Walking tour explores city's Jewish history

Avi Rubinstein and Izzie Solomon set up York Jewish Walking Tours while at university

A free walking tour exploring how York's Jewish history shaped the city centre has been established by university students.

Third-year University of York students Avi Rubinstein, 22, and Izzie Solomon, 21, set the venture up to amplify "the stories that weren't being told" from the city's past.

The route includes landmarks like Clifford's Tower, where a massacre of the city's Jewish residents took place in 1190, and lesser-known sites of historical interest.

Ms Solomon said revisiting events from York's complex history involving the Jewish community helped to commemorate and build an "understanding" for the future.

"Seeing how far we've come since then is an important lesson for us all," she said.

Ms Solomon said it also informs how people can "help other minorities".

Mr Rubinstein and Ms Solomon are part of the university's Jewish Society, and were first inspired by a mutual friend, who suggested setting up walking tours in York.

Over the course of a summer between their first and second year of university, the pair started to research the city's connections to pivotal moments in Jewish history.

"It clicked that York has much more to say than other cities, but there were stories that just weren't being told," Mr Rubinstein said.

"There's so much to cover, we could even make the tour four hours, if anyone was brave enough."

After testing the tour out on friends and family, they launched it as a business venture at the end of 2024 on a pay what you feel model.

The daffodils planted at Clifford's Tower represent the six-pointed Star of David to commemorate the massacre of 1190

Since then they've taken groups from all over the world around the city's sights, according to Mr Rubinstein, including second generation Holocaust survivors.

"You do really build connections with the people you tour as well," he said.

"I've been very grateful for that because everyone who has come has had their own interesting insight, and asked new and different questions."

The tour takes about two hours to complete, starting at Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate and ending at York Minster.

Mr Rubinstein said a surprising fact he discovered during research was that the daffodils planted on the mound Clifford's Tower sits on are a tribute to the massacre.

According to English Heritage, which runs the site, the flowers are a six-pointed Narcissus variety whose shape echoes the Star of David and provides an annual memorial to the massacre.

York's first rabbi in 800 years, Rabbi Dr Elisheva Salamo (left) and Dr Louise Hampson (right) from the University of York, helped unveil the plaque

For Ms Solomon, it was how many Jewish people returned to the city in the aftermath of the Clifford's Tower attack.

Last year, York Civic Trust installed a plaque at the site of a 13th Century synagogue, which highlights that a new community was formed.

Researchers at the University of York found that the synagogue, located on Coney Street, existed between 1205 and 1290, the year all Jews were expelled from England by order of Edward I.

The plaque was unveiled by Rabbi Dr Elisheva Salamo, York's first resident rabbi in 800 years, and is a stop along the tour.

Both Mr Rubinstein and Ms Solomon will graduate next year, but expressed their hope that tours will continue to be run by the University of York's Jewish Society.

"We hope this business we've set up doesn't end with us," Ms Solomon said.

"Obviously, it's a bit more than a business to us, and it's become one of our most special interests, and we hope there's demand for this to continue too.

"We've definitely been scouting out already who might want to inherit this."

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