Manchester Jewish Museum

Last updated

Manchester Jewish Museum
Manchester Jewish Museum (geograph 4749574).jpg
The Manchester Jewish Museum, in 2015
Greater Manchester UK relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Location of the museum in Greater Manchester
Former names
  • Sha'are Tephillah Synagogue
  • Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue
Location190 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, England
Coordinates 53°29′45″N2°14′18″W / 53.495833°N 2.238333°W / 53.495833; -2.238333
Type Jewish history museum
Website manchesterjewishmuseum.com
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameManchester Jewish Museum
TypeListed building
Designated3 October 1974
Reference no.1208472 [1]
Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue
Jewish museum.jpg
The former synagogue, now museum, in 2008
Religion
Affiliation Orthodox Judaism (former)
Rite Nusach Sefard
Ecclesiastical or organizational status Synagogue (18741984)
Status
  • Closed(as a synagogue);
  • Repurposed (as a museum)
Location
Location190 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester
Architecture
Architect(s) Edward Salomons
Type Synagogue architecture
Style Moorish Revival
Completed1874
[2]

The Manchester Jewish Museum is a Jewish history museum, located on 190 Cheetham Hill Road in Manchester, England, in the United Kingdom. The museum occupies the site of a former Orthodox Jewish synagogue, the place of worship for the Congregation of Spanish & Portuguese Jews, called the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, also the Sha'are Tephillah Synagogue. The congregation worships in the Sephardic rite from premises located at 18 Moor Lane, Kersal, Salford. [2]

Contents

The building, used as a synagogue from 1874 until 1984, was listed as a Grade II* building in 1974. [1] [3]

History

The former synagogue for Spanish and Portuguese Jews was completed in 1874. However, the building became redundant through the migration of the Jewish population away from the Cheetham area further north to Prestwich and Whitefield. It re-opened as a museum in March 1984 telling the story of the history of Jewish settlement in Manchester and its community over more than 200 years.

The museum reopened on 2 July 2021 following a ££6 million redevelopment and extension. The museum includes a new gallery, vegetarian café, shop and learning studio and kitchen, as well as complete restoration of the former Spanish and Portuguese synagogue. [4]

Following completion of the renovation works, Manchester Jewish Museum won two awards at the annual British Construction Industry Awards (Cultural and Leisure Project of the Year and Best Small Project of the Year) alongside architects Citizens Design Bureau and structural engineers Buro Happold. [5]

The museum holds over 31,000 items in its collection, documenting the story of Jewish migration and settlement in Manchester. It includes over 530 oral history testimonies, over 20,000 photographs, 138 recorded interviews with Holocaust survivors and refugees and other objects, documents and ephemera. [6]

Moorish Revival building

The 1874 synagogue was completed in the Moorish Revival style, designed by Edward Salomons, a prominent Manchester architect. Although the synagogue was not the largest or most magnificent of the world's many Moorish Revival synagogues, which include the opulent Princes Road Synagogue in Liverpool, it was considered to be a "jewel". [7] The style, a homage to the architecture of Moorish Spain, perhaps seemed particularly fitting for the home of a Sephardic congregation. The two tiers of horseshoe windows on the façade were emblematic of the style, and the recessed doorway and arcade of five windows on the floor above the entrance are particularly decorative. Inside, a horseshoe arch frames the heichal and polychrome columns support the galleries. The mashrabiyya latticework on the front doors is particularly fine. [7] [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synagogue</span> Place of worship for Jews and Samaritans

A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It has a place for prayer where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, choir performances, and children's plays. They also have rooms for study, social halls, administrative and charitable offices, classrooms for religious and Hebrew studies, and many places to sit and congregate. They often display commemorative, historic, or modern artwork alongside items of Jewish historical significance or history about the synagogue itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Touro Synagogue</span> Historic synagogue in Rhode Island, United States

The Touro Synagogue or Congregation Jeshuat Israel is a synagogue built in 1763 in Newport, Rhode Island. It is the oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States, the only surviving synagogue building in the U.S. dating to the colonial era, and the oldest surviving Jewish synagogue building in North America. In 1946, it was declared a National Historic Site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princes Road Synagogue</span> Grade I listed Orthodox synagogue in Liverpool, United Kingdom

Princes Road Synagogue, officially Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Princes Road in the Toxteth district of Liverpool, England, in the United Kingdom. The congregation was formed in c. 1780 and worships in the Ashkenazi rite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synagogue architecture</span>

Synagogue architecture often follows styles in vogue at the place and time of construction. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. According to tradition, the Shekhinah or divine presence can be found wherever there is a minyan, a quorum, of ten. A synagogue always contains an Torah ark where the Torah scrolls are kept, called the aron qodesh by Ashkenazi Jews and the hekhal by Sephardic Jews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bevis Marks Synagogue</span> Synagogue in London, United Kingdom

Bevis Marks Synagogue, officially Qahal Kadosh Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located off Bevis Marks, Aldgate, in the City of London, England, in the United Kingdom. The congregation is affiliated to London's historic Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community and worships in the Sephardic rite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moorish Revival architecture</span> Revival architectural style

Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th century, part of a widening vocabulary of articulated decorative ornament drawn from historical sources beyond familiar classical and Gothic modes. Neo-Moorish architecture drew on elements from classic Moorish architecture and, as a result, from the wider Islamic architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese Synagogue (Amsterdam)</span>

The Portuguese Synagogue, also known as the Esnoga, or Snoge, is a late 17th-century Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam, completed in 1675. Esnoga is the word for synagogue in Judaeo-Spanish, the traditional Judaeo-Spanish language of Sephardi Jews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uzhhorod Synagogue</span> Former synagogue in Uzhhorod, Ukraine

The Uzhhorod Synagogue is a former Orthodox Jewish synagogue located in Uzhhorod, in the present day Zakarpattia Oblast of western Ukraine. When it was established in 1904, it was located within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The congregation worshipped in the Ashkenazi rite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jubilee Synagogue</span>

Jubilee Synagogue, also known as the Jerusalem Synagogue for its location on Jerusalem Street, is an active synagogue in Prague, Czech Republic. It was built in 1906, designed by Wilhelm Stiassny and named in honor of the silver Jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Although originally built as a "reform" synagogue, it is nowadays used by the more traditional members of the Prague Jewish community, aligning itself officially with orthodox Judaism. Still, compared to the famous other active synagogue of Prague, the Old New Synagogue, the Jubilee Synagogue is far less stringent in many ways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kehila Kedosha Janina</span> Synagogue in Manhattan, New York

Kehila Kedosha Janina is a synagogue located at 280 Broome Street between Allen and Eldridge Streets in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congregation Mickve Israel</span> Reform synagogue in Savannah, Georgia, United States

Congregation Mickve Israel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 20 East Gordon Street, Monterey Square, in Savannah, Georgia, in the United States. The site also contains a Jewish history museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of Israel (Wilmington, North Carolina)</span> Reform synagogue in North Carolina, US

The Temple of Israel is a Reform Jewish synagogue located on the corner of Fourth and Market Streets in Wilmington, North Carolina, in the United States. Built in 1876, the Temple of Israel is the oldest synagogue in North Carolina and one of the earliest Reform synagogues in the American South. Temple of Israel is led by Rabbi Emily Losben-Ostrov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Synagogue of Florence</span> Synagogue in Florence, Italy

The Great Synagogue of Florence is one of the largest synagogues in South-central Europe, situated in Florence, in Italy. The synagogue of Florence was one of the most important synagogues built in Europe in the age of the Jewish emancipation, reached by the Jewish communities living in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in 1848.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple Gemiluth Chessed</span> Synagogue in Port Gibson, Mississippi

Temple Gemiluth Chessed is a former Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 706 Church Street, in Port Gibson, Mississippi, in the United States. Built in 1892, it is the oldest congregation in the state and the only building completed in the Moorish Revival style. The congregation was founded in 1870 by a community of Jewish immigrants from German states and Alsace-Lorraine. Due to declining population as people moved to larger urban areas, the congregation closed in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Czernowitz Synagogue</span> Former synagogue in Chernivtsi, Ukraine

The Czernowitz Synagogue, also called The Temple of Czernowitz, was a former Reform Jewish synagogue located in Chernivtsi, in the Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine. The synagogue was built in 1873 in what was then called Czernowitz, in the Austrian Hungary Empire. Closed in 1940, the building was repurposed and used as a movie theater since 1959.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oheb Shalom Congregation</span> Conservative Jewish synagogue in New Jersey, United States

Oheb Shalom Congregation is an egalitarian, Conservative Jewish congregation and synagogue located in South Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, in the United States. The synagogue is affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bournemouth Community Hebrew Congregation</span> Historic site

The Bournemouth Community Hebrew Congregation is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Wootton Gardens, Lansdowne, Bournemouth, Dorset, England, in the United Kingdom. The congregation was formed in 1905 and worships in the Ashkenazi rite. The rabbi of the congregation is Adrian Jesner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauderdale Road Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue</span> Synagogue in the City of Westminster, London, England

The Lauderdale Road Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, more commonly called the Lauderdale Road Synagogue, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Maida Vale on Lauderdale Road in the City of Westminster, West London, England, in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Synagogue of Bordeaux</span>

The Great Synagogue of Bordeaux is the main synagogue of Bordeaux, France.

References

  1. 1 2 Historic England (3 October 1974). "Manchester Jewish Museum (Grade II*) (1208472)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue". Jewish Communities and Records - UK. JewishGen and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain. 2 July 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  3. "Manchester Jewish Museum". Visit Manchester. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  4. "Manchester Jewish Museum reopens after £6m refurb". BBC News . 2 July 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  5. "Manchester Jewish Museum wins two awards following renovation". Manshester.co.uk. 19 October 2021.
  6. "Manchester Jewish Museum — Collection". Manchester Jewish Museum. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  7. 1 2 Meek, H. A. (1995). The Synagogue. London: Phaidon. pp. 199, 202.
  8. Williams, Bill (1976). The Making of Manchester Jewry 1740-1875. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN   0-7190-0631-7.