Blue Peter’s Joel Defries’ HMD journey

A desire to fulfil his late grandfather’s dearest wish took Blue Peter presenter Joel Defries on an emotional journey for the programme broadcast for HMD on Tuesday.

Mr Defries’ ancestors came to the UK from Holland, Poland and Lithuania — the earliest in the 18th century. He was born in London, but spent some of his early years in New Zealand, joining grandparents who had emigrated there. His grandfather had always hoped that Mr Defries, a non-practising Jew, would get to know more about his Jewish background.

For the programme, Mr Defries, 23, looks at modern Jewish life in Britain as well as learning something of his own family history. He started off in the East End, where relatives had lived and worked and great-grandfather Leonard Reinstein had been secretary of Sandys Road Synagogue. He sat in on Shabbat preparations at the home of Edgware Synagogue’s Rabbi David Lister and attended the batmitzvah celebrations of Leanne Kingsley at Hampstead Garden Suburb shul.