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Dear JHSE members,
I am at home today ill with a throat infection that prevented me from attending - as I had wishes - a rather wonderful event at the Victoria and Albert Museum: The V&A and its Jewish Heritage: Objects and Stories. Luckily, the organisers had set up an excellent hybrid facility, so I have been able to join from bed. What a rich programme! I advertised it and hope some members were able to attend. Fundamental question have been raised: what is Jewish art? Made for Jews? By Jews? Collected by Jews? And what of objects, like a beautiful havdallah container of spices, later made into a Christian reliquary. The love of art and collection by Jews was variously shown to arise from a sense of civic contribution, a desire to preserve Judaica, or even a way of being English. A most interesting event which makes me wish to rush to the V&A and see some of the objects afresh. It was also great to hear among the contributors members of the JHSE.
I am happy also to share that new branches of the JHSE are under 'construction'. Last week, on 16 November, we were hosted in north London by Caroline and Simon Maurice, for a most interesting event: a conversation with Nick Sayers whose history of the Jews of Lithuanian has recently been published:
Nick was in conversation with JHSE Trustee Professor Tony Kushner, as the history and the journey of research unfolded. The event attracted a large crowd and this may form the core of a future North London Branch.
Next week, on 3 December 2024, we will also be holding at my house the inaugural meeting for a Cambridge JHSE branch. With the many students and academic visitors from abroad, with many interesting Cambridge residents, we hope to launch a vibrant addition to JHSE. If you are interested in knowing more about these initiatives, please contact our Chair about North London (chair@jhse.org), or me, about Cambridge (president@jhse.org).
I also invite you to the next very timely lecture, just around the anniversary of the UN's decision to offer partition as a settlement for Jews and Arabs in Palestine on 29/11/47. On 27/11/24 at 8.15pm, our own Richard Cohen will be addressing the Essex Branch at the Chigwell and Hainault Synagogue and many of us online to speak about the figure most associated with the shaping of Jewish life in 20c Palestine: Lord Balfour. You can sign up here: https://www.jhse.org/event-details/balfour-and-beyond
The Jewish Country Houses project has been for several years now a sources of interest to members of JHSE: we have heard lectures from its members, and its researchers have been part of our New generation Group. You are all invited to the launch of the book arising from the project, on 5 December 2024, at 7.45pm, in the Max Weinbaum Hall, Norrice Lea N2 0RE. Sign up here: hgss.org.uk/events/houses (using password hgs613). The project writes:
To mark the launch of the first book to tell this story, please join us for a conversation between the editors Juliet Carey (Waddesdon Manor) and Abigail Green (Brasenose College, Oxford) The discussion will be chaired by historian Charles Landau.
Beautifully illustrated with historical images and a new body of work by the celebrated photographer Hélène Binet, this landmark book takes readers from the playful historicism of the National Trust's Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, Trent Park and its dark history to the modernist masterpiece that is the Villa Tugendhat in the Czech city of Brno - and across the Atlantic to the United States, where American Jews infused the European country house tradition with their own distinctive concerns and experiences.
And from an unexpected direction, the history of midwifery - made so much more popular by Call the Midwife - we have some Jewish History too. On 11 December 2024, at 6pm, you can join a webinar and hear Dr Jane Brooks of the University of Manchester discuss her new book on Jewish refugees and the British nursing profession, 1938-45.
‘ A suitable job as the training provided you with food and accommodation’
This talk explores the contribution of Jewish refugees to nursing from the 1930s as they fled Nazi territories, to their work during the Second World War. Few had considered nursing prior to their escape and several were ambivalent about becoming a nurse once in Britain. Despite critical nursing shortages across the country, many struggled to be accepted into hospital training programmes, with restrictions only being lifted by the middle years of the war. In the face of war, hospitals needed to accept Continental Jews into their midst, women who some soon acknowledged offered significant talent to their nursing workforce. Using oral and written personal narratives, the talk demonstrates these resilient young women soon realised that nursing was a pragmatic choice as it provided a training, a home, valuable war work and a potential future career.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 972 5358 6343
Passcode: 736230
And in a surfeit of history, I intend to join the Sussex Branch and others from my sickbed this evening, to hear Dr Hilary Pomeroy speak about Salonica, one of the most resilient, interesting, creative Jewish communities over centuries, one that experienced a tragic end during the Second World War and the Holocaust. You can sign up to join here: https://www.jhse.org/upcoming-events
In troubled times it is a comfort to gather with like-minded folk to learn and reflect about history and heritage.
Wishing you all the best, your President. Miri Rubin
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