Alex Cropper, Curator and Deputy Chief Executive • Rachel Lichtenstein

The first encounter with the collections at the Manchester Jewish Museum was the definition of a hidden treasure. Curator and Deputy Chief Executive Alex Cropper led us through the modern foyer into the back of the new modern wing of the museum, to show us the original cornerstone of the Grade II listed historic synagogue.

The time capsule on display • Manchester Jewish Museum/Chris Payne

It was moved there in 2019 as part of a massive redevelopment project that launched in 2021, that has transformed the Manchester Jewish Museum into one of the most dynamic and exciting Jewish museums in the world. ‘The builder who removed this stone got a bit of a shock’ said Alex smiling, ‘because behind it he found this,’ she continued whilst pointing to a large Victorian glass jar filled with rolled newspapers. This extraordinary time capsule was originally inserted into a hole in the wall behind the cornerstone in June 1873 during the ceremony for the laying of the synagogue’s foundations.

We went to visit the storeroom next, which was also part of the redevelopment. Prior to this, the museum collections were kept in a small cupboard in the former committee room of the synagogue. ‘It was tiny, and we had to borrow storage space from other organisations across Greater Manchester but now we have this wonderful modern storeroom for our paper documents, photographs, archive material and smaller 3D objects.’ The beautifully designed store is completely unique because it has multiple functions, as a storage space, as a reading room for researchers and as a mini museum as visitors can see directly into the space via a big open window in the foyer, which has shelves that display further treasures and artefacts from their collections.

The store window • Alex Cropper

The museum holds about 35,000 items in their collections, which include photographs and over 900 oral history recordings. Many came from a project initiated by the maverick historian Bill Williams in the 1970s, a personal hero of mine who established a history studies unit at Manchester Metropolitan University (formerly a Polytechnic) which is where I work today, that focused on Jewish working lives. Bill was conducting this work decades before anyone else was collecting the documentary evidence of the Jewish community in Manchester. He later established the History Department at Manchester Met, wrote many books about the social history of Jewish Manchester, was a pioneer in oral history practice and archival retrieval and the founder of the Manchester Jewish Museum. Alex showed us another very special item from the collections, Bill’s framed handwritten speech from the opening ceremony of the museum. ‘It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the opening of the first Jewish Museum in the provinces of Britain…’

The spirit of Bill lives on in the unique collecting policy of the museum today, with its focus on social history and the stories of the community, which is also reflected in the way material is conserved and displayed in the gallery. ‘We haven’t conserved items to look beautiful and new,’ said Alex. ‘We’ve conserved them so they’re safe to go on display, but we show things that are worn, and stained. Because they’ve been used and it’s about the life of the object, as opposed to what the monetary value of an object is that is important to us. And with our object labels, it’s the person who comes first, so we describe Harry’s thimble or Helen’s dress, not a cotton dress from the 1940s. That’s the way that we talk about our objects here.’

The museum is still actively collecting and since they reopened, there has been a real upsurge in donations. During the redevelopment Alex was actively accessing in the community, asking people what stories should be in their new Jewish Museum. This resulted in the launch of a new oral history project called Extraordinary Voices, where they collected testimony missing from their collection including voices from the reform, liberal, Haredi and LGTBQ+ communities. Their vast oral history collection is not currently available online although excerpts of some recordings can be accessed via the Memory Map of Jewish Manchester, a project I initiated in 2021, which shares recordings by oral historian Dr Rosalyn Livshin.

A page from the Harris House Diary • Manchester Jewish Museum

In the galleries in the new building Alex showed us some of her favourite items. The first was a black notebook called the Harris House diary written by 15 refugee teenage girls from Germany and Austria, who were housed in a hostel in Southport from 1939-1940. ‘The girls wrote this book of thanks to the people who had looked after them in Southport. It’s a remarkable source, and opposed to most refugee testimonies, which include hindsight it is of the time. The girls write about their parents in the present tense with hope they will see them again. They write about the Purim play they put on, about going to the cinema and boys calling at the hostel. It’s a beautiful, remarkable object.’ The girls write in English, and the book includes photographs of them and some drawings. Alex told us the diary had been found in a jumble sale in the 1980s and was gifted to the Museum opening in 1984. ‘It made the news at the time because of this remarkable story. Yorkshire Television reunited ten of the girls in the museum then took them back to Harris House and extracts from the documentary are on display in the museum.’

Helen’s re-darned sock • Manchester Jewish Museum

Helen’s dress • Manchester Jewish Museum

Another display told the story of Helen, who arrived in Manchester in 1946 from Poland after hiding during the war, in graveyards and parks, and for six months in a coal cellar. A Polish maid hid Helen in the house she worked in and made her a dress so she could go out and buy supplies. Alex pointed to a tiny book in the display case, a Catholic missal that Helen carried around with her, and learnt prayers from to try and blend in. ‘You can see the marks here denoting the days she spent in hiding in the cold cellar,’ said Alex, pointing to some faint pencil numbers in the tiny book. She showed us a single sock that belonged to Helen which had been darned many times over and her passport with the stamps from when she finally got her visa to England. Also on display was a purse here, with a hidden compartment, with some Hebrew writing, that was concealed when she was pretending to be a Catholic. Alongside this exhibit sits an oral history interview with Helen about her experiences. ‘She talks about harrowing subjects, but they are in her own words, and it is so rare to have this testimony alongside the physical objects. A lot of people who made it to Manchester post-war came with very few things so they’re incredibly moving. Helen’s daughter Judith donated these things and Judith’s husband Leslie is one of our guides here. He tells his mother-in-law’s stories to visitors, which makes such an impact. It brings objects to life.’

Alex has been so instrumental in shaping the storytelling and the curation of these extraordinary galleries during her long time working at the museum, which so brilliantly share these hidden histories and treasures to visitors. Like her predecessor Bill Williams, she continues the tradition of collecting, preserving, and sharing the lesser-known stories of ordinary people who are such an important part of the rich ongoing history of Manchester’s large and diverse Jewish community.

—Dr Rachel Lichtenstein