Visit to Manchester Jewish Museum

12th March, 2010

During the course of this term the 3s have been studying Judaism in RS and on Tuesday 9th March, they enjoyed a trip to the Manchester Jewish Museum. Ruby Lavender from 3 Class describes the day:

All through the bus journey I was wondering about what I would see. Would I see a Torah Scroll? Yes. Would I see a yad? Yes. Would there be pews, like there are in a church? Yes. I was excited. When we arrived we looked outside first. There was writing above the doors and beautiful stained-glass windows with the Star of David in them. I was surprised by the surroundings of the synagogue - shops, shops, shops!

As we went in we touched the mezuzahs on the door. It was a Spanish and Portugese synagogue so the Bimah was at the back not in the middle. There was the main hall and a Ladies' Gallery. We tried on the Kippahs and the prayer shawl, called the Tallit. This had knots on the end of it to remind the wearer of the six hundred and thirteen laws in the Torah. We had a guide called Mr Michaelson. There was a Holy Ark facing Jerusalem - this was full of Torah Scrolls.

We tasted some Challah bread which is the special bread that Jewish people eat on the Sabbath. It was slightly sweeter than ordinary bread. My favourite place was on the Ladies' Gallery because you could see everything in the synagogue from there. Here was an excellent view of the big, circular stained-glass window with the golden menorah in it.

The most valuable thing that I learned about was the layout of a synagogue. If I went again I would take my grandma with me because she loves interesting museums.