The 2018 European Days of Jewish Culture in the UK went out throughout the months September to November. The 2018 theme of ‘Storytelling’ landed itself to a huge range of events:

The Michael Sobell Jewish Community Centre took part for the first time this year, opening up the centre for an intergenerational afternoon tea and a talk by author Eric Levene, who shared stories of the East End taken from his book, ‘Feinstein’s Theory of Relatives and Other Hessel Street Stories’. Levene created 15 humorous fictional stories set in and around the Jewish East End of London during the late 1940s and early 50s.

Winchester Tourist Guides led a guided walk on ‘Medieval Jewish Winchester’. Winchester Heritage Open Days gave a talk as part of their ‘Extraordinary Women’ series on Licoricia of Winchester, the most notable English Jewish businesswoman in the 13th century. Her clients included members of the royal family. The Institute of Public Understanding of the Past, together with the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, University of York  ran a mixed media project on the composer and cantor Jewlia Eisenberg and the historian David Shneer. It tells the story of Lin Jaldati, a Dutch Jewish Communist cabaret performer in the 1930s, Nazi death camp survivor, postwar immigrant to East Germany, and global Yiddish singing sensation until her death in 1988.

Other key events included the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, who held three writing workshops (in Dumfries, Greenock and Inverness) and an exhibition of Scottish artist Hannah Frank’s prints, sculpture and memorabilia to mark what would have been her 110th birthday.

One of our regular walking guides, Nigel Grizzard, led five different walks as part of Yorkshire Heritage Walks across Bradford and York. And another of our regular guides, Rachel Kolsky, led a fascinating walk entitled ‘Radicals to Rinkoffs’, to discover the radical history of the East End’s revolutionaries and anarchists, including her favourite, Rudolph Rocker. The story of Whitechapel’s only surviving Jewish family owned bakery, Rinkoffs, was woven into the tour… and Danish pastries were included!