Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester, Manchester Jewish Research, Association for Jewish Refugess, Bill Williams

MANCHESTER JEWRY RESEARCH

Owens College, Manchester (later the University of Manchester)

IN GENERAL

The Centre is developing resources for the history of Manchester Jewry, including histories of families once in Manchester but now elsewhere (especially Israel and the US).

If you have material which you would be willing to make available, either to be archived and made available only to enquirers or to be mounted on the web site, please send it in electronic form to CJS@man.ac.uk.

While the Centre has an interest in local Jewish history, we regret that we do not have the resources to respond to individual requests for information relating to personal family or genealogical research. Possible contacts and sources of information include:

Lorna Kay (email: lorna.kay@talktalk.net) - Chairman of the Manchester Regional Group of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain.

Ros Livshin (email: rosalyn.livshin@googlemail.com) - a local professional Jewish genealogist and Fellow of the Centre for Jewish Studies

Bill Williams (email: billwilliams31@btinternet.com) - a local historian, Lecturer and Fellow of the Centre for Jewish Studies, and author of 'The Making of Manchester Jewry', (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985); 'Manchester Jewry; A Pictorial History' (Manchester: Archive Publications, 1988); 'Religion, City and Community; the Life and Times of Sir Sidney Hamburger' (London: Valentine Mitchell, 2000).

The Manchester Jewish Museum has a website and contact information at: www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

The Manchester Central Reference Library has a website and contact information at: http://www.manchester.gov.uk/libraries/arls/

The Manchester branch of the Jewish Historical Society of England has a website and contact information at: www.jhse.org/manchester/

If you have not already seen it, take a look at our internet exhibition, 'Manchester and Zionism'. If you have historical information that you think might be relevant to the exhibition, or to Manchester local Jewish history in general, we would be delighted to hear from you.

AJR-CJS PROJECT

A three-year research programme (2002-05), sponsored by the Association for Jewish Refugees, centres on the experiences and impact of refugees from Hitler's Europe who chose to settle in Manchester between 1932 and 1940. It will embrace:

• The European backgrounds of the refugees;
• The circumstances of their departure and arrival in Manchester;
• Their personal experiences before, during and after the Second World War;
• The agencies available for their support;
• Their short and long term influence on both the Jewish community and the city of Manchester;
• The patterns of their settlement, cultural activity and religious affiliation and personal identity in contemporary Manchester

The principal researcher is Bill Williams (email: billwilliams31@btinternet.com), who will compile a book based upon the research in the year following it completion. The aim would be a book which would be both scholarly and accessible.

Bill Williams is assisted by three research assistants dedicated to particular, closely defined tasks: Rosalyn Livshin (email: rosalyn.livshin@googlemail.com ), is a highly experienced interviewer and an historian who has already worked with Jewish refugees. Lynne Jesky (email: jesky@jesky.freeserve.co.uk) and Yaakov Wise (email: yaakovwise@msn.com) are Ph.D. students at the University of Manchester whose work relates in part to the experiences and impact of Jewish refugees in Manchester.

Information relating to refugees in Manchester will be gratefully received.

The creation of the CJS-AJR project is largely the result of the efforts of Mr Werner Lachs, chairman of the Manchester branch of the AJR and himself a former refugee from Cologne who arrived in Britain in June 1939, to facilitate an examination of the religious, social, cultural and economic impact of the arrival in Manchester of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1930s onwards. The research will focus upon the experiences of the first and second generation of refugees, together with the responses from both the Jewish and non-Jewish host population.

Mr Ronald Channing, AJR Head of Media and Communal Relations in London (email: ronald@ajr.org.uk), commented that the AJR was delighted "that the history of the German-speaking refugee community in Manchester and its environs will be thoroughly researched and recorded for all time by a highly qualified and motivated scholar from the prestigious Manchester University."

Professor Bernard Jackson, Co-Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies (email: Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk), welcomed the award as "a major and significant addition to the Centre's work in modern Jewish history, reflecting our close relationship with and interest in the local community".

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The Co-Directors of the Centre are:
Professor Philip Alexander, Professor of Post-Biblical Jewish Literature
Professor Bernard Jackson, Alliance Professor of Modern Jewish Studies

Centre for Jewish Studies, Department of Religions and Theology
University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL
Tel: 0161-275 3614 Fax: 0161-275 3613 E-mail: cjs@man.ac.uk