1st October 2015

Jewish Museum Trip

The Jewish Museum

By Chloe and Ethan 8G2

In Manchester all of Year 8 went on a trip to the Jewish Museum. We visited the synagogue because our topic at the moment is the Jewish religion.

We got there and our tour guide told us a little bit about the museum before we got into our groups and walked round the synagogue to find out more about it. We received a work sheet to answer questions which were relevant to what we were looking at.

Upstairs was the part of the museum which told us about the past of the synagogue and Jewish life. Downstairs there was a gift shop which sold stationery and small Jewish items.

In the centre of the museum was a Bimah with a Torah scroll on top. Then if you walked down further you would see the seating where the men would sit and then upstairs was where the women would sit. They did this so then the men weren’t distracted by the women during the service!

At the eastern end of the Synagogue was an ark which held the Torah scrolls and above that were the Ten Commandments and the Everlasting Light. They also put a stained glass window in the eastern wall of the Synagogue so when they pray they are directing it towards Jerusalem (the holy city for Jews).

We also tried on different things that Jewish people wear such as a Kippah (skull cap), Tallith (prayer shawl) and the Tefillin (small leather boxes containing Hebrew prayers). We did this so we could see what it was like to be a Jewish person at prayer.

The Ark was placed at the front/east of the synagogue and it held all the Torah scrolls. The Ark is a cupboard with a glass window to keep them safe but back in the past the glass wouldn’t have been there, it was a curtain. You could not touch the scroll paper because it could get damaged so you would use a yad which was a pointer with a little hand at the end to see where you were. The writing on the scroll was in Hebrew and you read it right to left.

After we finished all the sections we all sat down and told our guide what we had learned during the day and also asked questions about what else we wanted to know. To finish we had a presentation about what happens on the Jewish Sabbath, which in some ways was quite different to how we spend our Sundays.

All in all it was a great trip and we had lunch at Pizza Hut to finish off the day nicely!