Phil Alexander | Listening in on the Jewish Gorbals
Event details
Speaker: Phil Alexander (University of Edinburgh)
Date: Thursday 25 November 2021
Time: 5.15 - 6.45pm.
Venue: Alison House, Lecture Room A (second floor)
Registration is required for this event
Registration is required for this event to ensure we can maintain 1m social distancing.
Register on Eventbrite(external link)
Please note that masks must be worn unless you are medically exempt.
Abstract
In 1904, the Yiddish poet and Glasgow union activist Avrom Radutski described the Jewish population of Scotland as “a mere drop in the ocean”. By the beginning of the 1920s, however, this drop had swelled to around 15,000 people, with ripples that connected Eastern European immigrant roots to an evolving Scottish cultural sensibility.
In this talk, we will listen in on several moments of early 20th century Scottish-Jewish musical life — spanning religious and secular identities, public and private space, and east-west dialogues. Listening in like this can reveal alternative narratives and histories, giving detail and texture to larger migration patterns. We can hear how Scotland’s Jews negotiated their hyphenated identities, and the changing responses of a small, fluid and dynamic group to questions of cultural memory, assimilation, past lives and future trajectories.
Biography
Phil Alexander | Listening in on the Jewish Gorbals
Alison House
12 Nicolson Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9DF