Comments on: In Search Of The Yiddish East End

By: David Lawson

David Lawson — Sat, 24 May 2025 11:23:47 +0000

By the time A Kid for Two Farthhings came out my father had lost his ability to speak the Yiddish of his Stepney childhood but could still understand it. That led to strange situations during our visits to my grandparents [who had long ago moved out to Stoke Newington] in which they chatted to him in a weird, unrecognizeable language while he answered in English.

By: susan kennedy

susan kennedy — Fri, 23 May 2025 07:59:21 +0000

Fabulous initiative which I look forward to visiting. Yiddish film, theatre and lit is so immensely rich, and deserves to be better known. I hadn’t heard of Annetta’s House. It renews my faith in life to know about this kind of thing and person.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Mon, 19 May 2025 21:20:33 +0000

I belong to that generation whose Jewish parents had been brought up in the East End, my father as the youngest child of Russians who arrived about 1840 and my mother, who arrived as a young girl from Galicia (near Lvov). Nothing is known of how and why the paternal ancestors made the journey; my mother followed in the footsteps of her sibs, all of whom made better lives for themselves by their migrations. Until the nineteen thirties they lived in Whitechapel or Stepney but then began to move northward into Hackney or further afield though it took the Blitz to finally drive them out. Whether redevelopment will be allowed to amount to a new Blitz remains to be seen. But the indications are that it is not a foregone conclusion. I hope the old-style properties will be found to be worthy of preservation. Sadly, I shall not live long enough to see the outcome, being now well into my nineties.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Mon, 19 May 2025 10:55:16 +0000

I love the end wall Portraits. They say so much. An area rich in history, and which must never be lost.

By: ANDY STROWMAN

ANDY STROWMAN — Mon, 19 May 2025 08:42:30 +0000

So I ask myself and others wherever we go Mama Loshen ( our mother’s tongue) is near our nose and minds .