JEWISH EAST END OF LONDON PHOTO GALLERY & COMMENTARY

London's East End Synagogues, cemeteries and more......

My personal journey through the Jewish East End of London

A Ghost returns to Whitechapel,  By Jean Nadel
 
Grand Palais Yiddish theatre in Commercial RdElderly Jewish man making his way from Sandy's Row shul to Middlesex StreetWhere are the Huguenots who came
To ply their skills on weaving frame?
The synagogue whose hallowed walls
Echoed the hum of Sabbath prayers?
The Russian baths now silent too,
Bereft of steam and Jewish humour!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Beigel seller, Petticoat Lane, circa 1915The man with the Yiddisher pram - from the marvellous film 'A kid for two farthings'Can this be the market place
Where beigels from a miller’s sack were sold?
And, wings outstretched like scarecrows,
The rows of chickens newly plucked
By boobahs with a tale to tell
In a language all their own
To while away the hours since dawn…
When a familiar sight would hush their chatter,
For, pushed by fragile, mittened hands,
A pram in which no infant slept
But ancient phonograph was laid…
When handle turned its age old discs
Their high pitched Yiddish songs emitted.
 
 
 
 
 
Cheder outing from Great Garden Street shulMy grandfather, great aunt and uncle dressed for a simchaSad memories of another place, another time…
Enough!  I wander on and hope to find
That bastion on Tower Hill remaining still,
The ravens keeping watch!

 

 

My dearest Hessel Street, I'll never forget you...Jean Nadel is in her 80s and lives in the East End
The picture of the phonograph man is a still from the East End-themed film 'A Kid for Two Farthings'.
 
 

website copyright of Philip Walker