Emma Barnett on how she’s bringing a splash of colour to Jewish Book Week

When Claudia Rubenstein, the director of the Jewish Literary Foundation, rang me up and invited my husband, Jeremy Weil, and I to talk at one of the opening events for this year’s Jewish Book Week, I was very happy indeed.

She was interested in what we had learnt from our mission to map the UK and beyond in neighbourhood colouring books and our experience creating our family publishing business, Colour Your Streets. We have a lot to say on both fronts.

But I was even happier when somehow, in the course of our conversation, we ended up mulling over what it would be like to create a colouring book of Jewish landmarks and to think about Jewish identity in the UK. I am not sure if the organisers of the annual book event, which has been running since 1952 and is London’s longest running literary festival – and a favourite of mine – have ever actually commissioned a book before. But certainly this year, its 74th, they have done just that.

We mulled over what it would be like to create a colouring book of Jewish landmarks and to think about Jewish identity in the UK

Colour In Jewish UK is the beautiful result and officially launches on the opening night of Jewish Book Week on March 1. Putting it together has been fascinating. Truly. And I feel, when I flick through our personal copy, admiring the scrawl of our two-year-old daughter (who just refers to it, at the top of her voice, as the “blue book”, as most of our other 150 books are bright yellow) and the meticulous colouring of our seven- year-old son – who has chosen fabulous neon hues for the window at the top of the Glasgow’s Garnethill Synagogue – pride. Jewish pride.

I also, as I do with all of our books, feel surprised. Surprised by what I didn’t know. As a journalist and perennially curious/nosey person, I delight in the knowledge and experience of others. The process to create this book included fantastic exchanges with many people – including Marcus Roberts, the founding director of jTrails, the National Anglo-Jewish Heritage Trail and a professional heritage consultant; Raymond Simonson, the chief executive of JW3; and Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild.

The result is a book boasting 16 Jewish sights that span the UK – from the Jaffe Memorial fountain in Belfast, to Bradford Synagogue, to the statue of Licoricia in Winchester.

As a proud Mancunian, I am also very pleased to have the Manchester Jewish Museum in there, not least because it is a stone’s throw from where my late great-grandfather’s much- loved bakery, known as Sieffs (full name H. Sieff and apparently we all should have ordered his black bread) used to be on Cheetham Hill Road. And while we have included sights that reveal or nod to the suffering and persecution of Jewish people (Kindertransport – The Arrival statue at London Liverpool Street and the statue of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg), it was important than we could also display the breadth and depth of Jewish life and contribution in the UK. And to show how long we have been in this country and the marks we have left.

Even the stunning architecture of some of our oldest shuls, speaks to an ambition and culture that is vital to recognise and reflect.

We have had many conversations, my husband and I, long into the night about making the sure the mix in Colour In Jewish UK was a strong blend of Jewish culture, heritage, identity, religion, history and community. For instance the decision to feature Nightingale House, a Jewish care home in south London, alongside some of our grandest and oldest buildings, is a carefully thought-out one to reflect and act as a representation of the strong tradition of Jewish care homes across the UK.

We have learnt over the last year and half, since creating Colour Your Streets, of the sheer power of colouring in. While the activity itself is mindful, when applying it to streets and sights you have a bond with – it forges deeper connections, an ability to see things anew and acts as a prompt for some of the best storytelling about something that happened to you on the exact spot your pen is hovering over.

In fact this February marks 18 months since since the germ of an idea randomly appeared in our house. Or our local park to be more precise. Ideas rarely visit when you beckon them.  Arguably it wasn’t the best timing – we were in the throes of parenthood for the second time and generally knackered – but my husband, to his absolute credit, acted upon the new idea despite being exhausted.

The spark of the idea came while walking around Brockwell Park in south London with our then five-year-old son, who was asking us about the big clock and we found ourselves trying to find a good way of explaining local landmarks to him and failing

The spark of the idea came while walking around Brockwell Park in south London with our then five-year-old son, who was asking us about the big clock and we found ourselves trying to find a good way of explaining local landmarks to him and failing. We didn’t want to use screens and make it all about photos.

I counselled that there must be a colouring book of our neighbourhood. And yet. And yet. There wasn’t. I looked up Brixton colouring books and Herne Hill ones in my bid to colour in the streets I know and love, having pounded them during successive lockdowns and two maternity leaves. Nothing. Zilch.

And so pretty much that night – Jeremy tried making a colouring book on his computer. Like you do. And he then asked the most opinionated person in his life for their opinion. (Me). I didn’t hold back.

That book, filled with landmarks of our local area in south-east London, made from photos we took, became Colour In…Herne Hill – and the first of what we had no idea would become more than 150 colouring books.

Colour Your Streets was born and we now are mapping the whole of the UK’s towns, cities, neighbourhoods and adding three to four areas a week.

As my conversation with Rubenstein shows, we are very much in listening mode and led by what areas and themes people are asking for.

Please do get in touch and tell us where we should plot next and in the meantime. I really hope you all enjoy colouring in Colour in Jewish UK as much as we enjoyed making it. And you too feel that sense of pride.

What a story we all have together.

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