I’m presently working on a major new musical composition which will attempt to tell the story of the British Jewish community. All 1000 years of it – and I need your help. I’ve been Composer in Residence at the New West End Synagogue and a member of singing group Mosaic Voices for seven years now.
I also run the film hub at UK Jewish Film. Through my work, I’m becoming increasingly aware of the importance of telling stories about British Jewish life and consider myself incredibly lucky to be in a position to do this. I worry that our community is looking to Israel and the USA for a sense of its own Jewishness and not celebrating the uniqueness and beauty of what we already have.
Jewish people were here for more than 200 years in the Middle Ages. We were subsequently expelled from England in 1290, permitted to return in the 1650s, and have been here ever since. That’s a lot of time to establish traditions and cultural offerings which are uniquely British and Jewish.
From fish and chips to the very notion of Yiddish poetry food, literature, music, comedy, philosophy and even religious worship have been developed and transformed by wave-after-wave of Jewish immigration to this country colliding with native British customs. For many years there was a tendency for British Jews to sweep their Jewishness under the carpet. As a result it sometimes takes a bit of digging to unearth the stories which I believe we have a duty to protect for future generations.
I also think it�.