Jewish Britain on Film

On the eve of his 50th birthday, lonely north London barber Mr Figg entertains the possibility of marriage

The Jewish school in the forest - a healthy approach to learning in the Cheshire countryside.

Charming interview with the 21-year-old Lipman, who had just completed her first film role, as she ponders what to do next.

Moving record of a once-thriving East End Jewish community on the cusp of enormous change

Rival groups from Ealing and Finchley go head to head in an entertaining and witty amateur film

Raw images of London E1 and the disappearing Jewish East End

Eating, dancing in the front room, playing football in the garden, walking around Whitby, a birthday party, a wedding – just being common people, only with a Jewish twist.

Crowds block the streets to catch a view of a handsome old carriage at a Jewish wedding

Summer 1938 must have been an exciting time for Marie Cohen and Nettie Morris as they planned their weddings at the synagogue on 25/8 and 6/9, and receptions at the Connaught Rooms.

Follow the happy couple from the family shop on Brick Lane to a garden party serenaded by the San Diego Dance Band

Camera, action! A very stylish wedding is captured on film.

Guests step out in smart hats and sumptuous furs for a Jewish wedding at London’s Central Synagogue

Eating, dancing in the front room, playing football in the garden, walking around Whitby, a birthday party, a wedding – just being common people, only with a Jewish twist.

Rain and confetti, and big smiles all round, as the weather fails to dampen spirits at a Manchester wedding.

Speeches, toasts and kippahs in this Super 8 home movie of Richard and Lyn Brookes’s wedding, held at Beehive Lane Synagogue in Ilford.

Conrad Veidt plays a Jewish man seeking power in the British version of Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel, later adapted by the Nazis

Wartime heroism reveals the shabbiness of antisemitic prejudice, when a small-town tailor becomes a local hero

In the surviving opening scenes of this WWI-set feature, young soldiers head to the front and face life in the trenches

Documentary insight into the work of the Jewish Welfare Board, helping some of the most vulnerable people in the community

Poignant postwar appeal for Britain’s Jewry to support orphaned Jewish children rescued from Europe

Birthday parties and cake feature strongly in this compilation of childhood moments by amateur filmmaker Sid Douglas

A Jewish man with a bag of gold is targeted by roadside robbers in this early comedy short reflecting antisemitic stereotypes

When a Jewish man mistakenly puts a sovereign in a slot machine, he goes to extraordinary lengths to try to retrieve it

A penniless actor sells his beloved vase to a Jewish dealer pained to part with his money in this comic short reflecting antisemitic stereotypes.

Ben-Gurion visits a youth centre in Leeds in this promotional film for the Youth & Hechalutz Department of the Jewish Agency in London

An intriguing insight into the extraordinary life of Lord Kagan, Jewish escapee from the Nazis, clothier to the Royals, and close friend of Harold Wilson and KGB spy Vaygauskas.

Celebrity endorsement: Stanley Baldwin introduces George Arliss playing the legendary PM

Bernard Braden interviews the editor of the Jewish Chronicle about recent controversies in the press and the future of the Middle East

The British Fascist movement holds a 10,000-strong rally in Trafalgar Square the day before Remembrance Sunday

Led by Oswald Mosley, Britain’s Fascists march through south London

We Protest: 80,000 descend on Hyde Park to demonstrate against Hitler’s antisemitism

The notorious Battle of Cable St kicks off this film from 1936 which also shows young Basque refugees and a Communist Summer Camp in rural Kent

Newsreel record of the 1936 crushing defeat of the British Union of Fascists in East London

Britain welcomes children liberated from the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Defiance is in the air in this evocative newsreel footage of anti-fascist solidarity rallies, after the Battle of Cable Street

Kristallnacht: the world responds

Some serious moves can be seen by guests of all ages in his lovely film showing the Bar Mitzah celebrations of Harold Defries in London in 1960.

Charming amateur film featuring the Eisner family, who emigrated to Britain from Romania the year this film was made

Manchester schoolchildren celebrating Shavuot in the summer sunshine.

Take a rare glimpse into the thoughts and lives of members of Belfast’s Jewish Community during the 1960s.

The Shermans, Cardiff-raised sons of a Jewish tailor from eastern Europe, film in Merthyr, home of one of their betting shops, and feature local solicitor Mr B. Hamilton.

In the East End of London, crowds gather to watch Jewish millionaire Bernhard Baron unveil an important new building

There are few more inspiring sights than seeing film of a mixed party of roisterers dancing away, unconcerned about appearances, to different music to what’s on the soundtrack.

A rare glimpse inside the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor in the East End during the early 1930s.

In inauspicious times these members of Leeds Jewish community set off for London in a joyful atmosphere, only for the mood to become more sombre as they file past the Cenotaph.

An amateur filmmaker records prize giving at the annual Newcastle Maccabi club sports day - a colourful fragment of local Jewish life.

An evocative snapshot of Jewish life at the Maccabi club in the West End of Newcastle as the community prepares for World War Two.

A fascinating 1950s home movie compilation focuses on some of the official charitable events in Newcastle run by Jewish organisations a link with the new State of Israel.

Jewish children enjoy the warm Northumbrian sunshine as the rise of Fascism in Europe threatens peacetime.

Captivating amateur footage offers a snapshot of Jewish families from Tyneside enjoying precious holiday fun in the years before World War Two.

Behind the greasepaint of an iconic figure in the British circus - Coco the Clown reveals his Jewish roots.

A proud expression of Jewish identity and heroism at a Coronation parade to the Eldon Square World War One memorial in Newcastle.

Jewish ex-service men make a stand against fascism in a moving display of pride and patriotism in the 1930s.

A dream comes true for this schoolboy as he practices in the nets at the Oval, captured in wonderful Kodachrome

A big day for pupils at King David School in Birmingham when the Chief Rabbi pays a visits.

A fierce denunciation of anti-Semitic policies in Nazi Germany seen in the context of the global refugee crisis of 1938.

An admonishment to keep to Orthodox ways, or a young Jew poking fun at this; whichever way this film is viewed, it gives a fascinating insight into Leeds Jewish community c.1936.

All aboard a Tyne ferry, the Friendship Club of Newcastle take a pleasure trip down river in glorious summer sunshine.

A real treasure for aficionados of 1930s cinema, who can try to guess the characters in the film fancy dress competition, with future Police Commissioner Gordon among the judges.

A big welcome for former Labour politician Lord Nathan at a smart new post-war Maccabi club in Newcastle.

This historic masterpiece, from Lewis Rosenberg, records one of the earliest Cornish surfing holidays ever captured on film

Lewis Rosenberg and his mates try out the beaches of Cornwall and the Channel Islands in this remarkable record of British surfing in the 1930s

1930s Newquay is the setting for Lewis Rosenberg's film - with horse riding, tennis, girlfriends, much tickling and glorious Cornish beaches

A group of Jewish friends set sail for Guernsey - where they enjoy the cameraderie of outdoor camping, aerial sight-seeing and great surfing

Lewis Rosenberg and his friends enjoy a camping holiday near Newquay in the 1930s - with dancing, kissing, physical jerks and surfing

Jewish Communists gather for lectures, games and youthful frivolity at a Summer Camp in Swanage as captured in Lewis Rosenberg's unique film

Catalonia is one of the destinations in Lewis Rosenberg's original home-movie which features beaches, bullfights and Barcelona

Join Lewis Rosenberg and his mates on a short trip to Dinard and Mont St Michel in this film made during the last years of peace in Europe

Join Lewis Rosenberg and his friends on holiday in Guernsey where they milk cows, feed chickens, lark about on the beach and attempt to surf

Cat eye sunglasses and best frocks are on display at a gloriously casual picnic with the Newcastle Friendship Club on the banks of the River Tyne.

The social work carried out by churches of all faiths in Britain, including a section on East End Jewish life

An intimate account of frustration and disarray in 1980s Britain from the point of view of a young woman.