Agenda of the AGM
The meeting will be chaired by the Society’s Vice-President, Arlene Beare.
The agenda of the meeting will be:
1. Apologies for absence
2. Minutes of AGM held on 21 July 2024
3. Annual Report and Accounts for 2024
These have been approved by Council and will be presented to the AGM for information - by Leigh Dworkin, Chair, and Peter Heilbrunn, Treasurer
4. Proposed constitutional amendments
5. Elections
• President and Vice-Presidents
• Officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer)
• Other Council members (up to five - to serve until the AGM after next)
Full papers include the annual report and accounts as well as the minutes of last year’s AGM and are available from https://www.jgsgb.org.uk/agm-papers-accounts
(Please note, you will need to be logged in as a member to access these)
The formal meeting will be followed by Presentation of Awards and a talk by Christina Hilsenrath on ‘Jews in Bath: Reconstructing a Provincial Community, 1700–1945’
Synopsis of talk
Bath’s Jewish Burial Ground, a site of historical significance, is little known even to many long-term residents of the city. Yet in the nineteenth century Bath was home to a small Jewish community of physicians, artists, craftsmen and traders. In this talk, Christina Hilsenrath will present findings from four years of wide-ranging research—drawing on archival, genealogical, and material sources—undertaken for her book Jews in Bath: A Community and their Burial Ground, 1700–1945. She will show how this research grew into one of the very few comprehensive studies of an entire English provincial Jewish community. By tracing the history of the Burial Ground and Synagogue, and by reconstructing the lives of individuals and families who lived, worked, and worshipped in the city, the talk will demonstrate how Bath’s Jewish history exemplifies the opportunities and the challenges of Jewish communities across provincial Britain.
About Christina Hilserath
Christina Hilserath’s mother came to England from Berlin in 1939 on the Kindertransport. Following her retirement from the civil service, Christina undertook extensive research into her family history. Since 2019 she has served as Chair of the Trustees of the Friends of the Bath Jewish Burial Ground. Her four years of detailed research into the Burial Ground and the Jewish community of Bath culminated in the publication, in late 2024, of Jews in Bath: A Community and Their Burial Ground, 1700–1945.
