This Saturday will mark the last Shabbat to be celebrated at central Manchester Reform Synagogue on Jackson’s Row before it is demolished to make way for a high-rise real estate development.
The red-brick synagogue was designed by the architects Eric Levy and Peter Cummings and was dedicated in 1953 to replace a previous synagogue destroyed in the World War II bombing of Manchester in 1941. It is the only synagogue in center city Manchester.
Its congregation was founded in 1857, the second oldest progressive community in the UK. They sold the synagogue last year for £15 million and will be using temporary quarters while seeking a permanent new site.
The news outlet Jewish News reported that the synagogue’s memorial windows and ark will be preserved and moved to the new location, and said there will be “a special de-consecration service with a procession of the Torah scrolls” on Sunday.
As we posted earlier, as part of a project called The Life of Buildings, researchers created a detailed digital record of the synagogue in a way that is meant to preserve it for future generations, after its demolition, as an “immersive virtual reality” experience combining architecture, history, archives, and memories.
The project has been carried out by researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University, working with the synagogue, the Modernist Society, and Manchester Central Library’s Archives+ repository for archives and family history.
The digital reconstruction was unveiled in 2018 and can be accessed online — click here to “visit” the virtual synagogue.
Explore the history of the building via audio interviews, photos, etc
Here’s a screen shot from the interactive virtual tour.
