Wednesday 22 October at 2.15 pm – at Shul
Tony Zendle – “606”
Why did Klezmer musicians celebrate the number 606, what has the number got to do with to a Ukrainian port and why is it tied in with the winner of a Nobel Prize for Medicine? It’s a story that crosses continents, touches on Hollywood, meets Tevye and ends up in the brothels of Odessa.
Tony has been giving talks for more than ten years, in person and on Zoom, to a number of groups. He has written The Definitive Guide to Jewish Miscellany and Trivia, Jews and the Sea, and Kosher Foxtrot.
He spent 35 years as an educator and prior to that was a well-known and successful student debater and then a member of the English Speaking Union. He is a member of the Jewish Historical Society.
For the purposes of security it is very important that you notify me that you will be coming.
I now attach the rest of our autumn programme and I look forward to seeing lots of you.
Best wishes,Janet
Wednesday 5 November at 2.15 pm – at Shul
Nigel and Greg Allon – “To Russia with Love”
Maxine and Nigel Allon are well known in the community as part of the ToTH team and they help with the running of ToTH. They moved from their close-knit community in Glasgow eight years ago to be near their four children, all of whom live in North London with their families. Greg (Maxine and Nigel’s oldest son), Lois (Greg’s wife) and their three children are members of Muswell Hill Shul.
For Nigel’s 80th birthday, last August, Greg decided to make an album to record his father’s life. He questioned Nigel and Maxine about their secret visit to Leningrad and Moscow at the request of the Israeli Embassy in December 1981. Many details that had remained suppressed for 43 years have now come to the fore and Nigel is now going to continue the discussion in answer to Greg’s questions.
Wednesday 19 November at 2.15 pm – at Shul
Maurice Gran – “From Crouch End to Hollywood”
We are honoured to have the well-known script-writer Maurice Gran speaking to us.
Maurice was born in London and lived in Finsbury Park as a child. His father managed a fabric shop in Soho. In her youth, in the 1920’s, Maurice’s mother was a keen essayist, writing poems and articles, mostly for Zionist magazines. She very much encouraged Maurice’s writing while he was still at school and with her encouragement he was able to consider this as a career. He attended William Ellis Grammar School in Highgate.
Maurice will speak about his and his partner Lawrence Marks’ short but eventful sojourn to Hollywood, in the USA, back in 1985 and what happened when they returned.
Together with Lawrence, Maurice has written many scripts. They are best known as TV scriptwriters – Shine on Harvey Moon, The New Statesman, Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart are perhaps the best remembered. The New Statesman won both a BAFTA and an International Emmy.
This century they have moved into writing for the theatre – the play “Dr Freud Will See You Now, Mrs Hitler” is their latest effort and this will be showing at Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate throughout September. It was originally broadcast on Radio 4 as radio drama is another of their loves.
The duo had begun writing together after they met at a drama group called “Player-Playrights”. It is here that they first had their work performed and discussed. They are now Presidents of that organisation, having learnt many of their skills there. The organisation still meets most weeks in Kilburn.
Wednesday 3 December at 2.15 pm – at Shul
Lawrence Cohen – “You Be The Judge!”
Lawrence will present some legal cases to everyone. He will give a basic description of each case and will then ask everybody to pretend to be the judge and tell everyone else what they would do. Lawrence will then add a little more information to the case and will ask again what people would do.
Lawrence was born and raised in Liverpool and took a law degree at Manchester University in the mid-1970s. He qualified as a solicitor in 1982, and in that year moved to London with Deborah. He worked for 16 years in North London, eventually starting his own firm in the early 1990s.
He was appointed a Deputy District Judge in 1993 and ceased being a solicitor when he was appointed a full-time District Judge in 1998.
For 27 years, he was a resident judge at Edmonton County Court, eventually retiring earlier this year. At his retirement, he was the longest serving Judge in England and Wales.
Wednesday 17 December at 2.15 pm – at Shul
Chanukah Tea Party
Please note we make a charge of £5 at each meeting, to cover our overheads