Monday 31 December 2012

Princelet Street Open Day on New Years' Day

For the first time, 19 Princelet Street Synagogue will open to the public on New Year’s Day, joining a select group of London’s major museums. 

‘a remarkable and moving exhibition*****’ 
London Evening Standard

Times: 
New Year’s Day Tuesday 1 January: 2pm to 4pm 
Saturday 5 January: 2pm to 4pm

Dress code: 
North Pole, as this historic building is very cold. 

Entry: 
FREE, donations are welcome

Sunday 23 December 2012

Attendance week of Shabbath Vayigash in Aldgate & the Old Artillery Ground

Friday night at Bevis Marks, we had a minyan.

Shabbath morning at Sandy's Row, around 13 gentlemen and 8 ladies were in attendance. The service was followed by a light lunch in the hall.

Shabbath morning at Bevis Marks was followed by a light lunch in the Abraham and Sarah Lopez Dias Hall.

Sunday morning ( Fast of 10 Tebeth) at Bevis Marks, 11 gentlemen were in attendance. The service was lead by Rabbi Elia.


Thursday 20 December 2012

Shabbath Vayigash in Aldgate & the Old Artillery Ground

Shabbath begins at 3.38pm
Astronomical Sunset
Sunset:15:53:59
Shabbath Ends at 4.53pm or 5.06 (Rabbenu Tam)

Sunday is the Fast of Tebeth. Rabbi Elia will be leading the tefilloth at Bevis Marks at 8.45am.
The fast terminates at 4.43pm (5.07 Rabbenu Tam)

Services this Shabbath in Aldgate and in the Old Artillery Ground:



Sandy's Row in the Old Artillery Ground
Shabbat morning (9.30am)

Please knock if the door is closed.

Bevis Marks in Aldgate
Friday Night Kabbalath Shabbath 6.30pm 

Shabbath morning 08:30am (Zemiroth)
08:45 (Shaharith)

The Hall at Sandy's Row Synagogue.


Wednesday 19 December 2012

The newly re-organised space in the gallery at Sandy's Row

The furniture in the Hall was moved around this week, to give more room, and the make the space appear a bit less chaotic. 


Sandy's Row Concert Rehearsal

Reheasal yesterday at Sandy's Row for tonight's Klezmer concert. The musicians, Abe McWilliams (violin) and Martynas Levickis (accordion) who perform as "Versus", passionately explore the diverse repertoire of possibilities between the violin and the accordion. The duo have been praised for their captivating and creative playing wherever they have appeared.

The event is free of charge and admission is by RSVP to amb.uk@urm.It or 020 7592 2841






The Fabric at Sandy's Row

Sandy's Row has now had its roof fixed, but there are still problems with the building - especially the floor and carpeting in the gallery: Here are two examples of problems that need addressing - there are far more.




Reverend Malcolm Gingold and Rabbi Jonathan Cohen at Bevis Marks

Reverend Malcolm Gingold has played an important role in the East End for several years now. At Bevis Marks he tries his best to keep the morning minyan going by arranging a rota. The morning shaharith minyan at Bevis Marks is now the last morning minyan in the East of London. Our numbers are low, and the regular attendees are not getting any younger. 

Here is Rabbi Jonathan Cohen, at breakfast at Bevis Marks on the morning of his departure to Israel ( he left us on Tuesday). He is expected back again at Bevis Marks for Pureem. His stay here this time around was brief, but productive.


TIMES OF SERVICES IN ALDGATE

Weekday:

Bevis Marks
Sunday Shaharith 8.55 am  (Fast Days, and days when Hallel is said, 8.45am)
Monday - Friday Shaharith at 7.20 am.
N.B. Weekday access to Bevis Marks is via the second doorway on the right as you walk down Heneage Lane from Bevis Marks.

Sandy's Row
Minha at 13.20 Mon - Thurs.
Please knock if the door is closed.

Shabbath:

Sandy's Row
Shabbat morning once a fortnight.(9.30am)
See the calendar for details.
Please knock if the door is closed.

Bevis Marks:
Friday Night Kabbalath Shabbath 6.30pm all winter
Shabbath morning 08:30am (Zemiroth)
08:45 (Shaharith)


Tuesday 18 December 2012

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen's Take on Rabbi Mirvis as Chief Rabbi Designate of the United Synagogue

I've always been interested in what Rabbi Jeremy Rosen has to say - having met him on a number of occasions back in the days when Yakar was still based in Egerton Gardens in Hendon.

His article on Rabbi Mirvis appears in the e-paper 'The Algemeiner'.



I've copied the text here for your convenience:


The centrist orthodox Jewish community of Britain, known as “The United Synagogue,” (established by Act of Parliament in 1870 as the Jewish equivalent of The Church of England) has just appointed Ephraim Mirvis to succeed Jonathan Sacks as its Chief Rabbi.
Rabbi Mirvis is popular and affable. He is the South African born minister of the huge Finchley Synagogue in North London, often parodied for looking like the grill of a Rolls Royce. He is the very model of a successful community, pastoral rabbi. In many ways he is the antithesis of Jonathan Sacks. He is a person’s person, sensitive and socially aware. His Judaism comes more from his heart than his mind. He is a competent speaker and will be able to play his representational role safely without stirring up any hornets nests. He is also a wise enough politician to make sure he will neither offend nor provoke any sector of the community. He will not challenge the authority of either the Beth Din or the Charedi Rabbinate. He will not “Set the Thames on fire.” He is not an academic. But he will focus on his flock and tend to its needs. He is a very safe pair of hands and, I might add, has a very bright, effective and supportive wife.
Will his appointment matter? Once upon a time, when Great Britain had an Empire the Chief Rabbi bestrode the Anglo Jewish world. Men like Marcus Adler and his son Nathan who ruled over Anglo Jewry from 1845 to 1911 [ from Dukes Place in Aldgate] molded the community in their image, a synthesis of Judaism and the Church of England. That was when English Jewry like its American counterpart was concerned with casting off the burdens of strict Eastern European orthodoxy. The banner was accommodation; integration if not assimilation.
Chief Rabbi Hertz (1913-1946) [who had his office at the Great Synagogue in Dukes Place, Aldgate] managed to maintain that delicate balance that allowed the vast majority of Anglo Jews to stay within the Orthodox camp though they themselves were lax in their commitment. Americans find it hard to understand why if most Anglo Jews are not orthodox in their private lives, they still belong to the United Synagogue which is to the Right of the American Conservative Movement. Neither is Reform strong in Britain. This reflects the culture of Britain where one is more aware of what is socially correct rather than religiously consistent!
Under Hertz the factors that would change the face and character of Anglo Jewry began to emerge. During the reign of the gentle ineffectual Israel Brody who succeeded him, the tension between open minded traditionalism and the newly arriving Eastern European Orthodoxy, erupted. The ‘Jacobs Affair’ was a battle over the soul of Anglo Jewry that the right wing won. Brodie ceded authority to the Beth Din and they in turn aligned themselves with the Ultra-Orthodox world. In effect a huge gap opened up between the laity and the religious powers of the United Synagogue. [Israel Brodie retired in 1965, the first Chief Rabbi to leave office by retirement.]
Although Immanuel Jakobovits [ who had his office on Albert Road in Hendon] who followed Brodie was perhaps the most orthodox of British Chief Rabbis he tried to keep the rival elements of the community together and largely succeeded. At the same time he was the first Chief Rabbi to play a role on the wider stage becoming a close friend and adviser of Margaret Thatcher. But on his watch the Beth Din completely cemented its grip on United Synagogue orthodoxy and to all intents and purposes what was once “The Court of the Chief Rabbi” now became the sole authority on religious matters within the United Synagogue and beyond, a position once zealously guarded by the Adlers.
Jonathan Sacks was appointed in the hope of dealing with the growing challenge of the Charedi world by returning the United Synagogue to its constituency of more centrist orthodoxy. But a series of failures of judgement effectively forced him to give up the struggle. He focused instead on public speaking, writing and communication, first with the non-Jewish and then the Jewish world, in which he has been exceedingly successful. But he effectively abandoned any religious leadership role within the community by capitulating to the increasingly extreme trend within Anglo Jewry.
Over the years Britain has declined on the world stage and Anglo Jewry continued to lose its position in the Jewish World. It has shrunk in numbers to around 250, 000 and the twin centers of the USA and Israel increasingly dominate Jewish life around the globe and rightly so. In contrast to the USA and Israel, Anglo Jewry lacks any serious Jewish academic life. Given the fact that in general the rabbinate is now no longer seen as conducive to academic scholarship but has concentrated more and more on social cohesion, it is hardly surprising that Anglo Jewry has less and less impact on world Jewish affairs.
The role of Chief Rabbi has now effectively become a symbolic, diplomatic role rather than one of dynamic leadership. It is a position that requires the holder to service his community rather than to lead it. Whereas Sacks seemed hampered by the constraints of his position, Mirvis will enjoy it far more because he is far better at it. He cannot now hope to stem the increasing stranglehold that the Beth Din and the Right has over Anglo Jewry. The Dayanim of the Beth Din would never have agreed to his appointment had they not felt secure that he would not challenge their authority.
The model of a centralized Chief Rabbinate looks to have failed as a paradigm for effective, dynamic Judaism. The more open flexible American model of much freer association is now seen as a far more creative model. Increasingly people make their own decisions as to where they choose to place themselves on the Jewish spectrum and in many communities there is increasing choice and variety.
In Anglo Jewry the ideological battle to offer an ideological alternative to the Charedi world has been lost for now. But the continuing need to service the community requires dedicated pastoral leadership. In this regard the appointment of Rabbi Mirvis is appropriate and wise.
Jeremy Rosen served as the rabbi of several independent orthodox synagogues in Scotland and England before retiring to the USA.

Monday 17 December 2012

Kosher South Africa @ Bishopsgate

Savannah, our local South African shop is located inside Liverpool Street station, along the narrow alleyway that runs up northward from Boots Pharmacy, parallel to the tracks (platform one).


The store manager, Steve, is Jewish, and has made a point of importing products with a hechsher - the result - a shop where a large section of the packaged goods have the South African Beth Din hechsher - almost all the biscuits, most of the snacks, most of the breakfast cereals, and a selection of sauces and jams.


The following products I photographed all have a hechsher:
Some that don't have a hechsher are on the SA Beth Din kashruth list - Steve will hopefully get a copy of the list and have it available at the store for inspection if needed. In the meantime, you need to do a product search for items with no hechsher, or ask Steve if he is in.

















Coda to Hannukah - Molecular Dreidels


Dreidel-Like Dislocations Lead to Remarkable Properties


Dec. 14, 2012 — A new material structure predicted at Rice University offers the tantalizing possibility of a signal path smaller than the nanowires for advanced electronics now under development at Rice and elsewhere.

Theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and postdoctoral fellow Xiaolong Zou were investigating the atomic-scale properties of two-dimensional materials when they found to their surprise that a particular formation, a grain boundary in metal disulfides, creates a metallic -- and therefore conducting -- path only a fraction of a nanometer wide.

That's basically the width of a chain of atoms, Yakobson said.

The discovery reported this week in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters sprang from an investigation of how atoms energetically relate to each other and form topological defects in two-dimensional semiconductors. In recent work, Yakobson's group has analyzed defects in graphene, the single-atom sheet of carbon that is under intense scrutiny by labs around the world.

But flat graphene has no band gap; electrons flow straight through. "There is a lot of effort to open a gap in graphene, but this is not easy," said Yakobson, Rice's Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and professor of chemistry. "People are trying different ways, but none of them are straightforward. This motivated the search for other two-dimensional materials."

Molybdenum/sulfur (or tungsten/sulfur) materials are becoming interesting to scientists because they have a useful natural band gap, about two electron volts in the case of molybdenum/sulfur. And while they are technically two-dimensional materials, the energies at play force their atoms into a staggered arrangement.

"It's more complex than graphene," Yakobson said. "There's a layer of metal in the middle, with sulfur atoms above and below, but they're fully connected by covalent bonds in a honeycomb lattice, so it's one compound."

Chemical vapor deposition is typically used to grow such material; under high temperatures the atoms (like carbon for graphene) fall into line and form sheets. But when two such blooms appear and they meet, they don't necessarily line up. Where they merge, they form what are called "grain boundaries," akin to grains in wood that join at awkward angles. (Think of a branch meeting a tree trunk.) Those grain boundaries affect the electrical properties of the merged material.

Zou calculated those properties based on the atomic energies of the elements. In looking at the elemental bonds, the researchers found the expected "dislocations" where the energies force atoms out of their regular patterns. "Where the sheets meet, they cannot have an ideal lattice structure, so they have these stitches, the dislocations. Each grain boundary is just a series of these dislocations," Yakobson said.

It was only coincidence that the dislocations took on dreidel-like shapes for a paper published during Hanukkah, he said.

"We found order in this complexity and chaos, the exact structures that are possible at the grain boundaries and the dislocations types," he said.

The growing molybdenum/sulfur sheets can meet at any angle, and though the sheets are semiconducting, the boundaries between them generally stop electrical signals in their tracks. But at one particular angle -- 60 degrees -- the periodic dislocations are close enough to pass signals on from one to the next along the length of the boundary. "Basically, they're metallic in this direction," Yakobson said.

"So in the middle of these domains of semiconducting material, you have this boundary line that carries current in one direction, like a wire. And it's only a few angstroms wide," he said.

"Metal disulfides may be promising for future electronic devices based on materials with reduced dimensions," Zou said. "It is important to understand the effects of topological defects on the electronic properties as we push toward post-silicon devices."

Yuanyue Liu, a graduate student in Yakobson's group, is a co-author of the paper.

A U.S. Army Research Office Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant and the National Science Foundation (NSF) supported the research. Computations were performed at the NSF-funded Data Analysis and Visualization Cyberinfrastructure at Rice.

Another reason to regularly attend shul - it keeps you healthy

"
Recent synagogue attendance is a significant predictor of better health for six of the seven health measures, even after adjusting for age and several other covariates and mediators, including measures of health-related behaviour and social support."

I expect the results of the finding quoted below in more detail are the result of getting up early in the mornings with a sense of purpose, and the social aspect of regularly meeting the same group of people. Interestingly, the protective function came from attendance, not from praying alone at home.

This is why I always say it is better to hold a service in synagogue, even if there will be no minyan. The reward, the rabbis are quite clear, is for attendance.  "He who attends the house of study and does not practice, receives the reward for attendance" (Aboth)

The presence of a minyan in synagogue is important, but isn't the main thing: Coming to shul to pray, even if you know there won't be a minyan, is a mitzvah, as it is better to pray in the synagogue than alone at home, as one's kavvanah ( concentration in prayer) will be better in synagogue, even in the absence of a minyan.

Rabbi Chalafta ben Dosa of Kefar Chanania used to say: If ten men sit together and occupy themselves with the Torah, the Divine Presence rests among them as it is written (Psalm 82:1) "God has taken his place in the divine council." And from where do we learn that this applies even to five? Because it is written (Amos 9:6) "And founds his vault upon the earth." And how do we learn that this applies even to three? Because it is written (Psalm 82:1) "In the midst of the gods he holds judgment." And from where can it be shown that the same applies even to two? Because it is written (Malachi 3:16)"Then those who revered the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord took note and listened." And from where even of one? Because it is written (Exodus 20:24) "In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you." (Aboth)





If you are not part of a community, I highly recommend it.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23193779

Religion and physical health among older Israeli Jews: findings from the SHARE-Israel study.
Levin J.
Source
Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA. jeff_levin@baylor.edu
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Despite decades of research on religious determinants of health, this subject has not been systematically investigated within Jewish populations, in Israel or the diaspora. The present paper is part of a series of studies using large-scale population data sources to map the impact of religiousness on the physical and mental health of Jews.
OBJECTIVES:
To identify religious predictors of physical health in a national probability sample of older Israeli Jews.
METHODS:
The data derive from the Israeli sample of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a cross-national survey program involving nearly a dozen nations. The Israeli sample comprises 1287 Jewish respondents aged 50 or over. Outcome measures include single-item assessments of self-rated health, long-term health problems, and activity limitation, as well as validated measures of diagnosed chronic diseases, physical symptoms, and activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL (IADL).
RESULTS:
Recent synagogue attendance is a significant predictor of better health for six of the seven health measures, even after adjusting for age and several other covariates and mediators, including measures of health-related behavior and social support. Prayer, by contrast, is inversely associated with health according to five measures, perhaps reflecting its use as a coping mechanism for individuals with health problems.
CONCLUSIONS:
This study presents modest evidence of a salutary effect of Jewish religiousness on this population of older adults. Religiousness, in the form of synagogue participation, was seen to serve a protective function, and prayer a coping function.

Minyan at Bevis Marks week before Parashang Vayigash

Sunday morning - last day of Hannukah - at Bevis marks for Shaharith we were quorate for keriath ha-Torah.

Monday morning - 10 gentlemen attended.  Dayyan Gelly, Rosh Beth Din of the London Beth Din, was present. Shalihei Tzibbur I.M. & E.d.M

Tuesday morning -  12 gentlemen attended. Shalihei Tzibbur I.M. & Rabbi Jonthan Cohen.

Wednesday morning - 9 gentlemen

Thursday morning - 9 gentlemen

Friday morning - 8 gentlemen



"Dayan Gelley Shlit"a spent 12 years in Gateshead Kollel, where he received semicha from the Gateshead Rov zt"l and Harav Tuvia Weiss shlita, Av Beis Din of the Ngeda Haredith in Yerushalayeem.
Dayan Gelley Shlit"a is currently the senior Dayan at the London Beth Din and has been at the Beth Din for over 15 years. He brings to the kehillah a wealth of experience in all areas of Torah and Halaha."


The breakfast table this morning - after most people had left. 
From left to right: Henry, John and Malcolm. 

Henry has a new five euro cap, which he is very pleased with. It suits him. 

Sunday 16 December 2012

English Heritage Video about Sandy's Row Shul


English Heritage video about Sandy's Row Synagogue in London


Lithuanian Klezmer Concert at Sandy's Row Synagogue


The Lithuanian Embassy in the UK  together with the Institute of Polish Jewish Studies, Oxford and the Institute of Jewish Studies, UCL are hosting a three day event in London 
entitled:

"Jews and non-Jews in Lithuania: Coexistence, Cooperation, Violence".
There will be events at the Lithuanian Embassy and University College London involving a range of distinguished international speakers. I have attached a programme of events for information.

The conference culminates with a concert of Lithuanian Jewish music to be held at Sandys Row Synagogue on 
Wednesday 19th December 2012 at 7 p.m. to which you are cordially invited.

The musicians, Abe McWilliams (violin) and Martynas Levickis (accordion) who perform as "Versus", passionately explore the diverse repertoire of possibilities between the violin and the accordion. The duo have been praised for their captivating and creative playing wherever they have appeared.

The event is free of charge and admission is by RSVP to amb.uk@urm.It  ( L and T in the email address, not i and t) or 020 7592 2841

We look forward to seeing you at this very special event.

Rose Edmands
Board Member, 
Sandys Row Synagogue

Conference - Jews and non-Jews in Lithuania: Coexistence, Cooperation, Violence
Monday, December 17, 2012 at 3:00 PM - Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at 6:15 PM (GMT)
London, United Kingdom

Top of Form

Institute of Polish Jewish Studies, Oxford
Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London
Lithuanian Embassy in the UK

International conference
Jews and non-Jews in Lithuania: Coexistence, Cooperation, Violence
Monday evening and Tuesday, December 17th and 18th 2012
to launch
Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry, volume 25: Jews in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1772

The history of Lithuanian Jewish communities has been marked by the continuities of religious tradition, but also by cultural dynamism. This conference offers insights into Lithuanian Jewish culture, seeks to throw light on the complex history of Lithuanian-Jewish relations, including their cruel and traumatic end during World War Two, and attempts to assess contemporary Lithuanian-Jewish relations in a European context.
The conference will be preceded by an afternoon event and evening reception at the  Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania on Monday,  followed by  lectures from distinguished speakers all day Tuesday at UCL.
Refreshments and a kosher buffet lunch at the conference are included in the price.

Convenor: Professor Antony Polonsky (Brandeis University)
Conference coordinator:Dr  François Guesnet (University College London)


 PROGRAMME   
Monday December 17th 2012
THIS EVENT IS FREE OF CHARGE
Venue: Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, Lithuania House, 2 Bessborough Gardens, London SW1V 2JE

3pm No Simple Stories II: Jewish/Lithuanian relations in historical perspective
PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT IS ORGANISED BY THE EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA WHO REQUIRE A SEPARATE RSVP FOR SECURITY REASONS.  IF YOU PLAN TO GO PLEASE SEND YOUR NAME, ADDRESS AND CONTACT DETAILS TO amb.uk@urm.lt, or call  020 7592 2841. ADMISSION IS STRICTLY BY PRE-REGISTRATION ONLY

15.00 Registration
15.30 Welcome speech by HE Ms. Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė, Ambassador of Lithuania in the UK
         Welcome speech by Mr Vivien Wineman, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews
15.40  Presentation by  Dr Darius Staliūnas – Pragmatic Alliances published by the Lithuanian Institute of History. The book is dedicated to the political cooperation between Jews and Lithuanians in the beginning of the 20th century in establishing the Republic of Lithuania. 
Followed by discussion chaired by Mr Leonidas Donskis, MEP and
16.35 Presentation of “The Northern Jerusalem” initiative by Ms Anna Avidan, CEO
16.50 Coffee break
17.10 Dr François Guesnet - the conference proceedings of  “No Simple Stories”: re-assessing Lithuanian-Jewish relations in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Comments by Dr Lionel Kopelowitz, President, Board of Deputies of British Jews 1985-1991, Professor Evan Zimroth, Queens College, The City University of New York
Presentation by the Centre of Litvaks Culture and Arts in Vilnius (Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum)
Tuesday December 18th 2012
Venue: JZ Young lecture theatre, Anatomy Building, UCL, Gower Street (just south of the main UCL entrance)
Refreshments will be available from 9.30am in the Gavin de Beer room, Anatomy building
10.00 a.m. Welcome
Chair: Mr Ben Helfgott, Chairman of the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies
HE Ms Asta Skaisgirytė-Liauškienė, Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania 
Opening Remarks: Sir Sigmund Sternberg, President of the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies
10.15 am: Morning Session - What is a Litvak?
Chair: Professor Michael Berkowitz (UCL)
Dr Benjamin Brown (Hebrew University, Jerusalem): ‘From "Habit" to "Heart": Spirituality and De-routinization in the Musar Movement’
Professor Antony Polonsky (Brandeis University), ‘The Origins of the Litvak identity'
Dr Irena Veisaite (Open Society Fund Lithuania, Vilnius), 'Lithuanian Jewish Life after War andCommunism: Personal Reflections'

12:30: Kosher buffet lunch in the Gavin de Beer room

2 pm: Afternoon Session 1 - Aspects of Lithuanian-Jewish Interaction in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Chair: Professsor Antony Polonsky
Dr Darius Staliūnas (Institute of History, Vilnius), ‘Antisemitism in Lithuanian Political Culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’.
Dr Vladas Sirutavičius (Institute of History, Vilnius), ‘ "close, but very suspicious and dangerousneighbour": Outbreaks of antisemitism in inter-war Lithuania'.
Professor Saulius Sužiedėlis (Professor Emeritus of History, Millersville University of Pennsylvania),The Holocaust in Lithuania: The Main Historiographical Problems’.
4 pm: Refreshments in the Gavin de Beer room
4:30 pm: Afternoon Session 2- Contemporary Lithuanian-Jewish Relations in the European Context.
Mr Roger Cohen (New York Times)
Dr Leonidas Donskis (Member of the European Parliament)
Professor Šarūnas Liekis (Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas)
Professor Andrzej Żbikowski (Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw)

6 pm: Conclusion: Film, Jewish Life in Vilna
1939, Poland, 10 minutes
Produced by Yitzhak Goskin 

Wednesday December 19th 2012
THIS EVENT IS FREE OF CHARGE
Venue: Sandys Row Synagogue 
4a Sandy's Row  London E1 7HW
7pm Concert
DUO VERSUS is the pairing of two like-minded musicians (Abe McWilliams, violin, Martynas Levickis, accordion) who passionately explore the diverse repertoire possibilities of the union between the violin and the accordion. As well as arranging and performing transcriptions of sonatas for violin and piano, Duo Versus also delves into other genres and styles from tango, improvisation and folk music to commissioning contemporary works by living composers. Having performed in venues in both UK and Lithuania, notably with performances in the Christopher Summer Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, August 2012, the duo has been praised for their captivating and creative playing, as well as their unique appearance on stage and innovative use of stage designs and costumes to create an effect which is different to most traditional ensembles.
Supported by THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
  ADMISSION STRICTLY BY RSVP ONLY  to amb.uk@urm.lt 0207 7592 2841

The conference has been made possible by generous support from the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, the American Association for Polish Jewish Studies, the Polish Cultural Institute London, and other supporters.
Institute of Jewish Studies webpage: www.ucl.ac.uk/ijs

Photography Exhibition at Sandy's Row Synagogue


C. A. Mathew, Photographer

Designed by James Brown

From the 20th September 2012, Sandys Row Synagogue will be exhibiting the photographs of C.A. Mathew. It is the first time that many of these images have ever been put on public display. We are proud to working with Bishopsgate InstituteLJCC and Spitalfields Life to share these wonderful images with the wider world.
Other than for services – The Exhibition and the Synagogue will only be open to the public (most) Sundays 11.30am – 2pm until February 2013. Please phone at least a week in advance of your visit to see if we are open, and leave your contact details. Our Twitter feed and website is currently inactive.

C.A. Mathew, Photographer
On Saturday April 20th 1912, C.A.Mathew walked out of Liverpool St Station with a camera in hand. No-one knows for certain why he chose to wander through the streets of Spitalfields taking photographs that day. It may be that the pictures were a commission, though this seems unlikely as they were never published. I prefer another theory, that he was waiting for the train home to Brightlingsea in Essex where he had a studio in Tower St, and simply walked out of the station, taking these pictures to pass the time. It is not impossible that these exceptional photographs owe their existence to something as mundane as a delayed train.
Little is known of C.A.Mathew, who only started photography in 1911, the year before these pictures, and died five years later, shortly after his wife at Christmas 1916 – yet today this beautiful set of photographs preserved at the Bishopsgate Institute exists as the most vivid evocation we have of Spitalfields at this time.
Because C.A.Mathew is such an enigmatic figure, I have conjured my own picture of him in a shabby suit and bowler hat, with a threadbare tweed coat and muffler against the chill April wind. I can see him trudging the streets of Spitalfields lugging his camera, grimacing behind his thick moustache as he squints at the sky to apprise the light and the buildings. Let me admit, it is hard to resist a sense of connection to him because of the generous humanity of some of these images. While his contemporaries sought more self-consciously picturesque staged photographs, C.A.Mathew’s pictures possess a relaxed spontaneity, even an informal quality, that allows his subjects to meet our gaze as equals. As viewer, we are put in the same position as the photographer and the residents of Spitalfields 1912 are peering at us with unknowing curiosity, while we observe them from the reverse of time’s two-way mirror.
How populated these pictures are. The streets of Spitalfields were fuller in those days – doubly surprising when you remember that this was a Jewish neighbourhood then and these photographs were taken upon the Sabbath. It is a joy to see so many children playing in the street, a sight no longer to be seen in Spitalfields. The other aspect of these photographs which is surprising to a modern eye is that the people, and especially the children, are well-dressed on the whole. They do not look like poor people and, contrary to the widespread perception that this was an area dominated by poverty at that time, I only spotted one bare-footed urchin among the hundreds of figures in these photographs.
The other source of fascination here is to see how some streets have changed beyond recognition while others remain almost identical. Most of all it is the human details that touch me, scrutinizing each of the individual figures presenting themselves with dignity in their worn clothes, and the children who treat the streets as their own. Spot the boy in the photograph of Crispin St standing on the truck with his hoop and the girl sitting in the pram that she is too big for. In the view through Spitalfields to Christ Church from Bishopsgate, observe the boy in the cap leaning against the lamppost in the middle of Bishopsgate with such proprietorial ease, unthinkable in today’s traffic.
These pictures are all that exists of the life of C.A.Mathew, but I think they are a fine legacy for us to remember him because they contain a whole world in these few streets, that we could never know in such vibrant detail if it were not for him. Such is the haphazard nature of human life that these images may be the consequence of a delayed train, yet irrespective of the obscure circumstances of their origin, this is photography of the highest order. C.A.Mathew was recording life.