Poetry and Parades: The Jewish East End at War

by Rachel Kolsky, Blue Badge Guide

I was asked to create a new walking tour to coincide with the exhibition at the Jewish Museum and the centenary of the First World War and, to my delight, it sold out!

On 6 April, despite the threat of rain, our group of walkers met outside the Whitechapel Art Gallery looking forward to a stroll through the Jewish East End, discovering buildings and personalities associated with the First World War. The plaque honouring Isaac Rosenberg on the ex-Whitechapel Library was a perfect place to start. Killed in 1918, Rosenberg was already a noted poet and artist, and it was here that I recited his powerful poem, ‘Break of Day in the Trenches’.

Then we made our way to Half Moon Passage for the story of the March of the Jewish Legion (in February 1918) and their lunch at Camperdown House. The Legion marched eight miles that day. Our tour was shorter but the varied and fascinating stories came thick and fast: recruitment of the Jewish soldiers but also the Conchies who refused to fight; Mark Gertler, the East End born artist and his famous anti-war picture, ‘The Merry Go Round’; Basil and Rose Henriques of the Oxford and St George’s Settlement and their WWI work; Issy Smith, who went to school in Berners Street and became one of five WWI Jewish winners of the VC; anarchists and socialists; internment; the work of the Jewish chaplains; the Jewish officers who lost their lives.

The tour ended at the Brick Lane Mosque, once the Machzike Hadass Synagogue. During the First World War, Rav Kook was stranded in London but led this community before returning to Palestine, becoming its first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi.

The tour provided a wonderful way to learn about the First World War and to see the Jewish East End from a different angle.

Editor’s note: bookings are open for a repeat tour on 15 June 2014, which is filling up fast – click here to book now!