Strikes ….memories ….. and Miss Dannimac ….. more from the Manchester Jewish Museum

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single visit to a museum is never enough and must be followed by a second, third and fourth.

Window, 2026

Now, this is particularly true of the Manchester Jewish Museum which celebrates and records the history and culture of the Jewish community here and abroad.*

The Museum, 2025

I first discovered the museum soon after it opened in 1984 and followed that first visit with becoming a “Friend”, and have written extensively about it.**

But as so often happens other things get in the way, and I hadn’t been back for a very long time.

So, with a morning free I took the tram to Victoria and wandered up Cheetham Hill Road and was not disappointed.

I guess I was there for a couple of hours, learned a lot from the displays and enjoyed a series of conversations with some of the guides.

Of all the fascinating exhibits the one that drew me back was a page from The Waterproofer which was the official newspaper of the Waterproof Garment Worker’s Trade Union for July 1935 which recorded the end of 1934-5 strike.

The strike which was a response to the lowering piecework rates lasted nine months with the newspaper recording that the union would “not rest until every unscrupulous employer is dealt with and sweating abolished in the trade”. 

The Waterproofer, 1935

It is a story I was not over familiar with but it’s one I intend to follow up, and in that I may be helped by the memory maps of Jewish Manchester which are “a new digital resource where you can explore former sites of Jewish memory in the Cheetham Hill, Strangeways and Hightown areas of Manchester. Here you will find audio interviews, photographs, and information about more than 40 sites (we hope to include more in future) that consistently appear in people's recollections of these areas”.***

And then there is Miss Dannimac the “canvas Rain Coat … You’ve got to like Fashion to wear it”.  

Miss Dannimac. 2026

It was created by Ralph Levy who had “a vision of making rainwear not just practical but fashionable [and] new manufacturing techniques allowed Ralph to produce coats in lighter fabrics which were featured in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and modelled by fashion icons including Twiggy”.

And that I think is all for now, because while there is a great deal more in the museum, I think that should be for a visit.

Pictures; Thursday at the museum, 2026 & 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester Jewish Museum, https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

**Manchester Jewish Museum, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Manchester%20Jewish%20Museum

***Waterproof Garment Workers Trade Union, A Memory Map of Jewish Manchester, https://jewishmanchestermemorymap.org/?feature_type=point&id=320

Mornings at Manchester Jewish Museum …..

The Manchester Jewish Museum* is one of my favourite places and has been since it opened in 1984 and is a place I regularly write about.**

Almost soon after that opening I signed up to be a “Friend” and while the scheme has changed its name, I remain happy to support its work which as it says is “a registered charity (charity no. 1154353) and accredited museum (no. 179). 

We connect Jewish stories to the world and to our society, in order to explore both our differences and similarities, and to celebrate that which makes people unique and that which connects us all.

As well as preserving and presenting the history of Jewish Manchester, our programme helps us bring communities together to understand and share experiences. 

Delivering meaningful and sustainable engagement projects with our diverse communities. [which it does through] “schools activities educating future generations about Jewish history and traditions”.

All of which is done in the “Grade II* Listed Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, which holds a fascinating collection documenting Manchester’s rich and diverse Jewish heritage.

And that is how I first came across the Museum in the 1980s when I was researching and delivering history courses on Jewish Manchester to school students.

Back then the museum was very helpful in lending material I could use.

More recently following a £6 million redevelopment the museum now has a new purpose built gallery to display our collection, which is presented  in three themes, Journeys, Communities and Identities.

All the stories told on gallery are Jewish but by framing them within these universal themes they hopefully feel relevant to all of our audiences, Jewish and non-Jewish.

Our Journeys Gallery tells the story of the different motivations that brought Jewish people to Manchester: looking for opportunity, escaping hardship, poverty or persecution, and ‘landsleit’ – the move to join existing communities that reflect your own identity. 

From 18th Century pedlars to 20th Century refugees and Holocaust Survivors, the collection reflects each wave of Jewish migration into Manchester.

Our Journeys Gallery also includes a newly commissioned 4-screen immersive film produced by Heritage Interactive and directed by Dan Lusby. Heritage Interactive produced all the digital creative content in our gallery including this film, our sliding digital panels on our organisations wall, and the Jewish identity tablets in our Identities Gallery”. 

The museum hosts a whole variety of events from cultural to comic, along special exhibitions and has an interesting policy towards those who live in the area which encourages local residents to become “one of our Museum M8s and get free admission to the museum all year round for you and your family”.

I took a trip up from Chorlton last week and was not disappointed.

Location; Manchester Jewish Museum, Cheetham Hill Road

Pictures; Thursday at the museum, 2026 & 2025 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester Jewish Museum, https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

**Manchester Jewish Museum, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Manchester%20Jewish%20Museum

Jewish Women in Britain ……. the poster

Now I had quite forgotten the exhibition ……… Jewish Women in Britain, which ran from May 1992 through till the January of the following year.

But then it was a full 33 years ago and so I think I can be excused.

The poster hung for years in the kitchen until steam and age made me take it down with the intention of having it professionally mounted.

But as often happens the plan never happened, and it shuffled around the cellar until I came across it recently.

So for no other reason than I like it, here it is, scanned in two sections, waiting to be skilfully re-joined.

Location; The Manchester Jewish Museum















Picture; Jewish Women in Britain ……. the poster, 1992

When history meets jazz ...the Noga Ritter Trio

 I have been a long time fan of the Manchester Jewish Museum, and the diverse events they sponsor.*

These include everything from the record of Jewish life in the area, the story of the Synagogue to hosting school trips and fun "things".

And on Sunday jazz comes to the museum.

I came across Noga Ritter after getting the invite from the museum to the concert, and have been hooked ever since.

There is a Facebook site and of course her music is there to listen to and buy.*

Enough said.

Location; Manchester Jewish Museum

Picture; Poster by the Manchester Jewish Museum.

*Manchester Jewish Museum, 

https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

**Noga Ritter, https://www.facebook.com/NogaRitterMusic

News from the Manchester Jewish Museum ……..

It’s always good when I get the regular newsletter from the Manchester Jewish Museum, with its mix of news of the progress on the extension as well as their programme of events stretching into the new year.

All of which just leaves me to qoute from their newsletter and leave the link.

"A Season of Trailblazers

Manchester Jewish Museum is re-emerging and transforming. 

In the lead-up to our historic building’s reopening in Spring 2021, we present a season of treats and sneaky peeks. 

Come and re-imagine a museum, reset the conversation, and reconnect with the stories from our collection that are bursting to be told right now. 

As we all re-awaken from our experiences of 2020, we can’t wait to welcome you back over to ours to connect with each other to make positive change.

Our incredible artists are activating our archives through drag, sound, food and theatre, questioning what stories we need to hear right now. 

Get ready for a rollicking high-camp drag night with Chanukah Lewinsky, musical conversations about radical ways of thinking and living, our Creative Activists showcasing creative responses to Mancunian Holocaust experiences, literally eating our way through the archives with theatre chef Leo Burtin and exploring our own journeys by walking back in time together though Redbank and Cheetham. 

There’s no time like the present or will be again, so let’s take hold of this time to reimagine – reset – reconnect together.

Our monthly trailblazers are tasters of what’s to come in our new weekly Thursday Lates events series when the museum re-opens".

So that is it.

Lots to go and see and enjoy, a mix of news history, culture and more than a bit of fun.

I think my first choice will be the Historic Jewish Quarter Experience.

"Experience Cheetham Hill Road as never before as the Bare Project Theatre Company invite you on a multi-sensory walk around Manchester’s historic Jewish quarter. 

Characters from the archives will beckon round corners, whisper fleeting anecdotes and lead us through the streets and through time. Jewish and non-Jewish people from all over the world have navigated their way to Cheetham for hundreds of years in very different circumstances. 

Find out why the area remains one of the most diverse in the country where many continue to live, worship, work and play. 

Come along with us (in sensible footwear of course!) and tell your own stories on the way".

Leaving me just to highlight, Chanukah Lewinsky' Big Quiz Night, which "is back. Host of queer, Jewish cabaret Homos and Houmous (think Julie Walters on speed), they’ll be beaming campy quiz rounds direct to your living room featuring stories from our collection you never thought you needed to know… 

Can you spot a celebrity just from their hairdo? Will you be able to tell your dames from your ugly sisters in our 1950s Jewish pantomime round? Who will be victorious in their innuendos? 

With guest appearances from drag king wrestling duo Men Brûlée and Glasgow’s emerging queer, yiddish café Pink Peacock. Pyjamas, faux fur coats and espresso martinis optional but definitely encouraged.

You can play the quiz on your own or as a team in household bubbles. There is no problem if you want to form a team with others who are not in your household bubble, all you need to do is sign up individually for a zoom place and communicate with each other via phone to co-ordinate your answers. We will guide everyone through the process on the night.

This event is pay what you feel. The money raised will support our community arts programming as part of the re-development of the museum".

Pictures; courtesy of the Manchester Jewish Museum

* https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/festival/reimagine-reset-reconnect/

Eating the archive ……the invitation you can’t turn down

Now the historian in me, leapt at the idea of eating the archive.

It is featured on the July page of the Manchester Jewish Museum Blog, which under the title “Eat the Archive”, calls on “foodies to be part of our food revolution and become a Museum Foodie Advocate.

Our new project Eat the Archive brings together two of our favourite things: amazing Jewish stories from our collection and food. It is a chance to cook, eat, connect and chat – what’s not to like?".

The story is in the summer edition of the Manchester Jewish Museum’s newsletter.

So as they say, watch this space.

Location; Manchester

Picture; Rosa’s peppers, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Calling all Manchester Foodies to be part of the our food revolution, https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/blog/?p=490

**Manchester Jewish Museum Newsletter, Summer 20000, https://mailchi.mp/manchesterjewishmuseum/april20-6957650?e=f9ef44e930

News from the Jewish Museum ...... the new building ... a Virtual Picnic - Shavuot ..and the song writing group

Now, it is quite sometime since the blog has featured stories from the Manchester Museum’s newsletter, or their blog.*

And that is a shame because there is lots going on, including the latest information on the renovation and building work at the museum, to exciting cultural events, including, Cheetham Cultural Festival’s Spring Fling, Manchester Jewish Museum’s song-writing group, and the Shavuot specials.

So lifting directly from their newsletter,

“On Sunday May 31st, 12-6pm, Cheetham Cultural Festival’s Spring Fling will be celebrating all the great things about our diverse community. This year of course the party is going to be virtual via Facebook and YouTube.

Manchester Jewish Museum’s song-writing group is making a video contribution featuring stories of Jewish people who grew up in Cheetham and went to work in the clothing factories”.

And “the Virtual Picnic - Shavuot

Catch up on the first of our Shavuot specials on our picnic blog and let us know your favourite cheesecake recipes.

Shavuot is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the time Jewish people were given the Torah on Mount Sinai. Discover why cheesecake is eaten at Shavuot here”.

So the rest as they say is for you to follow the link, and read it all.

Pictures; from the Manchester Jewish Museum

Manchester Jewish Museum, https://mailchi.mp/manchesterjewishmuseum/april20-6889514?e=f9ef44e930

Exciting news from the Manchester Jewish Museum

Now I am going to miss going to the Manchester Jewish Museum while its new extension is built over the next 18 months.*

But when it is finished the museum will have doubled in size, with new galleries, learning spaces, shop and café built in the extension alongside the existing historic building.   And at the same time the Grade II listed synagogue, will be repaired and restored.

During that period the museum will be based in Central Ref with activities being held in other venues across Greater Manchester.

“A new pop up Jewish Museum will be created in the Central Reference Library ... with its own space on the lower grand floor near the Children’s Library and next to the Ahmed Iqbal Ulla Race Relations Resource Centre.

The Museum’s collection will also be moved  into Central Library’s archive before returning to an environmentally controlled store in the new Manchester Jewish Museum”.**

All of this is against a backdrop in the rise of recorded anti-Semetic incidents.  In 2017 CST recorded 1,382 such incidents in the UK - the highest total ever recorded for a calendar year.  Three-quarters of these were in London and Greater Manchester.  In Greater Manchester 261 were recorded, which is an increase of 27% from the 206  incidents recorded in 2016.***

Location; Manchester

Picture; Central Ref, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Manchester Jewish Museum, http://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

**MJM News Issue 15, Spring/Summer 2018

***CST, https://cst.org.uk/

At the Manchester Jewish Museum, this month

THEATRE: KINDERTRANSPORT STORIES

To mark this year's Holocaust Memorial Day, MJM will be staging an afternoon of performances and readings about the Kindertransport.

Manchester School of Theatre will perform scenes from Diane Samuels play, 'Kindertransport' - telling the story of Eva, a child refugee who fled Germany and settled in Manchester.

Following this, MJM Curator, Alexandra Grime, will be discussing 'The Harris House Diary' - a diary written in 1940 by 15 girls whilst staying in a Southport hostel after arriving in Britain on the Kindertransport (Harris House girls shown above at 1980s re-union).

Diary extracts will also be read out by young members of Manchester's Jewish community.
Sun 26 Jan, 1pm

Free Ticketed event: Advance bookings only - call 0161 834 9879

EXHIBITION: Encounter with the Holocaust

Drawings, photographs and writing by contemporary artist Gary Spicer in response to his visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Plaszow concentration camps in 2012.
26 Jan - 9 Mar 2014
Free with museum admission

TOURS: Travel back in time
Discover what life was like 100 years ago in Jewish Manchester on one of our new museum tours.

Using props and museum displays our team of volunteer guides will bring to life the stories of 5 Jewish characters that lived in Manchester in 1912.

Tours offered daily - check times here
Free with museum admission

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

0161 834 9879  admin@manchesterjewishmuseum

Walking through the history of Manchester’s Jewish Community with Bill Williams, the pictures

Now I knew the walk and talk through Manchester’s old Jewish Community, would be good, and according to Bernard it was.

Sadly I missed it but Bernard posted the pictures on face book and left a commentary of the day.
 And here it is.

"Bill starts the walk outside Chethams and on the spot at 144 Long Millgate where stood the Nathan Brother's house, one of the first places where the itinerant Jewish pedlars first settled in Manchester

Bill talks to the group at the bottom of CheethaM Hill Road, opposite what was the Red Bank district whose poverty was described by Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England, and in which many of the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe settled 

Bill is appalled that no recognition is given to this historically important community and the district has now been renamed the "Green Quarter" to help sell the new blocks of flats — with 

Bill talks to the group opposite what was the Redbank district where many of the first Jewish immigrants from Easter Europe settled

The new synagogue, built almost next door to the Great Synagogue now demolished

Everybody thoroughly enjoyed the walk and talk -many thanks, Bill"

Pictures and words courtesy of Bernard Leech

Today that walk through the history of Manchester’s Jewish Community with Bill Williams on August 29

Jewish tailor's shop, circa 1900

Now this should be one not to miss.  

I have heard Bill Williams talk, read his books and been on one of his guided tours so I know it will be good.

It has been arranged by Chorlton History Group and Bernard our convenor writes

"At the last talk by Bill Williams on the early history of the Jewish community in Manchester we mentioned the possibility of a Jewish History walk in Manchester. 

Well this walk, led by Bill Williams is going to happen today  on Thursday 29th August from 2pm to 4.30pm and the weather is currently 
looking good for it. The plan is as follows:

1. Assemble for 2pm outside the gates of Chetham's School of Music in Long 
Millgate, central Manchester,  M3 1SB 
(this is very close to the site of one of the first Jewish settlements in Manchester). The easiest way to get there is via the metro to Victoria.

2. The route of the walk will be via Corporation St and then up Cheetham Hill Road, stopping at various places of interest on Cheetham Hill Road or just off it. Bill will give a commentary at these points. The distance is about 1 mile.

3. Our destination will be the Jewish Museum at 190 Cheetham Hill Road, M8 8LW. This will be kept open for us until 5pm. There is no charge for the walk but entry to the museum costs £3.95 (£2.95 concessions), but this gives you free entry pass until the end of 2013 www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com

5. Bernard's mobile number is 07960 888879 if there are any problems on the day

Bill Williams

For those coming by car, I suggest parking near the Jewish museum in advance, getting the 135 bus back to Victoria and then picking up their car 
later

The aim is to keep this group to around a dozen or so people so it will be first come first served by contacting me to say you would like to go on the 
walk"

So not one to miss then.


Picture; from the collection of the Manchester Jewish Museum, and photograph of Bill by Andrew Simpson

One for the diary............ paintings by Chagall at the Manchester Jewish Museum in June

"An exhibition showcasing work by some of the most famous Jewish artists in history will be opening at Manchester Jewish Museum from June 20. 

The exhibition, Chagall, Soutine & the School of Paris will include original work by artists including Marc Chagall and Chaim Soutine. On loan from the Ben Uri Gallery, the exhibition opens in the same month as Tate Liverpool’s Chagall: Modern Master exhibition.

The Museum’s exhibition will include over 20 works of art by 14 artists, including Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine, Lazar Berson and Sonia Delaunay. *

Picture, courtesy of the Manchester Jewsish Museum, http://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

*Manchester Jewish Museum, 190 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, M8 8LW, 0161 834 9879, E: admin@manchesterjewishmuseum.com

Bill Williams on "The origins of Jewish Manchester” today at Chorlton History Group

Bill Williams

Bill Williams will be talking to the Chorlton History Group on "The origins of Jewish Manchester.”*

I first met Bill on a guided tour of the Strangeways and Redbank area of Manchester.

It was here that many Jewish families settled in the last quarter of the 19th century.

They were fleeing from Czarist persecution and found a home in the narrow streets and small terraced houses of this part of the city. I then went on to read his book The Making of Manchester Jewry and recently Jewish Manchester: An Illustrated History.*

A Jewish tailoring workshop circa 1910

He was a founder member of the Jewish Museum which I joined I sometime in the 1980s.

The group meets regularly at Wilbraham St Ninian’s Church, Egerton Road South.

For further information about future talks and Chorlton History Group contact Bernard Leach, btleach@gmail.com, or ring Chorlton Good Neighbours on 881 2925

More details at http://wp.me/p2KlLI-oH

Picture; from the collection of the Manchester Jewish Museum, and photograph of Bill by Andrew Simpson


*The Making of Manchester Jewry, Manchester University Press 1976, Jewish Manchester: An Illustrated History, DB Publishing, 2008

Bill Williams on "The origins of Jewish Manchester” tomorrow on June 6th

Jewish tailoring workshop, circa 1910

Tomorrow Bill Williams will be talking to the Chorlton History Group on "The origins of Jewish Manchester.”*

The group meets regularly at Wilbraham St Ninian’s Church, Egerton Road South.

"Bill was one of the founders of the Manchester Jewish Museum based in an old synagogue in Cheetham Hill and has been instrumental in documenting and curating the history of the Jewish community in Manchester and has written several books on the topic

This talk will focus on the early years of the Jewish community in Manchester, with the aim of holding a second talk some time later on which will focus on developments in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

And one for the future, ...... the History Group will be holding a history walk around  Jewish Manchester, led by Bill, starting near Victoria Station, walking down Cheetham Hill Road and ending at the Jewish Museum. 

The Manchester Jewish Museum

A date for this walk will be decided at the June 6th meeting and people coming to that talk will have a first opportunity to put their names down for this walk, which we will aim to keep to a small number

As usual the talk will be held at Wilbraham St Ninian’s Church, Egerton Road South, Chorlton, M21 0XJ

For further information about future talks and Chorlton History Group contact Bernard Leach, btleach@gmail.com, or ring Chorlton Good Neighbours on 881 2925"

More details at http://wp.me/p2KlLI-oH

Picture; Jewish tailoring workshop in Manchester circa 1910 courtesy of Bill Williams, the Manchester Jewish Museum, 

Something to do this evening in Manchester

At the Jewish Museum on Cheetham Hill Road this evening.

Acclaimed Manchester historian, Bill Williams, will be launching his latest book, 'Jews and other foreigners, Manchester and the rescue of the victims of European fascism, 1933-40' at the Museum tonight.

Short-listed for the 2012 Portico Prize for Non-Fiction, the book explores the response of the Manchester community to those threatened by the rise of Fascism in Europe in the 1930s.

Drawing on a wide range of documentary and oral sources, Williams takes a close look at the response of particular sections of Manchester society, from Jewish communal organisations and the Zionist movement to the Christian churches, pacifist organisations and private charities.

Mr Williams will be talking about the book and signing copies at the Museum.

Sun 7 April, 2pm

Normal admission charges

Picture; courtesy of the Jewish Musuem

At the Manchester Jewish Museum in April

It’s all happening at the Jewish Museum* in April.

Acclaimed Manchester historian, Bill Williams, will be launching his latest book, 'Jews and other foreigners, Manchester and the rescue of the victims of European fascism, 1933-40' at the Museum on Sunday 7th April.

Short-listed for the 2012 Portico Prize for Non-Fiction, the book explores the response of the Manchester community to those threatened by the rise of Fascism in Europe in the 1930s.

Drawing on a wide range of documentary and oral sources, Williams takes a close look at the response of particular sections of Manchester society, from Jewish communal organisations and the Zionist movement to the Christian churches, pacifist organisations and private charities.

Williams will be talking about the book and signing copies at the Museum.

Sun 7 April, 2pm
Normal admission charges

WORKSHOP: Family History
Museum 'Best Friends' and 'Patrons' are invited to this family history workshop. Archivists from Manchester Libraries will be offering guidance and advice on how to research your family history.

Sun 28 April, 10am
Booking is required - call 0161 834 9879 or email here
Exclusively for MJM 'Best Friends' & 'Patrons'

TOURS: History Gallery 
The Museum will be launching its new gallery tours to the public on Wednesday 10th April. Visitors will be taken back in time to discover what Jewish Manchester was like over 100 years ago. MJM volunteers will use the Museum's displays, exhibits and props (including wigs and carbolic soap!) to tell the stories of five Jewish individuals who actually lived in Manchester in 1912.

Freshly made traditional kosher cakes will be served to mark the launch of these new tours!

Weds 10 April, 2pm
FREE but booking is required: 0161 834 9879 or by email here

WALK: Historic Jewish Quarter
Discover Manchester's Jewish past on a guided walk around Cheetham Hill.

Our guide will captivate you with tales and anecdotes, bringing to life Manchester's fascinating Jewish past.

Sun 28 April, 1pm (lasts approx. 2 hours)
Tickets: £7 (£5 concessions)

TOURS: History Gallery 
The Museum will be launching its new gallery tours to the public on Wednesday 10th April. Visitors will be taken back in time to discover what Jewish Manchester was like over 100 years ago. MJM volunteers will use the Museum's displays, exhibits and props (including wigs and carbolic soap!) to tell the stories of five Jewish individuals who actually lived in Manchester in 1912.

Freshly made traditional kosher cakes will be served to mark the launch of these new tours!


Pictures; courtesy if the Jewish Museum,

*http://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/