The Leeds Group

Contact Chairman Ann Lightman or Secretary Judith Williams

The Leeds Regional Branch was formed some years ago and has gone through several reincarnations since its inception.

We currently have around 35 members, roughly half of whom live in the Leeds area with the others scattered across the length and breadth of Yorkshire. Meetings are held in Leeds and we attract out of town members, including two of our Committee, on a regular basis.

Our events over the last twelve months have included:

• Participating in the exhibition to celebrate 150 years of Leeds Jewry. Jeanette Rosenberg and Mark Nicholls brought the Society’s WDYTYA stand and provided expert advice and we mounted a display based on the 1851 census showing the names of Jewish families in Leeds at that time with their addresses shown on a map. (OK, that’s 160 years, but who’s counting?)
• Two very successful workshops led by Michael Hoffman – the second being necessary as the first was oversubscribed.
• Visiting the state of the art Discovery Centre of Leeds City Museum where we given a guided tour of the Jewish artefacts held there.
• A talk by Dr David Lewis on the Jews of Hull  –  “What can the Hull Jewish Archive do for you?”  This was a joint “production” with the Leeds Branch of the Jewish Historical Society. We will be joining forces with them to host events twice a year.

Full reports of all these meetings can be found in past editions of the JGSGB Newsletter.

Our next meeting, jointly with the JHS will be on Monday 5th Sept at 8pm at the UHC Synagogue, Shadwell Lane, LS17 8DW. This is a talk by Dr Nicholas Evans on “Jews at Sea – from the Haim to Luxury Cruises”.

Our final meeting this year will be in the afternoon of Sunday 27th Nov.,  at Sinai Synagogue, Roman Ave., LS8 2AN. We are delighted to welcome Michael Tobias, a Vice President of JewishGen who has just been honoured with the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in setting up the JewishGen databases.  He will be giving a tutorial on the databases.

For further information about these events or the Branch please contact either Ann Lightman, Chairman,  or Judith Williams, Secretary,

We will be planning our programme for 2012 shortly and details will appear here in due course. In the meantime we would be delighted to hear from members in our region with suggestions for future events and new Committee members are always welcome!

The picture below was taken at the 150 year celebration of Leeds Jewry and shows left to right
Jeanette Rosenberg, Judith Williams and Ann Lightman