“Urban Yiddish and Cockney Jews” will be the second program in the College of Jewish Studies fall 2025 lecture series. Historian and musician Vivian Lachs will tell stories and perform Yiddish songs from London’s Jewish East End on Thursday, October 30, at 7:30 pm. The presentation will take place at the Jewish Community Center and is open to the general public. Voluntary donations to CJS will be accepted at the door.  
Lachs will draw from her 2025 book, “East End Jews: Sketches from the London Jewish Press” (Wayne State University Press). “Sifting stories from the London Yiddish press, she will relate deceptively accessible and often humorous urban sketches that capture incisive and sometimes cheeky encounters within London’s rich immigrant world,” said organizers of the event. “From a 1922 agony aunt column around wars between the sexes to an unnaturalized immigrant duping officials to enlist in the British army during World War I, these sketches take readers on a journey through local tradition and significant social change, tracing the ideas and events that impacted the community. Although the focus is on London, the immigrant issues reflect similar stories from the Lower East Side.” (See The Reporter's review of the book.)
Lachs is a historian of London’s Jewish East End, a translator, researcher, actor and Yiddish pop singer. “Her books – ‘Whitechapel Noise,’ ‘London Yiddishtown’ and ‘East End Jews’ – offer a colorful and vibrant history of London’s Jews through the lens of Yiddish popular culture,” organizers noted. Lachs co-hosts the Cockney Yiddish Podcast; sings with the bands Klezmer Klub and Katsha’nes; runs the Great Yiddish Parade, which brings Yiddish songs of protest and union activism of the 1890s back onto the streets of London; and leads tours of Whitechapel.
The College of Jewish Studies provides opportunities for adult Jewish education for the Broome County community by offering fall and spring programs. Drawing on local resources and inviting scholars and experts from a range of universities and cultural and religious institutions, CJS sponsors a wide array of programs dealing with Jewish history, culture, religion and politics.
The College of Jewish Studies, founded in 1986, is an informal coalition between the Judaic Studies Department of Binghamton University and several area Jewish sponsoring institutions: the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton, Beth David Synagogue, Temple Concord and Temple Israel. Programming for CJS would not be possible without the additional financial support of a generous grant from The Community Foundation for South Central New York – David and Virginia Eisenberg Donor Advised Fund, the Jacob and Rose Olum Foundation, the B’nai B’rith Lectureship Fund, the Victor and Esther Rozen Foundation, an endowment fund from the former Temple Beth El of Endicott, a grant from the JoyVel Charitable Fund, and the donations of individual sponsors.  
Anyone interested in becoming an individual sponsor, so that the CJS can continue bringing programs to the community, or who wants to make a donation, should contact CJS at bingcjs@gmail.com. The College of Jewish Studies is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
For more information about the College of Jewish Studies and its programs, go to their website.