James Parkes and the Age of Intolerance: a travelling exhibition

27 January 2020

Discover the remarkable and little-known life story of Reverend Dr James Parkes (1896-1981). A Hertford alumnus, Dr Parkes’s story will be told in an exhibition hosted in the college chapel from 17 February to 1 March 2020.

The exhibition explores Parkes’ pioneering work as a tireless fighter against antisemitism in all forms. In the 1930s, Parkes helped to rescue Jewish refugees, and he campaigned for European Jewry during the Holocaust. During the Second World War, Parkes helped found the Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ). As part of his international campaigning and scholarship, Parkes built up a library and associated archive, which was transferred to the University of Southampton in 1964. This library is now one of the largest Jewish documentation centres in Europe and the only one in the world devoted to Jewish/non-Jewish relations.

The exhibition was curated by Dr Chad McDonald, who recently completed a PhD examining the British memory of the Holocaust, co-supervised between the Department of History at the University of Bristol and Parkes Institute at the University of Southampton. The James Parkes exhibition is currently travelling across Britain, visiting places of worship and sites personally important to James Parkes. The South, West, and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (Arts and Humanities Research Council) generously funded the creation of this exhibition.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT PARKES’ LIFE STORY