The vivacious and wonderful Vivi Lachs will be visiting us from London and will introduce her latest book and lead discussion on some of the themes raised. The event will take place in person at the BWC Building located at 6 Webster Street in Brookline on Saturday, June 13 from 3:00 – 4:30pm.

Register here.

Cost: Suggested donation $10 for BWC members, $18 for non-members, or pay what you can. Please use the Pass-the-Hat donation form to pay for tickets, and choose Yiddish Committee/Events when prompted on the form. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Copies of the book will be available for sale, cash only, for $25 ($10 less than the list price of $35).

The book East End Jews offers an unparalleled view into the life, labour, politics, and joys of London’s Jewish East End. Deceptively accessible, often humorous urban feuilleton sketches from 26 writers in the London Yiddish press capture incisive and sometimes cheeky encounters with challenges and debates of the time. From known writers Brenner, Winchevsky, and Kreitman, to London best sellers Katie Brown, we get a 1912 discussion in a café about building a Channel Tunnel, a 1922 agony aunt column around sex wars, and journeys through local tradition and significant social change, tracing the ideas and events that impacted the community.

“Hilarious, insightful, sometimes tragic, often irreverent, sometimes startlingly prophetic pieces, give readers a close-up view of the daily concerns and sensibilities of this community”. Julian Levinson, University of Michigan.

Vivi Lachs is a social historian, translator and Yiddish pop singer: an associate researcher at University College London and a Yiddish Book Center Translation Fellow 2026. Her books Whitechapel Noise, London Yiddishtown and East End Jews explore Jewish history through popular culture. She co-hosts the triple-award winning Cockney Yiddish Podcast, co-directs the new London Yiddish Players, runs the Great Yiddish Parade, leads East End tours and sings the Cockney-Yiddish repertoire with the bands Klezmer Klub and Katsha’nes.