Manchester Jewish Museum has revealed the return of Synagogue Scratch, an artistic programme celebrating Jewish works-in-progress.
This month, Manchester Jewish Museum’s Synagogue Scratch season returns with four performances celebrating new Jewish works-in- progress.
Following on from the very successful 2023 inaugural edition, this year’s programme spans multiple genres, with shows ranging from poetry and talks to theatre plays and vocal recitals. As a nod to this year’s 150th anniversary of the museum’s Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, all performances include a bit of Sephardi flavour.
The aim of this project is to support new Jewish art and offer a platform to up- and-coming and more established Jewish artists at all stages of their work-in-progress to share their work with the museum’s diverse communities. Audiences will have the opportunity to be the first people to see a project up on its feet, before it becomes a bestseller. Manchester Jewish Museum’s Creative Producer, Elysia Lukoszevieze, who worked on developing this season of events says: “In a very special year for the museum, our synagogue’s 150th Anniversary, we are extremely excited to celebrate new works
of performance, music, and poetry in our ‘Synagogue Scratch’ season this spring. I’m so proud to be offering our unique and beautiful space to these artists and supporting them to develop their crafts. I really look forward to welcoming our audiences to experience these events for the very first time.”
On 9th May, the museum will welcome a multi-genre vocalist Hannah Rachel for a mesmerising vocal recital, exploring the ancient tradition of cantillation (the art of vocalising the Torah) and its influences across jazz, popular and contemporary classical genres. Together with a small ensemble of instrumentalists from Klezmorim of Manchester, led by Dan Mawson, Hannah will explore the influence of this Jewish tradition on artists including Amy Winehouse, George Gershwin, and Maurice Ravel.
From there, the genre will change again. On 26th May, the museum will host an intimate evening of poetry and discussion with “The Manchester Minyanaires”. According to orthodox Jewish law, a Minyan (quorum) of ten men is required to pray together, read from the Torah and say the anniversary mourning prayers. There are no rules for women speaking poems, so Aviva Dautch, Jill Abram, and Kitty Martin come together to share their poetry and talk about their Jewish-Mancunian roots.
Finally, for the season’s finale, on 30th May, audiences will be invited to watch ‘Into the Melting Pot’, a concert play developed by groundbreaking theatre and music company The Telling.
The story takes place in 1492 Spain, where a Jewish woman is being forced to leave her country and set sail for an uncertain future. She tunes into the voices of a community of Jewish, Christian and Muslim women from across the Spanish peninsula. Played out to a soundtrack of plaintive Sephardic songs and lively medieval music, the concert play echoes down the ages to the personal stories of people affected by politics and war today.
Manchesterjewishmuseum.com