Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter No 28 January 2013 page 5 (of 17)
Letters
My name is Mellissa Betts and I am a researcher with the US version of the genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? I am working on a family of Eastern European Jewish descent that had a child just after arriving in England in Middlesbrough. We are very curious about this and are hoping that this may be a clue about where they are from. I was wondering if you were available to give me some feedback and maybe chat about what we’re looking at for our research. I don’t think the family spent very much time there, in fact, they arrived between 1874 and 1876 and were in Liverpool by 1878. Still, it is interesting that they would head there that early. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Mellissa Betts Researcher NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? Los Angeles, CA 90068
I was invited to represent the Jewish community in Middlesbrough by Rabbi Arnold Saunders, who lives in Manchester and is Chaplain to our Armed Forces. He was with his family at his son’s chuppah in London, marrying a Stamford Hill kallah, so I went to represent him at the British Armed Forces Day multi-faith celebrations today [25 September 2011] at the big Hindu centre.
There were 300 Ghurkas present. I sat with all the local dignitaries and was presented with a special plaque to commemorate the day, inscribed with O`m...a Hindu wake-up message first thing in the morning, like our Shema. Then we all had a big very tasty vegetarian lunch for everyone and a big photo taken of us all. A very interesting day and they even announced my arrival as M`bro representative of the Jewish community!!!
Here are 3 photos I took with my little Nokia C3 phone. The first is me holding the plaque I was given to commemorate the day. The 2nd is the big poster inviting all faiths and the third is the 300 or so Ghurkas from Catterick Garrison seated in the big hall - all without shoes. It was a very inspiring day, with a lot of quotes from Our Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, I`m proud to say! Gwen Lamb