Manchester Jewish Museum - Day 2

I am currently sat in the research room of Central Library in Manchester. It's very quiet and it's got long banks of desks with large grey pillows at every station. These are for laying archive items on while they are examined, which is something I'm going to be doing in just a minute.

You see, myself and Laura, the Creative Producer from Manchester Jewish Museum, have just been down into museum's archive store and found a host of incredible items I want to look at. The museum is currently housed at the library while it's main building is undergoing a major construction and restoration project.

The museum's entire collection of objects, documents, photographs and oral histories is temporarily located in the library's underground store which has fancy shelves that move across the floor opening up new materials to explore at the touch of a button.

Yesterday Laura and I had spent time going through the museum's catalogue to find items that fit my research into women and textiles, specifically items made as acts of devotion. This could be devotion to their, faith, their families or general documentation of life events. The catalogue did not disappoint and today we found objects that fit our search for 'embroidery'.

Starting off, we found a set of huge Ark curtains made for a synagogue which was once in Manchester (the Chaye Adam Synangogue in Cheetham now closed, having merged with other synagogues in the area). Ark curtains surround the Ark which holds the Torah scrolls used in the Jewish faith. This particular set were made and presented by the 'Ladies of the Chaye Adam Synagogue' in 1935 as a memorial to a 'Hannah Judith Tynas'.

The embroidery on them was done in thick gold thread and after all these decades the workmanship is still perfect. In fact the entire pieces were in very good order, all being hand made. Traditionally, women are not meant to touch the Torah scrolls, so I liked the fact that women had made something integral to the ceremony and included the name of their female congregation member in the decoration. It seemed to me, they had used the options open to them to ensure they had a definite presence in the holy observation.

In the same box holding the curtains, unbeknown to us, were a second set of Ark curtains, this time in a rich red velvet decorated with lavish sequins and metallic fringing. I liked these very much. The different textures and colours made the pieces very tactile and both sets of curtains depicted leaves and greenery. Laura explained that trees are important in Israel where there is a lack of them. Every year, people have tree planting drives where others in the UK pay to have a tree planted in order to create orchards. This is a way to give back to the community and provide food and produce.

Next up for observation was a Matzah cover. The covers are traditionally used to cover the Matzo bread during the Passover supper (See yesterday's post for more about Matzo bread). They contain three pockets in which to place symbolic matzo breads and the cover I wanted to see is a great example of a home made item handed down through the family.

It was brought from Poland around 1914 by the Leinhardt family when they left for Berlin. Eventually, in 1933 the family came to live in Manchester and brought the cover with them. It was handed to the museum in 1984. The cover is obviously very old and well used. I discovered the pockets by accident when I picked it up, not realising they are a trait of all Matzah covers. There are still bread crumbs inside, which add to the history of the item. It makes me wonder how many Passover meals it has seen and how many generations of the Leinhardt's have grown up around it.

The decorative work is very delicate and deteriorating now but you can still see the care that went into making it. The box that held this item also held other examples of Matzah covers, though none as fine as this.

Other discoveries in the box included finely embroidered cloths which I can only guess from the info I have found are Challah cloths. These are used to cover two braided loaves for the Shabbat.

Apologies if I am wrong in my guess, but I wanted to share one of these cloths as I thought it was so well embroidered and I was touched by the care that had obviously gone into mending where the fabric had perished. It has been a cherished item in someone's life and shows hand stitching used for both decoration/devotion and repairing. Two aspects women often carry out in the home.

There was also a gorgeously embroidered Tefillin bag which would have held Tefillin boxes used in prayers by orthodox males. It was an unexpected find so came with no information, however what I enjoyed is that the bag is so attractive and embroidered with the initials of the owner. It's a pleasure to hold and look at.

During this research I've been looking for rhymes and patterns in Jewish women's needle work and the overarching one is that every piece serves a purpose yet isn't just purely functional. Items are highly decorated with embroidery and rich colours not only signifying their importance but making them a pleasure to use. The decoration on items of Jewish faith from the most humble to the most ornate are linked by the use of women's time and combined effort. Women's industry and creativity have helped to shape the face of Jewish life in the home and the synagogue.

A very different yet special item Laura wanted me to see is a black silk shawl with an embroidered floral design. It was made by a Jewish woman in a Displaced Persons Camp after her liberation from a concentration camp. This unnamed woman had been in the camp with her husband and two children until the husband died and her children went to America. The Woman was unable to join them due to health reasons and eventually died in the camp too.

The beautiful shawl was given by the women to a Joyce Toacher who was in the English Army and came from Stockport. She was also the person to provide the material and threads for the shawl to be made. Eventually the shawl and it's story were donated to Manchester Jewish Museum. Apparently the Jewish lady had kept diaries of her time in the Displaced Persons Camp but they were destroyed upon her death.

The shawl remains as a legacy of the Jewish woman's story. I can only imagine the emotions she must have had from her time in the two different camps. Loss and sadness perhaps shock and anger. She may have used the shawl as a project to still her mind and focus it, the stitching and placement is perfect. Embroidery can certainly bring an element of mindfulness, and creativity helps to channel energies. I hope this project helped her in some way. It is an unassuming object that was given as a gift of one person's time and devotion to another. It is special in so many ways.

Lastly I just had time to look at some paper embroidery patterns, listed as belonging to the donor's mother and possibly originating in Russia. These cheerful cross stitch patterns also contained ideas for samplers, which are historically used as a young girls entry into needle work. They offer a chance to show off the stitcher's skills and offer a test of ability, with those samplers deemed successful being displayed in the girls home and eventual marital home as a marker of her competence with a needle.

Earlier today I'd seen an example of an actual sampler from 1882 which served as both an example of skilled needle work and a memorial to it's creator. This piece had been made by Rosamund Kohn in Germany. The phrase at the base translates to 'Reminder of my school days'. Rosemund married and had children yet unfortunately became a victim of the holocaust.This sampler, though simple and familiar is a testament to her.

Each item I've looked at today has been more than just it's appearance. Hand made objects always have a story to tell. They hold traces of their maker, they gain meaning through their use and purpose and sometimes they act as a document of time, person and place. I think that gives each piece of needle work I've seen today a greater resonance. The Jewish women who have made them have shaped themselves and the world around them with every stitch.