New BBC documentary to explore Glasgow's links with the Jewish community

Available to view on the BBC Scotland channel at 10.30pm tomorrow, Being Jewish in Scotland is a unique insight into the community's not very well-known but rich history.

Although the population is around 6,000, according to Scotland’s most senior religious leader, Rabbi Moshe Rubin, the community “really punches above its weight”.

His orthodox congregation, in Giffnock and Newton Mearns, is the largest in the country.

Born in Glasgow to an orthodox family, contributor Deborah Haase sees herself as more culturally Jewish than devout.

She is an honorary curator at the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, and talks about the strong connection with the city.

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Deborah said: “Just before the first world war we saw a big influx of Jewish people who were essentially fleeing the collapse of the Russian empire so Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Russia itself and so on, and most of them tended to settle at that time in the Gorbals area.

"There was the Jewish bakers, the Jewish butchers, the Jewish grocers everything – people lived in the area, they worked in the area and there were a myriad of synagogues, you could call it the Glasgow Shtetl.”

Deborah Haase (Image: Red Sky productions/BBC Scotland)

Other contributors include Mark Cohen, and his mother Doreen.

For them, food is at the heart of their Jewish lives, as owners of the only Kosher deli in the country, in Giffnock, they are the custodians of a vital component of Jewish life.

Doreen said: “Hopefully while there’s a community, there will always be a kosher deli.”.

Mark and Doreen Cohen (Image: Red Sky Production/BBC Scotland)