Unlocking North East Jewish Heritage

The Unlocking North East Jewish Heritage project aims to share key stories of North East Jewish communities, allowing them to be understood in their geographical, social and civic context.

The project is currently working to identify and digitise material held by Tyne & Wear Archives relating to these communities. We have also worked with a number of other regional archives to identify material and, where possible, have supported the digitisation of this material.

This new website [https://unejh.humap.site/] has been created to share the fascinating stories of the North East Jewish communities, bringing together the digitised material and research carried out through the project. This platform also provides online access to the wide range of material held in archives collections across the country.

So far over 400 items connected to North East Jewish communities from the collections at Tyne & Wear Archives have been digitised.

These include a broad range of material such as organisational minute books, orders of service, building plans, personal papers and photographs. 

For example this marriage certificate is from 1877, recording the marriage between David Cohen and Lena Peterowsky. This is claimed to have been the last marriage to take place at Temple Street Synagogue in Newcastle (the first purpose built synagogue in Newcastle.)

Unlocking North East Jewish Heritage is also working with local universities to provide research project opportunities for students. Based on the material held in regional archives, these research projects are uncovering untold stories of North East Jewish communities.

Current placements are exploring and researching local Jewish publications and what insight these can provide into Jewish businesses in the region.