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

 

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

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

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

You published this photo of my father, Sholem Shrensky, and (it is assumed) of L. Gensheroff in issue 24, 2014 of The Cable in the hope that someone might know the location of the Gensheroff premises. Retired Detective Inspector Terry Abrahams astutely found, through the 1911 census, that the family of Isaac Gunscheroff (a close enough re-spelling of the name) resided in London at 9, Union Street, Mile End Old Town, and he kindly informed me of this fact.

JEECS member and former East Ender Cyril Sherer shares tales from his fascinating life in a book published this summer that looks back over his long medical career in four vastly different countries.

I just happened to come across your article on Hessel Street. I am an 85-years old lady now but still remember when my Dad worked plucking the chickens down there, and also playing in Petticoat Lane as a young child when my Mother worked in a café there – many memories of my East End childhood before we moved “up market” to Upper Clapton.

Best Wishes

Joyce Foster

JEECS members and other readers of this website are clearly interested in family history, which is why we thought you might be interested in a service offered by a company that specialises in making films about your family history.

Dear David:

I wanted to write to you in my three capacities, the immediate past Chair of the Jewish
Historical Society of England, the President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain and the Chair of the Working Party on Jewish Monuments (on which Clive Bettington sits) to offer my most sincere thanks and offer congratulations to you on a really excellent edition of The Cable.

 

Our review of Martin Sugarman's fascinating book about the role played by Jewish members of the Fire Services during the Second World War stirred some memories for long-standing JEECS member Yoel Sheridan, one of our members in Israel.  

The superb photography of JEECS member Louis Berk, whose studies of the Brady Street and Alderney Road cemeteries in the East End through the seasons featured in the last issue of our magazine The Cable, has been recognised by the BBC.

Whilst my family are not Jewish the attached picture was found in my husband’s family photograph archives. We have really no idea who the gentleman are but do believe they are dressed for a wedding.

East End Jewish Cemeteries: An Oasis in Whitechapel, a superb collection of photographs of the Brady Street and Alderney Road cemeteries in the East End by JEECS member Louis Berk, is being published on June 15.

Barnet Ruderman’s bookstore and publishing house at 71 Hanbury Street, off Brick Lane, was a key address for a generation of East End radicals.

Latest news

  • Nelson Street shul, the last purpose-built Synagogue in the East End

    When papers reported that East London Central Synagogue’s (ELCS) building was the target of alleged arson, they struggled to name it. Most, including the Slice, chose to name it a ‘former synagogue on Nelson Street’. The struggle with naming the synagogue is that, in many ways, it’s not really just one place of worship. Read More
  • Grodzinski bakery memories sought

      A request from noted historian Pam Fox, author of several brilliant books on Jewish social history, for information on and anecdotes about the East End's famous Grodzinski bakery business. If you can help, please contact Pam via her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pam.fox.108 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  Read More
  • Asleep through the Battle of Cable Street

      The distinguished Oscar-winning film director and illustrator Arnold Schwartzman OBE has sent us the following fascinating reminiscences. I may take the claim to be the sole survivor of the Battle of Cable Street! Aged 9 months, I was fast asleep upstairs in my grandfather Michael Finkleson’s boot repair shop at 292a Cable Street as the battle raged along the Read More
  • Escape from the East End Blitz

    On September 7 1940 I was four years old living with my parents in Sidney Street, in London's East End, on the first day of the London Blitz. I recall that it was a hot evening and my mother had set three salads on the kitchen table when I noticed out of the window that on the neighbouring flat roof there was a man stripped to the waist washing his Read More
  • East End Jews: Secret tales from the London Yiddish Press

    Join Vivi Lachs historian and Yiddish speaker on Thursday 26 March from 7pm-8.30pm at Finchley Church End Library, Finchley, Barnet showcasing the book 'East End Jews: Secret tales from the London Yiddish Press’ it offers an unparalleled view into the life, labour, and the joys of London's Jewish East End, from its heyday in the 1890s until the 1950s. Drawing Read More
  • Oral history of the Jewish East End

    Professor Jason Shela MBE recently contacted us about a research project he is currently conducting to collect the oral histories of people who grew up in London’s East End (which include his father, grandparents and great grandparents). Read More
  • Cinema book author needs your help

      Do you or your family have connections with the cinema in the East End? If so, Isabelle Seddon would love to hear from you. Read More
  • Do you know the Gramophone Man?

    JEECS has been asked if anyone knows the name of the Gramophone Man, pictured here, his back story, when he retired, and the sort of music he played. Read More
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For the old Jeecs site, visit www.jeecs.org.uk/archive