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

JEECS is working with an American film company making a feature film on the life of Daniel Mendoza, known as the father of scientific boxing.

The historic Still and Star public house in Aldgate has been saved from demolition and site redevelopment after a campaign by the Victorian Society, supported by JEECS. 

The organisers of this event are  seeking information from Jews who have World War One connections.  The London Jewish Cultural Centre has been awarded a substantial lottery grant to establish a website dedicated to the role London Jews played in the First World War.

If Lewis Altman is remembered today other than by immediate family it is as a leading character in two City scandals of the 1970s. But he has quite another claim to fame; he was one of over 540 British, Dutch and Empire prisoners of the Japanese during the second world war. Many, including Altman, were East Enders.

Do you have memories, or stories from your families, of going to the dogs or the races? Or what about popping down the pub in the days of the old East End? If so, JEECS member Isabelle Seddon would like to hear from you.

Bernard Kops’s place in the canon of English writers is probably assured. And anyone with doubts will have had them dispelled by the May 17 event at JW3, the Jewish cultural centre in north London.

We have to declare an interest; Bernard is JEECS life president. He is also the last of that band of writers, including Emanuel Litvinoff and Sir Arnold Wesker, who, coming from the Jewish East End, have used consummate artistry to capture its ethos and atmosphere.

HAROLD POLLINS investigates an old headline and discovers a forgotten project to give East Enders the opportunity of less crowded living in a new development.

A US resident wonders whether a photograph on an East End blog might be of someone to whom she is related. The subject of the photograph, a Mr Ralph Burns, bears a striking resemblance to the writer’s grandfather, who went to the US as a child. She thinks they might be relatives. Can you help her contact Mr Burns?

Holocaust Memorial Day was marked in the East End with a wide range of events, culminating in the annual Interfaith Commemoration at the East London Central Synagogue in Nelson Street.

Michael Philip Davis, born Posimensky, came to the East End as a small child in the 1880s. Some 70 years later, he wrote a fascinating account of his early life, his eventually fulfilled dreams of settling in what would become Israel, and his first visit there. His great grandsons have kept his memory alive and Eliav Schmulewitz, one of them, contacted JEECS for help in tracking down more about his time in London. A posting on our Facebook page yielded at least one new discovery. Here below (unedited except for some explanatory additions in brackets) is Michael Davis’s account of his East End days, followed by some of Eliav’s findings and his request for further information. You can read more of Michael Davis’s own account on http://www.cabinetmaker.blogspot.co.il/.

The Jewish East End is to feature in a new Living History series on BBC television – and you could be part of it. Wall to Wall Television, the production company responsible for such hits as WhoDo You Think You Are?, Turn Back Time: The High Street, and the recent BBC2 series Back In Time For Dinner, is seeking people willing to relive the East End of the late Victorian era, including what assistant producer Emily Thompson calls the “rich story of the Jewish community living in these areas at the time”.

Fieldgate Street synagogue, which had been one of the last remaining active synagogues in the East End until relatively recently, has been bought by the adjacent East London Mosque.

Latest news

  • Bloom's book launch

    Many of us will remember the iconic Bloom's kosher restaurant in Whitechapel and its offshoots in Edgware and Golders Green. Its fascinating history is the subject of a new book which has its official launch at Finchley Church End Library, 318-320, Gateway House, Regents Park Rd, London, N3 2LN, on Sunday June 1 from 2.30 (but please arrive by 2.00) to 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
  • Three great films at JW3

    Three great films, including the Jewish East End classic East Endings, are being screened together at JW3, the Jewish cultural centre, in showings from Sunday April 6 through to April 10. Read More
  • Hackney History Festival returns for second year

    Not just the Jewish East End but the broader history and culture of an area that had a thriving Jewish life. Yes, the Hackney History Festival is back for its second year, even bigger and better. Running over two weekends, 10–11 May and 17–18 May, with satellite events throughout May, this year’s festival is a celebration of Hackney’s incredible past, with a jam-packed programme of 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
  • More emerges about H Lotery and Co

    A while back, we had a reader asking if anyone had any information about a company his mother had worked for in the East End and which she remembered as being called Lottries. The inquiry sparked some fascinating replies, which identified the company as H Lotery and Co, and we've just had a response from the grandson of the company's Read More
  • Project seeks material and memories from the legendary Yiddish poet A.N. Stencl

    Did you know or do you have material from the Polish-born Yiddish poet Avrom-Nokhem Stencl (also known as A. N. Stencl) who was once famous in east London for selling his celebrated Yiddish magazine Loshn un lebn (Language & Life), for running his Friends of Yiddish Saturday afternoon literary society and for his many acclaimed publications of Yiddish poetry? Stencl Read More
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For the old Jeecs site, visit www.jeecs.org.uk/archive