Manchester's oldest Synagogue celebrates 150 year anniversary

The oldest surviving synagogue building in Manchester is celebrating 150 years as a place of worship.

The iconic building in Cheetham Hill opened on 6 May 1874 and is now home to the Manchester Jewish Museum.

Alex Cropper is Curator at the Manchester Jewish Museum, she said

"It's important to know about the diverse communities that make up Manchester today and make Manchester who it is and the Jewish community is just one of these stories"

It is the only Jewish museum in England outside London and is home to at least 31,000 artefacts, which show what the Jewish community's given to Manchester and how its communities have changed through the years.

The Spanish and Portugese synagogue has been fully restored after years of hard work.

It closed in 1982 and re-opened as a museum in 1984. In 2019 it had a £6 million redevelopment which saw it double in size with an added annexe.

During the redevelopment the team found a time capsule on the site.

Curator Alex Cropper explains what was inside:

"It contained six newspapers, some coins and a beautiful document that describes the day and who was at the ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone"

The museum explains the history of the sephardi community who came to worship at the Synagogue.

Chief Executive at the Museum, Gareth Redston says the jewish families that were the first to worship at the Synagogue would have been from countries including Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Morocco, he said:

"Jewish and Islamic communities have so much in common and have such a shared history of living peacefully together for thousands of years so if we can help bring that message to people and show that there is far more than unites our diverse communities here in Manchester than divides us, if we can use our 150th anniversary to give that message then that can only be a positive thing"

As part of the celebrations a new time capsule is being laid at the Synagogue