More than 15 historic synagogues all over England can be visited at various times during England’s 15th annual Heritage Open Days.
They include synagogues in Reading, Bristol, Exeter, Hull, Cheltenham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Manchester — and more. There will also be tours of four Jewish cemeteries in Brighton, London, Liberpool, and King’s Lynn.
Click here to see the synagogue list
Click here to see the cemetery list
A chance to see inside the synagogue built by Sir Moses Montefiore in 1833. The nearby Mausoleum contains the tombs of Sir Moses and Lady Judith Montefiore. The Synagogue was designed by David Mocatta and was the first synagogue to be built in England by a Jewish architect.
Access is limited due to the historic nature of the buildings.
Access to buildings via woodland path.
Visit the Garnethill synagogue as part of the Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival, an annual event celebrating the city’s architecture, culture & heritage through a free programme of open buildings and events taking place over one week in September.
It is Scotland’s first purpose-built Synagogue. As well as continuing to be an active place of worship, the building is the home of the Scottish Jewish Archive Centre and Museum.
Dr Sofiya Dyak, Nikita Kadan and Professor Philippe Sands discuss the evolution of the practices of Holocaust remembrance and its public discourse in Ukraine: How are these tragic events remembered across different communities and why? How to deal with histories of lands subjected to multiple occupations and mass murder across communities? How to write a historic narrative for the country, which is still in a state of war?
This event is part of Holocaust Memorial Day.
Dr Sofiya Dyak is the Director of the Lviv Centre of Urban History, a private institution which initiated a number of important initiatives commemorating Jewish community presence in Lviv in partnership with Lviv’s municipality, including the Space of Synagogues memorial. In 2017, the centre hosted the “Un-named” project, reflecting on mass violence in Ukraine between 1931 and 1945. The project included visual work by Nikita Kadan, Ukraine’s contemporary artist. Similarly, Professor Philippe Sands traced his family history back to Lviv, with the city becoming the focus of much of his literary work and intellectual reflection.
Join curator Hester Abrams for a tour that brings to life the stories of women who made their mark in science, medicine, government, the High Street and the arts, from Rosalind Franklin to H Samuel.
A live online event to discuss and display photo collections and other “hidden treasures” from the archives of synagogues in the UK.
- Professor David Newman – Ben Gurion University
- Rachel Lichtenstein – Sandys Row synagogue and Manchester Metropolitan University
- Lizzy Baker – Tyne and Wear Archives
The event can be watched live on Hidden Treasures web site or on HT’s Facebook and Twitter pages. The discussion will be recorded and will be available to watch on the HT web site after the event.
The feature picture shows the opening of Hull Central Synagogue, Cogan Street • Hull History Centre.
A series of events starting September 1 and continuing until the end of the year will be coordinated as the B’nai B’rith Jewish Heritage in the UK Festival — organised under the international umbrella of the European Days of Jewish Culture (EDJC), whose theme this year is “Renewal.”
Click here to download a PDF calendar of events
(Click here for the “flipsnack” online catalogue of events).
A round-table discussion, plus optional walking tours through the “invisible” medieval Jewish history of Winchester. The Roundtable is free, the walking tours — at 10:30-11:30am or 11:30-12:30pm, cost £5.
The event event focuses on Licoricia of Winchester and the heritage and memory of medieval Anglo-Jewry.
The bronze statue of the remarkable Anglo-Jewish woman, Licoricia, was unveiled in Winchester in 2021. This is the most prominent heritage work carried out relating to medieval Anglo- Jewry.
The event, through a walking tour (£5) and free round table discussion, will consider the achievements of the Licoricia project, and the challenges of creating heritage in the absence of the built heritage that directly reflects the presence of medieval Winchester Jewry. It will also consider the public and educational issues raised when dealing with questions such as the Jewish role in medieval finance and hostile representations of Jews from the period based on religious bigotry. Addressing the key aims of the Licoricia project, participants will explore the potential of such commemoration to consider the roots of prejudice and discrimination, using this to promote tolerance, diversity, and female empowerment.
Please note that if you wish to attend both the walking tour and the roundtable event, you will need to register for each event separately.
Click here for booking and other details
Willesden Jewish Cemetery: 150 years of Heritage 1873 – 2023 Guided Walk
As part of the year long celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Willesden Jewish Cemetery, this guided walk will tell the story of the establishment of the cemetery, highlighting the early years of the United Synagogue, the people who made it happen and their role in the community.
Open Day to share plans for Welsh Jewish Heritage Centre in Merthyr Tydfil.
The public is invited to explore Merthyr Tydfil’s historic synagogue and help shape plans to create a Welsh Jewish Heritage Centre.
There will be tours of the synagogue throughout the day, along with music from a Welsh klezmer band and a talk on the history of Merthyr’s once-thriving
Jewish community.
The project team will be on hand to find out what local people think of the plans for the future of the building, and record their memories of its past life.
Merthyr Tydfil Synagogue was built in the 1870s and is the oldest purpose-built synagogue surviving in Wales. After the congregation left in 1983, its condition deteriorated. The Foundation for Jewish Heritage purchased it in 2019 and the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, visited in 2021. The following year, the Foundation secured funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Welsh government and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council to develop the plans.
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