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It is good to join you, dear JHSE members, with much news about the Society's activities.
It is good to begin with beginnings: on 18 February 2025 at 8pm the inaugural meeting of the JHSE Cambridge branch will take place, led by a small group of which I am a member. Our first speaker will be Professor Christopher Clark, Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, who will speak about The Jews and the End of Days. Please let me know if you wish to attend as the first session is by invitation.
We are also delighted to announce the fruition of a collaborations with the Manchester Jewish Museum (MJM). Since its relaunch, we have been in touch with the MJM staff, and have sought ways of sharing interests and expertise. We hope to re-launched a JHSE branch in Manchester, and the forthcoming series of lectures (first on 20 February 2025, more information to come) will form a meeting point for those interested in such a branch, all led by JHSE Trustee, Professor Gavin Schaffer of Manchester Metropolitan University. Please contact me or him if you wish to join such a branch and to contribute to its flourishing.
2025 has started with another 'first'. Our New Generation Group of emergent historians has made its first application for funding of a part-time post in support of its activities. The NGG was founded in 2020, and has grown in number and scope as a unique peer group for those who are at the start of their journeys as historians of the Jewish past. The NGG organises an annual conference, reading groups, seminars, and career development opportunities. JHSE Trustees helped develop the application, but most of the work was done by the NGG Committee members. I am sure members are happy to hear that JHSE nurtures the next generations of historians, and very much hope that the application will be successful.
Another way you the members support the making of Jewish history is through our awards for research, efforts led by Trustee Professor Tony Kushner. I recently enjoyed a great deal the results of a photographic documentation project called Kehilla. Photoghrapher Nudrat Afza has produced this series of powerful images which capture moments in the life of one of several Jewish communities - a Kehilla.
We hope Nudrat's work will be published as a book and will share with you information about it when that happens. Here is a link to her website meanwhile: https://nudratafza.co.uk
And as we think of documentation and memory, it is impossible to overstate the importance of the Wiener Holocaust Library in such work. Hence I am delighted to announce an online event on 28 January 2025, at 7.30pm when Dr Peter Morgan, Education Officer at the Wiener, will present the Library's history, some of its signal contributions, and even lopok to its future. You can sign up here: https://www.jhse.org/event-details/the-wiener-holocaust-library-after-90-years
In anticipation of Holocaust Memorial Day, Cambridge PhD researcher, Beatrice Leeming has organised a number of reflective events, including music and testimony, to which all are welcome. I attach the posters with details here:
The JHSE seeks to introduce its members to interesting new research, presented in an engaging fashion. Some of us had the pleasure of hearing Nick Sayers present his book on the Jews of Lithuania in conversation at an in person event last November. It was such a great event that we now offer another occasion to here Nick, this time online, on 22 January 2025. You can sign up on the JHSE website, here: https://www.jhse.org/event-details/book-launch-the-jews-of-lithuania-1
As ever, the winter is also the time for reading and thinking about books. So let us not forget the Jewish Book Week 2025, 1-9 March 2025, with its many talks, lectures, and conversations with authors, among them many historians.
Wishing you all the best, and hoping you will write to me with suggestions and comments.
Your President, Miri Rubin
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