This talk will trace the extraordinary life and times of Lithuanian born Alexander Levin, through his 1954 autobiography as a pioneering Hebrew educator across Eastern Europe at the turn of last century and through the inter-war years. Mervyn will share Alexander’s eyewitness experiences, both of severe discrimination and the delights of now vanished Jewish life … Continue reading Memoirs of a Pioneering Hebrew Educator: a vanished European heritage and new frontiers in Africa

One Life tells the real-life story of the British humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton’s rescue of over 600 predominantly Jewish children from pre-WW2 Nazi-occupation in Czechoslovakia. Starring Anthony Hopkins as Winton, the narrative shifts from the 79-year-old’s comfortable retirement to his haunting reminiscence of the mission.  Hailed as the ‘British Schindler,’ Winton’s crucial role in history is … Continue reading One Life

Another film based on a true story, Kidnapped is a historical drama that uncovers an uncomfortable tale of antisemitism and child abuse at the hands of the Catholic church. It is Bologna,1858, when the six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, is taken from his family by the Papal States and raised as a Catholic.  What follows is the … Continue reading Kidnapped

  Tracing their legacies back to the golden age of circus, this talk charts the successes of the Jewish circus families, their tours and their specialty acts, painting a vivid picture of their legacies. Together we will discover their fates, as people and as businesses, throughout the years of the Nazi regime. Telling these stories … Continue reading Circus Jews under National Socialism

Directed by Ken Hughes, who was ‘fascinated by Jews and Jewish culture,’ The Small World of Sammy Lee ‘is one of the few overt attempts to put British Jewish life on screen’ (Andrew Pulver, The Guardian, 2016).  Adapted from an original BBC television play, this gritty black and white crime film follows hustler and strip club compere, … Continue reading The Small World of Sammy Lee

Marc Chagall frequently painted his wife, Bella; her cultural contribution, though, is not so well known. In her two posthumously published works, the world of her youth, her Hasidic upbringing in pre-war Vitebsk come to life, noisily and brightly, through the eyes of a girl jostling for a better view in the women’s gallery of … Continue reading Bella Chagall – a String of Pearls and the Golden Chain

USA 2009, 12A, 106 mins, English, Yiddish Director Joel & Ethan Coen, featuring Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind Academy Award-winning directors Joel and Ethan Coen return to their comedy roots with this original and darkly humorous story set in Minnesota about one ordinary man’s quest to become a serious man. Physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) … Continue reading A Serious Man

  Lives were bent in the furnaces of the twentieth century, but Granny was unbroken. With a stethoscope, a jar of herring and a hearing aid occasionally switched on, she forged an extraordinary life. Dr Elena Zadik ran through the twentieth century without looking back.  A refugee twice before she was 17, a GP in … Continue reading Elena: A Hand Made Life

Edward Norton, Ben Stiller, Jenna Elfman, Anne Bancroft, Eli Wallach USA 2000, 129 mins, English Director Edward Norton, featuring Ben Stiller, Anne Bancroft, Edward Norton In this romantic comedy, best friends since childhood, Rabbi Jacob Schram and Father Brian Finn are dynamic and popular young men living and working on New York’s Upper West side.  … Continue reading Keeping the Faith