Virtual Jewish walk sets off

A local Jewish musician has created a virtual walk around the city exploring the long history of Cork’s Jewish communities.

The ‘Cork Jewish Culture Virtual Walk’ is a video and web page devised, produced and presented by Ruti Lachs who moved to Leeside from Kerry three years ago.

The virtual walk focuses on seven Jewish sites in the city, with stories, poems, history, songs, and music from members of the Cork Jewish communities, past and present.

According to Ruti, many of Cork’s Jewish community came from Lithuania and Russia between the 1880s and early 1900s, however evidence shows Jewish settlement in Cork as far back as the 1700s.

The project is part of the output from Ruti's research for her musical play ‘Green Feather Boa’ which is set in the Cork Jewish community of the early 1900s.

“I was doing all the research for this musical and I thought ‘Wow, I know so much about the Cork Jewish community now, I should do a guided walk’,” Ruti told the Cork Independent.

With the help of Cork City Council, Ruti developed the virtual walk for Cork Heritage Day with the original intention of bringing groups of people from site to site on a guided tour.

“Then Covid-19 happened and no gatherings were allowed. So, then I thought why not do it online?” she said.

Some of the sites on the walk include the Synagogue on South Terrace, Shalom Park on Marina Terrace, and the Trinity Bridge near the College of Commerce, which was opened by Jewish Lord Mayor of Cork, Gerald Goldberg, in 1977.

Another site on the tour is the Jewish ritual bath which was part of the Turkish Baths next to Bank of Ireland on the South Mall, now the site of the restaurant Jacob’s on the Mall.

The special bath, known as a mikveh, was a pool of running water used by religious Jewish women, and less frequently by Jewish men, for ritual cleansing.

According to Ruti, one of the more challenging aspects of her extensive research has been separating historical fact from anecdotal fiction.

“What I need to be careful with is finding out what is true and what is just anecdotes. But I still want to hear the anecdotes. The stories are great,” said Ruti.

She added: “One story was that the ship's captain cried out 'Cork! Cork!' and the Jews got off because they thought they had reached New York. That's more than likely a story rather than historic fact."

The ‘Cork Jewish Culture Virtual Walk’ will go public on 15 August and can be viewed on rutilachs.ie.