Bringing wartime shul back to life
IN 1941, a shul was opened in Macclesfield to accommodate the wartime evacuees who swelled the Jewish population of the Cheshire market town to 200-plus. But they left when the war ended and the synagogue closed in 1946.
Now a major exhibition recalling Jewish life in Macclesfield is being staged by Incubation Arts in the Chestergate (now Charles Roe House) premises the synagogue occupied to mark the 75th anniversary of its opening. As a companion, a book by local historian Basil Jeuda, Macclesfield’s Jews in World War Two, has been published.
Mr Jeuda said the exhibition — running on selected days from March 23-May 2 — will include 28 paintings and sketches by the late Jules Wein-
Macclesfield’s Talmud Torah classes; members of the Applebaum and Weinberg families and Jules Weinberg’s painting of his father berg, a young Jewish evacuee from London, and some rare items relating to the Jewish firm of Oberland Silks which have been loaned from the Macclesfield Silk Museums. There will also be 25 panels illustrating Jewish life in the town, profiles of local Jewish firms and histories of evacuee and refugee families.
He added that at the launch event on March 20, there will be a reading from the scroll used by the wartime congregation.
The exhibition had “created a lot of interest from former members of the community. Several families will be coming from London and others from Greater Manchester, Oswestry and Leicester. One person is even flying in from Canada.”