Klezmer musicians performing Yiddish songs of protest from the Victorian era will march in the East End as part of this weekend’s Great Yiddish Parade.

The festival, which takes place on Sunday, is organised by Dr Nadia Valman, a historian of east London at Queen Mary University of London, and Yiddish historian Dr Vivi Lachs.

Dr Valman said: “The parade takes us back to 1889, a moment when east London was gripped with strike fever.

“The recession had hit hard, unemployment was high, and casualised labour and miserable working conditions were causing chronic poverty and ill health.

“But a new spirit of working-class defiance was rising.”

The Great Yiddish Parade will recreate the famous Whitechapel march, which saw workers demonstrating against harsh economic conditions. Performers will use songs and speeches from 1889 to bring to life the mood of the East End at the time.

Dr Lachs, who rediscovered the songs when researching for her doctorate 2015, said: “The songs were sung in Yiddish because that was the everyday language of Jewish immigrants in Victorian London.

“They appeal to Jewish workers to join together with English workers to fight for better working conditions for all.

“Singing, chanting and marching together are very effective ways of fostering solidarity and political optimism.”

Dr Valman said the issues people were protesting about in the late 19th-century were similar to the issues of today.

“Campaigners and activists were questioning why so many workers were employed as casual labour.

“Others called on middle-class consumers to think about who made their clothes, and under what conditions.”