Jewish Voices, Memories of Leicester in the 1940s and 50s

Compiled by Rosalind Adam

Jewish Voices is a book of memories using 70 different voices and yet it is a coherent and riveting story of social and historical significance. This high-quality, professionally produced volume is part of a Heritage Lottery funded project which includes a website and touring display.

Memories were collected not only at writing workshops and informal discussion groups but also via email and post. Many memories arrived from London, but as word spread contributions came from all over the world. The power of the Internet ensured that a true cross-section of the population was represented by the 70 voices in the book.

Their story tells of a small, pre-war, provincial Jewish community and the enormous upheaval it experienced in the 1940s when families of Londoners flooded into Leicester to escape the bombs. No one knows for sure how many arrived but all those who were in Leicester at the time talk of an overwhelming number of evacuees. Some evacuees spent the war in Leicester and returned to London when their men were demobbed. A few of these people, largely unknown to the present Leicester Jewish community, have contributed memories of how being Jewish in Leicester felt for them. A large number of London evacuees stayed in Leicester after the war and it was these people, together with the existing pre-war community and a small number of refugees from Europe, who helped to create the new, vibrant and diverse Leicester Jewish community of the 1950s that is recounted so colourfully in Jewish Voices.

To receive a complimentary copy of the book please visit the project website www.leicesterjewishvoices.co.uk or email the project leader Rosalind Adam by clicking here.

Further information about the book and its' launch can be found here www.rkawriting.co.uk/memoriesproject.html