Stencl guided Shloimy around the run-down streets of what he called his “shtetl in Britain” pointing out landmarks, such as the place where the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem had once stayed. Unlike Cheetham Hill, the former Jewish area of Manchester where Shloimy had grown up, the East End was still buzzing with Jewish businesses and activity and many of the shop owners and market traders spoke Yiddish. After their walk, Shloimy attended Stencl’s Friends of Yiddish gathering and soon became a regular, drawn by the atmosphere that had shaped his parents’ lives.
Inspired by these encounters, Shloimy started exploring the East End on his own every Saturday, wandering around the streets and documenting what he found. Although not a professional photographer, he recognised that he was witnessing the final years of a distinctive neighbourhood. His unique colour slides of that time capture the area’s last functioning synagogues, delis, bakeries and bagel shops alongside the remaining kosher poulterers, wine merchants, market traders, textile businesses and Jewish institutions, such as the Grand Palais Yiddish Theatre, the Kosher Luncheon Club and the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor, as well as local characters including Stencl.
