Looking at British Sephardic Jews who seek Portuguese citizenship post-Brexit: A grounded theory visual arts-based research approach

MESTRADO MULTIMÉDIA - ESPECIALIZAÇÃO EM ARTE E CULTURA Looking at British Sephardi Jews who seek Portuguese citizenship post-Brexit: A grounded theory visual artsbased research approach Vijay Hasmukh Patel M 2018 FACULDADES PARTICIPANTES: FACULDADE DE ENGENHARIA FACULDADE DE BELAS ARTES FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS FACULDADE DE ECONOMIA FACULDADE DE LETRAS!  Looking at British Sephardi Jews who seek Portuguese citizenship postBrexit:!A!grounded theory visual artsbased research approach Vijay Patel Masters in Multimedia, University of Porto Supervisor: Dinis Miguel de Almeida Cayolla Ribeiro (Prof) Co-supervisor: Luciano Moreira (PhD Candidate) June 2018 © Vijay Patel, 2018 Looking at British Sephardi Jews who seek Portuguese citizenship post-Brexit:!A!grounded theory visual artsbased research approach Vijay Patel Masters in Multimedia, University of Porto Approved in public by the jury: President: Bruno Sérgio Gonçalves Giesteira (Prof) External Examiner: Màrio Jorge Rodrigues Martins Vairinhos (Prof) Supervisor: Dinis Miguel de Almeida Cayolla Ribeiro (Prof) Co-supervisor: Luciano Moreira (PhD candidate) Resume Desde o referendo britânico de 2016 que iniciou o Brexit, judeus sefaraditas britânicos estão se candidatando à cidadania portuguesa em números sem precedentes. Isso tem sido possível uma vez que os governos português e espanhol adotaram uma legislação que abarca o período de suas histórias em que os judeus foram expulsos da Península Ibérica. Há poucas pesquisas disponíveis sobre as comunidades judaicas sefaraditas britânicas contemporâneas e nenhuma pesquisa sobre os efeitos dessas recentes políticas nacionais. Esta análise interdisciplinar visa aprofundar nossa compreensão de como os judeus sefaraditas estão ressignificando o Brexit e ampliar o escopo das práticas multimídia engajadas socialmente. Este estudo entrelaça a Teoria Fundamentada nos Dados (Grounded Theory - GT) com Arte de Instalação e Elucidação de Foto; seis participantes e três informantes-chave participaram, levando à produção de uma instalação multimídia, um work-in-progress. O GT é usado ocasionalmente para avaliar projetos baseados em arte; Este projeto usa o GT e a Metodologia da Teoria Fundamentada Visual (VGTM) como parte integrante do processo criativo. A estrutura deste projeto é guiada pelo design de pesquisa baseada em artes. Essas políticas têm encorajado uma redescoberta subjetiva de raízes sefaraditas; o que antes era latente agora ganhou posição central. Os participantes e os legisladores possuem compreensões diferentes a respeito deste oferecimento da cidadania por parte dos governos: um "presente", em oposição à "atribuição de um direito". GTM e VGTM complementam processos baseados em arte, mesmo assim, esses métodos precisam endereçar o elevado status dado pela superioridade das informações textuais em detrimento das informações visuais. O GT tem o potencial de proporcionar aos artistas uma base metodológica mais rigorosa para gerar teorias. Abstract British Sephardi Jews are applying for Portuguese citizenship in unprecedented numbers since the 2016 UK referendum initiating Brexit. This has been possible since the Portuguese and Spanish governments approved legislation addressing a period in their histories when Jews were expelled from the peninsula. There is limited research available on contemporary British Sephardi Jewish communities and no research to date on the effects of these recent national policies. This interdisciplinary analysis aims to deepen our understanding of how Sephardi Jews are making sense of Brexit and to widen the scope of socially engaged multimedia practices. This study intertwines Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) with Installation Art and Photoelicitation; six subjects and three key informants participated, leading to a work-in-progress multimedia installation. GTM is occasionally used to evaluate art-based projects; this project uses GTM and Visual Grounded Theory Methodology (VGTM) as an integral part of the creative process. The structure of this project is guided by arts-based research design. These policies have encouraged subjects to rediscover their Sephardi roots; what was previous latent has now taken centre stage. Participants had a different understanding of this citizenship offer than legislators: a “gift” as oppose to “the attribution of a right.” GTM and VGTM compliments art based processes, yet these methods need to address the elevated status given to textual data at the expense of visual data. GTM has the potential to give artists a more rigorous methodological basis for generating theories. " Keywords: Sephardi, citizenship, Brexit, installation art, grounded theory, arts-based research. Acknowledgements Special thanks and immense gratitude to Prof. Dinis Ribeiro and Luciano Moreira Marisa Silva, Raquel Magalhães Correia and Rui Rodrigues Bruno Giesteira, Pedro Cardoso, Jose Carneiro and Heitor Alvelos UCL colleagues; Richard Watt, Louise Gregory, Antiopi Ntouva and Alex Blokland MM colleagues; Nerea, Tuca, Raquel S, Sandrine, Guida, Francisco, Ana Rita and Felipe Gaëlle, Christine and David, Arnie, Karine, Claire, Andrew and Isabel Serena & others at Atelier Santo Isidro Thanks to all my family And Sebastian <3 Vijay Patel Abbreviations and Symbols ABR Arts-based Research GTM Grounded Theory Methodology MOMA Museum of Modern Art S&P Spanish & Portuguese UCL University College London VGTM Visual Grounded Theory Methodology xiii Introduction “You know, I’m not alone in thinking I’m not really quite sure what Brexit is, because we aren’t going to find out until 10 years down the line, are we? I’m not a politician or an expert on European Union trade, so I can’t tell you what it’s going to be like. Yes, there’s lots of disgruntled people, and some people with a sort of sense of victory. My fantasy is that on the ground we probably actually won’t know it’s that much different, and if we do it will be a long time before we do.” Grayson Perry (Shea 2017) On 23rd June 2016 the UK public participated in a historic referendum on whether the country should remain within or leave the European Union. This binary vote resulted in a relatively narrow and unexpected decision to leave the EU. Much analysis has been conducted on the various factors shaping public opinion towards the EU; the strongest aspects swaying leave voters were “negative attitudes towards immigration, as well as effects of the perceived loss of economic sovereignty and national identities” (Clark, Goodwin & Whiteley, 2017). This factors are also believed to have contributed to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in November 2016. These political events, regarded as tectonic shifts on the political landscape have dominated media coverage around the world and contributed to the continuing politicisation of discourse within the arts. Artists have actively engaged and responded in various ways, from taking a political stance by merely observing and providing commentary. While some, such as the 14 internationally renowned artists created posters in support of keeping Britain within the EU (Guardian 2016), others such as Grayson Perry have attempted to highlight commonalities between opposing fractions. Within a year of the referendum, tens of thousands of Britons had applied for citizenship to other EU countries. Citizenship applications to Ireland increased the most, with 64,400 UK nationals applying compared to 25,207 who applied in the previous one-year period (Farrell 2017). Similar surges in numbers were reported from other EU countries, including: Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden (Farrell 2017). Numerous Britons are revisiting their genealogy and exploring possible European links. This process has become particularly thought-provoking for the British Jewish community who have historically faced persecution 1 and fled from these same European countries to the United Kingdom. It has been possible for Sephardi Jews to claim Iberian nationality since 2015 when the Spanish and Portuguese governments introduced legislation addressing a period in their histories when Jews were expelled from the peninsula. Paradoxically, these historical injustices now give these same ethnic minority groups the opportunity to retain rights which ordinary Britons will most certainly lose. Many artists have investigated similar social issues and have staged multimedia exhibitions inviting audiences to reflect on such themes. One recent example is the Tension & Conflict: Video Art after 2008 exhibition held at the Museum of Art, Architecture & Technology (MAAT), Lisbon. This group show charts the development and experimentation of video art over the last ten years, in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. One recurring debate has been how art can and should be political. Melanie Gilligan’s Crisis in the Credit System is a sophisticated documentary-styled fiction reflecting on the human cost of economic turmoil and the abstract financial structures that led to it. This four-part web series was commissioned and produced by Artangel. Gilligan conducted extensive interviews and observations while she was developing the film’s script, in order to avoid the pitfalls of stereotyping and other generalisations associated with bankers and others who work in the financial sector. “During my research I interviewed popular economics writers and economists, even a BBC economics TV journalist,"because I wanted to get a close-up sense of how the crisis was being understood and represented in the mass media (because the media often greatly informs popular perspective). But on the other hand, I had always avoided those spheres of culture because I generally disagree with the ideologies dominating them.” (Gilligan 2012) Conceptual artistic duo, Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan are currently working on a feature length film Citizens of Nature exploring the inland communities of Suriname. People who are of African decent who escaped plantation enslavement and formed independent communities within the rainforest. Van Brummelen and de Haan are conducting extensive ethnographic fieldwork which is guiding the film’s development. Portuguese artist Carla Filipe is developing an exhibition project at Galeria Municipal do Porto, due to open on 30th June 2018 focusing on social practices within bars and clubs. Filipe actively participated within these studied environments and conducted interviews, searching for the touchstones of meaning that shape this specific community. 2 Over the last few decades, arts-based practitioners (such as Gilligan, van Brummelen and de Haan) have increasingly contextualised and formalised their creative practices and outcomes within an academic research environment. These initiatives have simultaneously broadened and focused definitions of Arts-Based Research (ABR). This emerging field of study has roots stretching back to the beginning of the last century when the scientific research process experienced a significant transformation. At this time research started to be considered a cognitive process as opposed to merely a procedure for verifying hypotheses. This qualitative paradigm focuses on common attributes of phenomena in order to achieve a deeper and more contextualised understanding. In contrast, the positivist approach aims to gain an understanding of phenomena. which are measurable, tangible and observable. As a consequence, new methodological processes have been explored and arts-based practitioners have eagerly incorporated procedures and methodologies from other fields within the humanities and social sciences to develop interdisciplinary projects, which broaden and deepen our understanding of a given topic. The most popular example is ethnographic practice which since the 1960s has been widely adopted by artists working across the creative industry (Foster, 1996). New interdisciplinary fields have emerged; visual ethnography and experimental ethnography. This convergence is a natural fit as both disciplines study social phenomena and use similar observational methods and tools. At the beginning of this project when searching for relevant methodologies to utilise, a number of university colleagues suggested using Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM). GTM is a systematic and inductive sociological methodology involving the construction of theory through meticulous collecting and analysis of data (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). While GTM has been used for evaluating arts-based projects it has not been explored by artists nor incorporated into artistic practices. One of the aims of this study is to explore the applicability of GTM and its effectiveness by giving socially engaged arts practitioners a greater rigorous basis for generating theories. This is significant as numerous visual artists generate, gather and analyse, empirical data without knowledge of techniques used in sociology. When completing my undergraduate degree, I spent numerous hours observing, talking to, drawing and painting life models. In hindsight, I wish I had the methodological tools for generating theories based on these observations. An integrated and holistic approach could lead to a deeper understanding of the research ‘problem’. In recent decades, other visual artists have also gone beyond the ‘ethnographic turn’ and I have been inspired by their methods (Rutten, Dienderen & Soetaert. 3 2013). This project primarily analyses text-based data, in addition to auxiliary visual materials. Although GTM accepts data in all its forms, there is a lack of attention when it comes to processing visual materials. There are only two Visual Grounded Theory Methodological (VGTM) approaches available (this will be discussed in greater detail in the following chapter). There are three main reasons why this project is ideally suited to an arts-based research approach. Firstly, the topic can be considered comprehensively, without artificially segregating various components based on disciplinary boundaries. Without an ABR approach I would be limited to investigating the topic primarily from an arts praxis perspective and tackling the visual representation of the topic while leaving the primary data gathering and analysis to the anthropologists and/or sociologists. Secondly, ABR grants the liberty to experiment and integrate methodologies. This has strengthened the breath of the study’s findings. For example, I have merged the process of drawing with collecting oral history stories when interviewing subjects. This has reinforced interactions with participants, given them time to pause and reflect during the interview, and has provided richer data as a result. Thirdly, this flexible and holistic approach encourages researchers to intuitively respond to new insights and unexpected data, in order to “propel cycles of returning to reanalyze data and/or revise aspects of the research design as needed” (Chilton & Leavy, 2014, p. 407). As I develop this project, ABR permits me to simultaneously work within and transgress dominant discursive practices and frameworks without losing sight of the topic and adapting to it. ABR “can be particularly useful for research goals that aim to describe, explore, or discover social, emotional, and other meta-cognitive experiences” (Chilton & Leavy, 2014, p. 407). The outcomes of such research can be emotionally and politically poignant due to the aesthetic power of visual work. “Narrative transmits knowledge not as information isolated from subjective experience (and therefore verifiable) but as embedded within the events in the story as part of a totality that involves affects, emotions, and associations” (Gilligan 2012). There are numerous similarities between ABR and practice-based research; there are also, however, some key differences. Both fields have unique historical backgrounds which have contributed to the development of specific research models. Practice research is a broad field encompassing the arts, humanities and medical sciences with an array of forms. ABR, in contrast, is a product of creative arts therapy, having initially developed within the fields of psychiatry and psychology. Prominent ABR researchers such as Patricia Levy gained their academic training within the social sciences and have refined ABR research models specifically 4 for sociologists who wish to incorporate arts-based approaches and artists who seek to embrace social scientific methods (Leavy, 2015). This fusion has created specialised visual art genres, which are highly relevant to my approach and the work I wish to produce. Embedding this study in ABR with reference to practice-based research in the visual arts will potentially yield richer results. Motivation After describing this research project to friends, university colleagues, workmates and acquaintances, the first most common question I have been asked is: are you Jewish? This is sometimes followed by: do you want to become Jewish? I personally don’t find these questions offensive; in fact, I highly value their honest and direct approach as it exposes their curiosity and sense of bewilderment. These questions have had the added effect of making me reflect on my own motivations and the external factors, which have encouraged me to pursue this line of enquiry. When applying for the Masters in Multimedia program back in the spring of 2016, there was a requirement to submit a five-page research project proposal. At that time, I had originally suggested tracking personal health data (via smartphone apps) and using this data to develop multimedia interventions with participants. One such idea was to create personalised knitwear. The various characteristics of the garment (texture, pattern, yarn, shape, colour, density and tone) would be influenced by participants’ personal health data. I wanted these fun pieces of clothing to encourage participants to reflect on their health. I had also applied for a Masters in Social and Cultural Anthropology at KU Leuven as I had also become interested in the intersection between arts-based research and anthropological fieldwork. I subsequently took up the multimedia course at the University of Porto and axed my initial project proposal within a few months of starting. The last two years have given me the opportunity to reflect on my personal background, refine my interests within various disciplines (fine art, technology, sociology and anthropology) and to situate them within a Portuguese settling. Also the applicability of multimedia for instigating personal reflection and social change is a recurring interest of mine, one of the reasons for choosing this masters program was that this approach is embedded within a number of modules such as the Multimedia Laboratory. During this first year module I teamed up with colleagues to develop multimedia applications with the objective of 5 raising awareness of domestic violence. These interdisciplinary interests and my fine art training have naturally made me gravitate towards a socially-engaged multimedia ABR project. As a British national having recently migrated to Portugal, the UK referendum result initiating Brexit has cast a shadow on this decision by threatening my associated European rights and freedoms. This triggered my interest in the concept of citizenship and after attending events at FuturePlaces: MediaLab for Citizenship festival in October 2016 I was inspired to explore local, regional and national population demographics (Patel, 2017). This was an attempt to map out population diversity and to consider in what ways an understanding of the cultural composition of the city could enhance citizenship arts programming. I was surprised to learn that the Portuguese constitution forbids the collection of data on race, ethnicity and sexuality. I subsequently proposed and delivered a workshop exploring these issues for FuturePlaces the following year (Patel & Costa, 2017). One of the outcomes was to form a media lab investigating intercultural relations. I presented the outcomes of the workshop at the Rainbow Pilgrims Conference, Buckinghamshire New University. This was especially productive as I made contact with a Portuguese masters student from Porto who is specialising in gender studies and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). I then attended the Engage International Conference 2017: Rethinking Diversity (Patel, 2018) which was an opportunity to contemplate complex issues surrounding race, ethnicity, identity, disability, gender and sexuality, and to consider in what ways these topics could influence and enhance individual creative practices. The conference was primarily aimed at artist educators and those working within museum and gallery education. I have since been invited to be part of Engage’s Inclusion Advisory Group. Thus far, I have mentioned the following motivations: using multimedia as a tool for reflection, an interest in citizenship and an involvement with diversity discourse. These interests have aroused my curiosity in the topic in general, however they do not convincingly justify pursuing this specific case study. Why not look at Brexit related issues and feelings of belonging within my own ethnic minority community? Surprisingly demographic data from the EU referendum vote in the borough where I grew up reveals South Asians were much more likely to vote for Brexit than their neighbouring white peers. “While the borough of Ealing voted overall Remain by 60.4%, the wards (Broadway and Green) in Southall - primarily a South Asian residential district - voted only very narrowly Remain (50.5% and 50.9% respectively)” (Ehsan, 2017). Similar patterns were evident across the country. Pursuing this type of case study would 6 have been much easier for recruiting research participants. Over the course of this project, I have continuously asked myself: why focus on British Sephardi Jews? What is it about this community that compels me? I will explore this further in the final chapter. Significance This project will be one of the first qualitative studies to explore the effects of these Spanish and Portuguese national citizenship policies. This initiative builds on previously mentioned projects. Although I am not Jewish, I am well positioned for gaining access to participants residing in Portugal and the UK. This experimental study integrates Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) with an artsbased praxis. GTM is ideally suited to visual art genres within arts-based research for four main reasons. Firstly, they both approach data collection and analysis in a holistic sense, by embracing all forms of data. “All is data […] GT[M] is a general methodology useable on any data, and it is up to the researcher to figure out exactly what the data is” (Glaser, 2007). Secondly, GTM and ABR require an open and flexible mindset. Thirdly, they both lend themselves to inductive and abductive processes. There is a controversy as to whether GTM can truly be considered an inductive (generate theories) as opposed to an abductive methodology. “Abduction is when we reformulate our previous knowledge and construct theories” (Konecki, 2011). This is especially the case “when a new and unique empirical observation cannot be explained on the basis of existing knowledge and categories or assumptions, existing knowledge must be reformulated and re-sorted for an explanation of a new fact” (Konecki, 2011). Abductive processes can be creative and intuitive, similar and relevant to arts-based practitioners who creatively apply and simultaneously reconstruct previous knowledge for generating new works of art (Gonzalez & Haselager, 2005). Fourthly, it expands the field and could lead to the creation of hybrid processes. Due to the increasing attention given to visual data within the social sciences, psychology researchers Günter Mey and Marc Dietrich have incorporated GTM within a general framework for actualising Visual Grounded Theory Methodology (Mey & Dietrich, 2016). GTM is commonly used as an evaluation method for arts-based projects and, on occasion, it is used for analysing static imagery and video-based data (Habib & Hinojosa, 2016). To my 7 mean “too much … too little … or nothing at all” (Cooper, 2005). Belonging could provide a more nuanced perspective through which to break down and analyse constituent parts that make up a shared identity. 1.2. Arts-Based Research Approaches “Art-based research can be defined as the systematic use of the artistic process, the actual making of artistic expressions in all of the different forms of the arts, as a primary way of understanding and examining experience by both researchers and the people that they involve in their studies.” Shaun McNiff (Knowles, 2007, p.29) ABR gained greater recognition when Tom Baron and Elliot Eisner introduced the concept of ‘arts-based educational research’ (Jaeger & Barone, 1997). As writing is an essential aspect of the dissemination of research, most of the earlier works of ABR centred “on the use and analysis of literary art forms in the human sciences with nods to music and the visual arts” (Cahnmann-Taylor, 2008, p.6). This early history has increased projects and theoretical thought within literary based ABR projects; I will refer to literary concepts which are relevant and can be applied within this context. In recent years ABR has been opened up to a greater variety of visual, performative and literary-based theories and practices. Advances in technology have also facilitated the expansion of forms (Knowles & Cole, 2008; Cahnmann & Taylor, 2008). In Figure 3, I have constructed a partial taxonomy with the three main genres of ABR positioned to the left, followed by associated and hybrid methodologies, then modus operandi commonly associated with related disciplines. This is not an exhaustive list since ABR is a constantly expanding and evolving field. “[Arts-based research is] an effort to utilise the forms of thinking and forms of representation that the arts provide as a means through which the world can be better understood and through such understanding comes the enlargement of mind” (Barone & Eisner, 2012, p.x). In turn, social researchers have used arts-based praxis to stimulate the senses, uncover the complexity of lived experiences, force us into thinking differently and so as to reach diverse audiences. As Chilton and Leave argue “arts-based … approaches were embraced as potentially able to provide the participatory, ethical, multi-voiced processes that practice-minded 14 researchers concerned with social justice sought” (Chilton & Leavy, 2014, p. 405). This ethos can influence all stages of the research process: from identifying research questions and collecting and analysing empirical data, through to presenting and disseminating results. As ABR departs significantly from standard perspectives and covers multiple subject areas, there is greater consideration for defining this evolving field of enquiry as an emergent research paradigm. Figure 3: Partial taxonomy of qualitative methodologies and processes used within ABR. “Fictional explorations allow us to penetrate more freely and intimately into the particular subject matter, to identify with the characters and situations in new ways, and to speak from the perspectives of others.” Shaun McNiff (Knowles, 2007, p.38) ABR affords the opportunity to rigorously study the empirical worlds and relate this to the fictional worlds we create. Wolfgang Iser was a literary theorist who proposed the concept of overstepping; when a “literary work oversteps the real world which it incorporates” (Iser, 1997, p. 1). This process has three fundamental elements; selection, combination and self-disclosure. First we must select an ‘identifiable item’ within the real world and then transport and transform it within the fictitious world by allowing the item to become “a sign for something other than themselves” (Iser, 1997, p. 12). Secondly, we cluster empirical data and meaning around these new fictitious items. Familiar and recognisable elements help to attract and focus the audiences’ attention and entice them into this new environment. The artistic act itself is a fictionalising 15 process meaning that the work inherently reveals its fictional status. This self-disclosure seals these elements within this new reality. Fiction-based research has the potential to reach broad and diverse audiences, making the outcomes of social research accessible, engaging, and enjoyable. In addition, there are three fundamental aims shared by both fields; to portray the complexity of lived experience (merging the specific to the universal), encouraging empathy and self-reflection, and disrupting ideologies or stereotypes (Leavy, 2013). There are various visual arts-based participatory methods that can be used when working with research participants. These practices for generating and representing data are commonly part of mixed or multi-method research designs. Photo Elicitation (also commonly referred to as PhotoVoice, Photo Interviewing, Reflective Photography and Photo Novella) is a method whereby participants are asked to express their points of view by taking photographs. This puts participants in the “driver’s seat" and means they can focus discussions on what they wish to communicate. The diverse terminology across multiple disciplines may reflect it’s broad appeal and applicability. There is an important distinction between Photo Elicitation and PhotoVoice: while the first commonly uses images as a point of departure for interviews or ethnography, the second is based on core values of community-based participatory research and focuses on developing collaborative narratives and influencing change-makers (i.e policymakers). There are three distinct approaches: participant-driven (open), participant-driven (semi-structured) and researcher-driven (Bates, McCann, Kaye & Taylor. 2017). Epistemological values will inform which approach is most suitable. I will discuss this in greater depth in chapter 2. The aesthetic quality of all these images are typically subordinated. I will incorporate Photo Elicitation methods when conducting interviews as this may encourage deeper reflection, stimulate memory and prompt participants to contribute richer data. 1.3. Installation Art “The main principle of our work is for the viewer to not think about what the artist is trying to say but instead to feel how the metaphor relates to them. That’s the whole point [..] so that there is no viewer and artist, but that the viewer is exactly the same as the artist. So that the artist could awake in the viewer those very experiences that he himself has.” (Kabakov, 1995, p. 275) 16 The word ‘installation’ originates from the 1960s when it was used to describe the way in which multiple artworks were arranged within an exhibition. The ‘installation of art’ quickly evolved into ‘installation art’, which now refers to mixed-media constructions that are commonly executed for a specific place and/or a temporary period of time. These installations occupy an entire enclosed space, such as a gallery space where audiences are invited to engage and immerse themselves within the artwork. As Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, renowned Russian/ American conceptual artists have stated “the main actor in the ‘total installation’, the main centre towards which everything is addressed, for which everything is intended, is the viewer” (Kabakov, 1995). Installation art differs from traditional media (painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and video) as it forces the embodied viewer to directly engage with the space, not just visually, but also through their sense of smell, touch and sound. This key characteristic unifies the diversity of forms from installations that heighten sensory perception (i.e. Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project 2003) to others that display a bare minimum of perceptual stimulus (i.e. Martin Creed’s Work No. 227: The lights going on and off, 2000). Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Figure 4: View of the International Surrealist Exhibition, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1938. From left to right: Paul Eluard, Rene Magritte, Leo Male and an anonymous visitor using flashlights to illuminate the artworks. Figure 5: View of the International Surrealist Exhibition, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1938. Installations can be organised into four distinct modalities (Bishop, 2005), each of which construct a different model of the subject. The first organises the subject as psychoanalytical: “work that plunges the viewer into a psychological absorptive, dream-like environment” (Bishop, 2005). The second model is based on French philosopher Maurice 17 Merleau-Ponty’s The Phenomenology of Perception (translated into English in 1962) and intensifies the subject’s bodily experience. The third centres on Sigmund Freud’s idea of libidinal withdrawal and subjective disintegration. The final installation model incorporates poststructuralist critiques of democracy in its political conception of the subject. Not all artworks fit precisely within these four subject orientated categories and many installations cross boundaries. In this section I will focus on the first and final modalities as these are the ones, which are most relevant to my subject. They enable a fictional exploration and immersion into psychological states in addition to allowing for an investigation of various social democratic artistic models for engaging audiences. Although the term ‘installation art’ was formalised in the 1960s, the art form has roots reaching back to 1938 when Marcel Duchamp produced the first International Surrealist Exhibition at the prestigious Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. As the interior of this established gallery space conflicted with the surrealist aesthetic, the artists decided to disrupt and make dramatic interventions: the red carpet and ornate furniture were removed; 1,200 packed dirty coal sacks were hung from the ceiling obliterating natural light that would have ordinarily filtered in from the skylights above: beds were placed in every corner of the main gallery space: and a pond was installed surrounded by soil, stones and vegetation. Man Ray had designed a sophisticated system for illuminating the paintings using concealed stage lights. However, as it was not ready for the opening night they decided to hand visitors a torchlight to aid their curious examination of their new surroundings (see Figure 4). This environment induces dream-like experiences, similar to those described in Sigmund Freud’s ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ (1900). Freud’s psychoanalytic reading of dreams is based on three main principles: dreams are fundamentally experiential and visual (with auditory fragments), formed of many separate parts that need to be broken down (similar to a rebus), and understood through freeassociation interpretative methods (Bishop, 2005). These features contribute to what the Kabakovs describe as the ‘total installation’. The idea of ‘audience as artist’ as formulated by Ilya Kabakov at the beginning of this chapter was explored earlier this year during the Kabakov’s exhibition Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future at Tate Modern. The centre piece of this show was Ilya Kabakov’s autobiographical installation Labyrinth (My Mother’s Album) created in 1990 (see Figure 6). Unlike the other installations such as Ten Characters, 1988, that construct fictional, multicharacter universes, Labyrinth recounts the tragic life story of Kabakov’s mother Bertha 18 Solodukhina from his own perspective. As you enter the installation you can faintly hear a recording of the artist singing and the long narrow corridor is dimly lit by stark overhead light bulbs making the atmosphere reminiscent of a psychiatric ward. Along the walls a series of dark identical frames are hanging, each containing one or two photographs with typewritten text in the bottom right hand corner. The sense of claustrophobia is heightened as you walk past locked doors, some of which are even left ajar; you reach the end of a corridor and are confronted with another. The melancholic sound of singing becomes louder as you slowly make your way to the centre only to discover a mundane room filled with rubble. This anticipation and anti-climatic sensation is one Kabakov intentionally wants you to experience; you are not expected to identify with him, but become the protagonist: “All the corridors of my life, from earliest childhood on, have been connected with torture of endless anticipation” (Kabakov, 2000). This striking impression is used as a stimulus for exploring life between the wars and during the Soviet-era. This heightened consciousness encourages individual engagement and participation. Kabakov uses text taken from his mother’s memoirs. Additional layers of meaning are constructed when you start to uncover further details and references within the text such as the fact that Kabakov’s mother was Jewish and that they were evacuated from Ukraine during World War II. Installation art is a powerful means for exploring personal experiences, societal environments and inviting audiences to construct multiple layers of meaning around a topic - creating their own perception. Figure 6: Inside Ilya Kabakov’s Labyrinth (My Mother’s Album), 1990. 19 “The use of found materials, whose worn patina bears the indexical trace of previous ownership, is prevalent in this type and acts as a further trigger for reflection and free association.” (Bishop, 2005) Figure 7: Susan Hiller, From the Freud Museum, 1991-96. In 1994 Susan Hiller was commissioned by Book Works and the Freud Museum in London to develop an installation in response to Sigmund Freud’s personal collection of art and antiquities. The work From the Freud Museum is a collection of fifty archive boxes with their lids open, presented on two shelves within a vitrine (see Figure 7). The boxes contain ephemeral and everyday objects from Hiller’s own personal collection. They are indexed and each one is given a short and evocative title corresponding to its contents. Hiller critiques anthropological modes of classification, the hierarchy of displayed artefacts and the narratives such collections propose: “… if Freud’s collection is a version of Western civilisation’s heritage, then my collection is an archive of misunderstandings, crises, and ambivalences” (“Tate: From the Freud Museum”). Hiller graduated in the field of anthropology and became a multimedia artist after rejecting anthropology’s objectification of lived experiences (“Susan Hiller: About”). Hiller 20 intends audiences to become actively involved and create subjective associations and narratives based on the objects and their own lived experiences. Figure 8: Joseph Beuys, Hearth II, 1978-79. This desire to holistically activate the viewer has political and ethical implications. Artists have created installations urging audiences to question structures of power, authority and marginalisation. Joseph Beuys coined the term ‘social sculpture’ by claiming that “the concept of sculpting can be extended to the invisible materials used by everyone”, thereby regarding thoughts, speech and dialogue as artistic forms. Beuys conceived artistic practice as political action. In the 1970s he founded the Organisation for Direct Democracy through Referendum 21 and staged exhibitions as a method of political campaigning and engagement. Beuys encourages dialogue between audiences and conceives the viewing subject not as an individual but as a collective. Beuys’ piece Hearth II, 1978-79 (see Figure 7) is composed of copper and iron rods in circular form (symbolically representing the exchange of ideas) and a stack of grey felt suits. The Kunstmuseum Basel caused a scandal in 1978 when it purchased the original Hearth I for 300,000 Swiss francs. This controversy inspired one group to protest during the annual carnival parade in Basel by wearing animal masks and felt suits, and carrying copper rods. Beuys joined in by handing out leaflets opposing the museum acquisition and after the protest was over, collected the discarded suits and incorporated it within a second, expanded installation, Hearth II. In that way, he was engaging with and symbolically consolidating multiple viewpoints within one installation. Figure 9: Grada Kilomba Secrets to Tell, 2017, MAAT Museum of Art, Architecture & Technology. This democratised definition of art has encouraged those outside the field to experiment with artistic forms and practices. Grada Kilomba is an interdisciplinary artist who started off her training in Lisbon in psychoanalysis where she worked at a psychiatry department with war survivors from Angola and Mozambique. Engaging with these personal first-hand experiences 22 of war and colonisation prompted Kilomba to start writing and develop post-colonial narratives around the theme of collective memory and trauma. In 2008 Kilomba published Plantation Memories: Episodes of Everyday Racism, in which she explores day-to-day racism as a psychological reality that suddenly places the Black subject in a colonial scene. Since 2010 Kilomba has transformed her theoretical writings into staged performances and has recently experimented with film, sound and performance within an installation context. The artistic forms referenced in Kilomba’s exhibition Secrets to Tell, 2017 (see Figure 8) are reminiscent of Beuys’ installations. Symbolic narratives are generated by static objects. While Beuys uses felt, copper and wood, Kilomba deploys the products of colonialism: coffee beans, cocoa, sugar and candles. They have both integrated documentary artefacts from their own public lectures: Beuys’ blackboard markings have been preserved and Kilomba screens video recordings. They both use performance as a form of political action: while Beuys seeks to enhance democratic processes, Kilomba forces audiences to confront the legacy of colonialism. The effects of Brexit could be investigated through a variety of visual, musical and performance-based art forms. I think installation art is the most effective visual art form as it impresses on the individual to not only cognitively, but physically respond to and reflect on the exhibition topic. Whereas traditional media like painting represents space, light, texture and so on, installation art directly presents these phenomena to the viewer. This embodied experience ‘activates’ the viewer. Making them use their other senses often leads to greater and more intense experiences, as compared to conventional media that just requires optical observation. Also emerging in the 1960s and a key concept at the heart of installation art is the idea of the ‘decentred subject’. Here, viewers are no longer required to position themselves in front of artworks for the optimum viewpoint (especially for painting that deploys linear perspective). Instead, this central position is “intrinsically dislocated […] fragmented, multiple and decentred - by [their] unconscious desires and anxieties, by an interdependent and differential relationship to the world” (Bishop, 2005). This approach breaks free from classical conceptions of the ‘centred subject’, which is ostensibly “white, male and conservative” (Bishop, 2005). This poststructuralist concept was especially influential to art critics who were sensitive to feminist and postcolonial discourses. Installation art encourages these various intersubjective viewpoints, which I hope will lead to richer and more rewarding reflective experiences. 23 for participant demographics and other relevant information). It was difficult to adopt a systematic approach and target specific participants without the help of The S&P Sephardi Community executive office. Also the limited project timeframe has restricted the scope of participant involvement. I will discuss these limitations with recruitment in greater detail in chapter 6. To summarise it was not my intention for participants to be representative of the British Sephardi Jewish community, rather to explore and draw attention to wider questions of belonging, political caesura, historical continuity, individual and collective agency, political mobilisation and power. 2.3. Interview Procedures It is vital to conduct in-depth participant interviews in order to gain an insightful appreciation of the effects of Brexit and these governmental citizenship policies. Various and differing research traditions have resulted in an array of perspectives on how to carry out indepth interviews. One of these is the ‘traveler metaphor’ (Kvale, 1996), which falls within the constructivist research model and views knowledge as developed, created and negotiated through conversations between the interviewee and the interviewer. This approach can take the form of semi-structured interviews. This involved adopting a general framework that allows participants to talk freely, get a little sidetracked and render their own account of the topic. As I am employing a Straussian GTM approach and developing an arts installation, I think it is appropriate to use this heuristic approach and to recognise my contribution to the project’s outcomes. In-depth interviews should have these key features: combine structure with flexibility, interactive, include follow-up questions and have a sense that new knowledge will be generated (Legard, 2003). Researchers should harness their ability to listen, remember discussion points and to maintain a clear, logical mind (Legard, 2003). Curiosity is also an essential attribute as well as an interest and respect for participants (Thompson, 2000). Legard (2003) sets out six clear stages for an in-depth interview: arrival, introducing the research, beginning the interview, during the interview, ending the interview and after the interview. I have categorised my interview script into three segments. The first focuses on general enquiries (content mapping questions), e.g. “How do you feel about Brexit?” The second and third are for in-depth probing (using some content mapping questions, but predominantly content mining questions), e.g. 30 “How would you describe the Sephardi community?” and “What links do you have to Spain and/or Portugal?” Content mining questions can be assorted into four broad groups: amplification, exploratory, explanatory and classificatory (Legard, 2003). Keeping summary comments to a minimum is important as it will potentially broaden the analysis and encourage diverse perspectives relating to the data. During the third segment of face-to-face interviews I will ask participants if we can take a twenty-minute pause in order for me to make an observational drawing and take photographs. The intention is to create a silent intermission for me to jot down observations, but also for the participant to reflect on the questions asked and consider anything else they would like to add. Drawing may become a springboard to further indepth conversations. These artistic methods will be an aid and further stimulus when transforming primary data into an interactive multimedia installation. I initially concluded that the photo-elicitation participant-driven (semi-structured) approach (Bates et al., 2017) was most suitable for this project as I thought it struck a good balance between participant expression and the researcher’s guidance. I included the question “Can you show me an image of what Brexit means for you?” Participants could select an image or create one themselves. The chosen image/s would be used as a starting point for the second interview. At the end of the first interview with participant D, I realised this approach was too broad (in terms of image selection) yet thematically too restrictive, complex and abstract; that a participant-driven (open) approach to the theme would facilitate richer results. Although these interviews follow a semi-structured format, it is important to consider the shifting balance between researcher and participant driven approaches across the various parts of an interview. More power needs to be handed to the participants and a more open question would help break down diverse and even conflicting thoughts relating to Brexit. For the remaining interviews, I used the question “Can you show me an image that relates to this topic?” (see appendix E for the second version of the interview scripts). Participant E showed me a photo of his family towards the end of our first interview without being prompted. If I had asked him to show me an image of what Brexit means for him, I doubt an image would come to mind. Yet for him a family photo is relevant and important. This demonstrates that an open approach to the thematic content may empower participants to share pertinent images. When conducting interviews I tried to refrain from offering personal information, however this has not always been possible as some participants have been curious about my personal motivations. Their interest can be further aroused as I am not part of the Sephardic community, 31 this can be assumed by my ethnicity (for interviews conducted face-to-face) and my non-Jewish name. Their concern can manifest at the start of the interview when participants ask questions after I introduce the topic or at the end when we engage in small talk before parting ways. There is a debate about whether or not interviewers should disclose personal views and details about themselves. Disclosure can be problematic as it may inhibit the interviewee and influence responses. On the other hand, some researchers such as Ann Oakley regard interviews as a reciprocal exchange in which researchers should express some feelings as there is ‘no intimacy without reciprocity’ (Oakley, 1981). As such, after the initial batch of interviews, I decided to spend an extra moment at the beginning of each new interview, when introducing the research to overcome my outsider status by mentioning my migration from the UK to Portugal as one of my motivations for initiating this project. I also changed the grammatical form of the interview script from third-person to first-person. I share a great deal with participants, including my country of upbringing, educational background, place of residence, gender and native spoken language. These aspects have helped to build rapport and overcome my ethnic and religious outsider status. It was my intention at the start to fully transcribe all interviews. This meticulous approach would help with fully understanding the responses from interviewees, but also when coding and categorising data during the analysis phase. I used YouTube automatic transcription software, available free of charge when uploading a video onto the online video sharing platform. Unfortunately the software provides inaccurate results, especially when transcribing spoken words from non-native English language speakers or if the quality of the recording is poor. As a result, I had to repetitively listen carefully to the audio recordings and correct content where necessary. As each interview lasted approximately one hour, it became an incredibly timeconsuming task and not a good use of time for all the interviews. After fully transcribing the first two (with participants A and B) I decided to take notes and only transcribe specific relevant sections for my interview with participant C, informant C and the second interview with participant F. I could always return to the recording at a later stage and transcribe other relevant sections if needed. I decided to take the time to fully transcribe interviews conducted with participants D, E and F as well as informants A and B as their testimonies will form the bedrock of my analysis. It was my preference to conduct face-to-face interviews as opposed to interviews over the telephone for three main reasons: personal contact makes it easier to build rapport and develop 32 trust, enables responses to non-verbal communication and facilitates richer data (including observational drawings and photographs). I had flown to the UK on four separate occasions (July 2017, November 2017, February 2018 and May 2018) specifically to conduct face-to-face interviews, however there were numerous challenges and barriers that prevented me from interviewing all participants in person. During these trips I kept a journal to record: on-the-fly notes, summary notes and reflexivity notes. I have enhanced data collection procedures by incorporating relevant ethnographic and artistic methods in order to provide greater insight. The outcomes of these methods will be especially useful when I move onto the next stage: constructing a multimedia installation. 33 3. Results “The actual research you conduct through analysing your data likely differs at least somewhat-from what you may have planned earlier in a research or grant proposal. We learn through studying our data.” Kathy Charmaz (2006) There were numerous unexpected ideas and themes that emerged after the initial coding. This preliminary stage thus helped refine and focus the interview script for future participants, but also to test out hypotheses and ask follow up questions during the second interview. I broke down interview transcripts into component parts, employed line-by-line coding, extracted implicit and explicit actions and meanings, compared data and identified gaps. I regularly revisited and compared interview scripts, field notes and visual observations. Table 3: Extract from the first interview transcript with participant E. Initial coding Transcript Long history Expulsion Perpetrators of Jewish descent Perpetrators’ considerations Conversion to catholicism Childhood innocence Word of mouth Discovery of passover central to being revealed as Jewish. Reason for fleeing. Passover - linking ancestors to present day practice. History providing sense of belonging. Persecution Casualty The church had persuaded Ferdinand and Isabella to expel the Jews, which they did. They were both, Ferdinand and Isabella partly of Jewish descent. I think Ferdinand actually had a Jewish mother. And Dom Alvaro (Alvaro of Braganza), who was the Chancellor. They gave him a special dispensation to stay with his family without conversion but he chose to go to Lisbon but only a very few years later (about four or five years) they, all the Jews of Portugal were forcibly converted without the option of even leaving. Our family, the story is that one of them a young female member of the family, had a best friend who was the niece of a Grand Inquisitor when she revealed to her friend that the family had just celebrated Passover. Her friend told her uncle and I know that one member of the family was actually burnt at the stake and the rest left in a great hurry. 34 Table 4: Important historical figures and events alongside familial connections as referenced throughout all the in-depth interviews. Date Historical event Participants’ family connections 1066 William the Conqueror’s arrival and invasion of Britain. Participant E may have family roots with Jews who came over from Rouen with William the Conqueror. 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella instigate the Alhambra Decree formalising the Jewish expulsion from Spain. Ferdinand may have had a Jewish mother. 1497 Jewish expulsion from Portugal 1440-1504 Álvaro of Braganza (Dom Álvaro) Dom Álvaro fled Portugal, similar to participant E’s ancestors and may in fact be a direct ancestor. 1506 The great massacre in Lisbon Participant E’s ancestors left Portugal just before the great massacre. 1509-1583 Fernão Mendes Pinto Participant E’s uncle’s family tree shows decent from Fernão Mendes Pinto and he “was very close to the Jesuits but that doesn't stop him having actually been a secret Jew.” 1638-1705 Catherine of Braganza One of participant E’s ancestors was the personal physician to Catherine of Braganza. 1703 Methuen Treaty Following the treaty, informants A and B state “Lisbon became a free port, so some people managed to escape the Inquisition’s clutches” and fled directly to the UK. 1755 The Great Lisbon earthquake 1784-1885 Sir Moses Montefiore Sir Moses Montefiore’s wife, Lady Judy Montefiore was a direct ancestor of participant D and F. Lady Montefiore published a cookbook and is credited with introducing the family tradition of eating cold fried fish during Passover. 1804-1881 Benjamin Disraeli Participant E’s uncle explored possible ancestral connections with Disraeli (ExBritish Prime Minister). 1819-1901 Queen Victoria Sir Moses Montefiore was friendly with Queen Victoria. 1860-1933 Horatio Bottomley Populist Member of Parliament who attacked foreigners living in the UK, such as participant E’s grandfather. 1935-1958 Faisal II of Iraq Participant B lived in Iraq during the reign of King Faisal II. 35 One of the major themes to emerge was the participants' acute awareness of the historical context surrounding the lived experiences of their ancestors, but also how they and the wider Jewish community are intimately connected with this history. My aim is not to interrogate testimonies for truthfulness; this project seeks to unearth participants’ world view, experiences and motivations. Even before officially starting the interview, participant E was already giving me the political context specifically relating to his ancestors who fled Lisbon (see Table 3 for an extract of the interview transcript). Participants may have felt obliged to recount this history due to my outsider status, however this was a recurrent theme throughout the interviews and even if they knew I was not Jewish, one can assume I would have researched the relevant historical context. Participant E goes on to mention “the Jews who came over with William the Conqueror came mainly from Rouen, where there was an old Jewish community.” Participant B introduces himself by stating “I was born in Baghdad, Iraq in January 1951 which at the time was still under British rule. There was the king of Iraq, Faisal II who was killed, I believe in 1959.” Participant D states “the court Jews were Sephardi in Spain perhaps Morocco they were Sephardi, Moses Montefiore was perhaps in that tradition he was friendly with Queen Victoria.” Participants commonly referred to the monarchy and parliamentarians. It seems as though an understanding of and the exposition of familial connections to a historical context constitute vital aspects of their narrative that ground participants and give them a sense of belonging (see Table 4). Upon further inspection, it is intriguing to note the parallels between this personal narration and canonical Jewish stories from the Bible and Torah. Consider for instance the striking similarities between participant E’s Portuguese origin story relating to his ancestors (see Table 3) and the story of the Exodus, celebrated during Passover. This epic recounts the Israelites who were forced to flee Egypt and left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven); this is the origin of eating unleavened bread during Passover. This biblical story is told in the Book of Exodus. Participant E narrated his Portuguese origin story at the beginning of our first interview, demonstrating its significance and centrality. The application process is being led by the family elders; participant D (73 years old) is leading the process for her and her daughter, while participant E (82 years old) is managing and financing the whole procedure for him, his four daughters and four grandsons. In the Book of Genesis, Abraham was 75 years old when he received a calling from God to leave Haran with his wife Sarai and nephew Lot and travel to the land of Canaan. It is after this calling that all the 36 significant biblical narrations involving Abraham occur, including; migration to Egypt, battle of Siddim, covenant (which circumcision was a sign), Abraham’s plea and the sacrifice of Isaac. In Judaism Abraham is considered the founding father of the Covenant, the special relationship between the Jewish people and God. Jewish rituals and liturgy merge Jews past and present with those across different geographical locations; similarities and shared experiences are amplified while differences are diminished. Individuals are able to recount, remember and empathise with episodes that they themselves did not personally experience. In this way “the many communities of Judaism are unified into a single people and the experiences of many Jews into a single story” (Wieseltier, 1984). Historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi argues that this traditional collective Jewish memory that dissipate time and space is at odds with contemporary Jewish historiography. The foundations of historiography are based on accentuating differences between past and present, thus leading to an understanding of progress over time. This ‘rupture’ started after the expulsion when in the 16th century the historical attitude became “the single most sustained Jewish intellectual effort in modern times” (Yerushalmi, 1984). Participants empathised with the perspective of important historical figures, even those who acted as persecutors. Participant E states a number of times King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I’s strong Jewish connections, stating “they were both, partly of Jewish descent … most noble families in Spain have Jewish connections, including the royal family.” Participant E continues “one wonders whether they had any attachment to the Jewish community … had they not been under the pressure of the church whether they would have had more friendly connections … because some of their relations were Jewish … certainly something I was aware of as a child”. Here the wider political circumstances and systems that led to these acts of persecution are referenced. Participant E uses this phrase “I was aware of [it] as a child” on multiple occasions, suggesting that this knowledge relating to ancestors was passed down from generation to generation and was an integral part of childhood. Historical narratives such as the expulsion story centre on persecution and marginalisation, leading ultimately to escaping such conditions. Brexit is causing anxiety within the community due to the rise of anti-semitism in the UK and the possibility of losing freedom of access to Europe. Participants living in the UK also spend a great deal of time in other European countries; some even own properties in France. They are concerned about losing the freedom to travel, migrate, study abroad and work abroad. 37 Fig. 11 Fig. 12 Figure 11: Observational sketch of participant E during the first interview. Figure 12: Superimposed planimetric lines on top of sketch. Figure 13: Photo of participant E with his wife in the background. Figure 14: Superimposed perspectival lines on top of Figure 13. Fig 13 Fig. 14 38 Fig. 15 Fig. 16 Fig. 17 Fig. 18 Figures 15 and 17-19: Francis Treuherz (Shamash) giving me a tour of Lauderdale Road Synagogue. Figure 16: Superimposed planimetric lines on Figure 15. 39 Fig. 19 here as opposed to including it in the ‘history’ category as participants constantly referred to customs as a contemporary experience that bonds them to their family and community. Participant B states, “the Iraqi atmosphere … the food is more elaborate, the service is … there’s a ritual, a beginning, an end.” Participant D mentions, “… his wife was Judy Lady Montefiore and she did a cookbook and she's credited with fried fish which we always have it Pesach. We always had fried fish, cold fried fish at Seder Passover.” Other familial bonds mentioned in the interviews include celebrations and religious rituals, birthday, bar mitzvah, bas mitzvah and Passover. I have renamed the ‘history’ category to ‘collective narratives’ as this new label more accurately describes the data. The information is a mixture of historical events with religious narratives and concepts: a map of the past drawn from a particular perspective. I’ve refrained from using the word ‘memory', as similar to the term ‘identity’, it can have a multitude of meanings or nothing at all. In addition, ‘collective memory’ signifies a unifying single concept which is shared by all within the collective; this is not what I would like to suggest. Instead, there are a multitude of individual narratives. A central concept that binds all categories together is the sense of belonging which Brexit and citizenship policies seem to have put into question. I will discuss this further in the following section. 46 4. Representation and Audiences 4.1. Exhibition Description I wrote an introductory text for the installation Com carinho, C (see Table 7) that was disseminated at the entrance (see Figure 23). The exhibition was part of Atelier Santo Isidro’s Open House and Extéril’s event Sobe e Desce, so there was a array of digital and hard-copy marketing materials (see Figure 24). Com carinho, C Installation Vijay Patel [EN] Citizenship may seem a dry and formal procedure, yet it is in fact very intimate, emotional, familial, historical, tied in to stories and opportunities, something people experience and claim. Audiences are invited to explore the multiple perspectives of British Sephardi Jews as they apply for Portuguese citizenship following the 2016 Brexit referendum. It has been possible for Sephardi Jews who have Iberian ancestors to claim Spanish or Portuguese citizenship since 2015 when policies were introduced to address a period in their histories when Jews were expelled from the peninsula. The primary motivation for applicants is to secure European rights post-Brexit. This work in progress installation is part of a wider study that combines sociological methods with arts-based practices. Documentary photography, observational drawing and photo-elicitation were combined when interviewing subjects; grounded theory methodology was applied for analysing materials. Three key thematic categories were established for understanding secondary motivations; collective narratives, family and persecution. These results are used as a starting point for challenging, questioning and reflecting on our own experiences, rather than portraying an ‘objective’ view of ‘the subject’. The installation’s main features are used as touchstones for contemplation; the cardboard wall, miscellaneous paraphernalia, video projection and the twin squares. The Brexit turmoil had encouraged some participants to rediscover their Sephardi heritage: what was previously dormant now takes centre stage. Participants were unaware of the citizenship offer until the Brexit referendum; it was subsequently referred to as a ‘gift’. This choice of an emotive terminology reflects anti-Brexit sentiment and the desire to maintain close relations with the EU, the pleasure of having this opportunity at this time and the perception of Portugal as a friendly country. Participants were apprehensive to apply for German citizenship even though they had greater ties with Germany. This is due to greater application bureaucracy, anti-semitism in central Europe and the Holocaust having greater 47 Table 7: Introductory text accompanying the installation presence in the collective memory than the Expulsion. The YouTube video clips contains footage from one of Europe’s oldest Jewish cemeteries in Frankfurt dating back to 1270 and Parque das Virtudes, which in the 15th century used to be Porto’s Jewish cemetery. Brexit is at once a reassertion of community and a process of exclusion. Although it opens up opportunities for people to renegotiate belonging and create new communities, it does so in a historically unlikely perhaps even an undemocratic way. Processes of inclusion and exclusion are explored and the relationship between different actors with different degrees of agency: the state, individuals and the voting majority. [PT] A cidadania pode parecer um procedimento formal e burocrático, mas na verdade é muito íntima, emocional, familiar, histórica, ligada a histórias e oportunidades, algo que as pessoas experimentam e reivindicam. O público é convidado a explorar as múltiplas perspectivas dos judeus sefarditas britânicos que se candidatam à cidadania portuguesa após o referendo sobre o Brexit de 2016. Desde 2015, tem sido possível para os judeus sefarditas que têm antepassados ibéricos reivindicarem a cidadania espanhola ou portuguesa, uma vez que essas políticas nacionais visam abarcar um período de suas histórias em que judeus foram expulsos da península. A principal motivação para os candidatos é garantir os direitos europeus após o Brexit. Esta instalação work-in-progress é parte de um estudo mais amplo que combina métodos sociológicos com práticas baseadas em artes. Fotografia documental, desenho de observação e foto-elicitação foram praticados durante as entrevistas; A metodologia da Teoria Fundamentada foi aplicada para análise de materiais. Três categorias temáticas centrais foram estabelecidas para a compreensão das motivações secundárias: narrativas coletivas, família e perseguição. Esses resultados são usados como ponto de partida para desafiar, questionar e refletir sobre nossas próprias experiências, em vez de retratar uma visão "objetiva" do "sujeito". Os principais recursos da instalação são usados como pedras de toque para contemplação; a parede de papelão, a parafernália miscelânia, a projeção do vídeo e os quadrados idênticos. A turbulência do Brexit encorajou alguns participantes a redescobrir sua herança sefardita: o que antes estava adormecido agora ganha posição central. Os participantes desconheciam a oferta de cidadania até o referendo sobre o Brexit; foi posteriormente referido como um "presente". Esta escolha de uma terminologia emotiva reflete um sentimento anti-Brexit e o desejo de manter relações estreitas com a UE, o prazer de ter esta oportunidade neste momento e a percepção de Portugal como um país amigável. Os participantes estavam apreensivos em solicitar a cidadania alemã, apesar de possuírem maiores laços com a Alemanha. Isto é devido a uma maior burocracia no processo de aplicação, ao antisemitismo na Europa central e à maior presença do Holocausto na memória coletiva do que da Expulsão da Península Ibérica. O Brexit é ao mesmo tempo uma reafirmação da comunidade e um processo de exclusão. Embora abra oportunidades para que as pessoas renegociem seu pertencimento e criem novas comunidades, ele faz isso de uma forma historicamente improvável, e talvez até mesmo antidemocrática. São explorados processos de inclusão e exclusão, e a relação entre diferentes atores com diferentes graus de agência: o Estado, os indivíduos e a maioria dos votos. 48 Figure 23: Exhibition leaflet available at the entrance to the installation. 49 Figure 24 and 25: Exhibition poster at the entrance of Atelier Santo Isidro. 4.2. Audience 'Perhaps all our models, not only of history but of the aesthetic, are secretly models of the subject' Hal Foster (Foster, 1998) An essential criteria of ABR research is to consider artistic representation and audience experiences when designing projects. The various forms of representation (i.e. sculptures, theatre productions, novels and concerts) present different subject specific questions and challenges as well as requirements for and expectations from audiences. I chose installation art as I believe it is one of the most suitable art form for creating a reflexive space where audiences can engage with concepts surrounding citizenship. The main audience I have in mind are Portuguese residents. The aim is to create an environment enabling interaction with lived experiences from new Portuguese citizens. Atelier Santo Isidro is a newly opened artist-run studio space in Marquês, Porto. I chose Atelier Santo Isidro as the venue for hosting the installation as it’s an informal space run by Portuguese artists who collaborate with other locally run organisations, thus potentially having wider access to my target audience. The exhibition opening forms part of Extéril’s monthly Sobe e Desce, an evening composed of art events taking place across Marquês. Extéril is a locally-based artist community that has organised both physical and virtual exhibitions since it’s formation in 1999. As this project is work-in-progress, I think it would be insightful to gain informal feedback from locally-based artists and residents before formulating a grounded theory and finalising the artistic output. 50 4.3. Installation Documentation Fig. 26 Fig. 27 Fig. 28 Figure 26: Atelier Santo Isidro before my intervention. Figure 27: Constructing the cardboard box partition wall. Figure 28: Inside the interior ‘loft/attic’ space. 51 Fig. 29 Fig. 30 Fig. 31 Figure 29 and 30: Archival paraphernalia with references to Portugal and the UK. Figure 31: Trunk with the sleeve of an Arabic dress to the right with a 1980s telephone and a handwritten letter and photograph on top. 52 Fig. 32 Fig. 33 Fig. 34 Fig. 35 Fig. 36 Fig. 37 Fig. 38 Fig. 39 Fig. 40 Fig. 41 Figure 32 - 41: Video footage taken from one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Europe, Frankfurt combined with clips from Parque das Virtudes, which used to be a Jewish cemetery before the Expulsion. 53 Fig. 42 Fig. 43 Figure 42: Video projection. Figure 43: Desk with laptop, external hard drive, projector, speakers and laptop case. 54 5. Discussions “Your study fits the empirical world when you have constructed codes and developed them into categories that crystallise participants’ experience. It has relevance when you offer an incisive analytic framework that interprets what is happening and makes relationships between implicit processes and structures visible.” Kathy Charmaz (2006) There are numerous factors that collectively emboldened British Sephardi Jews to apply for and gain Portuguese citizenship. The Brexit referendum was the defining political event that caused great upheaval and drew attention to the recent Iberian citizenship offer. Participants are concerned about the rise of anti-semitism, travel restrictions, employment limitations and financial liabilities post-Brexit. There was no individual reason, but a collection of European rights and a sense of belonging to mainland Europe which participants wish to maintain. There was no particular attachment to Portugal or a wish to migrate to the EU, per se, they spoke about shared European culture and how their ancestry were intertwined with this collective history. Participants found out via word of mouth from family members: they collectively applied as families. As opposed to congregation leaders who could have hired lawyers and arranged for applications to be proceed en masse. This familial foundation became a central thematic category in the analysis, superseding religious and community specific attachments. Application procedures are led by family elders who are concerned about the future, not for themselves but for their children and future generations. Participant E was acutely aware of his age and fragility, yet he was committed to securing European rights for the rest of his family. This intergenerational dynamic is unique as there are societal expectations of the reverse: younger generations to support and take care of elders. Collective Jewish narratives and reference to historical figures were another significant category that gave some justification to the participants’ motivations and manner in which they applied for citizenship. These narratives legitimised and contextualised these actions within a wider religious and historical framework. Although closely intertwined, participants gave greater importance to the traditionally and ideology of Jewish religious practices within synagogues as oppose to ethnic considerations; many Sephardi Jews and mixed heritage Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews are members of non- 55 Ethics Statement I have used the Economic and Social Research Council’s six key principles as set out in the Framework for Research Ethics for addressing possible ethical concerns; ensuring quality and integrity of the research project, giving participants informed consent, ensuring and respecting participants’ confidentiality and anonymity, participants will participate voluntarily, avoiding harm to participants and showing that the research is independent and impartial. 62 Bibliography Barone, Tom, and Eisner, Elliot W. Arts Based Research. Los Angeles ; London: SAGE, 2012. 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It is important to note that while this project may help with raising awareness of these issues and encouraging audiences to reflect on these themes, no actual changes can be guaranteed. Photo Elicitation is a participatory photographic research method. It involves the participants of a study taking photographs that represent their individual perspectives and lived experiences. Narratives or stories explaining the significance of the pictures can be attached to the photographs, but all efforts will be used to maintain confidentiality among research participants and researchers, and anonymity of all photographers when results are shared with broader audiences. Participation will require you to meet two times with facilitators. There will be a gap between the two meetings in which you will be expected to capture photographs of your perspectives and/or experiences. The second meeting will run for an hour and will involve a sharing back of the photographs followed by audio-taped discussions. Participation is voluntary and you may refuse to participate or withdraw from the project at any time without any risk to yourself. If this occurs, you are free to choose between destroying your contributions to the study or releasing them for use without your participation. Your signature below indicates that you understand the above stated purpose of the project, the agenda and your right to withdraw from participation. I, ____________________, understand the above terms of reference and give my consent to participate in the British Sephardi Jews seek Portuguese Citizenship project with the University of Porto. Signature: ____________________ Date: ____________________ *If you have any further questions, please contact Vijay Patel. 69 Appendix B: Photography General Release Form I, ____________________, give permission for the University of Porto to use my photographs developed during the British Sephardi Jews seek Portuguese Citizenship project. They are free to use the photographs for project related reports, exhibits and presentations. Signature: ____________________ Date: ____________________ Appendix C: Photography Subject Consent Form I, ____________________, give permission for Vijay Patel, acting on behalf of the University of Porto and British Sephardi Jews seek Portuguese Citizenship project, to take my photograph. By signing my name below, I understand and agree that unless otherwise stated in writing, the University of Porto assumes that permission is granted to use my photographs for project related reports, exhibits and presentations that are likely to result from this project. I understand that researchers, policy makers, students, and possibly people from my community will see my photo. Signature: ____________________ Date: ____________________ Appendix D: Private Property Photography Release Form I, ___________________ give permission for the individual Vijay Patel, acting on behalf of the University of Porto, to take photograph(s) on my property. By signing my name below, I understand that this photograph may be used at some point in the future for a public display. Signed: ____________________ Date: ____________________ 70 Appendix E: Interview Questions Template (version II) First Interview I’m a British multimedia artist based in Porto. The aim of this project is to explore feelings of citizenship, belonging and identity with Sephardi Jews who wish to gain Portuguese citizenship post-Brexit. I am developing an arts installation exploring these themes. This initial interview will take about an hour. I’d like to set up another time to talk either next week or the week after. Confirm confidentiality and ask for permission to record. Sign consent forms. Stage 1 • Where do you live? • What do you do for a living? • How would you describe your nationality? • How do you feel about Brexit?" Stage 2 • How would you describe the Sephardi community? • What links do you have to Spain and/or Portugal? • How would you feel about applying for Spanish and/or Portuguese citizenship? • How will changing citizenship affect your sense of belonging? • How did you find out about the possibility of Portuguese citizenship?" Stage 3 • Tell me about an exhibition you’ve recently visited. What did you like? • How do you think a multimedia exhibition could raise awareness of these issues? • How can an exhibition reflect on citizenship? Are you happy for me to make a drawing and take a photograph? • Any follow up questions? For our next interview, I’d like you to show me an image (maybe a photograph, drawing, painting etc) that relates to this topic. 71 Studied in England & Canada Home is Rio Comparing Rio with São Paulo More Jews in São Paulo and a bigger community Rio is more informal/casual in comparison to São Paulo Married a Jewish woman whose parents are from Egypt Daughter born in Brazil Liberal approach to keeping up traditions [Where do you live in Brazil?] In Rio de Janeiro. [Have you always lived in Rio?] Yes, yes. I have studied abroad, I went to an English boarding school. I was in England for sometime. I was in Canada. My home is Rio. [How would you describe the Sephardi community?] Where in Rio? [Yes in Rio.] Well you see in Rio, Rio is a little bit different than Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo has a much larger Jewish community and they … traditions. In Sao Paulo there are many Jewish restaurants, clubs. It’s a bigger community. Over here, living in Rio is normally and generally speaking, I would say, much less, how can I say, much less formal. Rio is very informal. Religion is informal as well. Of course there are times, when I got married, my wife is Jewish, her parents are from Egypt … My daughter was born in Brazil. Of course we have traditions, but we’re not so severe with them. Visited Spain and Portugal as a tourist many years ago. Brazil feels less like home over time due to political situation. This is making him feel less secure. He is retired, unhappy with pension. Rio is a beautiful city Brazilian handicraft Respecting societal customs [What links do you have to Spain and/ or Portugal?] Links, what do you mean by links? [Have you visited these countries?] Yes. Myself, I’ve visited many years ago when I was studying in England, but Lisbon. But I wouldn’t say this was a link. This was a place where I spent a few days as I went to … at the present moment in Brazil, with its economy, its political situation is not, as, doesn’t feel homely, as I felt when I was younger. … I used to feel as though I was going back home, you feel insecure. I’m retired. What you receive as a salary is ridiculous. Have you ever visited Rio? [No] Rio is a beautiful city. You have to visit. It has lots of natural beauty. I used to have a shop in Copacabana and my focus was, I used to sell Brazilian named handicraft, especially embroidery, handmade things and things like that hundred. I sure have customers from Europe especially Europe more than America which appreciate these things more than Americans. … there might be a market but one doesn’t like to circulate you know … you can be but don't feel comfortable to … 78 Rio as comfortable, especially in the past Jews are nomads Migrating as a child Attended Jewish school Learnt multiple languages Father born in Iraq and studied in India. Mother studied in Lebanon. Brazil different place to where he and his parents grew up. Fusion of foods Portuguese as foreign language British as rigorous and methodical British system in opposition to Iraqi and Jewish mindset. [So, have you felt more comfortable living in Rio over the years?] Oh yes, oh yes. In the past, we used to feel very comfortable. [So you would say you feel less comfortable now?] Oh yes, much less comfortable now. Oh definitely, much less. [Have you ever thought about changing citizenship?] Well, Jews are nomads and myself more than my sister, brother, I was, you know I came from Baghdad to Rio. That was one change coming from Baghdad to Rio, it was another change going from Rio to a British boarding school. With the English language … I went to a Jewish school in Iraq and there we learnt Arabic, French and Hebrew. No major contact with … Besides both my parents … My father was born in Iraq and he studied in India … My mother studied in Lebanon, so English wasn’t completely out, but it wasn’t a domestic language. So, here I am in Brazil in the middle of nowhere. In a place full of … it was a nice place. I wouldn’t say it relates to family in Iraq … Jewish, or … I was eating British, Brazilianised food, which is neither British nor Brazilian. We had to speak English, we were obliged. We would speak some Portuguese because it was a foreign language. We would speak to the servants at school in Portuguese. The manner and behaviour … The way that the British are very rigorous, an ordered way of doing things. … This is very British. Not Iraqi, and nothing to do with being Jewish. A British system. Family scattered around the world Missing family communications which would enhance traditions More comfortable with Brazilian culture Outsider Not a Carioca Went to a protestant school Enriched with encounters with foreigners Rio changing Went to Jewish school Travelling and migrating as a child [Do you feel more comfortable with one of these cultures?] Listen, at this moment, with all my sanity. The other ones have passed away and the few that are left are in the United States and scattered around. So, currently you know I miss having communication with both the Iraqi and the Jewish side. Of course if they were living next to us we would gain more Iraqi and Jewish traditions. Since this is not realistic and doesn’t exist, I would say … I feel more comfortable with the Brazilian culture. Although, having said that, as an outsider, as I don’t behave like a Carioca. I definitely wouldn’t consider myself as a Carioca as they have a very easy going lifestyle. They are very informal and loud. They are very friendly and this I would never be able to do. The school I went to was a protestant school. I said I feel enriched by these experiences because these schools which I went to most of them were for foreigners. The school I went to here in Brazil was a school predominant made for people that worked in the British society. I can’t remember the dates. But Rio was the capital, until Brasilia was made. So even in the sixties there were still some embassies in Brazil in Rio and then they proceed to move them to Brasilia. … This was all over as English is universal. When I went to England as part of school, my grandma’s uncle … it was a Jewish school … from Bahrain, Gibraltar and all over. Some … 79 Meeting foreigners enables you to understand other perspectives Exposure to other cultures causes them to become a part of you Living in just one type of culture would cause repression [Sorry, can you hear me? The sound occasionally cuts.] Did you hear the part when I said the schools which I went to were mainly for foreigners? [Yes] So this gives you an exposition to see what Americans think, Danish think … So it opens up your mind and makes you relate to other cultures. And these cultures become part of you. You’re exposed to it. I will never forget what would be the value of this, that and the other when culture … I feel certain people in Brazil when they’re on holiday abroad they visit … dance, they become more … you’re exposed to different cultures. For me, it becomes apart of me. [Sorry could you repeat that?] I would feel, if I had to live with Iraqi Jewish community, I would feel slightly repressed. If these people … to keep stuck to the traditions … Lives in the outskirts of Rio Lived in English speaking countries Living in various countries causes the feeling of displacement/lack of belonging Attached to Rio Not belonging solely to one place gives you an outside perspective, an opportunity to question. 67 years old and retired Wife’s son is Sephardi [Sorry you're just breaking up. Sorry, could you just repeat your last sentence?] I said that I liked to. Sorry I just forgot what I was saying. [Just to bring you back, you mentioned earlier that you feel less comfortable living in Rio and maybe the situation in Rio is a bit more uncomfortable. Have you considered moving and possibly applying for another citizenship? Maybe Spanish or Portuguese?] Well, you did originally ask me that question and I went a long way round without answering it. But I tell you what, when I started all this conversation, I was trying to say, I’ve lived in Iraq, in Rio, in the outskirts of Rio, England, then I went to the US, then Canada, then Rio and then I don’t know where. You feel like you don’t belong. Rio, in spite of its problems it’s somewhere I feel I belong. So, sometimes my friends ask me, I of course carry Iraqi and Jewish habits, but all of sudden I’m Brazilian. I’m more Brazilian than they are. Based on the fact that you’ve seen so many different points of views … I’m looking at the situation, you see it from different eyes than if you were 100% one thing. You see things from the outside, this gives you the opportunity to question. I’m 67, I’ve retired … My wife’s son who is also Sephardi … Difficult questions [Sorry, could you speak into the microphone?] The microphone is a little problematic. I’ve had other people also complain. [Yes, that’s much better.] Please give me one minute. I’m very thirsty. Hello, I’m back. These questions you ask are very easy but they’re not easy to answer. There are things which are not exactly black and white. I feel like asking you the same question. You’re of Indian origins, how British do you feel? [Yeah, it's a very good question and I also empathise with you a lot as I grew up in London which is very international and I have friends with very different nationalities and different cultures and so for me I don’t feel at home in one culture. For me it's best to be in a situation where there's a mixture of cultures. That’s where I personally feel more at home.] 80 Unusual questions Lack of understanding/ appreciation of homemade Iraqi food - aspects that constitute a sense of belonging Behaviour/manner in restaurants vs home Eating rituals That is it. For example the questions you are asking me are not questioned which a typical Brazilian would ask. Oh they would ask me, what do you do on your new year? Or, what do you eat on such a thing? How do you celebrate this thing or the other? It's different from when you live in the place. Whenever I mentioned that I miss Iraqi food. They say, “oh come on, there’s lots of Arabic restaurants.” Just go and eat there, they have good stuff. What I say is that I need Iraqi homemade cooking, not in some restaurant. The behaviour at the restaurant is more occidental. … We are in an Iraqi Jewish household, the behaviour is completely different. The manner of serving, the manner of eating, it’s the rituals. Different rituals Rio vs São Paulo Internal vs external eating practices Structure of rituals [So, how would you describe the difference? In what ways is it different?] I would say the rituals are different. Look, here in Rio as I’ve told you, Sao Paulo is different, it’s much more formal. Besides Sao Paulo is much colder, so they eat indoors. In Rio we have the beach all around, it’s much hotter here than in Sao Paulo. So here you have a much more external life. The Iraqi atmosphere … the food is more elaborate, the service is … there’s a ritual, a beginning, an end. No dress code - informal atmosphere in Rio Iraqis have more rituals [Sorry, could you repeat that?] They are more … especially the ones in Rio. They would come dressed or dressed in bathing suits. There isn’t so much codes for how one should appear. This doesn’t make a difference. The Iraqi habits I remember … there was more rituals, which makes a big difference. Or if you see you know a typical British person ... Not comfortable with the word ‘identity’ Doesn’t like the political corruption in Brazil, lack of education and health. Lack of security and stability in Brazil [I just want to make sure I understood, it seems your very comfortable and at home with this Brazilian citizenship and identity. Is that correct?] Not sure, not sure, not sure. When you say identity, you know it means that, it’s a strong word. I don’t like the corruption that goes around. The difference of … I don’t like the lack of education. I don’t like lack of health. I don’t like lack of … When I think of these things. I hate these things. To me … lack of security, stability Wishes there was a long term mindset in Brazil for planning public services Not Brazilian Naturist photographer, taking unexpected/ unusual photos Classicb&w photos Emotionally moving Sebastiao Salgado [Sorry, could you just repeat your last sentence?] I wish there was a long term plan for planning schools, hospital, for the future for better … better pensions. But here they don’t look at things at a long-term basis … I’m definitely not Brazilian. [We’re just going into the final section, can you tell me about an exhibition you’ve recently visited?] What type of exhibition? [Anything.] A photographic exhibition? [Yes. Tell me about the exhibition. What was it about?] He’s a Brazilian photographer and he takes pictures, not of the beauty of a city, but of the Amazon, the culture. They’re all black and white. The destruction and reconstruction of the Amazon. It’s a very touching exhibition as it doesn’t show beauty or perfection, but life. His name is Sebastiao Salgado. Maybe you’ll have an interest to check him out online. 81 Participant C (15/12/2017) Highlighting points of views that have been forgotten I’m Jewish however would not rule out other identities Little opportunities to talk about differences Arranging furniture can expose your childhood Jewish religion has lots of traditions, symbolism and rituals - what it’s all about Carioca's dress in white for New Year’s Eve [Thank you. Just my final question: do you think an exhibition could raise awareness of these issues we’ve discussed today?] Yes, of course. It would be very interesting. I would have an opportunity to look at points of views that are forbidden, that are one things and other things as well. I’m Jewish, I wouldn’t say I’m not catholic, I wouldn’t say I’m not protestant. I’m Jewish, I would participate in Brazilian commemoration where they put flowers … which is spiritualism [Sorry, could you repeat that?] Life today doesn’t give people the opportunity to expose and talk about their difficulties. It’s easy to say, oh Rio is beautiful, London is great, but there are very few people who have a view of London as a Londoner which is an outside. A brazilian who has lived here for over 50 years who is not 100% Brazilian. This would be a little contentious. While we are talking, my daughter who is Brazilian born, she has struggled with tourism. I wouldn’t be surprised that certain cultures, certain values which you can decorate in your house, the way you expose your furniture can expose your childhood. Maybe this has to do with some background … Or maybe if I was accidentally born in Iraq and had no contact with relatives, traditions, the Jewish religion has a lot of traditions and symbolism and a lot of rituals. This is what it’s all about. For example, over here, for New Years everyone dresses in white … give flowers to … everybody wears … t-shirts, nothing sophisticated, you have all these people coming over, walking, walking, everyone wearing white … If you want to go to the restaurant you need to make a reservation. Thank you for your time. No you’re welcome, if you need anything else please let me know. I wish you success with your masters. Initial coding Transcript Living in Reading, will move to London Working in IT From Brazil Living in UK since 13, for 24 years Spent a period of 10 years in Rio (2000-2010) Left UK thinking it was a ‘shithole’ Felt like an expat/ foreigner in Brazil working for a multinational [Where do you live?] I live in London and temporarily in Reading. I plan to move to London. I'm just really doing a temporary project in Reading but then I'll go back to London. I work in IT. [How long have you been in Reading for?] Just a couple of weeks so I'll be here maybe for three months or so and then I'm moving back to London. [How long have you been in the UK for?] I’m from Brazil, I came here when I was 13, I’ve been here for 24 years now. I went back to Rio from 2000 to 2010 and I've been back since 2010. [How do you find living in the UK?] I hated it [laughter]. As I said I was here from 13 until my 40s, then I went back. To be honest when I went back to Brazil I thought “my god I hope I never come back to this shithole” [laughter], then I went to Brazil. I went there like as an expat with a sort of multinational company etc. 82 Intention of permanently moving back to Brazil Moving back to the UK for economical reasons Feeling ‘back at home’ in the UK after 10 years in Brazil England as a second home England is much less racist than it used to be I thought I was going back to Brazil for good but then that job finished and I tried working as a freelancer and that didn't really work out so then I thought, sure I'm gonna have to come back to England - really for economic reasons. I thought oh my god. I was sitting on the beach in Rio thinking my god within two weeks everything will be over and I’ll be in London. I thought I would shoot myself within a few weeks, but I was surprised when I came back I felt quite at home. I liked it and I'm still trying to figure out to this day why I'm so much more comfortable now than I was. I now regard England as my second home. I look at it with much more affection than I did before, which is probably a mixture of me and England. I guess I think England is much less racist now than it was before. First arriving, Irish were doing labouring jobs. Irish have left and Polish now doing these jobs. Graduated in 1988 When started working he was the only foreigner in meetings. Now things have reversed. Having a different accent Is there a lack of skilled workers in the UK? 54 years old and always been working in IT For example when I was first here, there were Irish people doing all the sort of labouring jobs and stuff like that. Suddenly you come back and all the Irish people have evaporated and all the Polish people are here now. I graduated in 1988 and every single business meeting I've ever been to was always the only foreigner. In every meeting, everybody is speaking with English accents as soon as I would speak it would be like this foreign accent. It's very weird and then now I come back and it's literally like every business meeting I have, there might only be one English person. People from East Europe and then you might see somebody from a weird place, like me. It’s totally changed and I still haven't managed to work out what happened. Is there a lack of IT people here? I mean it has totally multiplied, how the hell did it change? I'm 54 years old. Since graduating, yeah I’ve always worked in IT. Brazilian nationality Realising and accepting as a teenager he was different to others In tune with Rio, culture resinates more than English English culture as closed & reserved Feeling out of place as a result of cultural differences [How would you describe your national identity?] Well, Brazilian. In fact it's quite funny because during my teens I accepted I was kind of weird in some way, very different to everybody else. My reactions and attitude seem to be different. I just accepted I was different from everybody else. Then I go to Rio and I suddenly realised actually this is completely cultural. Suddenly I'm in tune with everybody else. I guess the culture in Rio resonates more with me than English culture. I didn’t realise until coming here [Rio] you know all this stiff upper lip and stuff like that culture. I find it really unhealthy. Obviously, I wasn’t aware of that; I just felt this kind of difference which I subsequently realised was really cultural. [Did you study in the UK?] I did you go to university in the UK, Polytechnics as they were called then. Started with chemical engineering and then went to Southbank, London where I did computing. 83 Brexit is absurd Feeling shocked at this seismic change Changes are a way of life in Brazil Brexit was the reason for exploring other citizenship options Freedom of movement within Europe is the main motivation Brexit is a big mistake, although Europe are corrupt and inflexible [How do you feel about Brexit?] I think it's absurd, I mean I do think Europe could have been a bit more flexible, you know it's their fault. I was shocked when it happened and if I had told my English friends now, how we live in Brazil because when this happened it's like it's as if everything went upside down and everybody, my god the whole world changed. In Brazil it’s a way of life, every time a new government comes in the whole world changes. That’s how we live permanently. In England you’re used to everything being much more methodical and I think this is the first time at least in my lifetime in England where suddenly everything is turned upside down. In fact it's one of the reasons why I got interested in maybe getting a Portuguese or Spanish passport because you know with the way it was before you had [access] to the whole of Europe. Well now suddenly I think it's a big mistake, although I do think Europe has been a bit sort of corrupt and inflexible etc. Younger generation not having racist opinions In the 70s there was a different mindset - UK citizens not feeling part of Europe, divided Now UK is much more integrated with the EU, before there was a much more us and them (foreigners) attitude Feeling more at home as UK has a more accepting attitude [Have you found a difference in attitude over the last few years?] I think especially the younger generation. I was in Question Time (BBC political/public debate program) and I was seeing the reaction of the younger people, my god they change because I used to think you know English people were very racist. I think not now. In fact when I first came back in 1976, people would used to say the UK is not part of Europe, and I would say I'm sorry dude but it's a geographical fact. I guess now people have travelled, go on holidays abroad etc. I think they'll much more integrated. I used to hear people say, English people are like this and foreigners are like that. I mean the view literally I don't think there was his view that, here is the world and here's Europe and England is in Europe and these are the different countries. It was English people and the foreigners. I think it’s good that that's changed. I think now it's much more healthy attitude and I guess it’s why I feel so much more at home now. UK national Has visited Spain and Portugal on a few occasions Doesn’t really feel part of the Sephardi community, although his brother was part of a Jewish fraternity Doesn’t feel strongly Jewish, feels more Brazilian [Are you a UK national?] Yes. [So, potentially you could have triple nationality?] I guess so, yes. [Do you have any links to Spain or Portugal?] Er, no. I’ve been there a few times, but that’s it. [How would you describe the Sephardi community?] Well I'm not really, you know, my brothers is very Jewish because he goes to the US and at college he was part of a jewish fraternity. I think he has much more of a Jewish identity. I have cousins who don't want to have one name. I'd know if you’ve heard about this, but some sort of youth Jewish movement. Let's say in my case I don't feel a very strong sort of Jewish identity shall we say. I feel more Brazilian I guess you know I'd have more in common with a Brazilian person then I guess for the Jewish person. 84 Conversation with cousin prompting further inquiry Brexit causing him to look into other citizenship options Freedom of movement, settling and opportunities in other countries for him and his family the primary motivation Applying for citizenship is purely practical Immigrant communities creating culture away from their home countries Stumbling across a book of interest [How did you find out about this Portuguese Citizenship option?] I think somebody mentioned it to me. I kind of forgot about it and then my cousin mentioned he had spoken to you and I wanted to get some information on that. I guess it's only started interesting me after this Brexit thing because you know I can get back, having Europe as a sort of option. What is important I think, is just having the possibility of living in Europe for a few years. I guess if I ever do have kids this could open up the opportunity for them. I mean that's what I tell all my cousins and my family because you never know what doors may open. [Do you think applying for Portuguese citizenship would change your sense of identity?] Well to be honest it's more something opportunistic you know given it's a bit like if I did have a grandfather that was fortunate and I could have applied for a Portuguese or Spanish passport then I would purely do so from a practical point of view. In fact I think there's a book I bought which you might be of interest to you. Unfortunately I can't quite remember the name but it talks about Spain and then the immigrant communities that created Spanish culture and in fact the people who emigrated away from Spain and how that created a lot of Spanish culture. I guess it would be very much in your line. I’ll try to find it again. I just happened to walk into a bookshop and I saw it. I bought it, I may still have the book. If I find it, I'll send it to you. [Thanks] Visiting Lionel Richie and Chic concert at Hyde Park Enjoys listening to 70s disco music as it reminds him of childhood Always good exploring cultural differences & similarities, whether in books, exhibitions, talks etc Recalling a documentary film interviewing Iraqis who were expelled [Can you tell me about an exhibition you’ve recently visited?] I don’t think I’ve visited any recently. [Have you been to a concert?] Well, actually I think it was the Lionel Richie and Chic concert at Hyde Park. In the seventies they were the gods of disco music. There was a big outdoor stage that was set up. [What did you enjoy about it?] I just kind of like the music, how can i say. I sort of grew up with him. [How do you think a multimedia exhibition could raise awareness of kind of these citizenship issues?] Yes, these kind of cultural differences maybe, kind of similarities. I think they're our history. These things are always good, whether they’re books, exhibitions or talks. Yeah these things are all valid as a matter of fact something that you may be interested in and again I'll send your link to my cousin as there's a film which talks about a whole bunch of Iraqis that were expelled. I think they were captured, seven of them talked about it on the film and the shrinkage in the other half. I came across it at the migration Film Festival. I think was just two weeks ago in London. 85 Participant D (17/12/2017) Initial coding Transcript Living in London and trained as a clinical psychologist, working in a health trust for patient and public involvement in research British nationality Spending a lot of time in France makes me feel more European. Husband spending a lot of time in Spain Born in the UK and family residing here as Sephardi Jews, ancestors date back to the 18th century [Where do you live?] London [Have you lived in London very long?] Yes. [What do you do for a living?] I'm a clinical psychologist by training and became a whistleblower in my last employment and was transferred to a different health trust. My job disappeared and since being a whistleblower, it’s very stressful. I do whatever I'm asked, although my job description has not changed I still do what's called patient and public involvement in research. [Have you done this for a long time?] I've been working in the health service all my life. I was a clinical psychologist for nearly 38 years. [Did you study in the UK?] Yes. [Where did you study?] I started first at Cambridge and I qualified but I didn't do psychology there. I then qualified at the University of Surrey. [Did you consider studying abroad?] No. [How would you describe your nationality?] Clearly at the moment I'm British. [What does it mean to be British?] Well first of all that's my passport. I have spent quite a lot of time in France and I think that made me feel more European and my husband does quite a lot of work in Spain. Clearly I am British. I was born in this country and my family have been in this country as Sephardi Jews. My family have been in this country since the late 18th century, 1790. Brought up Sephardi, father was Mahamad and mother part of lady’s guild at synagogue Jewish identity is becoming more important getting older Involved with the Sephardi community Son has written a book about the inquisition Ancestors who were burnt at the stake Applying for citizenship has made her more aware of her origins Rising anti-semitism across Europe History of European anti-semitism [Are there any Sephardi traditions that you were brought up with?] I was brought up Sephardi, my father was on the Mahamad and my mother was president of the lady guild in the synagogue. I was brought up Sephardi. [Is it an important part of your identity?] Certainly, has become more important yes. [How?] Well I think as one gets older, we may sort of look at one's life differently. That's one thing. I am 73 but I think being Jewish has become more important for me. I'm quite involved in my Sephardi synagogue and of course this whole business my son has written a book about the Inquisition and he’s ..., it’s called ‘...’. I think and of course I read it you know it was horrific. We have a couple of ancestors who were burnt at the stake and you know this whole business of applying for nationality with Portugal has made me feel more aware of my origins and of course there is a rise in anti-semitism in Europe and I view it - Northern Europe had the Holocaust and southern Europe had the Inquisition. We see now a rise in antisemitism across Europe. 86 Brexit causing unpleasant aspects to come out Shocking death threats received government officials Finding out about the possibility of Portuguese citizenship after the Brexit vote Actively looking at citizenship options Friend’s daughter was talking to a lawyer, prompting to search online Son is becoming Spanish and has written a book about the inquisition, he can demonstrate a link to Spain but she can’t Learning Spanish and proficient enough to pass exam however not needed at her age Deciding as a family to apply for citizenship [Have you seen a difference since the Brexit vote last year?] Well, I think Brexit has caused some unpleasant aspects within the British people to come out - yes. I mean I'm shocked by all these death threats to MPs and people in the House of Lords who oppose hard Brexit. Some of these people are suffering death threats and I don't know what - trolling emails and I don’t know what. [Did you consider applying for Portuguese citizenship before the Brexit vote?] I don't think I knew about it. [How did you find out about it?] Well I started by looking into Spanish citizenship and I was talking about it with a friend of mine whose daughter went so far as to discuss this matter with a lawyer who said that Portuguese citizenship was much easier. I’m no longer sure that that’s the case. At the time, I googled the matter and it appeared to be easier. In any case I can't demonstrate any personal [connection to Spain]. My son is becoming Spanish, but I can't. You know he's written a book on the Inquisition which obviously is an aspect of Spanish history. He teaches in a university department, Latin-America Studies. He can demonstrate a link with Spain but I can't. Although I started to learn Spanish and got on with it quite well and went to the Cervantes Institute they said I could have passed the exams which I now have discovered they don't require for people at my age. I could not have demonstrated a link with Spain but I can with the Portuguese. I decided you know I sent the Portuguese requirements to my daughter and we decided to go down the Portuguese road. Applying as a family, she has applied first Family applications approved by synagogue Experiencing legal difficulties with application due to living in US for more than 3 months and needs FBI clearance Working with Portuguese lawyer Always Sephardi Most famous ancestor was wife of Sir Moses Montefiore who is credited with eating cold fried fish at Seder Passover - tradition continues to this day [Are you applying with your daughter?] We're making a family application. I have applied. I was the test case. I have been accepted by the synagogue in Lisbon and a number of my relations on the basis that we are demonstrating the same genealogy have also been accepted. The others are in course. [When do you expect to have your citizenship?] What with the legal difficulties are quite considerable and not for some time is the answer. I have to surmount the legal difficulties which the requirements you know are quite confusing and difficult in my view. [Are you working with with a lawyer?] I have a Portuguese lawyer who was recommended to me. My daughter is coming to stay this weekend and we’re going to look at the matter. One of the problems for me is obtaining FBI clearance because I lived in the States for more than three months. [Could you tell me a bit about what kind of Sephardi traditions, characteristics or food is important for you?] I was always Sephardi and apparently my ancestors, well she was not a direct ancestor, is my most famous ancestor was the Sir Moses Montefiore who was of course Sephardi. He had no children, his wife was Judy Lady Montefiore and she did a cookbook and she's credited with fried fish which we always have it Pesach - Passover. We always had fried fish, cold fried fish at Seder Passover 87 Family Heritage Nationality Comparing languages and dialects Roots of languages Proximity and interaction between cultures I have four daughters. They too wish to gain Portuguese nationality. [While they were growing up, did you feel it was important to tell them about their heritage?] Yes, oh, this is my wife [...]. I was in Barcelona with a Portuguese friend and of course she could understand everything they said to her but they just said these stupid people they don't understand a word of Portuguese, but what I think they've got, I mean as written 90% is comprehensible to both, but there's you know, there's the odd word which is obscure. It's more obscure than the difference between Americans and British English. Just a few odd words expressed differently. They know what a fortnight is but they just don’t use the work. I think the answer is, is that there’s been a lot of communication across the Atlantic. The variation has been very slight, with modern communication, it’s diminished, for example, with a billion and a trillion. Family oral history tradition Coming of age ceremony Heritage Belonging Migration as a child Unknown burial site Investigating ancestors Making connections with important historical figures Secret Jews [Did you have a method for telling your daughters?] No, it was just incidental conversation. Okay when my eldest grandson had his Bar Mitzvah he did refer to the fact that some part of the family came from Lisbon, it’s usual to give a little homage to the family, Bar Mitzvah boy, at the time that you read the bit from the Bible. [Have you visited Portugal with with your daughters?] I've never been with my daughters but my daughters have been and I've been. I've not really been to where we are from, there's no way about this, as everything was destroyed in the earthquake in the 1750s. I think, although, the one who most directly came here, that's the one who's buried, who came here as a child, he's buried somewhere near the City, he came from somewhere called [...] Have you heard of such a place? Maybe a village and my uncle's family tree showed descent from Fernão Mendes Pinto. Whether there was some obvious errors there because there was at least one generation missing. We know that Fernão Mendes Pinto was very close to the jesuits but that doesn't stop him having actually been a secret Jew. He was known I think to be of Jewish descent. Modern Portugal Family as one unit Coming of age and gaining rights from descent Collecting documents Contact with lawyer Resolving potential language barriers Searching online I've only been to Lisbon and to the Algarve. I’ve never been to Porto. I’ve only been for a week or two to Lisbon and a week or two to the Algarve. I'm [applying for Portuguese nationality], so are my four daughters and two of my grandchildren. The others being underaged not having to apply at the moment. We hope they would get Portuguese nationality because of their parents. There's some difficult as one [of them] is going to be 18 [years old] in June. We haven’t actually applied, we're getting hold of their documents and you have to get what they call [...] let's say certified by a notary public and sworn in front of somewhere like the Lisbon consulate, or the Foreign Office of, sorry, something like that. I got to get it straight, have a look and see. I'm using a lawyer in Lisbon, her English is perfectly good. I mean I get the impression that she's, although she has a name [looking at tablet] I'm just going to try and see what I can find. 94 Expensive gaining citizenship Payment to authorities Payment to Portuguese Jewish community Collecting documents It's more expensive than I expected and there are constantly more expenses involved. I'm paying the lawyers quite a lot actually and the lawyers are coming to about 800 pounds per person and then 800 euros sorry, and then it becomes about 250 euros per person for the Jewish community. Then the Portuguese authorities, it's another 250, then to get the thing certified and to have recent birth certificates and marriage certificates certified by a notary public. Well there are many of those in this country so it costs something, so you know the money is adding up. Gap with prePortuguese C15 family-tree No language barrier No need to pay taxes Language barrier Comparing languages and dialects [Did you think about gaining Spanish citizenship?] I did think about it but the great merits of Portuguese is that, well first of all, I can't easily show descent from Spanish ancestors because as I mentioned there are three or two or four generations when I can't identify the people without possibly going to Rome and finding out because Spanish is easier as a language that might be better but on the other hand you see for the Portuguese one you don't have to speak Portuguese, you don't have to live in Portugal and you don't have to pay Portuguese taxes or do Portuguese national service or anything like that. So with Spanish i think you have to show quite good competence in the Spanish language. Well my Spanish is a bit basic. I mean, I could certainly cope with getting around Spain but I couldn't have much of an intellectual conversation. I'm sure I could improve my Spanish and as I speak Italian it's not, the word so very similar very often there are few Arabic words but though the Arabic words of course are quite similar to Hebrew so they're not too alien though this sometimes changed the meaning. For example, the word for oil is what I think of as the word for an olive. Brexit prompting citizenship application Brexit prompting membership of the S&P synagogue Heritage Belonging Membership of liberal synagogue Doesn’t identify with radical liberal politics Identifies with traditions Resolving potential language barriers Gender equality Doesn’t especially feel comfortable in orthodox synagogues Religious rituals Discouraging women from attending synagogue [Have you thought about Portuguese citizenship since the EU referendum?] Yes it was, very much so and also I didn’t realized just how easy it was to join the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue. I do happen to prefer their services. I go to a liberal synagogue here in London. The liberal synagogue has merit of the, various merits perhaps it's just, for example it's less radical than it used to be. So it's much more traditional than it was it uses a lot of English in its services which i think is beneficial. There are some central parts of the morning service but it's still having Hebrew and they don't separate men and women at all, whereas the Orthodox have done so for nearly two thousand years, they used not to two thousand years ago, it was not customary to separate men and women in the temple for example or in synagogues. Now orthodox synagogues make a point of separating men and women. You will sometimes find that there are men on one side of the aisle and women on the other. I went to a synagogue in Cannes where the women were on one side and men on the other. I went back later and they had the rabbi who was from some Arab country and he had arranged some sort of a women's galleries so placed that nobody could see the women and the women couldn't see what was going on anyway, could barely hear and of course very few women then came. 95 Belonging Heritage Membership of synagogue Identifies with liberal Jewish attitudes Liberal attitudes towards Jewish dietary and clothing rules Respecting societal customs [When did you start to go to this liberal synagogue?] My parents, my father joined in the 1920s and some of the family joined when it was first set up. The people, the Jews have been in this country for several centuries were fairly liberal in their attitudes. Let's say they didn't observe a very strict kashrut and they wouldn’t have bothered too much about what sort of clothes they wore, you know there's supposed to be a separation of wool and linen. You mustn't have two together. You might think well when do you do that, apparently stiffening in the lapels of a jacket very often contains linen or used and of course the jacket itself is mainly made of wool so if you were strictly Orthodox you would make sure you went to a tailor who didn't do that and of course the strictly Orthodox then end up with a quite strange garb. Anyway, I mean that the style is just not normal. You would think well, it'd be perfectly possible and for things to look perfectly normal and observe this requirement, they choose not to, well a lot of them anyway. Synagogues in same area Bevis Marks, in the City, same location as the unknown burial site Growing up Childhood migration Buying a house Making roots Selling a house Moving to a smaller property Rural to urban migration Theatre with international connections 82 years old Awareness of fragility [Where are they?] Well both of them are in WH, the liberal synagogue is opposite Lord's Cricket Ground and the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, well the original one is in the City in Bevis Marks, and the one that's much more used is in Maida Vale. [Have you always been living here in Hampstead?] Well I was brought up but for various reasons, was born in Kensington I was brought up in the country because of the war and when we got married we lived in Islington and then we bought this house here but so my family have lived in this general area for a very long time. In St John’s Wood, Highgate and here, so I mean Northwest London. [How would you describe the differences of these areas?] Oh, well we like Hampstead. We are trying to sell this house and we're thinking perhaps of moving somewhere smaller. There is just two of us now in quite a big house and it's, we've got all our money in houses and it's becoming more and more difficult actually keeping the place up. I mean things go wrong you've got to mend the roof or you've got to repair a window or something like that. It all cost something and we're heating a very much larger volume of the house than we actually need. We'd be very comfortable on just two floors, anyway we're not using the bottom floor at all and we don't need the top floor. [Do you want to stay in Hampstead?] Yes, but we also want, we have a cottage near Chichester and we're thinking of selling that are moving into Chichester itself because we have a lot of friends in that area then also some that moved from the villages into the city because it's so much easier. Chichester is a very pleasant city to live in. It's got a wonderful theater really interesting theater lots of interesting associations, connections with Ravenna, Sarthe and Valletta. It's big enough to have a lot of good shops so you're not short of anything. There are things that perhaps you can't get done there, but you know people can get things done for you but it's a big enough city for most services to be available and it's just very pleasant and flat so if you're very old, obviously I don’t know who old I’ll become, I’m 82, it's not a great difficulty to just walk from house if you live near the center to anything in the middle. 96 Long history Awareness of other Jewish communities close by. Jewish descent Establishing and maintaining roots Belonging [Is there a synagogue in Chichester?] No, there were Jews in the Middle Ages but there aren't any, there’s no Jewish community there. The nearest communities are in Brighton and Portsmouth. I’m unsure that there are people with Jewish connections in that area and I’m sure there are. Of course a lot of people have got weekend cottages or houses in that general area. [Is this something you will miss?] Yes, but then as we intend to retain something in Hampstead, it wouldn’t be missing altogether. For when we come to Hampstead well, we've got three daughters living within walking distance of here and are interested in keeping in touch with my children and grandchildren. We’ve got quite a lot of those. Horrified by Brexit Benefits of belonging Breaking bonds leads to destruction and are permanent Doesn’t identify with extreme right-wing Society suppressing communities Voting in contrary to your interests Brexit affecting feelings of being a European citizen, feelings of belonging. [How do you feel about Brexit?] I feel horrified, I think the benefits to this country are so considerable of belonging to a large domestic economy that to break away from it is stupid and will destroy the economy of this country. It's not much that the people in the government are extreme right-wing. What they're aiming at quite clearly is on cheap labor, they want to push down the real wages of the working class - put the working class where they think they ought to be. Low taxation, get rid of the welfare state, that's what they're aiming at. They keep saying it’s the will of the people. Of course the people were not voting that way, they were voting for something that was contrary to their interests, but there were a lot of them that having got this vote. This change is forever so thirty five percent of the electorate voted to leave the European Union therefore we leave the European Union completely. To me it is stupid and horrific and how I was rather proud of being a European citizen. Remaining European Protecting family Belonging and having roots in Europe Being European offers protections Dislike of barriers to migration Technology assisting at borders with evaluating whether or not to grant passage Crossing borders by land vs air Uncertain if Brexit will happen [What do you think you would gain by being a Portuguese citizen?] Well, European citizenship would remain after Brexit. It might protect me and my daughters from any capital gains, any excessive capital gains tax on the sales, we have a property in France. They might, they did try to introduce, I would say excessive taxes on the sale of property in France and would prevent it by the European Commission but of course they wouldn't have been prevented in relation to people who are not European citizens. I mean that's the most immediate. The other thing is that they may start requiring visas or something stupid. We haven't had visas since the war. You went there and you showed your passport and they've got a stamp on it but that was all, it’s an automatic thing. Particularly with modern technology, they can immediately tell if you're an undesirable character, they wouldn't wish you to have come in. The Americans go in for this Esther thing which is fairly easy to obtain and they don't like you to get on a plane to fly to the United States without this Esther. It's not so difficult if you're going across a land border because of course they could say sorry you can't come in just go back but if you've arrived on a plane you've got to go back on the plane. That is more difficult to deal with. It's more complicated, and of course we don't for the most practical points of view, we don't have, apart from Ireland there's no land border with the European Union. If we desist to be apart of it. 97 Family unit Proud of being European Benefits of belonging Breaking bonds leads to destruction Collaborative initiative central to EU Obvious but not spoken about Brexit breaking bonds and causing uncertainty Brexit causing lose Integration of the EU Voting in contrary to your interests [Is this a collective decision you made with your daughters?] Yes, well I was going to do it anyway and they want to do it too. Two of them are particularly keen, more so. [Why are they keen?] I think they're rather proud of being European citizens and they think it is awfully stupid to leave the European Union. More than stupid, very damaging. [Is it damaging for them personally or …?] Yes, for example our oldest daughter is an oncologist. There's an important medical center that was being set up which was to be I think something pretty central to the European Union. Well that's no longer going to be for the European Union, the whole thing is a white elephant. Well, our son is also a patent agent and of course there are all sorts of complications there because people will think you're not in the European Union so the European Patent Office is not something where you have any particular relationship. Of course they can have an office in Munich, and so on and so on. The City of London which is the principal financial center of the European Union. It's all become complicated you know, Euro clearing as between countries happens in this country. Well they wanted to all to come back to what will then be the European Union without Britain. So we're going to lose quite a lot of things. It is likely that quite a lot of things will have to leave Britain. You've got the complications of these people who make, Japanese who make cars in this country; they're getting little bits from all over the European Union made from different places and they're crossing into Britain, into the United Kingdom without any interference. They don't have to pay customers or duty. They don't have to get any permissions, all this can be held up it becomes very expensive so the Japanese will probably think in terms of setting up in what is the European Union, which were somewhere else than Britain. So some of the places that have voted most strongly to leave are some of the places that are going to suffer the most. They will lose their employers, their principle employers. Voting in contrary to your interests Brexit causing uncertainty Damage caused from breaking bonds Brexit is a complete catastrophe Something similar happened in the United States. I mean people who voted for Trump, a lot of the Trump people will lose the most from Trump being there. We have one doctor, one daughter who teaches German and French and one, two daughters who are lawyers. One works for Walt Disney in Europe, she's actually in Hammersmith, that's their headquarters for Europe. Whether that would have to change I don't know but she said that there were a lot of jobs that she had to set up. She said they have to now be outside Britain not inside, when they previously would have been inside. Then another daughter is a lawyer as I said and her speciality is intellectual property again there are problems there because of the copyright. I think you need to be European citizen in order to actually be entitled to present things to wherever it is that you register copyright. I don’t know anything about that. Anyway, you may have gathered that I think Brexit is a complete catastrophe. 98 Financial benefits Belonging Maintaining European connection German heritage Travel by sea Europe as one nation [Would you say there's a material benefit that your family would have through gaining Portuguese citizenship?] There are some professional advantages yes but the most important thing is feeling that we continue to be European and we quite like this sort of ancestral connection with Portugal. [Is this something you've you've always felt?] Yes, my mother's family came from, her father came from Hanover, my father's mother's father came from Hanover, actually there's a lot of connection however I think my mother's mother's family ultimately came from somewhere like Alsace, a long time ago. My direct male ancestor, I know came from Germany somewhere doesn't know where, I know where he would have started off but how he would have got here he would have taken the Royal Mail package from the Hook of Holland because it was free. Just provide your own blankets and everything else and food for the journey. I don't know, probably took a day or two to cross. [Would you say this feeling has heightened in the last few years?] I thought I was a European citizen, yes, I'm living in France I thought I'm just living in another part of our country. Multilingual Connections with France & Germany Childhood innocence Mis-identity due to place of birth Not born on British soil but at British Consulate Childhood migration Mourning at an early age [Would you say it's similar with your daughter's?] Yes, they all speak good French and one of them speaks good German, well all of them speak German of some sort. I don't think they speak much Spanish or Portuguese, actually one of them certainly speaks quite good Italian. My parents, well of course they’re dead. My father spoke quite good French, my mother she didn't speak a word of German actually, although her father was German. She said that her parents spoke German to each other. I suspect they only did that when they wanted to stop the children from understanding. I have no reason to suppose that her mother spoke good German, obviously her father did. He thought he was born British because his mother in the 1860s, he was 68 in 1932, so he was born in 1864. His mother went the British Consulate or whatever it was in Hanover to see if the baby she was expecting could be born British. My grandfather and her must have left it rather late because he was actually born in the British Consulate. He therefore came to this country after his parents died. They died when he was quite young. I think he was about 18 when he came to this country. Maintaining accent Long history Making connections with important historical figures He never lost his German accent. He thought he was British, he certainly was on the Electoral Register in the 1890s and when the war came I think he was investigated. They realized that he was in fact an enemy alien but he was given dispensation from being interned until Horatio Bottomley, a well-known fraud who became an MP and 1917 I think or 1918 is reputed to have said in Parliament “what is this German spy Albert Benjamin doing wandering freely around London with his warehouse underneath the London Dover railway in Bermondsey, near London Bridge ready to blow it up as the Kaiser comes out”. 99 Maintaining accent Long history Making connections with important historical figures Facing imprisonment Grieve motivating migration Scared of attack Inciting violence Hoards of potential attackers He was in fact interned for a few months at the end of the war which was very distressing for my grandmother who had a nervous breakdown and moved out of London briefly to Great Missenden, in Buckinghamshire. She was afraid that the house would be attacked. Oh Horatio actually had an enormous rally at the Albert Hall. I don't know we got the money from. There were hoards of people who couldn't get in and some people estimated something like a million people turned up. I don’t know how much the Albert Hall can take, maybe a few thousand actually but anyway not all could get in. “We should squeeze the Germans to the pips squeak, they shall pay every penny we have spent on this war” etc etc. Inciting violence Rise of the extreme right Britain being a stabilising presence within Europe Presence of death Heritage Death of youth Small communities experiencing loss Enduring human loss for land Regaining lost land That attitude of course was extremely damaging and ultimately caused the rise of Hitler. When you go back to the Congress of Vienna in the early nineteenth century I think it was the British prime minister who said “gentlemen we have come here not to punish France but to bring her to her senses” There was a different attitude just after the first world war. And afterall it was a terrible war, all those millions of young men killed and we notice it for example where we are in France you see these quite small villages with a memorial to all the young men killed you think how could a village this size have suffered the loss of 40 young men. There probably are only a few hundred people in the village anyway. It's a terrible thing, of course a lot of others would actually have been badly injured as well. One of the things apparently is that the French were so determined to get back Alsace Lorraine that they were not prepared to have an armistice. It was, after all quite obviously a stalemate quite early on in the war. It was a wonderful victory if you advanced 200 yards or something, but they wanted to get back Alsace and Lorraine which they lost in 1870. Therefore they were determined to go on. I’ve visited Alsace, Colmar and Strasbourg briefly. I mean not much more than that. Minority within a minority Personal nonreligious contacts enabling connections with other Sephardi Jews Liberal synagogue having deep roots Belonging Heritage Integrating/ mixing [How would you describe the Sephardi community?] A lot of them now of course are from Arab countries the people who are of Spanish and Portuguese descent are fewer in number but there's quite a number of them. [Would you say these two parts of the community are integrated well?] I say to a certain extent, yes. I mean I have a particular friend who belongs to an associate of the synagogue whose family came from Turkey but he was at Cambridge with me, that's why he's a friend. I would say probably, socially they are a little bit divided than not. There's obviously a lot of communication and joint activities. [Is the liberal synagogue Sephardi?] You wouldn't say that, a lot of the people there are of Sephardi descent and are relations of mine but of course they are much more the people descended from the people who have been in this country for a very long time. In both synagogues there’s a mixture of people. I’m a mixture. I mean, most people whose families have been in this country for a long time are of mixed Ashkenazi and Sephardi descent. There probably are a few or not, you’re considerably restricting your social life if you commit yourself to only considering the possibility of marrying somebody with Sephardi descent. 100 Differences in pronunciation between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Roots of language Long history Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew sounding corrupt Time creating consistency There probably are a few or not, you’re considerably restricting your social life if you commit yourself to only considering the possibility of marrying somebody with Sephardi descent. Besides, I think one of the things, that there are one or two, very few differences in practice or not personal pronunciations, because of the influence of the Israeli pronunciation of Hebrew, the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew used to sound very corrupt. It was comparable to cockney, as opposed to the Queen's English. The vowels come out quite differently and the chances are that the vowels used by the Sephardi are much nearer to the original. Certainly, now the Ashkenazi tend to use the Israeli pronunciation. There are various differences that are still there, the ‘th’ is often pronounced as a ‘s’ and by the Ashkenazi when it's not hard. You indicate with a, if a consonant is hard or soft, so a ‘b’ can be a ‘v’, whether it's got a dot. Some of the other letters are supposed to come into that category we no longer pronounce the difference between ‘b’, ‘g’ and ‘d’. I think the vowels are now much more consistently the same as in Israel. There's a lot of words which have the letter ‘i’ in and if they don't have the letter ‘i’ it means something quite different. Semitic languages all will have a strong glottal stop, the ones I know like Maltese Arabic and Hebrew and there are other Assyrian, I suppose, semitic languages are outstanding, of course Egyptian ancient had a strong glottal stop. And phoenician is very similar. Wife mentioning citizenship rights Transfer of rights to other family members Awareness of death [How did you find out that you could gain Portuguese citizenship?] I can't remember as I suspect my wife mentioned it. She said you know it's easy to apply for it. [Is your wife applying as well?] No, she can't because she's not of Portuguese descent. It may be possible for her to become a Portuguese national after I have obtained it and being Portuguese for three years or so. That’s if we both survive. Visiting exhibitions with family Development of opera Royal painting collection Long history Making connections with important European historical figures/ families [Can you tell me about an exhibition you've recently visited?] I've been recently to two exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum. One was the Winnie the Pooh, who I went with my grandson's. The other one was about opera and the origins and its development. I do go to things in London, I’m wanting to go to the exhibition of the collection of Charles I’s paintings. Some of the ones he collected came from the Gonzaga family in Mantua, well we have a family connection with the Gonzaga family. [Do you look for these connections when visiting exhibitions?] Yes, I mean obviously that we have these connections with Italy and with Spain or Portugal and France, but they’re not close connections. [Did you like the opera exhibition?] Yes it was quite interesting. [What did you like about it?] The little bits of music from operas, composers. [Where there headphones?] Yes, there were, so you could hear the music and then you would read about the composer's through the information. [What exhibits did they have?] I don't remember, mostly it was written that there were clothes used in operas and various period photographs or illustrations relating to various productions. The odd musical instrument from the early periods I suppose. 101 Multimedia exhibition - music and visual artefacts (clothes and musical instruments) Visiting big international cultural institutions Maybe family connections yet to discover Nomadic cultures Travelling with grandchildren Meeting friends associated with university Paris and London being international European hubs Other Europeans studying in the UK [What exhibits did they have?] I don't remember, mostly it was written that there were clothes used in operas and various period photographs or illustrations relating to various productions. The odd musical instrument from the early periods I suppose. [When you visit an exhibition, do you usually get headphones and listen to the audio guide?] I don't personally because then my wife does. I don't personally because they usually have quite adequate explanations written up. So, you know I may go to the Royal Academy where they often issue you with headphones or the National Gallery. I'm trying to think where else I would have gone for exhibitions in the recent past, but it would mostly be the National Gallery, Royal Academy, Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. Certainly, I've been to the Sicilian at the British Museum. It has no connection with my family and to us as far as I’m aware. I was surprised at how, considering that they were nomadic how advanced they were in terms of the skills of the artifacts they produced which were as sophisticated as anybody of the period. There's been a lot of good exhibitions at the British Museum. We’ve been to Glyndebourne and we can go a lot to the theater in Chichester not so much in London as we used. I'm trying to think very hard. I don't usually pick up the headphones, but mainly because the information is available as written. We were not long ago in Paris and we went to see the Dior exhibition. I’m trying to think what else we saw in Paris, we went to see something at the Grand Palais, I can't remember. My memory is not as good as it was. I can't remember what it was we saw at the Grand Palais. Have you been to Paris? [I’ve not been for many years] We haven't been for many years ourselves and then we went in the summer to take one of our granddaughters and then again in the autumn too. I think it was a sort of a Cambridge, not ‘meeting of minds’ they called it something else, but the idea was that Paris actually a lot more convenient for a lot of people who studied at Cambridge. A lot of European you know continentals now go to Oxford and Cambridge, so Paris is quite more convenient for a lot of people I think. Actually, if you go by plane it doesn't make any difference, if you're coming by car or train it's sort of easier connected. London is well connected, especially with Eurostar. European culture as integrated and one entity Doesn’t identify with nationalists Nationalists being miserable until having contact with foreigners I feel of European culture as one entity. If you talk about literature, I think of European literature not merely English literature and of course when you see the nationalists who think that anything outside this country is you know just foreign and awful. ‘Love in a cold climate’ I can't remember who the girl in that, you know, she's feeling something's gone wrong with arrangements in Paris and she was sitting down feeling miserable. Abroad was bloody and all foreigners with fiends she's then picked up by some Frenchman. There are lots of people for whom abroad is just awful. 102 Multimedia potentially could be a good method for reflection Curiosity with Portuguese musical tradition and how it relates to Europe as a whole Portuguese explorers Long history [Do you think a multimedia exhibition could be a good way to explore some of these themes we've discussed?] Yes, I suppose it could, but I can't think of much in the way of Portuguese music. No doubt there is some Portuguese music but I can't think of any Portuguese composers. I wouldn't know of any Portuguese composers to be quite honest my sort of knowledge when I think of Portugal and what it's contributed to Europe I think you know the period of the great explorers. I'm not sure I think of anything else much. Brazil then Angola, Mozambique and of course the Spice Islands which the Dutch allegedly took from them so and of course the connection with Japan. Worried about caricature Not looking Jewish Pure Jewish descent Uncertainty of ancestors prePortugal period [Drawing] I hope you don’t make a horrible caricature of me. People say I don’t look Jewish, but I am in fact of pure Jewish descent. Certainly for quite a few centuries back, just anything could have happened in the Middle Ages. Gift that was not appreciated Photograph of the family, although some missing Christmas photo Looking at family tree Long history Heritage Visualisation of belonging Correcting family tree Someone called Scarf used to use that type of literature, and I remember a well-known lawyer Goodman, that's his first name was I know that he was the president of our synagogue and one of my colleagues decided that I think he was coming to speak at the Stock Exchange and as a little present of his coming, because he wasn't going to be paid for it there's this portrait by Scarf. He was bitterly offended by the portrait he was I'd say he wasn't in fact a very ugly man and was bitterly offended by the portrait which actually I thought was quite a good likeness. Is my hair sticking up? From where I’m sitting it looks as though it’s sticking up. I could send you a photograph of the whole family, well the children and the grandchildren. Actually there are two missing as the photograph is three years old. The photograph I wanted to get is not there. This is half the grandkids. Must have been at Christmas. I might be able to show a photograph of all the family taken about four years ago. There have been two additions since then. We have four daughters, four sons-in-law, five granddaughters and seven grandsons. Our youngest daughter has the two additions, a boy of nearly three and a girl who is eight months. I just happen to have chanced on my the family tree, that goes back to the ancestor who came to this country. I think you can see that there's a lack of connection between there and there because there aren't enough generations. He died, he was born in 1510. This one was born in about 1616 so there's at least one generation missing. I was discussing my ancestors with the people at the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue. It's an extract from the family tree my great-uncle had down. The path there as I said there's some arrows on the tree which have been corrected. 103 Informant A & B (12/02/2018) Initial coding Transcript 2 groups of applicants: living inside and out of Spain Brexit fuelling rise in applications, preBrexit 1 application every few months Applying as a family Visiting the UK on holiday & want to get paperwork done Wishing to maintain freedom of travelling within EU [You mentioned there are two groups of people; those who are living in Spain …] So we've had some people who were living and working [in Spain] who contacted us by email who are for the Spanish passport. Rise in applications have been fuelled by Brexit. That lady I mentioned who said that she really and always wanted another passport. She was one of our first applicants wasn't she. She came in very early. Her and her sister but we have what was it, sort of once every couple of months or so, before the Brexit vote and then they started piling in because it was realised that people who wanted to still have access to Europe. There was another email inquiry from a woman who works in Spain, she works with languages partly as a translator. Now both in her case and in the young gentleman I mentioned who was living and working, were both here on holiday for a couple of days and very much wanted to get the paperwork done. They were here with the view to applying. I think my great nephew, he's interested because he wants to be able to travel freely to Europe and for his children, that seems to be mostly part of what people want. They just want the freedom of having the passport so they can go where they want in Europe. Accepting a gift as acknowledging and addressing a historical wrong I mean some of the people who contacted us via email, I mean it would take trolling back to find that. I can't off hand think of their names. I do remember a couple of people saying and again I think this was the relatively early when the news was just out, a feeling this was writing a historic wrong. I didn't know how far back you've gone into this history. The Spanish 1492 expulsion from Spain many then went to Portugal. The Inquisition and what they put people through which was beyond appalling and so the idea that by doing this they were writing a wrong, that's what’s being done. I think that is their attitude, to remedy a wrong. Pre-Brexit only received a few applications a month, mostly for personal reasons, post-Brexit for citizenship Been receiving request ever since publishing records. Recording birth, marriage & death dates since 1650s. [So before Brexit you got maybe one application every few months?] Yes. It was something we got was very small. [And then after? Are you still getting applications through?] Well no before the Brexit vote we got people asking about their ancestry but that was usually for personal reasons. They just wanted to know where they came from but it wasn't before Brexit I don't think it was for other reasons. It wasn't because they could travel freely and you know so it wasn't that it was for their own personal interest in the background. We've always had that for years and years, since we published our records as well we've got records going back just from, the earliest records are from 1650s, so we’ve got birth, marriage and death records going back. People find them useful. 110 Expertise & experience with archive Tracing lines back, making connections Policy to publish as much of the records Records published until 1900s Off-line archive Separate books for marriage, birth & death Marriage records includes names of parents Applicant tracing ancestry for citizenship Unusual surnames make it easier to trace back lineage [One application must be a great deal of work] Yeah but because ... has a great deal of experience and produced some of our published records of birth, marriage and death, and great experience so when people have inquiries she can trace the lines back. It has been the policy of the congregation to publish as much as possible of our records, which we’ve done, up until 1900s and so everything before that date is published. [Are the records published online?] No, there in books. This is one of our books of records so this lists marriages for instance. So say we get a message from an email or a letter or whatever from somebody saying that their grandfather was a member of your congregation and they got married in say 1930. Right, so we’ve got a list of marriages that took place in this congregation during the 20th century. So we can find the grandfather in that case and then if we are lucky we can trace back a couple of generations to the grandfather's parents. Then the grandfather's grandparents, and at which point were probably in the book that you're holding. So we then can trace back again. Each record of a marriage gives a parent's name so can you see the father of the father’s name. We have the birth records. It’s not entirely complete but it’s as complete as we can do it [laughter]. So … who you met at the front desk for instance, she wanted to trace her family back with a view to a passport. She was a dream from our point of view because she has a surname that's represented within the congregation but it's very rare within the congregation so it was quite easy to find a line back. Multiple lines of ancestors Preference of maternal line as oppose to paternal Note in archive that says ‘arrived from Portugal’ Need to demonstrate something that says arrived from Portugal Confusion with similar names Members of congregation for generations & then marry out of community Couples married by Catholic law in Portugal and remarry by Jewish law on arrival to UK Amsterdam archives are very detailed And the other thing is that it multiplies because assuming you have a marriage between two people you can then trace back both their father's, but then it starts getting a little complicated with multiple possibilities. So there was somebody within the congregation who's descended from two families that go right back in the congregation. We asked “was it okay to issue a certificate from the maternal line from his grandmother” because we had a line that went straight back. Whereas his father's line and his father equally has a history within the congregation we didn't want to give the certificate because what we normally do is they descended from so and so. Some of the earlier marriage records have a note beside them that says vir de Portugal - arrived from Portugal and so our idea is something that traces back to that. Maybe we don't have something quite as clear as that but something that traces they’ve arrived from Portugal. The person whom we gave the certificate and his grandmother's name not his father's line back. Two families called Garcia arrived with similar names at the same time so you can’t quite trace which family it was. Whereas the other was nice and clear. We could give her an exact descended from a marriage a couple so that we thought that was the better way. The clearer lines to it although obviously his descent on both sides was equally valid. The other thing is that we do it a lot for people within the congregation but many people over the years have been members of this community and then married out of the community. 111 Have Amsterdam synagogue’s archive records Historical links & passage between London & Amsterdam synagogue Founded by Jews from Amsterdam Escaping inquisition in 1703 via ‘free port’ Lisbon & arriving in London Free passage for Jews as Portuguese wanted trade to continue Benefits of international trade is freedom of movement In other words the couple who came were already married by Catholic law but they have to be remarried by Jewish law when they arrived. The husbands have to be circumcised and so you get the proof. This can go back to Amsterdam and the municipal Amsterdam records are very detailed and can show that they came from Portugal.[Do you work with the archives in Amsterdam?] Oh, they're very full archive. We don't particularly communicate with the people there because we can have their published records. We don't need to communicate with them. Although one of the things that you might notice in the book I showed you just now, there were a lot of families who they'd be here for a while, they'd go back to cousins in Amsterdam so there's a lot of traffic with this congregation. It was founded by Jews who had people gone to Amsterdam then some of them moved here. There was a lot of toing and throwing and moving to and fro. There was a treaty in 1703 between England and Portugal, and Lisbon became a free port, so some of the people managed to escape the inquisition's clutches, store whatever and managed to get onto ships and come here. We know that they came directly here from Lisbon, Portugal in that period of 1703. For about fifty years we have people coming directly, because of the treaty the Portuguese inquisition could not interfere with what went on. They complained, the ambassadors complained but it didn’t make any difference because they wanted the trade to continue. So that's how it fits in, all rights together. The benefit of that was the movement of people. Many applications come from noncongregation members Marrying out of the community & no longer being members Some applicants have no direct connections with Judaism or Sephardi Judaism Showing evidence of intervening/ nonSephardi generations Interesting & exotic to have some Sephardi Jewish heritage Tracing genealogy is a popular hobby so people have collected lots of documents Some people have little documentation while others have lots [It's possible to find traces for people in the congregation, do you sometimes get inquiries from people who have not been members?] Oh, yes. Very many of the people who apply through us, the majority of people are not within the congregation. Within all minority communities some people stay within the community while others you know marry the girl next door who may or not be in. So interestingly there are a lot of people who have no direct connections with Judaism themselves, there was that one we did where someone married out in 1870 something, a lot of them left the community a long time ago. Some have gone into other communities, not Sephardim. So we can only trace them at the point where they are with us and sometimes it's the great great grandfather you're able to trace here in our records. Then we can trace back from them so we do have to show us evidence for that. If someone shows us the birth certificate of their great grandfather then we can trace back from there. We do ask them to show us some evidence for the intervening generations. They have to find that. Yes, it's quite actually lot of people obviously think it's sort of interesting and exotic to have a bit of Sephardi Jewish heritage. Even if going back to 1820, that’s many years ago. This one I’ve got here it goes back to 1807, that's where it's in this congregation, but after that is not. He could prove the link all the way back to that point, so that is sufficient apparently. Because genealogies were quite a popular hobby at this point other people have put a lot of time and effort into tracing their families. 112 Knowing a number of the applicants personally Non-congregation member applications do come from members of other congregations So some people when we said we need to be able to trace back you know, we’ve received replies with the email equivalent of a goodness gracious - how could anybody possibly do that! [little to no information] Whereas other people in fact have a lot of information about their family and they have worked out the links to the synagogue. Would you like to contact these people? [Yes] The ... Yes. I mean how many do you want from inside and outside? [maybe let's say about five people in each] I don’t know how much we can produce of each. Possibly the best way to proceed would be to email some of the people who we've produced certificates for giving them your email address and suggest that they contact you. It's easier for us not to be the middle person. Some of the people that come to mind are all the people who because I know them personally, unless connected with this congregation, but a university friend of mine who has family links here as she did it. There's also somebody who's a friend of my father's and nothing to do with this congregation didn't come to us, because I think all her heritage is through Amsterdam, she’s linked to a synagogue but not particularly a Sephardi synagogue. So there are also people who identify as Jewish but they're not identified to this synagogue. I think obviously it would be better to contact them directly. I don’t think I should give you their email addresses, but if I give them your email address and then they can get in touch with you directly. Ambiguity of the term Sephardim, originally meaning Jews of Iberia but has since expended Similar synagogues in Amsterdam & NYC Families who have been member for generations & new members from North Africa & Middle East Jews arriving from North Africa & Middle East during C20th The other thing that's been a complication for some people who want to apply is the very term Sephardim which was used because that's a term that means Jews from Spain and Portugal. That was its original usage from the congregations like this the Spanish and Portuguese Jews congregation of London we were originally where now we are the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi community. There was a recent rebranding. There's a similar synagogue in Amsterdam, there's also a similar synagogue in New York but what's kept this congregation alive we mentioned people leaving the congregation going away, from the congregation what currently sustains this congregation, you met … who came in here briefly, her families were the old families in the congregation but there are also many Jews who joined this congregation during the 20th century their families came from places like Iraq, Iran, Morocco, these Egyptian - these are places that has very large Jewish communities and during the 20th century life became very difficult for Jews living in those places and so people left and came here and joined this congregation. 113 Jews from North Africa & Middle East have more in common with Sephardi than Ashkenazi traditions Jews arriving from Balkans during Turkish rule Can Iraqi Jews trace heritage back to Iberia? Sephardi Jews fled to many places (inc. Balkans) following expulsion, archive unable to help these applicants as they don’t have records for their ancestors Possibility of a rabbi to certify a lineage as probable Helping people through what we know as fact The style of the services and so on wasn't quite like the style of service from their community of origin but it was more like the service of their community origins than the majority of the synagogue this country are what's called Ashkenazi, the European. Sephardi who came from Bulgaria and all those places of the Balkans that were under Turkish rule at one time but of course they're not connected directly with this congregation. [Is there a direct lineage with the Jews that came from Iraq?] That's precisely the question. Well, not exactly. Some of the people we've had asked us for certificates indeed they have heard that these passports have been offered to Sephardi Jews so they think I'll have some of that, but so how could anybody possibly trace their family that far back and so some people have thought because they've heard this is available for Sephardi Jews that it must be available for them and if I mean for instance ... says places like Bulgaria was very known that just as people came to Amsterdam and to England from Spain and Portugal people went there but there are other places where it's not such a known thing. We haven't got the link for these people to this congregation so we can't help them, unless their parents or grandparents came here. For example gone to Turkey and then came here, but unless you actually have a record that they can confirm belongs to their family then we can’t help. I think what Spain and Portugal are asking for is that a rabbi thinks your story is probable, whereas we need to see a line then we can certify. If your instance, somebody comes saying they’ve got this wonderful line of inheritance from Sarajevo, right then they’ll have to find a rabbi and tell their story. If they think it hangs together fine, because what we do here is related to the synagogue archives. Our attempt to help people is directly from things that we know as a fact. Passing language test for Spanish citizenship, Ladino taken into consideration Family tradition of speaking Ladino Citizens finding citizenship test difficult Level of knowledge of Spanish culture & active participation Most applicants want Portuguese citizenship as there is no language test Some applicants live or have businesses in Spain, however most applications motivated by travelling freely Spain brought in some limitations; you have to pass a language test now. Because how many people have a family tradition speaking Ladino, how many people other than Sephardi Jews, Jews descended from Spain have spoken Ladino, well the answer is if they lived in a place like Sarajevo, but was this a language that was used. It is absolutely necessary, well a pretty good indication. So people who have a family tradition of speaking Ladino I think they get credit on the language test. Just as people who one point a couple of years ago, I was in a stationary shop and one of the people working behind the counter was about to apply for her British citizenship test and was reading out these questions about British none of us in the shop all of whom were British knew the answers. Spain also has a citizenship test and I think they want to make sure that people have a certain knowledge of Spanish culture but yes a certain level of participation. Yes, they want people who are more interested in being Spanish. Most of the people who have come to us what Portuguese. Well that's because if you happen to already know Spanish then the language test isn’t such of a barrier. 114 Careful with collateral ancestors, i.e. stepson Work is satisfactory so far People either live in Spain or have businesses there so you can understand why they want it. But mostly I get the impression they want it because they want to be free to go about Europe as they always have done. Of course several young people have grown up with it and they don’t know anything else. There were some people who came to us mentioning somebody who'd been one of the councils of this congregation. Then we realised it was only a collateral ancestor, so we are very careful and very precise when it comes to researching because so you know, he was sort of a stepchild linked to somebody who goes back. It seems to be satisfactory so far in most cases. List of issued certificates Choosing between Spanish & Portuguese passport Apprehension with providing data, bearing in mind its sensitivity Single applicants wanting certificates for all their family I have a list of people who've applied who we've given certificates to which is currently in my computer. I'm not sure what the status of that document is in terms of handing it over for your research. That gives names of people, it's notes if they are members of the congregation and it says which family line we've traced back and so the parameters you wanted for people who were currently within the congregation and not within the congregation. I said that was somebody I thought might be interesting for you to talk to who isn't on that list at all because she asked me as she knew I did this here and has no links to this congregation as she went through Amsterdam because I know she is happy to talk about it. She is a possibility to ask. Likewise was at least now wait a minute, right the person I'm thinking of I think went for a Spanish passport rather in Portuguese. She I think contacted me on my home. I suppose as the data has when the certificate was issued then we’ll have the before and after Brexit dates. [Do you log information on genders and age?] Yes. I think we have to leave that to the people who want to give that information about themselves. I don’t think we can give that information. [I don’t want information that can trace to a person, just overall numbers] I mean in terms of gender split though, there was somebody who got in touch with us and I'm not even sure what he asked for a certificate for himself, but he did want a certificate. I mean he wanted certificates for his children. He was a man who contacted us but his children I can't remember if it was three sons and a daughter or two sons and a daughter. What we've also done for some people is issue certificates that if they have children under the age of … I think we have to leave it up to them. [I don’t want personal details]. I can't quite remember who contacted us originally. I mean if I email people saying if you would like to be involved and you give me some information will explain. Then it’s no problem. 115 Visiting painting exhibition Have their own artefact archive, not exhibited for a long time Model of Bevis Marks synagogue in foyer Before Bevis Marks congregation used a converted house for services Bevis Marks stylistically similar to Amsterdam Rabbi with links to Portugal, conducting research on early history Long history Links to important historical figures Documentary TV program Similar stylistic culture at the time for religions buildings Visual stylistic similarities with Bevis Marks Connection with Portuguese folk tunes Musical heritage [Can you tell me of an exhibition you’ve recently visited?] I went to the Impressionists in London exhibition at the Tate yesterday a very nice exhibition. We haven’t exhibited our stuff here in a long time. I think you would be interesting if you look at the synagogue here there's a model in the foyer of the synagogue. Somebody for his Duke of Edinburgh project made a model of the Bevis Marks synagogue, it’s incredibly impressive as a Duke of Edinburgh. If you can I don't know how long you're here before you go back to Portugal, if you have time do go and see the Bevis Marks synagogue in the City of London which is now developing a tie with the National Trust, look at it’s websites as I'm not quite sure what its opening hours are for visitors. For a while the congregation used a converted house as a place to hold its services and then they built the Bevis Marks synagogue. Bevis marks is similar in design to the Spanish or Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam so if you want to see a sort of stylistic line going back now the rabbi at Bevis Marks is doing some research on early Sephardi history, I don't know just how many links he has synagogues in Portugal, but I suspect that the Bevis Marks and the Amsterdam synagogue would you say they're both very much the culture of eighteenth century. Some of the people who worked for Sir Christopher Wren also worked for the synagogue. It was build in 1701. There was a TV program once about the architecture of city churches I saw an it did suggest but maybe a Wren design, which is complete optimism. There's a missing link between those two statements but absolutely a stylistic similarity between Wren churches and the Bevis Marks of that time. This was a culture in which it was built even if you're not going to find an architects plan with CW written in the corner. The culture in which they were building a place of workshop. I think that's why if you look at both the model in the synagogue again when they built this synagogue there are some sort of visual stylistic references both to the Bevis Marks synagogue which would be in the earlier synagogue of the congregation people started to move in this part of London. They needed something here, if you take a look at the light in front of the Ark for instance that's very similar between here and the Bevis Marks one. Look at the central area where the service is to be taken from, that again is the style of Spanish and Portuguese congregations. The other thing that does go back, if you’re talking in terns of an installation, is the music. When I brought some students of mine here, one of them was from Portugal and she was very excited when we played a song at the start as she said that is a Portuguese folk tune. In Portugal now, it’s thought of as a woman's tune, I don’t know if that’s true. It’s hard to see which way the influence went. I’ll try to find that tune. If you're trying to make cultural links, music is also a part of what has remained a heritage. Music is one of the oldest cultural links we have. 116