Newsletter – July 2008
July 14th, 2008The Society’s July meeting started on a sombre note as Tom Pagett paid tribute to former chairman Alan Rankin who had passed away recently.
Joan Ryder detailed the arrangements for the Society stand at the Village Fête, the Kings Norton outing and the visit to the Mushroom Green Chain Shop.
The evening’s speaker was Dr A Joseph, whose topic was In Search of Jewish Ancestry – Background of the Birmingham Jewish Community. Dr Joseph had completed sixty years of research into local Jewish families and we were treated to a small portion of the fruits of his labours. The first Jews arrived in Birmingham in the 1720s and by 1856 the cathedral synagogue had been built. During the latter part of the Nineteenth Century the Jewish community flourished due to problems in Eastern Europe and Russia causing many families to flee persecution. We learned something of the major achievements of the Birmingham Jews and how the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 had resulted in the dwindling of the local community.
In her vote of thanks, Jean Atkinson paid tribute to a superb speaker who had entertained us with scholarship and humour.