FILM

play. The other was Lothar Mendes’s Clockwise from top left: Two Worlds; British Union of scenes of men, women and children documenting smaller communities around adaptation of Lion Feuchtwanger’s Jew Suss Fascists march, 3 October 1937; Barber of Stamford performing the fascist salute against a the UK. Rushes for a 1966 documentary (1934) – not to be confused with the 1940 Hill; Some of My Best Friends; Mr Emmanuel; backdrop of Union flags. Previously unseen on the declining Belfast community, Jewish Britain captured Marriage of Rose Carmel; Below: Vanishing Street Nazi propoganda version – which also has footage from British Paramount News preserved in the Ulster Television archive, Conrad Veidt in the lead. While neither captures the anti-fascist demonstrations are included as part of the Northern FILM in new film archive character is entirely sympathetic, here was entertained by the San Diego Dance Band. in the wake of Cable Street, and later the Ireland Screen Digital Film Archive a more nuanced representation at last. Filmed professionally on 35mm film, at welcome given to Jewish children rescued initiative. The changing face of the East FILM The British Film Institute has launched a remarkable archive An astonishing discovery was the considerable cost, here is a forerunner of from the horrors of Bergen-Belsen in 1945. End, as Jews moved out to be replaced by amateur fiction film The Wicked One – today’s home movies. As social change swept Britain and other communities, was depicted by Robert depicting Jewish life in Britain over the last century. Curator What Does He Say (1934), its title drawn The contribution of amateur Europe in the 1960s, the nature of Jewish Vas in his classic BFI-funded The Vanishing Simon McCallum talks us through the collection’s highlights from the Passover Haggadah. In the film, filmmakers becomes important from the identity itself began to Street (1962), and the ATV a rabbi recalls the shocking violence of the 1930s onwards: Leeds grocer Jack Goldberg, be addressed on screen. drama Just One Kid (1974). lmost a million films and TV antisemitic stereotypes of the avaricious pogroms in his home country and struggles who ran Roundhay’s Modern Food Store; Britain’s Jews (1965), from “One amateur In recent years programmes are preserved in the Jew. An earlier film, The Aliens’ Invasion with the hardships of his new life in the UK. socialist-minded Lewis Rosenberg, born ITV’s This Week strand, filmmaker cameras have turned A BFI National Archive, telling stories (1905), referenced the 1905 Aliens Act which Felix Aylmer plays a kindly British Jew in in London to Polish parents, captured and the documentary captured towards the Charedim (the of life in the UK since the dawn of cinema curbed immigration – the unspoken target the equally extraordinary Mr Emmanuel holidays to Catalonia, Cornwall and Some of My Best Friends Orthodox). In Julia Dover’s in the 1890s. As part of the Britain on Film being Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe. (1944). Based on a 1938 novel by Louis Guernsey – and rare footage of the Battle (1969), offer young Jews footage of the short Simcha (2000), a project, which is digitising 10,000 new Twenty-first century echoes abound. Golding, it was one of the first features to of Cable Street – on his 9.5mm cine camera. a voice and challenge Battle of Cable formidable chasidic mother titles, the BFI has launched a new collection As prejudices softened, antisemitism address the Nazi oppression: Emmanuel, Newcastle and the North East are well popular perceptions; the and daughter affirm the called Jewish Britain on Film, which is began to be addressed. In the aftermath believing his British passport will protect represented with sporting and social latter also offers gentiles an Street on his nurturing role of women available online on BFI Player. With almost of World War I a spate of films reflected him from evil, embarks on an ill-advised activities from the 1930s to the 1960s, opportunity to perpetuate cine camera” in their community. David 100 documentaries, home movies, fiction the immense impact the war had left on quest to track down the mother of a young some organised through the Maccabi the odd stereotype. Zionism Leon’s Orthodox (2016) features and shorts, it’s a real slice of British society. The hero of General Post Jewish refugee. Association. Regional archives such as the is either brushed over or rejected. Links follows a bare-knuckle boxer estranged Jewish life across a century. But as well (1920) is a tailor named Edward Smith, Post-war films offered more intimate North East Film Archive, North West Film with Israel are explored in The Challenge from his extended north London family. as celebrating films shot for and by the whose (unspoken) Jewishness as much as insights: Jack Clayton’s Oscar-winning Archive, Screen Archive South East and the (1967), a film for the Youth & Hechalutz If there is a common thread running community, I wanted to offer some sense his class prevents him from marrying his ghost story The Bespoke Overcoat (1955) is Yorkshire Film Archive have contributed Department of the Jewish Agency, which through the collection, it is the role of of the evolving representation of Jews in sweetheart, a wealthy gentile. But that all a Gogol fable relocated to the East End, and some of these valuable personal insights. features a youth centre in Leeds honoured charity: from grainy footage of the Soup British cinema, once an important reflector changes when his wartime heroism enables The Barber of Stamford Hill (1962) is a big- The earliest home movies required with a visit from Israel’s Prime Minister Kitchen for the Jewish Poor in 1934 to of social attitudes – and a powerful source him to transcend such barriers. Smith’s screen version of Ronald Harwood’s 1960 expensive equipment; they were a popular David Ben-Gurion, and British teenagers’ appeals to help Holocaust survivors (Chief of misinformation about minority groups. brother, meanwhile, is a TV play. toy of the rich and burgeoning middle adventures on a kibbutz, interrupted by the Rabbi’s Emergency Council, 1947) and the As a starting point for the collection miserable Jewish caricature “Joyously, Few depictions of classes; working-class life is all but absent, outbreak of the Six-Day War. elderly (Cast Us Not Out, 1969). The values it was impossible to avoid the unpleasant as of old. The Jewish family in Jewish life in non-fiction at least until the 1950s. Joseph Eisner left Film and TV have proved valuable in of care and relief were more important fact that the earliest surviving depictions wartime drama Motherland some of the film exist before the 1920s Romania in 1938 and filmed his family’s than ever across a turbulent century. of Jews reflect the hostility, rather than (1927), of which only the first earliest films and even then they are new life in the Derby suburb of Allestree. I hope Jewish Britain on Film is a useful the sanctuary, of Edwardian Britain. The reel survives, is somewhat scarce. Joyously, some of The mass murder of Romania’s Jews after resource for the community, but also that arrival from the 1880s onwards of tens of crudely drawn too, although feature Jewish the earliest capture Jewish 1940 lends an additional layer of meaning it might help foster a wider understanding thousands of Jews fleeing Russian pogroms it’s important to note that weddings” weddings, such as the 1923 to the snapshots of English suburban life – of the complex histories and rich and settling for the most part in the East this film was the work of Marriage of Miss Rossalyn larking about in the garden of their modest contribution of UK Jewry to life in these End of London, combined with rising producer/director GB Samuelson, one of Weinbaum to Mr A Goide at the Central home and enjoying day trips to Chatsworth ever more-conflicted Isles. n unemployment, saw Jews scapegoated. many leading Jewish figures working in Synagogue, Great Portland Street, or the House and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. There was little sympathy from the new the British film industry. The 1930s saw Marriage of Miss Rose Carmel and Mr Newsreels captured the rise of fascism Jewish Britain on Film is available on BFI Player moving pictures. A trio of early skits – The two epics on Jewish themes. The first, The Solly Gerschcowit (1925). In the latter, we in Britain (see The British Fascisti, 1924). and most titles can be viewed for free in the UK: Robber and the Jew (1908), A Bad Day for Wandering Jew (1933), starred the German follow the happy couple from the family Chilling footage of a provocative British player.bfi.org.uk/free/collection/jewish-britain- Levinsky (1909) and The Antique Vase actor Conrad Veidt, and was the second ironmongers in Brick Lane to a garden Union of Fascists march in 1937, held exactly on-film. Highlights of the collection can be viewed

(1913) – to varying degrees exploit crude film adaptation of E Temple Thurston’s party where guests in natty ‘20s threads are ARCHIVE OF BFI NATIONAL COURTESY a year after Cable Street, shows disturbing internationally on the BFI’s YouTube channel.

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