One Lost Stone

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Digital exhibition explores Jewish heritage in England

Friday, 17 July, 2020

A group of professional actors, historians and heritage researchers, including students, staff and graduates of Bath Spa University, have launched a multimedia resource inspired by Shephardi Jews in England.

Derived from Sepharad, the Hebrew word for Spain, Sephardi Jews are an ethnic division originating from communities in the Iberian Peninsula who were expelled from the region in the 15th century. 

Initially designed as an immersive performance event, Dr Thomas Kampe, Professor of Somatic Performance and Education at Bath Spa, directed One Lost Stone for Pascal Theatre Company's Lottery Heritage funded project “Discovering & Documenting England's Lost Jews”. The project has been re-imagined for the COVID-19 era as a “digital travel guide”, inviting participants to access writings, podcasts, visual collages, videos and sound compositions, all tied together with paintings by artist Anne Sassoon.

The website offers a multi-faceted resource, with each page having its own unique focus on a specific subject. The project is meant to be experienced a bit at a time, with participants encouraged to visit one or two pages, and then to return to another “chapter” later.

Explaining the project further, Dr Kampe said, “Our research reveals Sephardi immigration to England as a vital part in the building and consolidating of the modern British Empire and its colonial heritage. This project gives voice to the disenfranchised, the poor and to women, and it has been a privilege to layer our texts with Anne Sassoon’s artwork.”

You can visit the project now online.

Image credit: photo collage by Thomas Kampe