Catch up on our Reading Events
Even though our August Reading Festival has now finished
you can catch up here with recordings of all the main events
LOCAL STORIES
Monday morning
10 August at 10am-11.30am
We begin our explorations with Rebecca Taylor, Editor of Jewish Renaissance, who will be talking with Ed Horwich about her recent work on local histories in Cambridge, Oxford, Brighton and the North of England. We are delighted that JR has shared two recent Passport sections with readers, which can be found via our BOOKSHELF
MISSED IT?
Catch up and view highlights on Facebook:-
LIFE STORIES
Monday evening
10 August at 7pm-8.30pm
Pam Fox, author of numerous works on Jewish heritage, including A Place to call my Jewish Home, will be in conversation with Ed Horwich (Director, JSCN) about how life stories interconnect people and places. Join Pam as she shares some examples of her work, including her current project.
Extracts from her writings can be downloaded from our BOOKSHELF
MISSED IT?
Catch up and view to full recording on Facebook:-
YOUR STORIES
Monday morning
17 August at 10am-11am
What have your read - book, article, personal diary - that has connected you with YOUR history? This open session, led by Trish Skinner.
Available to all Reading Festival ticket-holders.
Got a suggestion for the bookshelf?
Email heritage@jscn.org.uk with 'Bookshelf' in the subject line.
PLACING STORIES
Monday evening
17 August at 7pm to 8.30pm
Join Nigel Grizzard, co-creator of Making their Mark, as he discusses building Jewish heritage walks in Yorkshire and the importance of re-tracing invisible footprints of past communities.
Hosted by Trish Skinner
MISSED IT?
catch up with the full event on Facebook
WOMEN'S STORIES
Monday evening
24 August at 7pm-8.30pm
The Festival welcomes Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz, in conversation with Carter Speedy. We are going to be talking about her latest book, "Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women”, with a focus on the impact of innovations in ritual and how women’s minhagim (customs) have changed over time.
MISSED IT?
Catch up by watching the recording on our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/jscnuk/videos/780250492779980/
About Challenge and Conformity:
Orthodox Jewish women are increasingly seeking new ways to express themselves religiously, and important changes have occurred in consequence in their self-definition and the part they play in the religious life of their communities. Drawing on surveys and interviews across different Orthodox groups in London, as well as on the author’s own experience of active participation over many years, this is a thoroughly researched study that analyses its findings in the context of related developments in Israel and the USA. Sympathetic attention is given to women’s creativity and sophistication as they struggle to develop new modes of expression that will let their voices be heard; at the same time, the inevitable points of conflict with the male-dominated religious establishment are examined and explained. There is a focus, too, on the impact of innovations in ritual: these include not only the creation of women-only spaces and women’s participation in public practices traditionally reserved for men, but also new personal practices often acquired on study visits to Israel which are replacing traditions learned from family members.
This is a much-needed study of how new norms of lived religion have emerged in London, influenced by both the rise of feminism and the backlash against it, and also of women’s new understandings of their religious roles.
INSERT YOUR STORY
Monday morning
31 August at 10am-11am
Where is YOUR Jewish heritage? Sarah May explores how you can put your footprint on the map.
Available to all Reading Festival ticket-holders.
WRITE NOW!
Monday evening
31 August at 7pm-8pm
The Team close the Festival with a workshop on how you can start to record your history and heritage.
Available to all Reading Festival ticket-holders.
AUTHORS TALK
"Where Are the Grown-ups?" by RUTH BADLEY
Monday 21st SEPTEMBER 2020
Ruth shares the true story of her family across three generations of women in London's Jewish East End
The secrets surrounding a great loss and a tragic family misunderstanding form a fascinating and touching personal history, as told in Ruth's new book "Where are the Grown-Ups?"
A vibrant storyteller and well-travelled Ruth Badley unravels whispered tales that start at the beginning of the 20th century and continue to the present day.
MISSED IT?
Catch up by watching the recording on our Facebook page
OUR VIRTUAL BOOKSHELF
Come and browse our heritage bookshelf, a fascinating collection of articles and book extracts curated especially for the Connecting 'Small' Communities Reading Festival on Jewish heritage and local heritage.
We'll share the link during each Festival event, or check on the JSCN Heritage Hub
Highlights include:
· a chapter from John Cowell's Philanthropy, Consensus and Broiges... A History of the Southport Jewish Community, a comprehensive and detailed story from the start of the community to the emergence of Reform and the challenges of maintaining communities to the present day. This particular chapter was chosen because it also explores how the St Anne's community - one of our 'Small' Histories - took the lead in supporting refugees and evacuees in WWII. [downloadable PDF]
Were you (or perhaps family members) evacuated to St Anne's, or to Cumbria, Somerset or Eastbourne?
Please contact us via email at heritage@jscn.org.uk with the subject line 'Evacuees'
· extracts made available by our friends at Jewish Renaissance from their recent focus on small communities, including our focus areas of Bradford, Sunderland, Cumbria and St Anne's:
April 2020: https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/87591/spread/16
July: https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/88763/spread/22
Many of these stories include people moving around the UK - does your family have a similarly mobile history?
Come to one of our writing workshops to make connections!
Or email us at heritage@jscn.org.uk with the subject line 'Moving'
· an absorbing study of the beginnings of the Sunderland Hebrew Congregation by Bernard (Baruch) Susser, which explores (and reproduces, with an English translation) the 19th-century constitution of the Hebrew Congregation but which is itself a series of layered histories.
Written in 1969, the piece was not published until 2005, at which point it received an Epilogue by the late Charles H. Slater, Chairman of SHC.
A must-read for anyone interested in Sunderland's history. [downloadable PDF]
Do you have a Sunderland connection, however distant?
Share it with us at heritage@jscn.org.uk with the subject line 'Sunderland'
· in addition Hilary Thomas has given an interview about her work on the small communities of the North-West (including her collaboration with John Cowell), available as a link from the Heritage Hub. Read more about Hilary's work on Wigan here:
https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/m48_wigan/index.htm
Want to explore further back in time?
· two articles from up-and-coming author Toni Griffiths on the more distant, medieval Jewish heritage of places like York and Winchester. Why is it important to remember such distant histories and not to forget them? And why is mapping such histories neglected in some places, even today?
A passionate advocate of making hidden histories visible and accessible,
Toni can be contacted via the heritage@jscn.org.uk email address, with subject line 'Medieval' and her pieces can be accessed here:
https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/have-your-say/touring-the-invisible-the-public-recovery-of-englands-medieval-jewish-history/
and
https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/5932/file/pardes18_s67_78.pdf
Check back as we'll be adding more items and links to the bookshelf throughout August!
Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund