An exciting collaboration is developing between the Jewish community and the University of East Anglia. This collaboration is at the very earliest of stages, but the City Council have effectively offered this collaborative group the lease on the important Jurnet’s house from middle of next year providing we can form a group to renovate and find a purpose for the house.
Jurnet’s House on King Street in the historic heart of Norwich is a building of national and international importance. Jurnet of Norwich and his son Isaac were patrons of Jewish learning in medieval England and also financiers. The house is amongst the earliest and best-preserved Jewish houses in the country, some people say it is the oldest Jewish house in the country. It is also the oldest domestic 12th century building to survive in Norwich. The vaulted undercroft, lately used as the bar for the Wensum Lodge adult education centre, is little changed since the Middle Ages.
Norwich has the sad distinction of a claim to the origins of the notorious ‘blood libel’, when bogus reports of a boy found murdered on Mousehold Heath were manipulated by early chroniclers as a tale of ritual slaughter by Norwich Jews. The ‘blood libel’ has echoed through the centuries and there are direct links between such age-old persecution and the discrimination against Jewish people and anti-Jewish racism which persists into the modern era and present day.
Jurnet’s House is now also the name adopted by a group of local people formed to consider how best to showcase this precious historic Norwich house and to develop an appropriate use for it. A cultural centre, historical exhibitions, and a centre for the study of historical and contemporary antisemitism are envisaged. It is hard to imagine a more appropriate location in England for such a centre, which is likely to attract attention both nationally and internationally and would complement other historic King Street houses such as the National Centre for Writing in Dragon Hall.
The Jurnet’s House group will be consulting closely with both Jewish communities in Norwich shortly, once the group are clear about exactly what the possibilities are. We will keep you closely informed with further details as they emerge.