Page 83 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Winter 20
P. 83
originally had been Huguenot refugees, who, Opposite Spitalfields Market, one of the
in the beginning came to England and lived streets leading off Commercial Street, is a
in the same part of London later inhabited by street named Fournier Street, which is named
Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe (Editor: after a wealthy, philanthropic Huguenot. In
he is referring to the East End/Spitalfields). my time, there were still a number of
Huguenot dwellings with their distinctive
windows. At the lower end of Fournier St., on
the corner of Brick Lane, there is a large
building which was originally a Protestant
Chapel. During the time of the large Jewish
th
immigration, in the 19 century, it became a
synagogue. On the second floor, classes were
held for Torah and Hebrew study for the boys
(cheder).
Spitalfields, London’s East End
Photo – Shloimy Alman
The Lobjoit family business started following
a time when a Lobjoit was head gardener for
the Rothschild family. Please wish all your
friends well from George Lobjoit’s children. Machzikei Hadath Synagogue
F – Email from Van to John Poynton dated Fournier Street, Spitalfields
May 14, 2015
I personally attended such classes. The
You said something in your mail to Milton synagogue was finally closed in 1970, by
that caught my interest, namely that George which time almost all of the Jews had moved
Lobjoit, for whom I also worked like Milton, elsewhere, leaving the East End to the next
was of Huguenot stock. This also explains the wave of refugees – Pakistanis and
non-Anglo-Saxon name. Bangladeshis and the Chapel/Synagogue
I was born and lived in the East End of became a mosque. Now, 65 five years later, I
London, until I left home in 1949, in the find that had I been able to sit down and talk
specific area where the early Huguenot to George, we would have found a great deal
refugees lived and worked at their silk of common ground to discuss. Too late,
weaving. The street where we lived was unfortunately. However, I really enjoyed this
Fleur-de-Lys Street, a very distinctively very interesting correspondence.
French name. The house on the other side of Van’s notes: The synagogue in Fournier
our yard had a very large window, which Street was known in the Yiddish dialect as the
provided the light required by the weavers Meziga Das, which I believe would translate
(long before electricity). into modern Hebrew as: “תעדה יקיזחמ”.
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