The Beatles’ Jewish manager Brian Epstein to be honoured with a statue
Epstein lived his life as both a closeted gay man and a Jew, two identities that made life especially difficult in 1960s
The Beatles’ Jewish manager who was credited with ushering the band to global fame and success will be memorialised with a statue in Liverpool, according to the BBC.
Brian Epstein, born on Yom Kippur to a family of Russian and Lithuanian Jewish descent, first discovered The Beatles in 1961 at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. He became the band’s manager in 1962, overseeing the group’s transformation from a scruffy local band to the suit-wearing global sensation who would play on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1963.
Epstein lived his life as both a closeted gay man and a Jew, two identities that made life especially difficult in 1960s. Members of The Beatles often joked with Epstein about his sexual orientation, according to a memoir written by Ivor Davis, a Jewish journalist who covered the band’s American tour in 1964.
Once, according to Davis, Lennon joked that Epstein should name his memoir “Queer Jew.”
A spokeswoman for the Brian Epstein Legacy Project, the group behind the statue, told the BBC it would be the first statue in Liverpool to commemorate an LGBT person.
“Although his sexuality was not publicly known until after his death, it was well known amongst his friends and business associates [and he] faced many personal challenges,” the spokeswoman told the BBC.
She added: “Epstein was only 32 when he died and did not live to see the changes that could have impacted on his freedom to publicly express his sexuality [as] laws were changed a month after his death.”
Epstein died of a drug overdoes in 1967 at the age of 32. The Beatles attended a memorial service in Epstein’s honour at the New London Synagogue.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
