Manchester Jewish Museum

On Thursday, 23 April,  Manchester Jewish Museum will host 'Solomon', a new biographical solo play written by Stuart Eggleton and directed by Joseph Winer. The play tells the extraordinary story of Simeon Solomon, a brilliant, boundary-pushing queer Jewish artist at the heart of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. From his meteoric rise in the art world to the public scandal that shattered his career, Solomon’s story is both inspiring and devastatingly relevant. Ahead of the show, we spoke to Stuart and Joseph about the incredible story behind this play.

The entire museum Team wishes you and your loved ones a restful holiday season and a bright, joyful Chanukah. We are deeply grateful for your support over the past year. As a registered charity, we rely on the generosity of our members, supporters and partners to be able to bring our work to life. We believe that our work is needed now more than ever, but we need your help to continue our mission and grow our impact.

On Sunday, 7 December, the museum will host an intimate solo performance by acclaimed Israeli singer, Bat Ella. In this interview we talk about her musical journey, finding her Jewish identity and her upcoming Chanukah concert. 

After a decade at Manchester Jewish Museum, including the last three years as Chief Executive, Gareth Redston stepped down from his role in May. We sat down with Gareth before he left to talk about his time at the museum, his proudest moments, and what lies ahead.

On May 1st, International Workers’ Day, Manchester Jewish Museum will host a performance of “Chopped Liver and Unions”, a one-woman play which tells the remarkable but largely forgotten story of Sara Wesker, a trailblazing trade unionist who led the “singing strikers” of 1928, stood on the barricades at Cable Street, and fought tirelessly for East End garment workers. Ahead of the show, we spoke to performer Lottie Walker about the incredible story behind this play. 

Manchester Jewish Museum is set to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 with a special Museum Open Day, celebrating a unique collaboration with the Iziko Next Gen Homework Club, which works in partnership with NTCG Faith Tabernacle in Cheetham Hill.

The entire museum team wishes you and your families a peaceful holiday season and a joyous Chanukah, filled with light and love. Your support over the past year has been more important than ever.

On the evening of Thursday, 5 December, Manchester Jewish Museum invites all food lovers and culture enthusiasts to embark on a one-of-a-kind culinary journey with “The Table”, an intimate evening dining event that promises to tantalise the tastebuds and ignite the imagination.

On Thursday, 31 October, the museum will welcome Irit Dekel, a talented singer-songwriter whose gentle music spans various eclectic genres, from folky jazz to indie alternative. In this interview we talked about what inspires Dekel to write and compose and what we can expect from her upcoming show as part of Synagogue Nights. 

We are excited to announce our 2024 programme of our audiences’ much-loved Synagogue Nights: a series of intimate performances in our 150-year old former Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. Starting this October, you can see theatre shows and live music, with shows celebrating Jewish art in all its diversity.

After 16 years of taking care of the museum’s vast collection and being a custodian of their 150-year old Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, Manchester Jewish Museum Curator and Deputy Chief Executive Alex Cropper will hand over to Josh Jones to continue documenting the stories of Manchester’s Jewish communities.

On Mother’s Day, Sunday, 10 March, Manchester Jewish Museum will welcome Noga Ritter, an Israel-born, London-based eclectic singer-songwriter, for a performance in the museum’s 150-year-old Spanish & Portuguese synagogue. Noga’s new album “Ima” (Hebrew for “mother”) is her debut solo album, dedicated to the artist’s mother, “a healer, mover and true artist”.

We would like to invite everyone, of all ages and backgrounds, to our Museum Open Day on Sunday, January 28th to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Our historic Spanish & Portuguese synagogue turns 150 years old this year. In this article we share our exciting plans for marking this historic milestone and are inviting everyone to join in.

On behalf of the whole museum team, we'd like to wish you a peaceful holiday season and a happy Chanukah. Your support in these difficult times has been more important than ever and in this article we’re sharing details of how you can help us continue our important work. Also, be sure to read to the end for a sneak peak of our exciting plans for our 150th anniversary in 2024! 

On Sunday, 3 December, we invite our audiences for the final show of our Synagogue Nights season: the Manchester premiere of the award-winning documentary film "Out of Exile. The Photography of Fred Stein". In this interview we talked to the movie's director, Peter Stein about telling stories through film, music and what we can take away from the Fred Stein's story.

On Sunday, 26 November, Emily Rose Simons, Tanya Truman and Natasha Karp will premiere their new musical in concert, "Becoming Nigella" in Manchester, during our Synagogue Nights season. In this interview we talk about acting, writing and Nigella Lawson! 

This October, Fran&Flora, a London-based experimental string folk duo, come to Manchester to present their new music as part of our Synagogue Nights. In this interview we talk about their many musical inspirations and ask what audiences can expect from their upcoming show.

This autumn, Synagogue Nights are back with a packed programme of events, spanning multiple genres, including film screenings, musical concerts and a range of gigs from experimental folk to Ladino song. The season celebrates Jewish stories in all their diversity and showcases young talent, from Manchester and beyond.

On Thursday, 22 June, Jessica Litwak, a U.S. based playwright and actor, will stage her new play, "My Heart is in the East", at Manchester Jewish Museum's former Sephardi synagogue. We speak to Jessica about the importance of interfaith dialogue and making connections and how it's reflected in the play.

A year ahead the 150th anniversary of our historic Sephardi synagogue, we have decided to open the time capsule, found by builders during our recent redevelopment.

Citizens Design Bureau, the architects behind Manchester Jewish Museum’s 2021 redevelopment project won not one but two awards at the 2023 RIBA UK Awards: the RIBA North West Award 2023 and RIBA North West Project Architect of the Year 2023 for Director Katy Marks and Candice Moore.

On Sunday, 2 April, Jewish Mancunian actor and writer, Amy Lever, will bring her new play to our former synagogue as part of Synagogue Scratch season. We speak to Amy about "We Wish You Long Life" and the fascinating creative process behind it. 

On Sunday, 26 March, Ellie Silver will premiere her new work-in-progress TV sitcom, "Beth's Din", at MJM during the first evening event of this Spring's "Synagogue Scratch" season. We speak to Ellie about her journey as a Mancunian comedian and get a sneak peek at her upcoming show!

Audiences will have the opportunity to be the first people to see a project up on its feet, get to know the local talented individuals who are telling Jewish Mancunian stories and be at the heart of helping to develop their material.

MJM Creative Activists have visited the residents of Belong Morris Feinmann, the dementia specialist, to share lesser-known personal stories of Manchester people’s experiences during the Holocaust and the Second World War, ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day.

This January, Manchester Jewish Museum will mark the international Holocaust Memorial Day with a Museum Open Day involving reflective performances and workshops created with a group of young people called the ‘Creative Activists’. Since 2020, they’ve be working at the museum to explore creative ways of commemorating the Holocaust and connecting lesser heard stories from our collection with local communities.

As 2022 draws to a close we just wanted to reflect on what an incredible year it’s been for the museum and share some of its key highlights. We raise a glass to the New Year and would like to thank our staff, trustees, volunteers, partners and most of all our audiences and supporters, who make our work possible and enable us to make connections and share Jewish stories with the world. 

On Thursday, 8 December, MJM will welcome the world famous string quartet Quatuor Danel for the last show of this year's Synagogue Nights. We spoke to the members about their beloved composers and their upcoming show at our historic synagogue. 

This December, Tanya Truman and Deli Segal will bring their hilarious comedy show, Pickle, to MJM as part of Synagogue Nights, a season of intimate evening events in our synagogue. We've recently spoken to them both about this darkly comic piece. 

On Sunday, 27 November, Manchester Jewish Museum will welcome Emma Smith, one of the greatest voices on the contemporary UK jazz scene. We talk to Emma about her newly released album and how she's getting ready to perform at MJM. 

On Sunday, 6 November, Manchester Jewish Museum will welcome the London-based theatre maker,  Anna Clover, in her debut solo comedy show, Going Deutsch. Anna talks to us about her semi-biographical piece and the emotional story behind it. 

We were deeply saddened by the recent news about the death of Queen Elizabeth II. She was a constant in the lives of many in our community and will be missed and remembered by them. We offer our dearest condolences to the Royal Family. Our thoughts are with them now.

Manchester Jewish Museum will once again be celebrating Jewish music and art with the new season of Synagogue Nights: intimate performances in the 1874 Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. From the mellow sounds of jazz and entertaining comedy shows to the greatest of classical hits, this season’s line-up celebrates diverse identities within the Jewish community.

This September, we will be exploring one of Britain's foremost, but now largely forgotten Yiddish poets, Avram Nachum Stencl. The evening event will be hosted by Dr Rachel Lichtenstein, whose grandparents were Polish Jews and who, like Stencl, settled in East London in the 1930s after escaping Nazi persecution. We speak to Rachel about her interest in Stencl's story and works.

This September we will be showing the Dutch documentary 'Truus' Children' during an intimate, evening event at our beautiful synagogue. We talk about the film with the director Pamela Sturhoofd and Margaret Jacobi, a descendent of one of the children saved by Truus Wijsmuller.

Today marks exactly one year since Manchester Jewish Museum reopened to the public after being closed for two years to undergo a £6m redevelopment and extension. On this special day we have decided to shine a light on some of the highlights of this exciting year.

In July we're inviting you for the second meeting of the Klezmer Tune Club in cooperation with klezmer musicians, Richard Fay and Daniel Mawson, who will take you on a musical journey through klezmer’s fascinating history and work with you on a new musical piece.

Manchester Jewish Museum have decided to share the memories of the Queen’s visit to the museum twenty years ago, as part of her Golden Jubilee tour. We have also talked to Basil Jeuda, who then was the chair of the museum’s Trust. He has shared his memories from the Queen’s visit with us.

Manchester Jewish Museum Café was voted Café or Restaurant of the Year at 2022 Museums + Heritage Awards ceremony on Wednesday, May 11.

Victor Esses is a Jewish-Lebanese Brazilian queer theatre maker and performance artist. In this interview he talks about his new piece, the Death & Life of All of Us, which he will be performing at Manchester Jewish Museum.

To launch our year long Holocaust Memorial Day project in partnership with Imperial War Museums, we asked a group of young people "why do we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day?". In response they created a powerful poem and film, inspired by the personal stories in our collection.

Manchester Jewish Museum will be celebrating Jewish music with our new season of Synagogue Nights: intimate performances in our stunning 1874 Synagogue. From Klezmer ensembles to Baroque quartets, musical theatre and pop covers to Hebrew world jazz, we are showcasing Jewish music in all its diversity.

On Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 we will launch a year-long project that will culminate on Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 with a public event and hosting a travelling exhibition sharing lesser known Holocaust and Second World War stories from across the UK. The project is part of Imperial War Museum’s Second World War & Holocaust Partnership Programme and will be working with local artist Becky Prestwich and young people from across Manchester.

As 2021 draws to a close we just wanted to reflect on what an enormous year it’s been for the museum and some of the highlights. We’re excited for what next year will bring and just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who made it possible.

On Thursday 4 November we were proud to speak at The Carbon Literacy Project's Museum Sector Day as part of the COP26 Conference. We have been working with BuroHappold, Carbon Literacy Project and Museums Development NorthWest to build a more sustainable Manchester Jewish Museum for future generations to enjoy.

After 10 years and a multi-million redevelopment and reopening, Manchester Jewish Museum Chief Executive Max Dunbar and Chair of the Trustees Andrew Singer QC will step down as they hand over the new museum to someone new, to lead the organisation during the next stage of its journey.

On Thursday 2 December Manchester Jewish Museum will be transported to the magical lands of Brick Lane and Hampstead with a bawdy and infectiously fun take on a classic Yiddish pantomime. We speak to director Samuel Ranger about how they are hoping to revive Yiddish pantomime for a new generation.

A dress created by our Women’s Textile Group, exploring the women's own different identities and heritages, is to be featured as part of HOME’s Manchester Open Exhibition in 2022 in a celebration of Greater Manchester's creative talent.

Israel-born singer songwriter Noga Ritter talks about her music, how songs can create change and her upcoming performance as part of Synagogue Nights at Manchester Jewish Museum.

We are proud to have contributed to the Memory Map of Jewish Manchester. This interactive map shares the stories, histories and memories of the Jewish community who once lived in the Cheetham Hill, Strangeways and Hightown areas of North Manchester between the two world wars.

Manchester Jewish Museum, along with architects Citizens Design Bureau and structural engineers Buro Happold, have won two prestigious awards at the annual Building Constriction Industry Awards at their ceremony on Wednesday 13 October.

On Thursday 14 October Sophie Ablett and Klein Blue will weave together spoken word and large-scale knitting in 'She Seeks Out Wool' to tell the personal journey of a family, the relatives left behind and how the past can be woven into the present. We speak to Sophie about her work, her knitting expertise and how it felt to explore your own family's history.

Our new museum is more sustainable and energy efficient thanks to the hard work of the structural engineers at Buro Happold. Despite doubling in size, we have reduced our overall energy use and carbon impact by 20% so that our museum may be preserved and enjoyed by future generations.

Opening on Friday 2 July, Manchester Jewish Museum is delighted to reveal an exclusive “first look” at its brand new museum café and launch menu. Located at the Museum’s new entrance, the museum café will open daily from 10am seven days a week to serve a contemporary vegetarian kosher-style menu.

Part of our £6 million redevelopment, our new gallery space will take visitors on a journey through Manchester’s Jewish history to the city’s present day communities and individuals. We spoke to our curator Alex Cropper and Matt Schwab from All Things Studio about the process and what to look out for in our new gallery when you visit.

Tickets are now on sale to visit the new Manchester Jewish Museum which will be opening on Friday 2 July with a world premiere of Turner Prize-winning artist Laure Prouvost’s new installation The long waited, weighted gathering as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival.

Manchester Jewish Museum joins IWM's Second World War and Holocaust Partnership Programme. We will be joining seven other regional partners to engage national audiences with hidden or lesser-known stories from across the country relating to the Second World War and the Holocaust.

A 'key' milestone for Manchester Jewish Museum as the keys for the new museum are now in the firm possession of our Chief Executive Max Dunbar as the building is officially handed over to the staff,

Turner Prize-winning artist Laure Prouvost will unveil a major new work that will transform The Ladies' Gallery in our historic synagogue. 'The long waited, weighted gathering', co-commissioned by Manchester International Festival and Manchester Jewish Museum, will premiere at MIF21 on 2 July 2021.

Manchester Jewish Museum will be opening its doors on Friday 2 July after a multi-million pound development. The new museum includes a new gallery, café, shop and learning kitchen as well as complete restoration of its stunning 1874 synagogue.

Restoring one of Manchester's oldest surviving synagogues is no mean feat. Learn about the "pane-staking" process of restoring our 1874 synagogue's stained glass windows with Recclesia stained glass repair specialists.

For our fourth and final week of our Great Jewish Museum Bake Off with Jewish Museum London we made strudel! Why not try making your own using this recipe, or read more about Clara Weingard's incredible mother who's baking inspired this week's challenge.

This Saturday is the beginning of Passover (also known as Pesach or Pesah), one of the most celebrated holidays in Jewish culture and marks the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Learn more about the festival and some of the Passover items in our archives.

We have teamed up with Jewish Museum London to compete in the #GreatJewishMuseumBakeOff on Twitter! Our Week Two challenge was borekas - discover the recipe and read the story that inspired us.

Next week is the celebration of the Jewish festival of Purim, also known as the 'Feast of Lots', but do you know the story behind the festival? Find out here, and discover one of the Purim celebration stories from our collection.

You may have spotted the rust-coloured cladding on our new extension as you pass on Cheetham Hill Road. But what is it? Meet corten, an architectural trend bringing the contemporary and the historic together!

This February Theatre Chef Leo Burtin will be taking our audiences on an online culinary journey through our collection as we prepare for food to be at the heart of the new museum.

Responding to the Holocaust Memorial Day theme ‘Light the Darkness' our Creative Activists have created their own artwork in response to stories from our collections and from speaking to local community members about their own relationship to the Holocaust. They have created a film to share their experiences, artwork and the stories and inspiration behind them.

Young Activists Keep Past Stories Alive as Manchester Jewish Museum Marks Holocaust Memorial Day

As we look ahead to our reopening in 2021, architect Katy Marks from Citizens Design Bureau speaks about her inspiration and process for creating a museum that reflects the diversity of Manchester's Jewish Communities and creates a space for sharing and connection.

Our builders have made an astonishing discovery of a time capsule hidden in the historic synagogue’s walls. The sealed glass jar was discovered by a builder hidden deep in a wall cavern within our synagogue. Filled with money, synagogue papers and newspapers, these original artefacts are dated from the synagogue's foundation in 1873.