East End Jews

Vivi Lachs will introduce her new book with a lively presentation with performed readings and a couple of Cockney Yiddish songs. East End Jews is a book of sketches from the London Yiddish press. It offers an unparalleled view into the life, labor, politics, and joys of London’s Jewish East End, from its heyday in the 1890s until the 1950s. These accessible, often humorous sketches capture incisive and sometimes cheeky encounters with challenges and debates of the time. They highlight the complex interactions between Jewish immigrants and their British surroundings, from celebrating a new Torah scroll to enlisting in the British army during World War I without citizenship. They take readers on a journey through local tradition and significant social change, tracing the ideas and events that impacted the community.

Vivi Lachs is a historian of the Jewish East End, a Yiddish performer, translator, and associate research fellow at University College, London. She is the co-presenter of the Cockney Yiddish Podcast, manager of the Great Yiddish Parade, vice chair of the Yiddish Café Trust,and leads tours of the Yiddish East End. She sings and composes tunes for archive London Yiddish songs with the bands Klezmer Klub and Katsha’nes.