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Bevis Marks: Britain’s Most Significant Synagogue

Virtually explore four galleries dedicated to the UK’s oldest synagogue that’s still active. Bevis Marks was erected in 1701 following the resettlement of Jews in the UK in 1656. Its Wren-style interior remains unchanged, reflecting the influence of the great Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam of 1675. The synagogue embraced a new Sephardi community, led by Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel of Amsterdam, who acted as a Jewish ambassador to Oliver Cromwell. The services at Bevis Marks are today made up of Jews with Sephardi, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi backgrounds.

ONLINE. www.jewishmuseum.org.uk 

David Breuer-Weil: Golden Drawings

A virtual exhibition of illuminated drawings made in isolation by London artist David Breuer-Weil, who’s well known for his huge bronze sculptures. He started the series on day one of lockdown as a form of meditation. Executed in pencil on paper with gold leaf, the pieces reflect different aspects of the current pandemic and the human condition. The series is partly inspired by medieval apocalyptic manuscripts that were often illuminated with gold leaf to give an otherworldly sense of reality, and were often produced in periods of great upheaval. Read more about this project in the Jan 2021 issue of JR.

ONLINE. www.davidbreuerweil.com

Ben Uri

No Set Rules

An exhibition and publication that explores the limitless possibilities of working on paper by bringing together selected drawings, prints and paintings from the Philip Schlee collection by artists working in Britain between 1920 and 2004. Presenting 51 works by 37 artists, No Set Rules covers a wide range of subject matter, techniques and practice, from figuration to abstraction, exploring 100 years of expression on paper and proving, as David Hockney once observed, that “there are no set rules in drawing”.

No end date specified

Cartoons and Caricatures, 1950

This archive exhibition shows contributions from leading cartoonists and caricaturists presenting their renditions of celebrities, from Churchill to Stalin, harmonica player Larry Adler to conductor Sir Thomas Beecham.

No end date specified

Yalta 1945: Komar and Melamid

Launching the world tour of this seminal installation of Yalta 1945, Ben Uri presents the works of Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, graduates of the Stroganov Institute of Arts and Design. Founders of Sots Art, merging socialist realism, politicising pop, and conceptual art, the two are amongst the Soviet Union’s most important non-conformist artists. Their rich career together until 2003, and individually since, is both a challenge to the establishment and traditional in its concepts, with cutting wit and piercing satire, in a post-Soviet and -perestroika world.

No end date specified

Internment: In Memory of Eva Aldbrook – 1925-2020

On the 80th anniversary of internment in Britain, Ben Uri celebrates the many artists who were imprisoned in the UK. The sudden and dramatic implementation of the government’s mass internment policy was a result of the ‘enemy aliens’ register, listing many of those seeking refuge in Britain from Nazi persecution. In this case, internment art was born, which saw the artists use improvised materials in their work, ranging from toothpaste, vegetable dyes and brick dust mixed with oil from sardine cans, and for pigments, twigs burnt to make charcoal sticks; wiry beard hair for brushes; and newspaper to paint and draw on. This exhibition presents 16 artists who were either interned themselves or depicted former internees.

No end date specified

Painting with an Accent: German Jewish Émigré Stories

The Ben Uri Gallery and the German Embassy have come together to mark 85 years of the November pogroms and the Kindertransport with this exhibition, capturing the events that unfolded in 1938 through moving and thought-provoking works of art. During the November pogroms, Germany’s Nazi regime unleashed on Jewish citizens the terrors that would lead to the abyss of the Holocaust and to countless emigration efforts to escape the atrocities. The Kindertransport represented a beacon of humanity in inhuman times. The legacy of the various journeys by the artists featured in this exhibition, and the future of remembrance for the next generation’s interpretation of the events, is captured to remind the audience of the importance of upholding the values of democracy, respect for human rights, and fundamental freedoms that remain at the core of Germany’s key responsibilities.

No end date specified

Motherlands – Angels – Country – Bengal: Paintings, Sculptures and Drawings by Gerry Judah

Gerry Judah’s upbringing in India, surrounded by the fantastic architecture of temples, mosques and synagogues, along with the theatrical rituals of the festivals and cultural celebrations, triggered his highly creative imagination and set the tone for his artistic career. Having worked on high-profile commissions for museums and institutions, this exhibition encompasses a number of different aspects of Judah’s career.

No end date specified

Edith Birkin: The Final Journey

At the age of 14, Edith Birkin entered Poland’s Łódź Ghetto. Three years later, she was sent to Auschwitz and survived a death march to Flossenbürg camp, before being liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Upon discovering that none of her family had survived the Holocaust, Birkin recorded her experiences in the forms of literature (Unshed Tears) and art. This exhibition showcases the latter, with pieces including Entry into the Ghetto, Why, and Liberation Day.

No end date specified

Rothenstein’s Relevance

Sir Willian Rothenstein – artist, writer, teacher and consummate networker – was also a leading British artist in the years before World War I. The themes showcased in this exhibition include Jewish subjects, portraiture and figure studies, plus work from both world wars.

No end date specified

Liberators

Twelve extraordinary female artists from the Ben Uri collection are celebrated in this exhibition, with a focus on their lives, courage and strength of character across countless endeavours undertaken during the first half of the 20th century.

No end date specified

Yiddish: The Language, People and Heritage

This online exhibition explores the Ben Uri archives, with unique pieces reflecting the prevailing cultural heritage of its founders: émigré Lazar Berson and his Yiddish speaking co-religionists; Eastern-European artisans; and businessmen fleeing pogroms in the Russian Pale of Settlement.

No end date specified

Jankel Adler: A 'Degenerate' Artist in Britain, 1940-49

This is the first museum exhibition (now available virtually) of Adler’s works in Britain since 1951. The Polish painter introduced innovative styles and techniques, particularly in printmaking. He is now considered one of the most important European modernists working in mid-century Britain. Works featured include Mother and Child, Beginning of the Revolt, and Bird and Cage.

No end date specified

Becoming Gustav Metzger: Uncovering the Early Years, 1945-1959

In 2021, the Ben Uri Research Unit in partnership with The Gustav Metzger Foundation, presented the first museum exhibition exclusively examining the formative years of refugee artist, activist and environmentalist Gustav Metzger. Now you can view this display online. Showcasing 40 drawings and paintings, the majority never previously exhibited, as well as related archival material, Metzger’s artistic journey is charted while simultaneously uncovering an intriguing episode in the artist's personal life. This small selection of his work is fragile and damaged in places due to being hidden by the artist in the attic of a relative for 45 years and discovered only in 2009.

No end date specified

David Bomberg: A Pioneer of Modernism

David Bomberg, a prominent member of the Whitechapel Boys, was initially appreciated for his chromolithography (multi-colour prints). Later in life, he and Jacob Epstein co-curated the so-called “Jewish section” at the Whitechapel Art Gallery show, 20th-Century Art: A Review of Modern Movements, before serving in World War I. His post-war disillusionment is most powerfully expressed in Ghetto Theatre (1920), following which he began focusing on portraits of friends and family, as well as a series of self-portraits. He then produced many drawings and paintings about World War II and later became a teacher at Borough Polytechnic (now South Bank University).

No end date specified

ONLINE. https://benuri.org

Exile Research Centre

A Light in Dark Times

Little is known about the history of the Laterndl (Little Lantern) theatre, which, as well as the Austrian Centre in London, supported roughly 30,000 Jewish refugees who escaped Austria between March 1938 and September 1939. The Laterndl was the first and largest German theatre run by exiles in London, reuniting those who had worked together in Vienna before the annexation, and despite very few documents surviving from the time, this exhibition contains one of the most complete set of records about the theatre in existence. These documents are presented alongside materials from other sources to tell the story of the unique theatre and includes online resources and suggestions for further reading.

No end date specified

ONLINE. www.exileresearchcentre.omeka.net

John Rylands Research Institute and Library, Manchester

The Many Faces of the Rylands’ Jewish Manuscripts

Manchester university celebrates the digital revolution by compiling 30 years of Hebrew manuscripts. The 400+ articles display exemplary literary and artistic style, spanning the 14th to 19th centuries, including an early 1400s Sephardi Haggadah and a text of Nachmanides' Commentary on the Pentateuch, containing illuminations by the Florentine artist Francesco Antonio del Cherico. The curators owe their thanks to the collections of Enriqueta Rylands, who founded the John Rylands Library in 1900, and Moses Gaster, the Haham (Chief Rabbi) of the Sephardi community in London. 

ONLINE. www.manchester.ac.uk 

Memory Map of the Jewish East End

Artist and writer Rachel Lichtenstein and The Bartlett research units present a new digital resource that allows you to explore former sites of Jewish memory in east London. On it you will find photographs and essays of more than 70 sites in the area, plus audio interviews with residents and testimony from the collection at Sandys Row, the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in the capital.

ONLINE. https://jewisheastendmemorymap.org

Jewish Museum London

Jewish Britain: A History in 50 Objects

Highlights from the Jewish Museum London’s extensive collection. Each object tells a story about the history of the Jewish community in Britain, from medieval to modern times.

ONLINE. www.jewishmuseumlondon.org.uk

Surface Design Association

Material Flux

Akin to how humans manipulate the environment around them, this exhibition showcases artists that have reimagined their materials by using unexpected, recycled elements. Jewish conceptual artist Caren Garfen’s Moral Compass is featured, which addresses the unprecedented resurgence of antisemitism since the Holocaust, highlighting incidents occurring globally today.

Until 31 December

ONLINE. www.surfacedesign.org

University of Durham

Bridging Identities: The Cultural Odyssey of Kurdistani Jews

Kurdistani Jews weaved an intricate tapestry of experiences and stories during their migration to Israel, and this exhibition intertwines historical events and personal aspirations to tell their stories. See how languages and encounters adapt from one generation to the next and from one country to another.

No end date specified.

ONLINE. www.stories.durham.ac.uk

Wiener Holocaust Library

A is for Adolf: Teaching German Children Nazi Values

The four parts of this display – School, Experiences of Jewish Children, The Hitler Youth and Beyond School – portray the various ways that the Nazis tried to influence German children both at school and in other parts of life. Nazi propaganda sought to shape every aspect of young people’s thoughts through books, games and toys.

No end date specified

Berlin/London: The Lost Photographs of Gerty Simon

Before the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany, Gertrud ‘Gerty’ Simon (pictured) was a prominent portrait photographer. From her studio in Weimar Berlin she captured major artists and political figures, including Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya, Käthe Kollwitz and Einstein. She eventually sought refuge in Britain and rebuilt her career, adding Sir Kenneth Clark, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Nye Bevan and more to her portfolio. Now, for the first time in 80 years, members of the public can again see her work at this exhibition of around 600 prints. Read more about Berlin/London in the April 2019 issue of JR.

No end date specified

Dilemmas, Choices, Responses: Britain and the Holocaust

While Britain’s role in fighting the Nazis during World War II is well known, its response to the Holocaust is less familiar. The British government was aware of the mass murder of the Jews and the matter was discussed in Parliament, as well as in the press, but how long was it before they went to war? And did they go to save the Jews or for other reasons?

No end date specified

Fate Unknown: The Search for the Missing after the Holocaust

The complicated history of the search for the missing after the Holocaust and the impact today of fates that remain unknown are examined. The aftermath of the Holocaust caused European chaos, with millions of people either murdered or displaced and many missing, with the fates of some remaining undetermined more than 70 years.

No end date specified

Fighting Antisemitism from Dreyfus to Today

Curated partly in response to the worrying trends in contemporary antisemitism, this exhibition reveals the history of the fight against Jewish prejudice over the last century in Europe since the Dreyfus Affair in 1890s France. Unique and never-before-seen documents as well as photographs from CST (Community Security Trust) archives spotlight the stories of the individuals, organisations and campaigns resisting Jewish discrimination.

No end date specified

Holocaust Letters

How much did those persecuted during the Holocaust understand what was happening to them? This exhibition examines correspondence of the era to find out, looking at how people exchanged information across borders in defiance of censors, deportations and destruction. See how survivors and their relatives preserved letters from the wartime period and how seemingly ordinary objects became precious symbols of what was lost.

No end date specified

Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust

During the Holocaust, resistance groups launched attacks, sabotage operations and rescue missions against the Nazis. Understand the stories of incredible endurance and bravery of the Jewish people who, as the Holocaust unfolded around them, and at great risk to themselves, fought against the Nazis and their collaborators. Featuring names such as Tosia Altman, the Bielski brothers, Ruth Wiener and Anne Frank, learn about the experience of those with incredible endurance and bravery.

No end date specified

On British Soil: Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands

During the German occupation of the Channel Islands 1940–1945, many thousands of people were persecuted, including slave labourers, political prisoners and Jews. This exhibition tells their stories, drawing upon the library’s archival collections, files recently released by The National Archives, and items belonging to the victims of Nazi persecution themselves.

No end date specified

Science and Suffering: Victims and Perpetrators of Nazi Human Experimentation

Science and Nazi ideology worked together during the Holocaust to shape a new vision for a ‘radically pure’ Europe, with scientists seizing the opportunity to advance medical research. They did this by performing cruel and often fatal experiments on thousands of Jews and other ‘undesirables’. The coerced experimentation in Nazi-dominated Europe is explored, along with the legacy of medical research under Nazism and its impact on bioethics and research today at its core.

No end date specified

Tarnschriften: Covert Resistance in the Third Reich

The Wiener Library presents the largest collection of camouflaged anti-fascist propaganda outside of Germany. Materials containing tarnschriften (hidden writings) were concealed in everyday items such as pamphlets and books. The objects display the creative approaches that anti-Nazi resistors took to defy threats of deportation, imprisonment and death by distributing messages promoting an alternative political discourse in Nazi Germany.

No end date specified

The Boy Alone in Nazi Vienna

A cache of 40 letters discovered in a UK loft, and subsequently digitised, document the prelude to an unusual experience of the Kindertransport operation from the perspective of a child. A boy in Vienna wrote to his mother, who was already in the UK, over the course of an agonising four-month separation, during which time both were working frantically towards a reunion they could not guarantee would be able to happen.

No end date specified

The Kitchener Camp

In 1939, a now derelict army base on the Kent coast was the scene of an extraordinary rescue, saving 4,000 men from the Holocaust. The Kitchener rescue, founded and run by Jewish aid organisations that had funded and coordinated the Kindertransport, was a place of refuge to those who had to leave behind their loved ones in the Third Reich. The online project brings together scattered, uncatalogued archives to rebuild the wider history of descendent families.

No end date specified

The Perfect Hideout: Jewish and Nazi Havens in Latin America

Following the Nazi accession to power in 1933, 10 percent of the German Jewish population fled the country, creating the first wave of immigrants. By late 1941, it is estimated that half a million Jews had managed to escape Nazi-occupied territory, thousands of whom eventually emigrated to South America on tourist visas. However, Nazi propaganda fuelled the already present antisemitism there and a rise in Nazis hiding in Latin America during the post-war period changed their names to conceal their former identities.

No end date specified

ONLINE. www.wienerlibrary.co.uk

BOOKS & POETRY

AVAILABLE INDEFINITELY

Unseen: Photographs by Wolf Suschitzky, Dorothy Bohm and Neil Libbert

Three photographers, Wolf Suschitzky, Dorothy Bohm and Neil Libbert, present their responses to London, Paris and New York, photographing it without prejudice or expectation.

FREE. ONLINE. www.benuri.org

WORKSHOPS