WHITECHAPEL NOISE: SEX, POLITICS AND RELIGION ON THE STREETS OF LONDON'S EAST END, 1884 -1914

קופּלעטן פֿון װײַט-טשעפּל

A lecture by Vivi Lachs

October 13, 2018. Workmen's Circle, Toronto

Musician and author Vivi Lachs presents the Yiddish song and verse of pre-World War I London. Poems portrayed the poverty on London's streets, music-hall songs told tales of marital disharmony and prostitution, and satirical verse grappled with the modernization of religious practice. Collectively known in Yiddish as kupletn, they convey the history of the period with humour, intensity, and passion.

Vivi Lachs is an historian, Yiddishist, performer, and Associate Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. She sings with the bands Klezmer Klub (Whitechapel, mayn Vaytshepl) and Katsha'nes (Don't Ask Silly Questions). Her new book is Whitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigrant Life in Yiddish Song and Verse, London 1884-1914, published by Wayne State University Press.