Manchester Jewish Museum Development Project Appeal

manchesterjewishmuseum.com/changing

Over the following pages you will see the latest museum designs, which will be developed further once all funding has been secured. A two-storey extension will be built and our Grade II* listed synagogue repaired and restored. To help us reach our fundraising target we are now offering naming/dedication opportunities. This is a unique opportunity to have your name, or the name of a loved one, on permanent display in a museum that will inspire thousands of people for generations to come.

It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a museum. Join us on our journey to make it happen. Please help us over that final fundraising hurdle by pledging your support today.

Yours sincerely,

Max DunbarChief Executive Officer

Contents Project Appeal 1

Manchester Jewish Museum (MJM) 2

Why do we need a new museum? 3

Case for Support 4

The Extension 5

The Gallery 6

Learning & Community Studio 8

The Synagogue 10

Project Timescale 12

Funding Opportunities 13

Project Appeal In 2020 we will open a new Jewish Museum in Manchester. Inspired by stories of Jewish Manchester, it will be a museum like no other. Visitors will get to see rare and powerful objects, hear personal and extraordinary stories, cook and eat Jewish food and travel back in time to explore Manchester’s oldest surviving synagogue.

In today’s changing multicultural world we need this new museum more than ever. From stories of Holocaust Survivors to Middle Eastern refugees, the 30,000 items in our collection remind us what happens when people, politics and religion drive us apart – and how a city like Manchester can bring people together.

Our new museum, located on Cheetham Hill Road – “the most diverse street in the UK” – will bring people of all faiths, backgrounds and ages together. From the stories we tell in our new gallery to the bagels we bake in our ‘Kitchen’, our new museum will help create a brighter, more harmonious future, actively promoting the acceptance and understanding of all faiths and cultures.

The first phase of this project is now almost complete thanks to a £426,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). In June we will be requesting a second grant from HLF for almost £3million, covering the majority of project costs. We have so far raised £1million in match funding – well over half the required amount. We now need your support to raise the remaining amount.

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Manchester Jewish Museum (MJM) Established in 1984 MJM is the only UK Jewish museum outside London and is the only accredited museum housed inside a (former) synagogue building.

Over the past 30 years the museum has grown as a:

1. Social History Museum - telling the story of Manchester’s Jewish community from the 1780s to present day with a collection of over 30,000 items.

2. Centre for Education – offering a learning programme to schools and colleges, enabling young people to learn about Judaism and Jewish heritage inside a former synagogue.

AchievementsOver the past 30 years an estimated 500,000 children have visited MJM to learn about Judaism and Jewish heritage.

MJM has won community awards from the ‘British Muslim Heritage Centre’ and from ‘The Greater Manchester Jewish Representative Council’.

Since MJM’s new CEO, Max Dunbar, started in 2011 MJM has significantly raised its profile staging concerts, performances, high profile talks (Maureen Lipman, Simon Schama and Howard Jacobson) and a Chagall exhibition in partnership with Tate Liverpool.

With the support of HLF and Arts Council England, MJM is now reaching new, diverse audiences through its #SynaGigs programme. Over the past year an eclectic programme of events has been held inside MJM’s synagogue, including a Bollywood concert, Irish folk/Klezmer ‘mash ups’, hip hop performances, comedy nights and Amy Winehouse and Woody Allen tribute shows.

“ There’s a real buzz about this place” recent visitor comment

discover history | explore culture | celebrate diversity

Chagall, Soutine &

the School of Paris

20 June - 24 November 2013 Manchester Jewish Museum190 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester M8 8LW www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com

@ManJewishMuseum #schoolofparis

©ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2013

This exhibition was originally curated by and exhibited at Ben Uri, The London Jewish Museum of Art

Sunday 8 Nov doors 6:30, show 7:00 pm Tickets £8 Book early to avoid disappointment!

Book at www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com and 0843 208 0500

Manchester Jewish Museum 190 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester M8 8LW (near Manchester Fort Shopping Centre).

To promote social cohesion and inter-cultural understanding• Break down barriers about faith and ethnicity –

essential for the future of multicultural Britain

• Bring different communities together, sharing heritage, faith, traditions and culture

• Unite Manchester’s Jewish community with a museum for everyone, from Reform to Haredi

To preserve the legacy of Manchester’s Holocaust Survivors• Holocaust Survivors won’t be with us forever –

we need to record and preserve testimonies now

• There is no Holocaust Centre in the North

• MJM holds one of the UK’s most comprehensive collections about Holocaust Survivors – but none of it is currently accessible to the public

• Personal collections of Manchester Survivors may be lost forever as many will only donate material to MJM if there is a Holocaust Gallery

Why do we need a new museum?

To fight anti-Semitism“The only way to deal with anti-Semitism is to increase education” (Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs)

• Greater Manchester suffered more anti-Semitic attacks than London in 2011

• To effectively fight anti-Semitism and prejudice MJM needs new facilities to educate non-Jewish people about Judaism and Jewish people:

• In a recent MJM survey 85% of teachers agreed that the museum needs a dedicated education room

To celebrate and preserve Manchester’s Jewish heritage• To celebrate the role, impact and achievements

of Manchester’s Jewish community on a local, regional, national and international scale

• Only 1% of MJM’s collection is on public display, the rest is at risk in overcrowded stores

• MJM’s historic synagogue building – the oldest in Manchester - is in need of structural repairs

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Case for Support In 2020 we plan to open a new and inspirational Jewish Museum in Manchester. In this new museum over 50,000 visitors a year will learn about Jewish Manchester and, for many, step foot inside a synagogue for the very first time.

The new museum will bring visitors of all faiths, backgrounds and ages together, building bridges to help people appreciate and celebrate the multicultural world we live in today. We need your support to make this happen.

A Collection of National SignificanceWith over 30,000 items, our collection tells the story of Manchester’s Jewish community in exceptional depth. The national and international significance of the collection is widely recognised by leading historians, being described as “outstanding” with “certain exceptional resources richer and more extensive than those of the Jewish Museum London and rare, if not unique, among European Jewish museums” (Rickie Burman, former Director, Jewish Museum London).

We currently only show 1% of this “outstanding” collection. With a new, larger gallery we can showcase more of our collection in more engaging, meaningful and relevant ways, bringing the stories of Manchester’s Jews vividly to life.

Building BridgesWe are located in Cheetham Hill where 30 languages are spoken and there is a mix of mosques, gurdwaras, churches and synagogues. As a secular museum surrounded by such diversity, we are uniquely placed to build bridges with other faith communities. With a new gallery and community space we will be able to explore stories and themes surrounding faith, ethnicity, migration, refugees, genocide and discrimination.

Fighting Anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe and the Community Security Trust (CST) has reported more anti-Semitic attacks in Greater Manchester than in London. The most effective way of fighting back is by education. Last year we welcomed over

6,000 schoolchildren, introducing them to themes such as the Sabbath, Jewish Festivals and the Holocaust. Unfortunately school bookings are falling due to the poor facilities we offer schools. With improved learning spaces, school bookings will increase. In the first 3 years of the newly opened museum we plan to teach over 40,000 schoolchildren. By talking, exploring, sharing and showing children what it means to be Jewish, we will play a major role in Manchester’s fight against anti-Semitism.

Holocaust EducationA major new gallery will enable us to share the stories of the Manchester Survivors (1930s refugees, Kindertransport refugees and concentration camp survivors). We hold over 700 hours of recorded testimonies from these Holocaust Survivors and have over 1,500 related photographs. We will use our Holocaust collections to create a powerful immersive gallery experience to ensure future generations never forget. Working closely with partners, such as the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, Association of Jewish Refugees and Holocaust Educational Trust, we will develop and deliver joint Holocaust educational resources and events for audiences across the North. A Cultural Centre for EveryoneNew event and performance spaces will attract international artists, musicians, performers and high profile speakers for our growing audiences to enjoy. We will work with Jewish cultural partners such as JW3, Jewish Museum London and Ben Uri and will become the northern ‘outpost’ for many of London’s Jewish cultural festivals (UK Jewish Film Festival and Jewish Book Week). Our year round cultural programme will also reflect the multicultural area we are located in, working with artists and local communities to explore wider issues around migration, identity and community.

The Extension A contemporary two-storey extension will be built next to our synagogue, giving us a stronger presence on the busy Cheetham Hill Road. The extension has been inspired by the Moorish (Islamic) architecture of our own Sephardi synagogue.

“The combination of distinctly Islamic motifs in a Jewish building holds a poetic symbolism of the cultural dialogue between these two cultures, which we intend to reflect within the new extension.” (Katy Marks, Architect)

The extension will have a new welcoming entrance, making it clear that we are a museum for everyone, not a synagogue. Walking through this entrance, visitors will be immediately drawn to our new food offer - a Jewish Kitchen. This ‘Kitchen’ will be more than a traditional museum café, acting as both an eatery and learning experience. It will encourage visitors to enjoy traditional Jewish food whilst also educating them about kosher dietary laws. Alongside the ‘Kitchen’ will be changing displays and a contemporary shop, selling Jewish themed gifts.

A new archive store will be created on the Ground Floor, enabling us to store more of our collection on-site. New visitor facilities will be created at the rear of the extension, alongside a lift, which will make the building fully accessible.

The first floor of the extension will be dominated by our new gallery which will be linked to the Synagogue by a new footbridge.

BECOME A MAJOR BENEFACTOR:The names/dedications of Major Benefactors will be shown on a plaque in the new museum entrance. Major Benefactors already include Jack Livingstone OBE, Lady Steinberg and Beaverbrooks Charitable Trust. More details on page 13.

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The Gallery“A place for gathering, self-discovery, storytelling, reflection and exchange, where journeys are taken, identities explored and the diverse voices of Manchester’s Jewish communities, past and present, come to the fore.” (Matt Schwab, Exhibition Designer)

A world-class permanent gallery will be created. Multi-faceted displays, featuring powerful in-depth personal stories, will bring to light the social history of one of Britain’s oldest and diverse communities. Stories stemming from our collection will reveal extraordinary stories about real people: their global roots and incredible journeys to and from Manchester; and how their shared lives have developed over several generations, into one of Europe’s most vibrant contemporary Jewish communities.

The gallery will be based around three themes: ‘Journeys’, ‘Communities’ and ‘Identities’

‘Journeys’ will explore where Manchester’s Jewish communities came from. Why did they journey to Manchester and what did they bring with them, both physical and emotional? Visitors will be introduced to economic migrants from the 1780s, Sephardi cotton traders, 19th century immigrants moving to Red Bank, refugees and Holocaust survivors from Nazi occupied territory and people who left Manchester to make Aliyah or return home. Star objects include the belongings of Helen Taichner who spent WW2 in hiding in Poland and our famous ‘Harris House Diary’.

‘Communities’ explores what it is that defines Manchester’s Jewish communities. What kind of organisations have Manchester’s Jews formed, why were they set up and what communal functions did they provide? We look at what binds Jewish Mancunians together and explore the arrival, movement and disappearance of Synagogues. Highlights in ‘Communities’ include a 1959 film from ‘The Waterpark Club’, collection boxes from the old Board of Guardians and Hymie Lurie’s Table Tennis trophies.

‘Identities’ will ask questions such as, what does it mean to be a Mancunian Jew? How does your identity change when you migrate to a new country? Here visitors come face-to-face with collections that illustrate issues such as naturalisation, the status of an ‘alien’ and internment. We will meet Jewish Mancunians who served in the British forces, who were active in communal and city politics, those who have converted to Judaism and those who held radical beliefs. A 1936 film of a Young Communist League protest at an Oswald Mosley Rally is an exhibition highlight. All the stories told here will be individual - allowing one person’s story to be explored in detail.

BECOME A GALLERY PATRONThe names/dedications of Gallery Patrons will be shown on a plaque at the gallery entrance. More details on page 13.

Teddy Bear that survived the Holocaust, tragically without its owner

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Project Appeal 2017

Learning & Community StudioAt the heart of the new museum will be a new ‘Learning & Community Studio’. The current exhibition and office space at the rear of the synagogue will be converted, refurbished and equipped with modern facilities to create a contemporary activity studio for people of all ages.

For years, teachers have told us we need a dedicated education room. This studio will be that room. It will be able to hold a class of 40 children. Equipped with modern AV facilities, we will be able to use film and sound recordings in the studio, creating powerful and engaging sessions for primary and secondary school children. With a wet room area and cooking facilities, the studio will help us take our school programme to the next level, offering new sessions exploring Jewish culture through arts & crafts and food.

Outside of school hours, the studio will be used in the evenings and at weekends by wider audiences. A four year Activity Plan has been created and, with funding from HLF, the studio will host a wide range of community activities, including: a multi-faith cookery club, Hebrew lesson classes, storytelling workshops, a Cheetham Hill community choir, English language classes and faith festival celebrations – to name but a few!

The studio will be a particularly valuable resource for local Cheetham Hill residents, providing a space for different communities to come together to explore and share their own beliefs, traditions and cultures.

BECOME A ‘LEARNING & COMMUNITY STUDIO’ PATRON:The names/dedications of Patrons will be shown on a plaque at the entrance of the Learning & Community Studio.

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The synagogue is now under threat from a number of structural defects and is in need of repair. Through this project, a new roof will be fitted to resolve the spread of the roof trusses and to remedy cracking in the stained glass windows and walls. Specialists will also conduct extensive repairs to the brickwork on the façade.

To restore the synagogue, historic paint specialists have been analyzing paint samples from the walls and pews. From their findings, we now have evidence of how the synagogue’s decorative features would have looked and what the original colour scheme would have been. In the project’s next phase, synagogue pews will be refinished, decorative motifs restored and the synagogue’s 1873 colour scheme returned.

The current displays inside the synagogue will be removed and replaced with more light touch interpretation. On the Synagogue’s upper gallery, visitors will experience a soundscape of Jewish women’s voices, highlighting the former use of this space as a Ladies Gallery.

Repairing & Restoring the SynagogueOur synagogue was founded in 1873 by Sephardi textile merchants and is the oldest surviving synagogue in Manchester. Historic England have described it as “one of the highlights of Victorian Gothic architecture in the country and one of the architectural jewels in the degraded local area”.

Angled mirrors and graphic panels will explain key features of the synagogue, such as the Ark and Bimah. In the synagogue cloakroom, visitors will be able to try on shawls and hats and a large seating plan will highlight key synagogue characters. Linked to this seating plan will be a hands-on trolley containing objects relating to named male members of the congregation and the rabbi.

With a fully restored and refurbished synagogue we will stage even more cultural events inside our historic space - ensuring even more people get to enjoy and experience our synagogue.

BECOME A SYNAGOGUE PATRON:The names/dedications of Synagogue Patrons will be shown on a plaque inside the Synagogue.

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Project Timescale June 2017 HLF grant application submitted with all match funding secured

Sept 2017 Projected to receive HLF grant and start delivery phase

Sept 2018 MJM temporarily moves into Manchester Central Library for construction phase

Oct 2018 Construction Phase starts

Jan-Apr 2020 Building & Gallery Fit Out

June 2020 Official Opening

Funding OpportunitiesThe project will cost £5million. HLF will cover the majority costs. We have raised £1million already. Help us raise the remaining amount by pledging your support today.

Exclusive Naming Rights For the 'Gallery' and 'Learning & Community Studio' Contact museum to discuss options

Major Benefactor Name/Dedication on main plaque in new entrance £100,000+ over 3 years

Project Patron Name/dedication on plaque outside either Gallery, Studio or Synagogue £30,000+ over 3 years

Project Supporter Name/Dedication on new website £10,000+ over 3 years

To discuss how you would like to support the project please contact museum Chief Executive, Max Dunbar, on 0161 830 1435 or email ceo@manchesterjewishmuseum.com.

Alternatively, you can write to:

Chief ExecutiveManchester Jewish Museum190 Cheetham Hill RoadManchesterM8 8LW

In addition to these naming opportunities, all of the above will receive:• Invitations to project events, including a farewell party to the

old museum in 2018 and the VIP opening in 2020• Invitations to site visits during the construction phase to see

the new extension being built and synagogue being restored• Regular updates on project progress via e-bulletins and

newsletters

Pledges are to be made on the condition that we are awarded the HLF grant in September and can be spread over 3 years, starting in 2017/18 financial year.

If you would like to support the project regardless of the above naming opportunities please do get in touch.

Manchester Jewish Museum · 190 Cheetham Hill Road · Manchester M8 8LW

Manchester Jewish Museum is a company limited by guarantee · Registered in England. Company No. 8370403 · Registered Charity No. 1154353 · VAT registration No. 177 7230 85 · Accredited Museum No. 179.

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