Dr Rachel Lichtenstein

British author Rachel Lichtenstein is internationally known for her books, exhibitions and other multi-disciplinary projects that explore Jewish life and culture. She currently combines writing and research with a post as Associate Professor in English and History at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Her publications include Estuary: Out from London to the Sea (Penguin 2016), which was longlisted for the Gordon Burns Prize Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden (Penguin, 2012), On Brick Lane (Penguin, 2008) shortlisted for the Oondatje prize, Keeping Pace: Older Women of the East End (Women’s Library, 2003), A Little Dust Whispered (2002, British Library) and Rodinsky’s Room (1999, co-authored with Iain Sinclair) and now translated into five languages.

Her artwork has been exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery, the Barbican Art Gallery and many other venues nationally and internationally.

Her work has been reviewed in all the major broadsheets and she has appeared many times on BBC Radio 4 (Women’s Hour) Radio 3 (Thinking Aloud), on BBC London news and popular BBC TV programmes including BBC London News, Countryfile and Who Do You Think You Are?

She speaks regularly about her work at conferences (i.e. International Conference on Jewish Urban Heritage Krakow, 2018) alongside multiple institutions and festivals in the U.K. and internationally, including for example, Jewish Museums in London, Amsterdam and Paris, the British Library and Museum of London, the London Literary Festival and Jewish Book Week. Rachel worked in London’s oldest Ashkenazi synagogue Sandy Row as a historian where she developed archive project alongside multiple events www.ourhiddenhistories.com She has been a guide of Jewish London for thirty years. She is on the International Advisory Panel for the Foundation of Jewish Heritage, the Task Force International European Day of Jewish Culture (EDJC) and the Chair of the Steering committee for the Museum of the Jewish East End in London. She recently launched a new digital resource https://jewisheastendmemorymap.org/ and is in discussions with Tower Hamlets council on the development of a Jewish quarter in east London.