Strike a Light – Arts & Heritage CIC, in partnership with the Centre for German-Jewish Studies, Jewish Care and the Jewish Historical Society of England has received £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a project, Shalom Sussex - The Jewish Community in WWI.
Awarded through HLF’s First World War: then and now programme, the project will focus on the contribution Jewish people in Sussex made during the First World War - both on the home-front and abroad on the battlefield. We are also lucky to have further financial support from both Jewish Care and the Sussex Record Society, making £11,500 in total.
To mark the end of the Centenary of the First World War, between March 2019-March 2020, this project will enable people in Sussex to come together to preserve the memories and heritage of the Jewish people who lived locally during and post the First World War to collect these hidden histories. Jewish people have been in Sussex since the 1700s, and the contribution in WWI made by Jews to the area has been significant.
Volunteers will collect photographs, newspaper clippings, documents, letters and photos of keepsakes, as well as family tales passed down to help them build a clear picture of what life was really like, with support from project partners, specialist academics, local authority employees and archivists, as well as young people, older groups, participants and project staff.
We will chronicle family experiences, cultural traditions and religious memories, whilst also researching military service through archival publications such as the British Jewry book of Honour to ensure that these stories are not lost for future generations.
This project will provide an insight into Jewish life in Sussex at key moment in history, giving those interested in this heritage access to a greater number of and collated sources, for personal and social exploration. It is hoped that through a series of activities and events, increasing items of rare material will be added, expanding opportunities to celebrate Judaism during this time.
We will explore developments during this time including internment, women in domestic and military life including nursing, military experiences and keeping kosher during a particular time of hardship. We will look further into lives such as Florence Oppenheimer, who trained as a nurse (later to be a celebrated Jewish cook) at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in 1914, receiving a citation from Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for War during the First World War, Capt. Joseph Friend of the Sussex Yeomanry, Leonard George Marks who although born in London served with the Royal Sussex Regiment and killed in France, as well as children's lives and school days too.
The main focus of our project will be the creation of a community history website to collect new archive material, as well as to share this heritage publicly. In keeping with Jewish tradition, this site will enable visitors to respect ancestors so that their passing can be commemorated. We will explore the Jewish Chronicle archive, Jewish Care archives, local conscription and hospital documents as well as synagogue records including those at Middle Street Synagogue, Brighton.
“Gateways to the First World War are delighted to be working again to support a Strike a Light community heritage project and we look forward to finding out what is to be revealed about the Jewish community local to Brighton during the FWW years. I'm sure this will be a fascinating project, especially as it is focusing on an area that is little researched.” Dr Sam Carroll - Gateways to the First World War.
Commenting on the award, Shalom Sussex Project Manager Nicola Benge said: “We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and pleased we can at last research and remember the wider Jewish community in Sussex at the time of the First World War as well as the contribution of Jewish people to the war effort local; through nursing, soldiers and the impact on the lives of this minority group a hundred years ago”.
Partners
The Centre for German-Jewish Archives
Since its establishment in 1994, the Centre has developed into a major institution for the study of the history, culture and thought of Jews in Central Europe and for the training of a new generation of teachers and researchers in this field.
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cgjs/
Jewish Historical Society of England
The Jewish Historical Society of England, the oldest historical and learned society of its kind in Europe was founded in 1893 by the foremost Anglo-Jewish scholars and communal leaders of the day.
https://jhse.org/
Jewish Care
Jewish Care is the largest health and social care organisation serving the Jewish community in London and the South East with over 70 centres and services, touching the lives of 10,000 people every week.
https://www.jewishcare.org/
For further information, images and interviews, please contact: Nicola Benge, Project Manager – Shalom Sussex, shalomsussexwwi@gmail.com.
http://shalomsussex.co.uk/
