Jewish EastEnders – developing a school workshop

by Maya Makker, Learning Team Intern

Last year, I had
the opportunity to work with the Jewish Museum London’s learning team to
re-invent Jewish EastEnders, a school workshop about the Great Migration, in which around 150,000 Jewish people settled in Britain from Eastern Europe between the years of 1881 and 1914.

While the workshop
was already a great success, the stories of migration and East End life that
were shared with the students were fictional. Since the Jewish Museum London has
an incredibly vast and diverse collection of objects from this period, we decided
to develop a new version of the workshop profiling the migration stories of
real people.

I had a wonderful
experience researching into the collection and learning about all of the
individuals who made the Jewish East End such an incredible community during
the Great Migration. I found objects in the collection that would help tell the
stories of six key individuals, and assisted the learning team as we created
reproductions of old photographs, letters, and documents that the students
could interact with and explore.

One of the most fun (and challenging!) aspects of my research was determining where all of our EastEnders actually lived. We wanted to share this information with students to help them understand that these EastEnders inhabited the streets of London that are still exist today.

I used a map of the
East End from the period as a guide, and drew on census record, housing
documents, and testimonies to uncover what East End streets served as home and
workplaces for these individuals. There was something very concrete about
noting a family name on a map knowing that hundreds of years prior, that was
the place where they made their memories. 

As I learned more
about our EastEnders, I began to understand them as real people – not just a
collection of documents and photographs. I wondered how their lives may
have intersected in the East End, and considered what it might feel like for
them to know that their stories of everyday life were being shared with
students in the 21st century.

My time at the Jewish
Museum London taught me a great deal about how much power a single story can
have in painting a lively picture of the past. I had a wonderful experience
with this project, and hope that the students are enjoying the workshop!

More information about the Jewish EastEnders workshop and how to book.