist (pharmacist) who was not merely impressed but proposed to Dad that he set up a photo studio in Appleby. He offered space in a warehouse behind his shop for the studio and a darkroom. (In those days, photos had to be developed in chemicals in a dark room – digital didn’t exist).

So my father turned his hobby into a profession and began offering photography to the locals. There was quite a demand for pictures to send soldiers and distant relatives. At some point, Dad thought he ought to join the war effort and went to the recruiting office in Carlisle to volunteer for the army, but they told him that photographers were considered an essential service, not to be drafted.

A selection of Topaz postcards, courtesy Jeremy Topaz

I went to Appleby Grammar School. There was a school from South Shields which was evacuated in total to Appleby and one of the teachers, Arnold Joseph, was Jewish. He lived in Appleby with his wife and daughter and our families became very friendly, going for walks together in the countryside. There was one other Jewish connection that I know of, a Jewish dentist who had converted to Christianity. My father was highly amused when one day, this dentist came to talk to him about something, and said something about ‘these goyim’. He had a son in our school. On one occasion a young pilot who had relatives in Appleby came with his plane and did some circuits over the town. My brother was with his Scout troop exercising near the river when the plane failed to pull properly out of a dive. He was heading straight for them but managed to pull up a bit and crashed into the trees on the hill on the opposite bank. He was killed, and in his pocket, they found a photo, taken by Dad, of one of his relatives in Appleby, and so were able to identify him.

During those years, we made quite a lot of trips in the Lake District, Dad always with a camera. He built up a collection of photos and at some point, had the idea of making view postcards for sale, for which there was considerable demand. He started to offer them to local shops in the area, and one day I even went with him to Blackpool where he had arranged a meeting with the manager of the local Woolworth’s branch. I think he got quite a big order. Incidentally, the postcards were produced as real photographs and not by printing which, though that would have been cheaper, meant a lower quality. In 1944, we had my bar mitzvah in Sunderland (without bombs) and to prepare for it, Dad found a Jewish teacher in Penrith to whom I travelled a few times a week. I don’t remember his name. When we moved there, we didn’t find him. He had apparently left Penrith. The studio at the back of the chemist’s shop was rather hidden and Dad decided to move the studio to Penrith, some twelve miles away and open a shop for photographic stuff. Whether he chose Penrith because there was no empty shop available in Appleby, or because of the better prospect for customers, I don’t know. The shop and studio at first were in Castlegate, a rather steep climb from the centre, but later he got the shop in Little Dockray, more central and on a level. He also got the adjacent shop and opened it for my mother to sell artificial flowers. When the war ended, we had to vacate the house we had rented.... so, in 1946 Dad bought a house which was for sale in Penrith, in Barco Terrace. In the meantime, I had transferred to Penrith Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in the sixth form. I heard from some pupils nasty antisemitic remarks (though I don’t think they knew I was Jewish). I soon discovered that the source was the chemistry teacher who told them things like ‘the only good thing Hitler did was what he did to the Jews’. In my first lesson in his class, he said something against Jews, so I stood up and said ‘Mr Hargreaves, you should know that I am Jewish’. He never dared to make another remark in that vein, at least not when I was in his class. The photographic industry used to hold competitions for the staff of shops. My father won twice. The first time, he won a motor bike which he was able to trade in towards a new car. The second time, the prize was a trip to the USA for, as the announcement said, ‘you and the partner of your choice’. There was, however, a problem. The flight to New York was scheduled for Yom Kippur. My parents agonized over this for some time but in the end came to a compromise: they would fly but not eat! A visit to Niagara Falls was the highlight of the trip and they thoroughly enjoyed it. When 35mm became the standard, Dad not only bought a good camera, but also a special stereo camera, which had two lenses. There was a gadget called ‘Viewmaster’ into which you inserted a disk with pictures, a stereo pair, on opposite sides of the disk. Dad provided the photos for two such disks, with pictures of the Lake District.

Sometime in the ‘70s, Dad sold the shop and they moved to a house in Newcastle. The new owner kept the name J.L.Topaz on the shop for several years. Dad had suffered from heart problems for many years, and in 1976, he had a fatal heart attack. He is buried in the Sunderland Jewish Cemetery. In Penrith, we met a Jewish family, originally from Newcastle, the Birsons. Their daughter, June, was older than I and was working for one of the local newspapers. She later came to Israel with her husband, a dentist from Newcastle. At first, they settled in Rehovot where we helped them acclimatize, but later they moved to Carmiel and we lost contact. There was also a Czech Jewish couple who had escaped Hitler, but they wanted nothing to do with Jews or Judaism.

A Moment in Minehead Jane Warner

Jane looks for the creative exiles who temporarily made their homes – and marks – in Minehead during World War II.§ Travel to the north coast of Somerset - when allowed to do so - and you’ll discover beaches galore. You’ll see the most stunning vistas as long as the rain manages to hold off for a while, and you’ll enjoy looking at the sepia-tinged Bristol channel. From bitter experience, you may even learn why it’s likely that the seagulls here happen to have very high cholesterol levels. Probably the most well-known, quintessentially English resort there is that of Minehead, famed for its steam trains and holiday camp. It transpires that Minehead has a surprise up its sleeve, and that surprise centres upon a house named South Court, which can be found in the quiet, well-appointed residential area of Warden Road. It’s a surprise that even the local historical experts I consulted weren’t aware of: according to Jewishgen. org, between 1939 until the end of WWII, South Court became an Orthodox Ashkenazi synagogue. Intrigued, I investigated further. Home to the Lincoln family, who had previously lived in Plymouth, the house presumably offered a safer location than the much- bombed naval dockyard or their earlier home in London. A possible relative, Edith Lincoln, is recorded as a ‘school mistress in charge of evacuated school, specialist in French language’, living at ‘Lindores’, The Parks, with Claude and Dorothy Foy. Other Jewish residents of Minehead, according to the 1939 Register of Britain*, had fled Nazi Germany. They included notable names such as the archaeologist Erwin Palm and his wife Hildegard, who arrived in England via a brief spell in Italy; and would eventually move to Latin America before returning to Germany in the 1950s. Minehead does not figure in the Wikipedia entry for the couple! There were also a number of influential, creative residents living in Minehead at the time, such as pioneering photographer Agnes Warburg, of ‘private means’, living with her lady’s companion, staff, and Rudolf P. M. Warburg ‘lawyer (Germany)’ and his wife Ilse at Mirabel, Western Lane. Rudolf Pius Moritz Warburg was briefly interned and released in 1940 stating he did not wish to be repatriated. Ilse was exempted. The 1939 Register contains multiple other intriguing Minehead entries relating to creative people, such as one for Frank Laskowski, alias Laskoff, giving his occupation as ‘artist, painter, retired’, but not to be confused with the well-known maker of art deco advertisements in the early 20th century; and Abraham Nidditch, a fireplace manufacturer, and his wife Golda.

Alongside those living in private residences, many transient residents were also housed in Minehead’s numerous hotels, a pattern that repeats in other seaside resorts during the War as we shall see. Did they all congregate at South Court for worship, or was this a more secular community of Jewish and German heritage? This particular small history is still waiting to be explored. See this story unfold on the JSCN Heritage Hub! *The 1939 Register of Britain took place just after the outbreak of World War II and recorded names, status and occupations of civilians in England and Wales.

Diaspora How Jewish life has flourished in crisis situations

Jewish evacuees and refugees found homes, skills, and often more within the communities and institutions that adopted them, building relationships that have extended across further travels.

Isidor Tennenbaum’s internment exemption card, now in the National Archives

Evacuees in St Annes Hilary Thomas

Hilary delves deeper into St Annes’ wartime effort and experience. What was life like for the children who arrived as evacuees in the town? Here are just a few of their stories.

Pauline P’s story: born in 1930, Pauline’s parents Harry and Jeanette, and brother Arnold (born 1925) evacuated to St Annes from Leeds in 1939 and settled at 25 St Leonards Road West. Pauline attended Queen Mary School where there were other Jewish girls. Her father Harry was a Special Constable during the War years. Her mother Jeanette was a volunteer with the St John Ambulance. Towards the end of the War Pauline helped out at a children’s nursery on St Leonards Road East. Arnold joined the Army as a signalman. Pauline remembers being able to see the flashes across the sea where bombs were falling on Liverpool. She also recalls the USA airbase at Warton: her parents often gave hospitality to the airmen. The family were members of the synagogue on Orchard Road. Pauline recalls Rev Feldinger and his lovely voice. Her parents were friendly with other synagogue members including the Jeffay, Stark, Greenfield and Libbert families. She recalls that during the War, the Civil Service transferred several of its personnel to St Annes from London, which included the Flateau family. Pauline recalls Joseph and Fanny Rapaport who moved to North Promenade from Manchester at the end of the War. They had no children of their own but adopted two teenage girls from Austria. Joseph was a clothing manufacturer. He and his wife were highly involved with the synagogue’s Coordination of Charities Committee. Joseph was Chairman of the Social and Literary Society until his death in 1956. Pauline and her family moved to Blackpool in about 1948. Jonathan’s story: born in 1936, Jonathan, his parents Dorothy and Cyril, and baby brother Brian arrived in St Annes from Manchester in 1940. They lived in a large house called Sandhills on Clifton Drive. He recalls the Libbert, Sassoon, Jeffay, and Feather families all of whom had boys of his age. They spent a great deal of time riding their bikes and watching the German planes bombing Liverpool and Preston docks. A German plane crashed just outside Lytham. Jonathan recalls that it went on display behind the Clifton Arms Hotel. Cyril Lever was a cinema owner who travelled into Manchester daily with other businessmen on what became known as the Club Train. Jonathan and his father attended the synagogue occasionally. He was a pupil at the cheder but often bunked off and went out on his bike! Jonathan recalls that his parents invited several Jewish American servicemen to their home for meals. They were stationed at the Warton airbase and travelled to the Lever house in a jeep. Jonathan also recalls that a local car showroom was used as a munitions factory. In about 1943 a girl from London was billeted with the family: her surname was Sydlin and there was a label round her neck when she arrived, but he cannot remember her first name.

Jonathan attended Ardrossan, a private prep-school from the age of five. He recalls other Jewish children there, including Valerie Lubin from Manchester. She and her parents Evelyn and Leonard, a clothing manufacturer, initially evacuated to Cleveleys before settling in St Annes until the war was over. In 1946 Jonathan went to a local boarding school called Lawrence House. By that time the war was over and his parents and brother returned to Manchester. There was no room for him to board at Lawrence House at first, so for a few months he was a day boy. He remembers that his parents arranged for him to live with a family called Green. He recalls that they were very kind and he was happy there, but he couldn’t recall their names.

Making a Connection! Hilary writes: after speaking with Jonathan Lever I did some more research and realised that Pauline’s was the family who had given him a home in 1946. I spoke with Pauline again in November to ask her if she recalled Jonathan. Pauline did remember him. I put them in touch and after seventy-four years the two of them have made contact. Amazingly they live only six miles apart. Jonathan is in Altrincham; Pauline in Didsbury. The full story of their reunion was featured in the Jewish Telegraph newspaper in November 2020. Shirley’s story, as told by her son, Andrew Loofe: The late Shirley nee Levison often talked fondly about her time in St Annes. The Levison family Harris and Lily, Shirley and Kenneth, lived at 36 Arundel Road. They grew their own vegetables in the garden. Shirley kept four rabbits in a hutch. Harris had a drapery business in Sheffield; Lily was teacher who worked at Layton Primary school in nearby Blackpool. Harris’s parents Louis and Hannah Levison also evacuated to St Anne’s from Sheffield. In the 1939 Register the couple were living at 29 South Promenade together with their married daughter Shifra Moss and her family. Louis was described as a draper. The synagogue records show he held the office of Warden in 1940 and was honoured as Chatan Torah in 1941. He died in St Annes at the age of seventy-eight in 1948. Hannah died in 1952. Another of Louis and Hannah’s daughters, Kate and her husband Aaron Mack, were living in St Annes. In the 1939 Register they were at 26 Oxford Rd. Kate was an optician, Aaron a jeweller. They stayed in St Annes for the rest of their lives. Aaron died in 1959 and Kate in 1963. Andrew Loofe was unaware of this extra information. He is delighted to have discovered more about his family as a result of this project. Shirley’s cousins, Rita and Beryl Alexander and Audrey Winston, were also interviewed for the project by Hilary, and their stories, as well as those of Greta A, Maureen B, Denis B, Ruth nee Btesh, Anne C, Barbara F, Estelle H, Madeleine J, Brian L, Jacqueline M, Mark R, David S and Sidney T, can be found on the JSCN Heritage Hub - jscn.org.uk/heritage

Shirley Levison in St Annes, photo courtesy of Andrew Loofe

Jonathan Lever (far right, middle row) at Lawrence House courtesy Jonathan Lever

Pauline Pike today

Cumbria: a Mosaic of Travellers’ Tales Lisa Novenstern

Lisa’s research into Jewish communities in Cumbria extends from the opening of Whitehaven’s synagogue in the 19th century to the lives of wartime refugees who made the area their home. Researching small Jewish communities is not like any other volunteer work I had done before. There is no set nine to five schedule, nor putting in a few hours at my leisure time. It is a total commitment, where the mind is wandering off in search for relevant and promising connections via the internet or through new personal connections. As I am gaining more insight into Cumbria’s Jewish communities, I would love to keep researching beyond this project. I am focussing on the county of Cumberland, which stretches from the Lake District up to Carlisle and westwards towards the coast. As vast as this region might appear, it revealed little specks of Jewish life, previous and current, each harbouring their history and forgotten memories, some well-known, others less so. The early history of Whitehaven exemplifies live for Jews in Cumbria. The earliest history of Jews in Whitehaven, documented by W.R. Sellick, starts in the end of the 18th century, long before the first Jewish community formed in Cumbria. The article gives an insight to Jewish life and ways, unwittingly, a pattern for centuries to come. Before the synagogue opened in Whitehaven in 1874, Jewish professionals had been travelling through this area offering their services as dentists, opticians and watchmakers, and other occupations not well-served in the district. These professionals did not establish their residency in the town they visited, but lodged with locals, and announced their coming and services in the local newspapers. Travelling to Cumbria from as far away as London, Manchester or Glasgow, they came as individuals. Only later on, in the 19th century, did places like Whitehaven become a permanent home. This pattern of coming and going seems to be characteristic. While Jewish orthodox and later on, liberal Jewish communities established themselves, most did not secure a permanent place among Cumbria’s population. World War II brought many refugees into Cumbria, scattered as individuals once again, either as a consequence of the war in Europe, or as evacuees from other parts of England. The now famous Windermere Boys, child survivors of Nazi concentration camps, were hosted at the Calgarth estate, near Lake Windermere, for just a couple of months. While the duration of their stay did not matter, one can say that ‘their formative years’ were reshaped by this experience. Within a couple of months, all three hundred Jewish youngsters found new homes and were dispersed all over the country.

Less well-known is that there were also Windermere girls. Lynn G told me the story of her mother, Sophie Goldschmidt, who had arrived on the Kindertransport aged eleven and was initially sent to a girls’ hostel in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. When the docks and shipyards at Newcastle were designated a Defence Zone the girls were no longer safe. The committee running the hostel were given three weeks to find alternative accommodation. A house was found in Windermere, the Lake District, named South Wood. The eight youngest girls were kept together, the eight oldest were also kept together. That left the middle four, Sophie, Elfie, Ruth and Lisl, who became firm friends and shared a room for the six years of the war. All the girls had duties in the hostel, they would take an old sheet up the hill behind the house and collect wood for the fires. Sophie took the bicycle into the village for food. There was cleaning and washing and they all went to school and learned English. All the time they were hoping for news from home: were their parents still alive? Life in the hostel wasn’t easy: the matrons only had boys and now were responsible for twenty girls. Money was always short. The one-year duration of the war became six years and the costs to the community in the north east carried on. Birthdays were important and celebrated with a cake and the birthday girl could choose her favourite meal for supper. Sophie was regularly in trouble, the large tree in the middle of the front lawn became her hiding place. The children went to local schools and teachers gave up their free time to give extra coaching. The vicar called on them and befriended them to the day they left. Shop keeper, police, doctors were kind and helpful despite the fact that they were Germans, speaking German, and Britain was at war with Germany. All the children left the hostel after the war with skills. Some trained as dressmakers, hairdressers, nurses and teachers. Lisl became a librarian. During those six years Sophie learned that her mother and father had both died. Lisl was luckier, her father came out of Austria and her mother survived the camps although she was never well. They met up again in Israel after the war. Elfie and Ruth stayed in this country and are still enjoying their lives in Great Britain with their own families. The girls talk with undying gratitude for the sustained devotion of the Committee from the North East and the Jewish community. Sophie was the last to leave the hostel in 1946. She was still too young to start nursing, but the local doctor took her in and she started training. She left the hostel with the bicycle, very useful. In 1947 she met Reg (born Abraham, known as Sonny to the family, and Reg to his RAF friends). They met in the hospital at a circumcision party!

Sonny lost a toss of a coin with his brother and had to attend, Sonny fell for Sophie. They married on Christmas Day 1947. Sonny’s mother was against the union. After all Sophie was ‘a nobody, no family and no money’. Even walking down the aisle she was told she could still change her mind. Sophie never finished her nursing training, they had two children. About ten years after the end of the war Sophie became a British Citizen: it was a day out in Liverpool and very important to her and all the family. They lived in Barrow-in-Furness where Sophie became very involved in community life, always wanting to put something back! She seldom talked about the past but looked towards the future. She learned that she was the sole survivor of her family. She and Sonny learned to run the family business, fabric, and made a success of it. She knew most of the people in Barrow, they came to the shop to buy fabric for dresses, then fabric for a wedding dress and then curtaining for the new house. When the business became more successful she helped out at the General Hospital, manning a desk in the front entrance hall. People talked to her, she knew their complaints, and no one queued for batteries for hearing aids, she had a draw full! She was part of the voluntary service there for over thirty years. When Sophie had been in Britain for about forty years she went back to Germany with Sonny. When she reached the family home a woman came out and recognised her. It was her old nanny, Annie. Sophie found the whole experience brought back distressing memories, however, and never went back. On retirement she became captain of the golf club and president of the Soroptimists. She gave talks on Jewish life and tried to ensure people understood that Jewish or Christian, people were simply people. She never went to these talks empty handed. She took honey cakes and other traditional Jewish foods. She was proud to be British and thought the UK was the best place in the world to live. Sonny lived until he was eighty-five and Sophie died in 2014, also aged eighty-five. This story is just one of the many individual lives that make up a mosaic of tiny pieces to add to the Jewish history of Cumbria. For example, I followed the story of Leo Loewisohn who left Nazi Germany right before the outbreak of World War II, and discovered his family records from Germany. He reached the UK at a late age, with a young child of his, while leaving his wife, Amalie Kassel Loewisohn, behind in Breslau. Records from Yad Vashem state that his wife was killed in Auschwitz in 1942. So far my research had been exciting, interesting and made me curious to learn first-hand from history; yet the death of Leo’s wife brought confusing emotions up, anger, frustration and sadness. Yes, it was a great sadness that took over me, hearing from one single death, while the knowledge of six million deaths seems to be historical fact. No matter what historic records can reveal, we do not understand individual decision making. Did Leo’s wife have a chance to leave Germany? Why did he not take her with him? Leo’s flight took him to live at the rectory in the village of Newton Reigny, near Penrith, where he is listed in the 1939 survey. Briefly interned in 1940, he returned there afterwards. His death is recorded in Blackburn in 1961, when probate was given to a certain Kenneth Frank Sheridan. Kenneth, as it turned out, was formerly known as Kurt Schlesinger and had also fled Breslau. He was interviewed as a survivor of the Shoah in 1998.

In his piece about Jewish life in wartime Cumbria, Jeremy Topaz mentions a Czech couple who had escaped Hitler ‘but wanted nothing to do with Jews and Judaism’. During the course of our project we discovered the story of the Lindenbergers, Bedrich and Dora, also from Czechoslovakia (and possibly the same couple). Bedrich had arrived in Worthing in 1939, and was then documented with his wife Dora when they were naturalised as British citizens in 1947. By then they were living in Penrith, where they stayed (unlike many other refugees) for the rest of their lives, Bedrich dying in 1949, Dora in 1953. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum holds a record of a letter (now in the Czech National Archives) that Bedrich wrote on Christmas Day, 1945 to the Repatriation Mission for Great Britain: Dear Sirs, I regret to inform you that we are unable to join the Repatriation Transport in January 1946 and will have to make our own arrangements at a later date. My wife had a major abdominal operation lately, is now convalescent and can not think of travelling for several weeks to come. Yours faithfully, F. B. Lindenberger Cumbria’s Jewish footprints might not be obvious for one passing by, but are deeply ingrained and rooted for the curious observer. This research and its highlights should be seen as the tip of an iceberg, which needs further digging and investigation.

Further reading: ‘Whitehaven and its Jews 1774-1850’, in Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, 1993.

The hostel girls, courtesy of Lynn Gee

Sophie during her nursing training, courtesy Lynn Gee

Other Refugee Stories from around our Regions The Girls’ Home in Sunderland

Chava: At the beginning of the war the Community set up a girls’ hostel on Grey Road and thirty children from the Kindertransport moved in and spent the war years there. The matron Miss Hanfling was very strict, but most of these girls turned out well and several live in Israel. I am still in touch with the close friends I made in that time. They were known as The Hostel Girls and they used to file into shul, one week one shul, the next the other. About ten families adopted children privately who were also my friends. It worked for some and not for others. On the whole the camaraderie of the hostel where they were all in the same boat probably worked best for the majority of the girls. Later on there was a yehsiva for boys from Morocco but I don’t think they socialised much. However, some girls, including me had a crush on the few we saw in shul sometimes! Eastbourne and Child Refugees John Nugee, the headteacher of Eastbourne College, sent a letter to all parents in 1939 asking for offers to take in one or two Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Peter Homburger, a Kindertransport refugee, and his two brothers were taken in by the school (1942-7). Living now in Denver, Colorado, he still visits the school each year to give talks and was interviewed by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn701013 The College was not the only Eastbourne school to take in refugee and evacuated children, as others were sent to the Eastbourne Girls’ School. Aldro School and Edenthorpe. Speaking about the latter, refugee Lore Confino, born Jacobi in Frankfurt December 1923, wrote on 26 January 1939, ‘during lessons I don’t understand a word and almost go to sleep with boredom’, but after learning English, had a wonderful time.

An Unsung St Annes Haven: Aishel Court Hilary Thomas

Hilary has been researching the history of a Jewish hotel in St Annes, one of many such institutions in Jewish communities in the country which served as a base for the community’s activities. Like other seaside resorts, St Annes had a number of Jewish hotels and boarding houses serving the local and visitor population. They included Sefton Court, Southbourne, and several that opened during and just after World War II (Brandons, Chaseley’s, Bencliff, the Belgrave and the Roslyn) as well as St Annes’ first non-Orthodox hotel, the Brierfield, which opened in 1951. Aishel Court, at 10 North Promenade, played a big part in the social and charitable life of the Jewish community. ‘Aishel’ is the Hebrew for ‘inn’. Its proprietors were Walter and Lily Barnard. Lily’s parents were Aaron and Maria Finestone, who also lived on the premises. The family settled in St Annes in the mid-1920s. Walter was elected vice-president of the Jewish Social and Literary Society established in 1927 and was a member of the synagogue council in 1931. Aaron was president of the synagogue from 1933-1937 which may account for the involvement of the hotel in many synagogue events. As early as 1930 an afternoon tea organised by the Bnai Brith was held at the hotel in aid of the Lymm Home for Mothers and Babies in Cheshire. That same year a Maccabi Weekend was held. Activities included tennis, cricket, dancing, hiking, and film shows. A short article in the Jewish Chronicle in July 1937 gave the hotel some free publicity. Mrs Barnard encouraged people to stay there over Rosh Hashanah, pointing out that the hotel, which had recently been extended and refurbished, was a mere three-minute walk from the synagogue; there was a Jewish continental chef in charge of the kitchen and prices in September were considerably cheaper than in August! In 1942 the synagogue established its Jewish Womens’ Voluntary Services Committee. Lily Barnard was its president. In March 1943, in aid of Wings for Victory Week, the hotel hosted a bring-and-buy sale. By the middle of that year the committee had raised several hundred pounds which was handed over to the mayor of the town and distributed to four charities, namely the Red Cross, Aid to Russia, Aid to China, and the RAF Benevolent Fund.

In 1944 Dr Nathan Morris, education officer of the Jewish Religion Board, came to St Annes to talk to the Jewish community about the government’s new education proposals and how they would affect British Jewry. He addressed the congregation on the Sabbath morning in the synagogue. In the afternoon he spoke at a meeting at Aishel Court. Ben Dulberg, the synagogue’s education officer, presided. During the War years Aishel Court became a permanent home for some families. It advertised itself as ‘strictly kosher; short or long term stays’. Throughout the war, Aishel remained at 10 North Promenade, a designated Safety Zone, whereas Sefton Court, another hotel, was commandeered by the government and was in temporary premises for nearly five years. The 1939 Register lists some forty persons resident at Aishel Court including six domestic staff and guests. Among the guests were Sidney Cohen, maker of lampshades; Isaac Meyer, a fur cutter; Solomon Saffer, a tailor, and his family; Pauline Rosenberg; Clara Cohen; Minnie Berwin; and Sarah Berlyn. Denis Btesh recalls that he and his family from Manchester stayed at Aishel in 1939 until they found a permanent home. He recalls going there with his teenage friends for afternoon tea.

Photo courtesy of Lydia Collins

Jonathan Lever recalls it was a popular place for local Jewish families to socialise. Abraham Rose lived at Aishel during the early years of the war, having left London. Previously the family had lived for many years in Southport. Abraham was the brother of St Annes resident Jack Rose. The brothers were the founders of Great Universal Stores, having come from humble beginnings in Blackburn and Salford. Abraham died in 1941. Another permanent resident was Mrs Rachel Blond from Manchester, sister of Nathan Laski, an influential communal leader of the Jewish community in that city. Rachel lived at Aishel Court from 1940 until her death in 1947. She was an ardent Zionist and well known for her philanthropy. In December 1940 she presented all the children at the synagogue with Chanukah gifts including a specially made stick of Chanukah rock. In September 1941, together with Hyman Weinberg, Emmanuel Raffles and Dr Samuel Berwitz, she inaugurated a Palestine Victory Campaign Committee. Aishel Court became that committee’s headquarters. She organised a fund-raising committee to support the Manchester Jewish Home for the Aged. An event at Aishel Court in 1942 raised £900 for the charity. In December that year the Jewish Chronicle noted that Mrs Blond, a widow, lived in St Annes but continued her custom of Chanukah treats for the poorer children of Manchester as well as raising money for the Blackpool Welfare committee for Refugees. In 1943 Rachel was instrumental in forming the St Annes Women’s Zionist Society of which she was honorary president, later becoming life president. The hotel hosted several of the society’s meetings. In late 1945 a dinner was held at Aishel in aid of the Jewish Blind Society.

Vintage postcard of North Promenade, with Aishel second from left

The hotel was also a meeting place for the synagogue’s Social and Literary Society in the early 1950s under the chairmanship of Joseph Rapaport, a clothing manufacturer, well known for his philanthropy, who settled in St Annes from Manchester at the end of the war. The Federation of Jewish Youth Societies (FJYS) held its first post-war Winter School at Aishel in December 1950

FJYS at Aishel Court, 1952, left to right, Brian (Bill) Sykes, Leslie Kay, Jackie Goldstone and Yitz Jaffe, photo courtesy of Yitz Jaffe

More than one hundred young people from all over the country enjoyed a social, cultural, sporting and religious programme which included a visit to Blackpool Circus. Councillor Butterworth, the deputy mayor, gave the speech of welcome. In October 1951 the FJYS held its fourth ‘inter-visit’ at Aishel Court. One hundred members from various towns including Stoke, Bolton, Withington and Prestwich attended. The guest speaker was Councillor Entwistle. In December 1951 another FJYS Winter School took place, again attended by more than one hundred young people from various youth societies and clubs affiliated to the Federation. The Literary and Social Society and synagogue members held a welcome cocktail party for the young people. It was obviously a popular event: an advert in the Jewish Chronicle announced that it was fully booked. It appears that Aishel Court closed in 1956, as the Barnards had handed it over to a couple from Liverpool in 1955, the Tiffenbergs, who then appear as proprietors of Sefton Court. Aishel had been more than a Jewish seaside hotel. It was the centre of the town’s charitable life, supporting Jewish and non-Jewish causes, both locally and further afield.

Connecting Future Heritage Maintaining Jewish identity and preserving heritage beyond a physical space

Digital platforms offer opportunities for communities to find one another, bring together memories, and educate. They give a chance to connect not only with old friends, but with new communities – to tell old stories and link them to new ones.

Social Media as Archives of the Future Bella Westlake

Public Facebook history groups are, ostensibly, an informative place for communities to share memories and photos of their heritage. People will add an interesting photo or a status which encourages others to comment and react. These comments, in turn, are generally positive. They mostly exude warmth and nostalgia in a team game of ‘who remembers when...?’ or ‘who remembers what...?’ But, as the demographics of a community change this nostalgia can quickly turn sour. Photos of shops and buildings which have adapted to meet the needs of a new immigrant portion of the population can provoke racism and xenophobia. Posts describing the antics of the old community characters end in complaints that they just don’t make them like that anymore. The city of Bradford, just outside Leeds in West Yorkshire, is home to a large number of people of Pakistani heritage who bear the brunt of racism in the Bradford history groups. But many of the posters, commenters and sharers seem unaware of the city’s diverse history and the invaluable contributions these immigrants brought to the area. Nostalgia for the past can blind us to the fact that communities, especially urban ones, have changed and will continue to change in incredible ways. There never was a perfect ‘then’ and imperfect ‘now’, but only the waxing and waning of groups with their own perfectly imperfect stories. The early 19th century saw German Jews come to Bradford attracted by the textile industry in the city. They built businesses and helped to cement the city as a commercial hub. Their passion for business and building increased the quality of life in Bradford for many generations to come. Overall, Bradford has had four Jewish mayors. Within Facebook history groups, the prevailing reaction to Jewish history is one of surprise at how far it intertwines with Bradford’s own and the interest upon its discovery: ‘I didn’t realise there were so many Jewish families in Bradford, I thought they were all in East Leeds’; ‘It’s German Jews in the 1800s that built Bradford. Its all in its history on Google’ [sic], ‘You will see the Star of David in the windows and stonework [in the bookshop]. I believe it was financed by wealthy Jews, learn this on a visit to the wonderful Bradford Synagogue.’ The general ignorance of the city’s past is not particularly surprising, but the members’ openness to learning is a widespread and encouraging sign. However, in a post about a Jewish wool merchant, Harry Khamrisch, one commenter writes ‘I think that the immigrants in the late 19th century were completely different... he and others put into this country whereas most of them now are just take take take.’ It is an unfortunate sentiment found in the groups; anything good about the past is compared to the present, and the present is found lacking.

As mentioned, the large Asian community are often unfairly targeted in the negative comments. The moderators can and do delete such comments and ban their commenters but some, unfortunately, remain. On the other hand, the groups provide a wonderful tool of education. A photo of a Chanukah party elicited the question ‘What party? Not heard [of Chanukah] before’ and a swift reply from the poster to elaborate. Away from the larger public groups exists smaller community-centred groups which are mainly private. Although the number of Jews living in Bradford now is very small, social media allows the community to stay in touch with one another in these private groups. The groups allow sharing and interaction between people who no longer live close to one another. In the public history groups people from a range of backgrounds can learn about the place they call home. Positive stories, like the fact that the Bradford Council for Mosques donated towards the repair costs of a Bradford Synagogue in 2013, can be shared and brought to light. As one commenter notes, ‘the history of Bradford shows how important it is to have an open mind ... Interaction with, and immigration from other countries played a significant role in the history and development of Bradford.’ The multicultural history and present of Bradford is one which invigorates the city. The rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia can blind us to the fact that the past was complex, that the movement of peoples from one place to another is not a new phenomenon, and that everyone has a story from which we can learn something. Further reading: Grizzard, Nigel. (2007). A History of Jewish Bradford. Available at: http://bradfordjewish.org.uk/ahistory-of-jewish-bradford/ (Accessed 25 January 2021) Pidd, Helen. (2019). ‘Say a Prayer: the Muslim Woman who Photographed Bradford’s Last Synagogue’ Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/08/muslim- womanwho-photographed-bradford-last-synagogue-jewish-worshippers-nudrat-afza (Accessed 25 January 2021)

Resources This book is just the start of the findings from the Connecting Small Histories Project!

visit: jscn.org.uk/heritage where you will find more resources including: $ further evacuee stories from St Annes, as told to Hilary Thomas $ a hidden gem from Sunderland, the life of Shlomo ‘Rebbe’ Pearlman written by his grandson David $ Heritage Detectives: KS2 workbook helping children explore local heritage $ links to maps of the Jewish footprints we have found in each of our areas $ a reference guide for other projects and resources

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Additional

small communities

resources

The JSCN website contains a wealth of information, including... List of the UK Small Communities jscn.org.uk/small-communities Antisemistism jscn.org.uk/antisemitism Jewish Support Organisations jscn.org.uk/support Jewish Communal Organisations jscn.org.uk/communal-orgs Jewish Funerals jscn.org.uk/jewish-funerals Becoming Jewish jscn.org.uk/converting-judaism Judaism School Talks / Visits jscn.org.uk/school-synagogue-visits Holocaust Centres & Education jscn.org.uk/holocaust

We would like to thank our fantastic heritage detectives and all those who contributed to the project in so many ways: AARONSON, GRETA, nee Klingover ADLER, SYLVIE [nee] ALEXANDER, Beryl and Rita BARINA, RUTHIE BENSON, MAUREEN, nee Lewis BERD, GLEN BOOK, HAROLD BOOK, Rabbi LEONARD BOURLA, SHARON BOWMAN, STELLA, nee Rosenthal BTESH, DENIS [nee] BTESH, RUTH BUCKLEY, SUSAN CANTOR, ANGELA CARR, ANTHONY COHEN, ANNE, nee Goldstone COHEN, LAURA COLLINS, LYDIA COWELL, JOHN [nee] DUNN, ADELE EVENTHALL, DAVID FERSTER, JONATHAN FISHWICK, ANGELA FOX, PAM FRANK, STEVEN FROOMBERG, BARBARA, nee Lynn GATOFF, PETER GAUS, MARILYN GEE, LYNN GIRLING, ROBERT GUTENSTEIN, SUSAN HILDITCH, ESTELLE, nee Myers HOBSON, SARAH HOYLE, DAVID JACKSON, MADELEINE, nee Brown JACOBS, DAVID

JAFFE, YITZ JAY, ANGELA JEUDA, BASIL JOSEPHS, MICHELLE KEEVASH, DEBORAH LEHMAN, CHAVA LEVER, BRIAN LEVER, JONATHAN LEVINSON, MARTIN LOOFE, ANDREW LOTROVSKY, SHEYNA MARKS, ANNETTE MESRIE, JACQUELINE, nee Bentata MOORE, AUDREY MOSS, PAT NEWTON, MOIRA NAVON, LARRY PEARLMAN, DAVID PEARLMAN, ELLIS PEARLMAN, GILLIAN PIKE, PAULINE, nee Green ROBSON, SARAH RUBIN, MARK SADLIK, DOROTHY SAMUELS, DOREEN SASSOON, DAVID SEABRIDGE, SUE SHANI, RAYE SHINE, ANNE, nee Gordon formerly Kahn SLATER, LAURENCE SLOANE, TONY TAYLOR, JOE TAYLOR, SHEILA TOBIAS, SIDNEY TOPAZ, JEREMY URMACHER, JEAN WAX, DEREK [nee] WINSTON, AUDREY ZIDERMAN, PAULINE, nee Kelly

We would also like to acknowledge the valuable assistance we have received from:

British Jews in the First World War Project (https://www.jewsfww.uk) Eastbourne Family History Society Eastbourne Hebrew Congregation (Brian Megitt) Eastbourne Liberal Jewish Community (Angela Jay) Hidden Treasures Project The Jewish Chronicle Jewish Renaissance The Jewish Telegraph (Manchester) The Keep, Brighton Lake District Holocaust Project (www.ldhp.org.uk, Trevor Avery) Making their Mark: Bradford Jewish Project (bradfordjewish.org.uk, Nigel Grizzard and Benjamin Dunn) Mizpacha Jewish Family Weekly The North East Film Archive (Graham Relton) The North East War Memorials Project (Dorothy Hall) Somerset Heritage Centre (Liz Grant) South West Heritage Trust St Annes Hebrew Congregation Sussex Jewish News (Brian Megitt) WRVS Heritage Plus