Today marked 100 years since the Battle of the Somme began. CI were invited to an event at the beautiful, candlelit Bevis Marks Synagogue, to remember those who served in WW1.

First of all the ceremony began with the launch of London Jews in the First World War – We Were There Too. This is a Heritage Lottery-funded project that we have been designing, producing and engineering with web developers Beachshore. The interactive website records the contribution of London Jews in the First World War: www.jewsfww.london.

It has been exciting (and testing!) to produce this site, because it has so many functions for all kinds of people including working alongside the London Grid for Learning so this can be used as a Teaching aid in schools. We’ve developed a variety of things to bring to life the Jewish community in London at that time; a profile builder that allows you to record your family testimony and legend to share with others, a number of newly digitised and searchable assets for researching people that lived in London or served in the forces at that time, and a growing online museum of artefacts, collections of photographs, letters and posters that can be continually added to.

Seeing how this was received so positively by everyone there was brilliant for us to see. Finally, we enjoyed hearing all the input and questions people had for expanding the site as it grows. Please see our project page for an overview.

 Photo credits: Blake Ezra / KM