Manchester Jewish Museum

Do you like to get creative? Are you looking for fun things to do with your friends or family? Every Sunday, as part of your visit to the museum, you are invited to take part in one of our free drop-in, self-guided, family-friendly sessions in our learning studio!

Our Song-writing Group meet monthly to work with amazing composers, singers, writers and musicians to create new music and poems inspired by the stories in our collection and your own experiences. In this session we will be exploring the stories of Sam Aarons and Danny Lever and their connections to Belle Vue and the waterproof industry.

This month’s Foodie Group we will be making some delicious soups to keep us warm as the weather turns. We’ll also take the opportunity to share our best methods and recipes with one another for staying snug through the winter months!

Do you like to get creative? Are you looking for fun things to do with your friends or family? Every Sunday, as part of your visit to the museum, you are invited to take part in one of our free drop-in, self-guided, family-friendly sessions in our learning studio!

Do you like to get creative? Are you looking for fun things to do with your friends or family? Every Sunday, as part of your visit to the museum, you are invited to take part in one of our free drop-in, self-guided, family-friendly sessions in our learning studio!

Join us for the last of a series of three workshops where we’ll be learning how to create a quilt completely by hand! Each session we will be learning new skills that will enable you to make your own quilt from start to finish – including measuring and planning your pattern, stitching, quilting and making your own bias binding.

Our Song-writing Group meet monthly to work with amazing composers, singers, writers and musicians to create new music and poems inspired by the stories in our collection and your own experiences. In this session we will be exploring the stories of Sam Aarons and Danny Lever and their connections to Belle Vue and the waterproof industry.

Join us for a Chanukah-themed workshop to get you in the festive spirit!

Join us for the second of a series of three workshops where we’ll be learning how to create a quilt completely by hand! Each session we will be learning new skills that will enable you to make your own quilt from start to finish – including measuring and planning your pattern, stitching, quilting and making your own bias binding.

Do you like to get creative? Are you looking for fun things to do with your friends or family? Every Sunday, as part of your visit to the museum, you are invited to take part in one of our free drop-in, self-guided, family-friendly sessions in our learning studio!

Join us for a special creative writing workshop, inspired by our ancestors and the strength and guidance they can offer us. Led by theatre maker and educator Jessica Litwak, we will use guided meditation and a series of writing exercises to explore the potential of our imagination and creativity.

In this session we will be exploring different stories from the collection to inspire our next musical project. The workshop will involve a range of writing activities and a chance to explore initial melodies.

This month’s Foodie Group we will be learning to make different pickles and ferments! A staple in Jewish cuisine and delis, we’ll be learning about different stories in our collection that tell us more about the history of pickling.

Join us for the first of a series of three workshops where we’ll be learning how to create a quilt completely by hand! Each session we will be learning new skills that will enable you to make your own quilt from start to finish – including measuring and planning your pattern, stitching, quilting and making your own bias binding.

In this session we will be exploring different stories from the collection to inspire our next musical project. The workshop will involve a range of writing activities and a chance to explore initial melodies.

This month’s Foodie Group we will be joined by dancer, theatre maker and artist Nancy Hitzig who will be sharing her grandmother’s handwritten honey cake recipe with us!

Join us this month as we make our own candles! Using a soy wax base, we will experiment with different essential oils to customise the scent of your candle, as well as creating a beautiful personalised label. We will look at the symbolism of candles in Judaism, as well as some examples of candles from our collection to inspire our creations.

In this session we will be rehearsing and creating a showcase of the Songwriting Group for Cheetham Cultural Festival! It’s a great opportunity to get a flavour of the songs we create and the beautiful stories that the group share.

This session we will be joined by artist Maud Haya-Baviera, a visual artist currently in residence at Holocaust Centre North. Come along and help us develop new ideas about using voice and words to create sound compositions.

Join us for Foodie Group this month as we try some delicious Syrian salad recipes! Inspired by some of the fascinating individuals of Syrian heritage in our collection, we’ll learn more about their stories as we share our own.

Come and join us for a fun, creative session where you'll get to design your very own sports kits!

Join us for this month’s Crafty Corner where we will be learning to create marbled paper using inks. Paper marbling is a fun and easy way to make endless designs that can be used for bookbinding, cards, gift tags or simply as art in its own right!

Come and join us for this creative session where you’ll be baking some delicious, syrupy Basbousa!

This session we will be joined by artist Maud Haya-Baviera, a visual artist currently in residence at Holocaust Centre North. Come along and help us develop new ideas about using voice and words to create sound compositions.

Are you looking for fun and creative things to keep your little (and not so little!) ones occupied this summer? Come along to our Discover in A Day, a full day of creative activities and explore some beautiful art in our galleries and collection.

Join us for a hands-on baking workshop where we'll be learning how to knead and shape your very own challah bread!

Join us this month as we make our own candles! Using a soy wax base, we will experiment with different essential oils to customise the scent of your candle, as well as creating a beautiful personalised label. We will look at the symbolism of candles in Judaism, as well as some examples of candles from our collection to inspire our creations.

Join us for Foodie Group this month as we’ll be making cakes with a difference – using vegetables! We’ll be trying our hand at beetroot brownies, chocolate courgette cake and a slightly healthier twist on a classic carrot cake. So join us to get your five a day in a slightly different way!

Our Song-writing Group meet monthly to work with amazing composers, singers, writers and musicians to create new music. In this session we will be working on a new song and creating our performance for the Cheetham Cultural Festival, which takes place in Autumn this year!

Our Song-writing Group meet monthly to work with amazing composers, singers, writers and musicians to create new music. In this session we will be working on a new song and creating our performance for the Cheetham Cultural Festival, which takes place in Autumn this year!

This month’s Foodie Group we will be celebrating the limitless possibilities of pies! Inspired by our regular Foodie attendee Donovan’s love of cheese and onion pies, we will make a selection of fillings to enjoy! We’ll also have a go at making some traditional Sephardic Jewish bourekas. So please join us for a vegetarian pie feast!

Our June session will be led by artist and calligrapher Brian Whitmore. Brian will be teaching us the beautiful art of calligraphy, as we look at some of the examples of handwritten documents in our collection for inspiration.

Join us as we explore creative ways of mending clothes and learn how to give your worn clothing a new life. This workshop is open to anyone, of all ages and abilities. Beginners and experts are all welcome – this is a space for everyone to relax and be creative!

This month, our Foodie Group workshop will be co-hosted by our regular attendee and local Cheetham resident, Kryshana, who will be sharing her staple recipe for baked aubergines with some tasty chutneys and naan bread!

During our May session we will be joined by our regular Crafty Corner attendee and museum volunteer Vanda, who will be teaching us how to make our own resin jewellery! We will be using dried flowers, glitter and inks to decorate our jewellery, and we’ll look at some of the beautiful jewellery we have in our collection for inspiration.

The groundbreaking music and theatre company, The Telling, would like to invite you to a series of workshops exploring the power of music and song to tell stories! Across three 2-hour workshops, led by musician Sarah Atter, we will delve into ideas around home, journeys and sharing our own voices and experiences through sound.

In this session we will be finishing our song inspired by the historic time capsule from 1874, discovered during the synagogue’s renovations. We will be using lyrics written by the Cheetham Brownies about what they love about the area, to celebrate the past and present of the synagogue’s history and its surrounding communities.

Join us this month as we explore some recipes inspired by Passover with Hadji Bada – Iranian almond cookies and devilled eggs, giving a twist to the classic seder plate ingredient.

Connect with your creative side during this crafts workshop as we welcome in the Spring! 

In this session we will be working on the new songs we are developing, connected to Sephardi stories of the museum’s historic synagogue. These will be part of the growing collection of songs that celebrate the buildings 150th anniversary!

Join us as we make some delicious lemon and poppy seed muffins to celebrate the Jewish Holiday of Purim. We’ll also be looking at some stories from our collection about how Jewish Mancunians like to celebrate this holiday.

This session, we will be welcoming in the spring by using the beautiful shapes and forms from nature to print on handkerchiefs! Draw inspiration from the beautiful textiles we have in our collection and create your own floral design to take home!

Come help us create a collaborative textile patchwork piece to go into our 2024 time capsule. Get in touch with your creative side as we get crafty with fabric through painting, drawing, sewing and collage.

In this session we will be working on a new song, which will go inside our new time capsule to mark the 150th anniversary of our synagogue. We have created a new chorus and will be working out how to weave together verses written by the museum’s different communities. This song will go inside our new time capsule to mark the 150th anniversary of our synagogue. Exciting!

Join us this month as we welcome in the Year of the Dragon by making some delicious vegetable dumplings that are traditionally eaten to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We’ll also be looking at how the Jewish community like to celebrate the New Year, known as Rosh Hashanah. Come along to share your New Year traditions and make and eat some delicious food!

This month we’ll be joined by artist Laura Nathan, who is currently undertaking a residency at the museum. Laura will share with us some personal objects, including her grandmother’s needle case brought with her when she came to England in 1939 on the Kindertransport, as well as her own artworks, and explore how her heritage has informed her practice.

Join us for this fun, family-friendly workshop and help us create a patchwork piece to go inside our 2024 time capsule!

Come help us create a collaborative textile patchwork piece to go into our 2024 time capsule. Get in touch with your creative side as we get crafty with fabric through painting, drawing, sewing and collage.

Join artist Gemma Curtis and Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen for this New Year print-making workshop as we mark Tu Bishvat.

This month we will be learning about the incredible street photographer Fred Stein from his own son and Hollywood cinematographer, Peter Stein. Peter will share with us his father’s work and the story of his life, from fleeing Nazi Germany to photographing many of the great personalities of the 20th century in New York.

In this session we will be working on a new song, which will go inside our new time capsule to mark the 150th anniversary of our synagogue. Using words written by our local communities, we will weave together a ‘Song for the Future’, exploring what people love about Cheetham Hill & Crumpsall and Manchester Jewish Museum.

Join us as we create a recipe book of our Foodie Group members’ special recipes – ones that have been passed down by family members, shared by friends or mastered and cooked for our nearest and dearest.

In this session we will be working on a new song, which will go inside our new time capsule to mark the 150th anniversary of our synagogue. Using words written by our local communities, we will weave together a ‘Song for the Future’, exploring what people love about Cheetham Hill & Crumpsall and Manchester Jewish Museum.

Join us for some fun Chanukah-themed activities and get in the festive spirit! We'll be making Chanukah-themed origami, baking and decorating chocolate gelt, and playing dreidel. All ages welcome!

Join us as we make some delicious cassola. These sweet ricotta cheese pancakes were traditionally made by Sephardi Jewish communities and many consider them to originate from the popular latkes. Come along to make and eat these tasty Chanukah treats. And try your hand at making some cheese!

This session will be co-hosted by our group member, Adele Markey, who has a passion for all things crafty – from crocheting to card making. Adele will be showing us some beautiful origami techniques to make cards and decorations for Hannukah. So join us for this festive workshop as we make our creations over a cup of hot tea. Everyone is welcome!

This month we invite you to join us for a very special Foodie Group workshop, co-hosted by actor, singer and creative producer, Tanya Truman, who will share with us her favourite Nigella recipes - including a delicious pavlova, a pea, mint and avocado salad and a musical mayonnaise!

In this session we will be continuing to create shoes, inspired by the story of Nathan Seaberg, who came to the UK from Riga, Latvia and worked as a shoemaker from his home in Hightown, Manchester in the 1910s. Don’t worry if this is the first time you are joining us, there is plenty of time to help grow and develop our shoes!

During this session we will be joined by Tommy Williams, Neighbourhood Community Development Officer in Cheetham Hill and Crumpsall and our museum's curator, Alex Cropper. Tommy will drop by to tell us about his role in the North Neighbourhood Team and give us an insight into the diversity in our local community. Alex will share Holocaust stories from our collection, prompting discussion and helping to shape the focus of next year’s events. 

In this session we will be working on a new song, which will go inside our new time capsule to mark the 150th anniversary of our synagogue. Using words written by our local communities, we will weave together a ‘Song for the Future’, exploring what people love about Cheetham Hill & Crumpsall and Manchester Jewish Museum.

This session will be led by Caroline and Hannah from the Northern Holocaust Education Group. During this session Hannah will share some of her personal memories of her grandfather, Martin Wertheim, who survived the Holocaust. We will also look at people's experiences during the Holocaust documented in the museum's collection. We will then work with Caroline to create artistic responses to these stories, and explore how art can help us express our thoughts in a sensitive and creative way.

This session will be co-hosted by Manchester Jewish Museum's curator, Alex Cropper. Alex will share Holocaust stories from our collection, encouraging discussion and creative reflection. We will also talk about best practice regarding exhibition creation and representation of Holocaust histories in museums, which will help us shape next year's events. 

In this session we will be discussing the theme behind Holocaust Memorial Day 2024: "Fragility and Freedom". We'll look at different interpretations of the theme and explore ways in which we can respond to it creatively. 

Would you like to become a Museum Foodie? Join us for this very special October Foodie Group workshop, which will be co-hosted by performer, musician and singer James Nissen. James will be performing in our historic synagogue this autumn as part of Synagogue Nights. In this session he'll share with us some of his favourite aubergine recipes!

Join us for a cosy autumnal baking and bookmark-making workshop, inspired by Sukkot! All ages welcome.

Following on from our introductory meeting, we are inviting project participants to a challah baking workshop. Join us as we knead, plait and bake our delicious challah, while chatting, getting to know each other and sharing our initial ideas about next year's event.

We are incredibly excited to welcome you to the first meeting of the Creative Activists 2023-24 project! Join our Creative Activists and help us programme a museum open day for Holocaust Memorial Day 2024. It’s a great opportunity to meet new people, work with professional artists and develop creative skills.

This month we will be joined by artist Victor Esses, whose show ‘The Death and Life of All of Us’ is coming to The Lowry on 18th & 19th October. Meet Victor as he shares some sections of the performance and help us develop questions for a post-show discussion.

Do you like to get creative at home? Whether that's making furniture, clothes, pottery, prints or woodwork, then we have the group for you! In this session, ahead of her return to Synagogue Nights, musician, singer-songwriter and performer Noga Ritter will inspire the Crafty Corner to create artworks in response to her melodies.

This session will be co-hosted by Francesca Ter-Berg from Fran & Flora who will be performing as part of this autumn’s Synagogue Nights season. Join us as we learn ‘nigunim,’ a form of Jewish religious song sung mainly by Hasidic communities and work on a new piece to be performed during Synagogue Nights!

Our September session will be co-hosted by Filis Rosenberg who will be showing us how to make a Sephardi dish called Mejedra. Our Foodie Group meet monthly to discuss, cook and eat food inspired by stories from our collection, artists and events we programme, as well as our own members’ heritage and backgrounds. Our workshops are informal, chatty and a chance to meet new people as well as learn about new recipes and cooking traditions.

In this session we will be continuing to create shoes, inspired by the story of Nathan Seaberg. Don’t worry if this is the first time you are joining us, we are still in the early stages of making and all activities are collaborative so you can join up with some other members of the group to help design a pair of shoes!

This month we will be exploring Jewish stories from Scotland, inspired by a BBC documentary "Being Jewish in Scotland". From the busy Kosher delis at Chanukah, to the history of migration in Scotland and the opportunity to meet both reform and orthodox Rabbis of Glasgow, this portrait celebrates how Jewish and Scottish identities intersect.

In this session we are getting ready for a performance as part of this year's Cheetham Cultural Festival! 

Join us to discover the rich social and cultural history of needlework! Get inspired by beautiful embroidery samplers from our collection and decorate your own fabric badge!

This week we will be exploring musical collaborations, talking about how music shapes our identities and how it shares traditions and cultures. Our inspiration will be Jarak Qaribak, a new collaboration between Israeli musician and artist Dudu Tassa and Radiohead’s English guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

In this session we'll be making sweet, crunchy Kichels! Join us to knead, shape and sugar coat these delicious Jewish cookies. Add the finishing touches by creating a beautiful biscuit box to take them home in.

This session will be co-hosted by Kit Mo, who will show us how to make Lou Hei, a salad popular in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, eaten during Chinese New Year. We will be pairing this dish with another 'New Year recipe', a Syrian Spinach Salad with pomegranates and chopped walnuts, traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year. Join us and see how these two salads come together!

Come along to our Discover in A Day, a full day of creative activities, and explore beautiful art in our galleries and collection. Get artsy as we draw, make collages and work with ceramic. You will receive an Arts Award certificate and get to go home with your creations!

In this session we will continue to grow and develop our song about Annie Conway and words inspired by stories connected to tea within our collection. From a spot of tea on Cheetham Hill Road, to tea breaks in hat shops and Tennis Clubs, these images have opened up discussions about what a warm cup of tea means to us and may have meant to individuals in the past.

In this session we will be visited by a textile designer and artist Emily Gubbay. She will be showing us how to create colourful patterns on fabric, using plants, flowers and a steaming technique called bundle dyeing. All the flowers Emily uses are UK grown and we will be looking at objects from our collection as colour inspiration! 

Join us to explore the rich colours and fascinating patterns of our synagogue's stained-glass windows and learn about the stories they illustrate. We will also bake some delicious stained-glass window cookies using all-vegan ingredients.

Join us to discover the incredible book of blue-inked stamps in our collection that belonged to the Btesh family, one of the earliest Syrian traders to arrive in Manchester. Inspired by the stamps in the Btesh book, you’ll get to design your very own stamp that reflects your interests – whether that’s football, food or animals!

This month’s Foodie Group will be co-hosted by a local Cheetham resident, Kryshana, who will bring a couple of her (much adored!) family recipes to our kitchen.

This newly launched group is a friendly space where you will get to explore, experiment, and express your creative side. In every workshop we will explore a story from the museum’s collection about a trade or craft and create an artistic response to its themes, craft process or medium.

This month we will be looking at some famous Jewish comedians and discussing all things comedy. Is there such thing as solely ‘Jewish Humour’? And what is its influence on modern society? Come on down to our very own café, grab a drink, have a chat and hopefully a laugh as we discuss Jewish comedy. 

Do you love to write? Or have an interest in exploring music? Join our Song-writing Group as we work on a new song about Annie Conway, who was a prominent member of the Portuguese and Spanish Sephardi synagogue in Cheetham Hill – now the Manchester Jewish Museum.

Following on from the recent reveal of our 150 year old time capsule, we have set ourselves a new goal. We want to create a brand new time capsule to be buried in 2024 – and we need your help!

Join Manchester Jewish Museum alongside other community organisations from Cheetham Hill and Crumpsall at the Irish World Heritage Centre for the North Manchester ‘Diverse-city Festival’, as we celebrate what makes our local area special!

This month’s workshop will see us looking into the museum's own vegetarian café and it’s * brand new* summer Sephardic inspired menu!

This month will see two of our social groups: our Jewish Culture Club and Song-writing Group, come together to meet the team behind ‘My Heart is in the East’.

Do you want to join a new group, meet new people and learn new skills? Are you nifty with a needle or can spin a good yarn? Our Women’s Textile group is a great place to make new friends and practice your textile craft.

Join us for some felt flower-making fun, inspired by the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. You’ll also get a chance to explore the museum and try out one of our family activity backpacks!

Do you love to write? Or have an interest in exploring music? Join our Song-writing Group as we work on a new song about Annie Conway, who was a prominent member of the Portuguese and Spanish Sephardi synagogue in Cheetham Hill – now the Manchester Jewish Museum.

Rough Diamonds is Netflix’s latest drama centred on a Haredi Orthodox family that runs a business in Antwerps’s famed diamond district. But what is it about the Haredi community that has now become so fascinating in mainstream culture? Why are people hooked? Bring yourself and an open mind and join us at this month’s Culture Club as we discuss all this and more. 

This month we invite you to join us for a special, Shavuot edition of our Foodie Group workshop. Join us as we play around with different sweet and dairy fillings and bake our own Rugelach together. You will get to go home with some delicious sweet treats!