Zoë Wanamaker Talks about her Father, Throwing Up in the Wings, and Being Jewish

Guest blog post by Vera Litvin


Last week, Zoë Wanamaker shared stories about her father, her childhood and her experiences as an actor with a full house at the LJCC. A household name as Susan Harper in the BBC sitcom "My Family" and as Madam Hooch in the first "Harry Potter" film, Zoë has a long and distinguished career in film, TV and theatre.


The evening began with Zoë telling how her family had to move to the UK from the USA when her father, actor and director Sam Wanamaker, was blacklisted during the McCarthy witch-hunts. Zoë was three at the time, and it was only as an adult that she realised how much danger her father had been in.  He had decided not to return to the US when “he had been warned that he would be subpoenaed (to court),” she recounts. Zoë tells that her parents’ US passports were “rescinded” making them “stateless” for the next 10 years. Despite this, Zoë remembers her childhood in St John's Wood fondly, saying that it included lots of visits to the theatre, to galleries and an enjoyment of everything London had to offer. She considers herself “very lucky.”

Zoë's father, actor and director Sam Wanamaker (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Richard Eyre, who was interviewing Zoë, and who has directed her in several plays, pointed out that Zoë is a “natural sceptic and distruster of authority” like her father, with which she heartily agreed.  Zoë was touched when a member of the audience, celebrated make-up artist Walter Schneiderman, stood up and explained that he had worked with her father in his first British film “Give Us This Day,” and even handed her some photographs of her father which she had never seen before.


Zoë’s father, Sam Wanamaker is perhaps most well known as the founder of the Globe Theatre in London.  Zoë remembers how on “Sunday lunches the plans (for the Globe) would come out.”  At the time, Zoë admits she was rather “sceptical” of her father’s grand project.  Now, looking back, she deeply admires the “great degree of tenacity” he had to push his dream forward and she sits on the theatre’s Board as Honorary President.

Blue plaque to Wanamaker outside Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

As a little girl, Zoë admits she wanted to be a nun – not because of any religious conviction – but because she liked the singing and found it very “glamorous.” “Judaism was never pushed down our neck.” Zoë explains, “My parents grew up with Judaism and rebelled against it and indoctrination in any form.” Still, she remembers her father would “occasionally feel guilty and then the cantor would go on the record player.”



Zoë’s parents, both of them actors, were not at all keen that she should enter the profession because of the insecurity and rejection involved. They tried to dissuade her, but Zoë decided that she wanted to act. She admits that she is still “looking for answers about acting” and that every acting job is a “challenge.” She describes the development of each character she plays as a “journey” in which the actor is “looking for clues.” She still gets stage fright, and has even on occasion been sick in the wings. But she finds acting, especially in the theatre, unbelievably exciting: “you can feel it if you have an audience, it’s a visceral thing.” For Zoë, working in the theatre is “an exciting event. You want people to enjoy it. It’s all about telling stories.”

Zoë Wanamaker (Image courtesy of Adrian Dell)

Anti-Fascist Footprints

Guest blog post by Lara Smallman

‘How do you normally celebrate a birthday?’ David Rosenberg, our tour guide for the morning asked us as we gathered outside Aldgate East tube. ‘With cake or a meal with friends perhaps…’ Well, not if your name is Oswald Mosley. When the political party he created - the British Union of Fascists turned four in 1936, he chose to mark the occasion in a somewhat more ostentatious way – with a rally through the heart of the East End, home to 60,000 Jews at the time.

Image courtesy of www.historyworkshop.org.uk

During last week's two-hour ‘Anti Fascists Footprints Walking Tour’, we discovered the back-story behind a man who may well have become leader of the Labour Party, but instead turned out to be Britain’s answer to Adolf Hitler.

We started off in what was formerly known as St. Mary’s Gardens, renamed Altab Ali Park in memory of a Bengali clothing worker who was killed in a racist attack in 1978. We learned how Mosley started his political career at the tender age of 21, becoming the youngest member of the House of Commons. He fell out with the Conservative Party over Irish policy of all things, and before long allied himself with the Independent Labour Party.  In 1929, perhaps because of his aristocratic roots, lack of staying power or hints of ultra-nationalism, Mosley was snubbed by Labour. Just one day later, he founded the New Party, later renamed the British Union of Fascists. For Mosley, it was to be third time lucky, so to speak.

David our guide pointed out the small cemetery in the corner of the gardens, and told us that a participant of a previous tour had an incredible claim to fame: One of the tombstones belonged to a relative of his, who had beheaded Charles I - not strictly relevant, but fascinating nevertheless.

The stunning stained glass panel on the top of St. Boniface’s German Church, made even more beautiful on a gloriously sunny day, caught our attention, and we made a pit stop outside for a quick Yiddish lesson from David. Ironically, Hitler’s bombs fell on the German Church during the War, and it wasn’t until the 1960s that it was rebuilt.

‘We’ve been to Church, now let’s go to Shul!’ We were led through side streets and up to Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, which stands alongside the site of the first Grodzinski bakery. It is surrounded on three sides by the East London Mosque, and is apparently the closest a synagogue comes to a mosque outside of Jerusalem. It is one of four synagogues still functioning in the area. There used to be over 150.

Back to Oswald Mosley, and the rise of Fascism. There were plenty of surprises during our tour. Firstly, Mosley was not the one to make the ideology a populist one. There was a groundswell of opposition to Jews long before the Battle of Cable Street, thirty years before in fact. The British Brothers League, equivalent to today’s English Defence League, openly intimidated the East End’s Jewish population around the turn of the century. The second surprise came in the form of Mosley’s original rejection of anti-Semitism, arguing that it wasn’t needed to promote Fascism. He was more a fan of Italy’s Mussolini than he was of Adolf Hitler. However, it wasn’t long before Mosley started pedalling the very rhetoric he had once rejected - that of Nazi Germany. Last but not least, Mosley’s bodyguard in the early 1930s was a Welterweight professional boxer, and a Jew by the name of Gershon Mendeloff, known to Mosley as Lewis.

By 1934 Mosley’s BUF Party had an impressive 500 branches across the country, and was busy planning three indoor rallies: One in Albert Hall (which would house 7-8,000 people), one in Olympia (for 15,000) and one in White City (for 23,000), which never actually went ahead. The Daily Mail, which openly supported Mosley’s Black Shirts, ran a competition offering tickets to the Olympia rally. All you had to do to be in with a chance of snapping up free tickets was to write what you liked about the British Union of Fascists. Several Communists entered, and won a few tickets, thereby gaining access to the rally. Once inside, they heckled Mosley and were, under his instruction, violently removed by the ever-present Black Shirts. The Fascists were exposed as a violent Party and soon the Daily Mail withdrew their support, as did most supporters. And so came the sharp demise of the British Union of Fascists.

As our tour came to an end, we passed Coke Street, birthplace to Paul Peratin MP, a Jew who was so horrified by the infamous Olympia rally that he joined the Communist party a week later, and became the architect of its anti-Fascist policy.

Posters detailing Mosley’s planned march were put up just ten days before the 4^th October 1936, giving the anti-Fascists very little time to coordinate a response. Despite the short notice, they collected an astonishing 100,000 signatures in two days. There were 60,000 Jews in the area. The remaining signatures came from socialist, anarchist, Irish and communist groups.

The Anti-Fascist movement's response to Mosley's advert: Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Over a quarter of a million demonstrators took to the streets to say ‘no’ to Mosley and ‘no’ to Fascism. For the people of the East End, the commemoration of choice was a mural in Shadwell, which was to be our last stop on the tour. We looked up and read the slogan: ‘Mosley shall not pass. Bar the road to British Fascism’.

Cable Street Mural: Image courtesy of www.cablestreet75.org.uk

The Secret Jewish World of Soho and Fitzrovia

Guest blog post by Vera Litvin

I had always thought that the East End was where Jews in London had historically lived. What I hadn’t realised was that a vibrant Jewish community had also thrived in the West End areas of Soho and Fitzrovia. This all changed when I accompanied tour guide Stephen Burstin and a group of 20 LJCC students on a walk to discover the Jewish past of these places.  

"View" by Holocaust Survivor Naomi Blake in Fitzroy Square Gardens

We began at Fitzroy Square – it had at various times been home to British authors George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf, but it also has clear Jewish connections: the West Central Jewish Lads' Club was established here in 1898. It provided evening recreation for Jewish teenage boys who lived or worked in the district. The Fitzroy Square Garden also holds a statue by Naomi Blake, who survived Auschwitz as a child. 

The Montagu Centre

Our next stop was the Montagu Centre. Today, this is the home of Liberal Judaism in London, named after the Honourable Lily Montagu, C.B.E. In 1893 Lily Montagu , the daughter of a wealthy Jewish banker and MP, founded the West Central Jewish Girls' Club in Dean Street, Soho. It provided the young tailoresses who joined the club with more than fifty classes including physical training, art, drama and music. The club was a deliberate attempt to combat the effects of the seedy area in which the girls lived.

The popular Fitzroy Tavern run by Judah Kleinfeld

An activity I had never associated Jews with was pub-keeping, but it turns out that the most popular pub in the area – the Fitzroy Tavern was run by a Russian Jewish Refugee Judah Morris Kleinfeld. His daughter Annie worked behind the bar and did all the book-keeping as Judah could not write English. It was “pop” Kleinfeld’s larger than life personality which attracted writers, artists and composers to what became the foremost bohemian pub in the area. The pub was closed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and was heavily involved in charity work with its innovative “pennies from heaven” scheme, in which people threw darts at the ceiling with little bags of money attached with them. The money was then collected and given to charity. Another famous pub with a Jewish publican was the Pillars of Hercules, run by Harris Rothstein to support his six daughters.   

The Pillars of Hercules run by Harris Rothstein. (Photo Credit: David Ruback)

Round a little alleyway, we discovered perhaps the most obvious sign that a Jewish community once flourished here: the Westminster Jews Free School building.

Building of the Westminster Jews Free School. (Photo Credit: David Ruback)

These are only some of the stories we uncovered:  among others were former synagogues with charismatic rabbis, handsome Jewish butchers, restaurants which attracted a clientele of stars and many more. Stephen Burstin showed us that Soho and Fitzrovia teem with signs of a Jewish past, if you only know where to look! He guided us expertly through all the stories and memories of the area, bringing them vividly to life.

For some members of our group the trip held the additional significance in that their families came from the area. Do you have a West End story or memory? We’d love to hear it. Please email it in to vera@ljcc.org.uk

Many thanks to participant David Ruback for permission to use his photographs and to Stephen Burstin for leading the walk

Stephen Burstin’s next walk for the LJCC will be to Spitalfields and Aldgate on Monday 23 April. Full info available here or by calling 020 8457 5000

Only 2 Sardines Were Harmed in the Making of this Blog

Guest blog by Julia Braun

On Friday the LJCC Marketing department (my colleague Mandy and I) had an outing to The Providores & Tapa Room on Marylebone High Street. This wasn’t just a social call but was all in the name of work – the fact that brunch was included was a very lovely bonus…more on that later.

The Providores is run by top New Zealand chef Peter Gordon and as well as another restaurant in London, one in Auckland, and a hectic international schedule, Peter has managed to find time to squeeze in judging our Pavlova recipe competition – part of the centenary celebrations we are having to commemorate 100 years since Anna Pavlova moved into our very own Ivy House.

So back to the food – apparently the Tapa Room, which is the all day restaurant, café and wine bar part of the restaurant (upstairs is a more formal dining room), is renowned for its brunches and regularly has people queuing round the block on a weekend. I can whole-heartedly recommend the grilled sardine & roasted tomato bruschetta, in fact my mouth is watering now just thinking about it.

Meanwhile I am very excited to say that entries for the competition are coming in thick and fast, and it is no wonder when the winning recipe, after being tried & tested by Peter Gordon, will go on the menu of The Providores for a month.

If you would like to enter, please send me your own personal “Pavlova-inspired” recipe and an optional photo of your dessert, by Sunday 15 April to julia@ljcc.org.uk. Please don’t forget to also include your name, address and phone number.

Finally, I must say many thanks to all those who offered to help me taste the recipes, however I am not one to shirk responsibilities and as challenging as it will be, I think I am ready for it!

You can find out more about the Pavlova 2012 programme of events here: http://www.ljcc.org.uk/events/genre/56-pavlova-2012.html

Vermeer’s “Jewish” Women?

Guest blog post by Vera Litvin

Over 300 years after his death, the Dutch painter Vermeer is still causing controversy, not least at the London Jewish Cultural Centre. BBC Art Critic Estelle Lovatt joined us to give us her take on Vermeer, exploring the Jewish element in his work. She argued that there was certainly a Jewish influence on Vermeer and that he would have been deliberately reaching out to a wealthy Jewish clientele with his paintings. He would have been aware of Rembrandt’s work which may have depicted patrons in the guise of ancient Israelites (a famous example is the “Jewish Bride” which seems to depict a couple of Rembrandt’s clients as Isaac and Rebecca).

The 'Jewish Bride' was painted by Rembrandt in 1667

However, Vermeer’s work does not deal with Jewishness in the same overt way. Instead, Lovatt argues, it gives us an image of the woman in the home, very much in keeping with the Jewish tradition of the “Eshet Chayil”.  As celebrated in the famous hymn of the same name, which is customarily recited on Friday evenings, the “Eshet Chayil” is a modest, God-fearing and capable woman. This description seems to fit many of Vermeer’s female portraits. Many of his subjects are modestly dressed, involved in some domestic occupation: be it a maid pouring milk, a lace-maker with her bobbins or a lady playing music. Their gaze is often modestly averted from us. The women are also frequently depicted in the home: in an enclosed, protected, feminine space.

Eshet Chayil? Was Vermeer producing work for a Jewish Audience? ('The Milkmaid' by Vermeer, circa 1658)

For Estelle Lovatt, Vermeer’s paintings of women for the most part provide “the feeling of a Friday night” even if none of the women are actually lighting Sabbath candles or are even Jewish. It is “the feeling of warmth, the feeling of peace, the feeling of making you welcome, the feeling of wanting to stay in that area with the woman.”  These images, she believes, would have appealed to Vermeer’s Jewish contemporaries.

Estelle Lovatt also touched on the work of modern Israeli artist Noa Lidor, who takes Vermeer as her starting point and goes on to create works of art that are radically different to his. Her sculptures, installations and drawings frequently use everyday, feminine objects such as thimbles, recorders and even bells to explore the role of the woman in the home.

Although some in the audience did not agree with Estelle’s analysis of Vermeer’s “Jewishness”,   I found it an eye-opening take. It also made me reconsider what we refer to as Jewish art. Is it, Estelle asks, art created by a Jew, or art depicting specifically Jewish topics, or can it perhaps simply be art which has a Jewish “feel” about it in some way? In this lecture, Estelle Lovatt certainly succeeded in challenging our preconceptions about an artist whom many of us feel we already know.

‘To Watch Prejudice and Stay Silent Cannot Be an Option’

Guest blog post by Lara Smallman

Expanding on the theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, ‘Speak up, Speak Out,’ Natasha O’Leary, a student from Ashmole Academy in Southgate shared her reflections on a recent visit to Auschwitz with an audience of 250 people at City Hall on Tuesday 24th January.

Ashmole Academy has participated in the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project, which invites sixth-form students and their teachers ‘to take part in two afternoon seminars and a one-day visit to the former Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in order to then pass on the lessons in their schools and communities.’

‘I am part of the last generation who will be able to hear about the Holocaust from those people who lived through it, and who can speak about it’. ‘It is my duty,’ Natasha went on to add, ‘to ensure that my generation, and future generations will remember the Holocaust, and understand its importance. We must speak out for those who don’t have a voice’. Naomi Lyne, a fellow student explained how the trip had ‘given [her] a totally different perspective than textbooks alone could ever give.’

Natasha and Naomi’s words followed the personal testimony (which you can watch in this video) of Holocaust survivor Anita-Lesker Wallfisch who lost her parents to the concentration camps and who was herself imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Major of London, Boris Johnson thanked Anita and went on to read the poem Shema by Primo Levi. Rabbi Dr Abraham Levy OBE, Communal Rabbi and Spiritual Head of the Spanish and Portugese Jews’ Congregation then gave a brief address before Abraham Jacobs-Wallfisch, Anita’s grandson performed Sarabande and Bourés from Bach’s cello suite and Thrinos by Tavener.


The London Jewish Cultural Centre, in partnership with the JCC for London is holding a screening of The Last Survivor on Monday 30th January at 7pm. This festival award-winning films follows the lives of survivors of four different genocides and mass atrocities: The Holocaust, Rwanda, Darfur and the Congo. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Nikki Levitan, David Russell and Judith Hassan OBE: http://www.ljcc.org.uk/events/2059-i-the-last-survivor-i-br-film-screening-to-commemorate-holocaust-memorial-day-with-panel-discussion.html

More information about Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place on 27^th January can be found here: http://www.hmd.org.uk/

Find out more about the Holocaust from the Holocaust Explained: http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/

How the Italians Invented Modern Shopping

Guest Blog post by Vera Litvin

Lucrezia Borgia washing her hands, having administered poison to her husband.

Did you think shopping was a recent invention? Not so, explains William Tyler in the introduction to his The Borgias and the Medicis course. Apparently, shopping as we know it first came into being in 15th Century Italy. Wealthy Italians, like the women in the family of Ludovici Sforza - Leonardo Da Vinci's patron - went on expeditions to buy cloth, silverware, furniture, carpets and much more.

Shopping became so popular in 15-16^th century Italy because of the emergence, for the first time since antiquity, of a middle class with money to spend. Italy at this time was a bustling hub of trading, banking, culture and education. It was the place to be if you wanted to become a doctor, a lawyer or an artist. Italian bankers were trusted all over the world. In the large number of Italian universities humanist teaching emerged, which was based more on Roman and Greek classics and less on the Catholic Church. Italy was the cradle of the Renaissance – a rebirth of art and culture. This was certainly an exciting place to be…

Despite thriving economically and culturally, 15^th and 16^th century Italy had many political problems. It was not a united nation state but a collection of separate and hostile city states. These city states were ruled by a small number of leading families – the Borgia family gained power in Rome while the Medici family dominated Florence. On the one hand, these families were great patrons of culture and the arts. On the other hand, they were corrupt and legends of their crimes – from poisoning and buying office to adultery – are widespread. William Tyler will look at who the Borgias and the Medicis really were in this colourful course. Expect intrigue, intimate secrets and scandal!

The Borgias and the Medicis: Just Two Italian Families with William Tyler is on at 2.00pm on Thursdays. Click here to book:  http://www.ljcc.org.uk/courses/1985-the-borgias-and-the-medicis-just-two-italian-families.html

Or here to buy vouchers to attend individual sessions: http://www.ljcc.org.uk/vouchers/ (Vouchers valid until August)