Long-lost voices of Cheetham Hill’s Jewish community unveiled in new MIF film
Manchester Jewish Museum may no longer be a functioning shul but it still has plenty of stories hidden within its walls. Turner prize-winning artist Laura Prouvost explores them for MIF.
Manchester Jewish Museum has finally reopened its doors to the public, following two years of forced closure and a huge £6m refurbishment to the original Grade II-listed Portuguese and Spanish synagogue building.
As part of its grand reopening, the newly-renovated museum has partnered with the Manchester International Festival (MIF) to commission a new film and art installation to tell the long-lost stories of Cheetham Hill’s Jewish community.
The Ark at Manchester Jewish Museum still holds a set of Torah scrolls on loan from the original community, which shifted to a new building in Salford in the early 1980s.
Teams also uncovered a hidden time capsule containing newspapers, old coins and synagogue minutes dating back to the 1870s during the renovation process.
Suffice to say, it certainly still has plenty of stories hidden within its walls – many of which are now being revealed as part of a new MIF film currently on display from Turner-prize winner Laura Provost.
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Called The long waited, weighted, gathering, the installation aims to explore the long-lost voices of Manchester’s Jewish community: transforming The Ladies’ Gallery in the historic synagogue into an immersive installation space.
Laura Provost’s work is on display until 19 July for MIF / Image: A secret time capsule uncovered during the renovation process / Image: Manchester Jewish Museum
Shot inside the gallery and the surrounding Cheetham Hill area, the installation features as a major part of the reopening of the newly redeveloped Manchester Jewish Museum.
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Award-winning artist Prouvost has explored the museum’s extensive collection to discover the stories behind past congregants of the synagogue: unearthing the stories of the Manchester women who once found comfort and community within its walls.
Her films are often accompanied by objects to evoke its themes and imagery, and The long waited, weighted, gathering is no exception.
She has also been working alongside the Museum’s resident Women’s Textiles Group, and their materials are being incorporated within the installation to give a voice to modern women in the local community as well as those from days past.
The museum houses over 31,000 items in its collection, many of which are now going on display for the first time; sharing stories of Jewish Manchester by exploring universal themes of migration, communities, and identities.
Located in Cheetham Hill, it’s the only Jewish museum of its kind in the UK outside of London.
Following the recent upgrades to the building, funded by a two-year £6 million Capital Development project and a £2.89m National Heritage Lottery grant, it now boasts an architecturally impressive extension and new veggie kosher-style café and kitchen – where schools and community groups can develop a greater understanding of the Jewish way of life.
Its 1874 Spanish and Portuguese synagogue has also been fully restored, whilst further new additions include a shop and learning studio for community events.
From personal letters and photographs to more eclectic items like a herring chopper and an English-Hebrew teapot, there is a huge range of objects on display.
Featured image –Manchester Jewish Museum / Ruth Allan
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95% of Mancs apparently want the city to be ‘cashless’, new study reveals
Emily Sergeant
An eye-opening new study has found that only 5% of Mancs still use cash as their preferred method of payment nowadays.
It comes as no surprise that cash is less of a ‘king’ nowadays than it used to be, but now a new report by global financial technology company SumUp has suggests that only 5% of people in Manchester prefer to pay with cash, while 59% choose debit and credit cards, so that leaves one question… is Manchester on its way to becoming a cashless city?
To discover how payment preferences are evolving, SumUp conducted a nationwide survey to gather insights from UK consumers about their payment habits.
The company was particularly intrigued to not only discover payment methods people prefer, but what their concerns around certain payment methods, alongside how they feel about businesses that don’t accept digital payments.
95% of Mancs apparently want the city to be ‘cashless’ / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash) | Pexels
Firstly, before we go any further, it’s important to note that almost two thirds (63%) of Manchester residents said they have changed the way they make payments over the past year.
Unsurprisingly, debit and credit cards remain the top choice for the majority of Mancs, with over half (59%) saying it was their preferred method of payment, followed by mobile payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay at 24% – which is likely thanks to their ease of use and the ability to have multiple cards on one device.
While a third (31%) of Mancs said that they ‘don’t mind’ cash and still opt to carry it for situations where digital payments aren’t an option, a growing number of people in the city are feel that digital payments are more favourable, with 25% thinking that businesses should adapt to modern payment methods and whilst 28% finding it ‘inconvenient’ when a business doesn’t accept digital payments.
A further 11% of people even say that cash-only businesses wouldn’t be an option they’d consider, and would actually avoid them wherever possible.
Only 5% use cash as their preferred method of payment / Credit: Rawpixel
When it comes to concerns around digital payment methods, where do Mancs stand then? Well, the survey found that a third (33%) of people are worried about their reliance on technology, especially being unable to pay if their phone dies, for example, while an additional 32% of people are concerned about security risks such as hacking, fraud, or stolen card details.
Among other things, 26% of survey respondents also said they worry about the privacy aspect of digital banking and the tracking your data.
“While debit and credit cards continue to dominate as the preferred payment method, it’s clear that cash is slowly declining in use, particularly among younger generations,” Corin Camenisch, who is the Marketing & Growth Lead at SumUp, commented on the report.
“Looking ahead, we can anticipate a rise in innovative payment methods like digital wallets, especially as younger consumers increasingly embrace the convenience and flexibility they offer.”
Featured Image – Pavel Danilyuk (via Pexels)
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Met Office predicts UK is set for ‘hotter than average’ summer
Emily Sergeant
The Met Office is predicting that the UK is set for a ‘hotter than average’ summer this year.
Fresh off-the-back of the news that 2025 is already the hottest spring on record, with a recorded 630 hours of sunshine from 1 March until 27 May, beating out the previous sunniest spring in 2020 by just four hours, the Met Office is now predicting that the UK is on the verge of a summer that’s ‘hotter than usual’.
According to its three-month outlook, the Met Office has predicted that it’s 2.3 times more-likely than ‘normal’ that it will be hot in the UK between 1 June and 31 August.
The average temperatures during those months are set to range from 10-17°C.
🌡️ ☀️ The UK has recorded its warmest and sunniest spring on record, according to provisional Met Office statistics.
Spring 2025 is now the 4th sunniest season overall for the UK, with only 3 summers sunnier since 1910.
Details in release below, or read this short thread 👇🧵
After it was revealed that this has also been the UK’s driest spring in more than a century, meteorologists are warning Brits that there could heatwave conditions could be reached at various times throughout the summer.
The release of the long-range forecast – which gives an indication of possible temperatures, rainfall, and wind speed over a period as a whole – comes after temperatures soared to 8°C (46F) above the average for this time of year this Saturday just gone (31 May).
It is important to note, however, that the Met Office thinks these predicted temperatures are similar to those in recent years, and it does not guarantee ‘prolonged’ hot weather.
The Met Office is predicting that the UK is set for ‘hotter than average’ summer this year / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash)
The Met Office said in a statement: “While the current three-month outlook shows an increased chance of a hot summer, the temperature signals for this summer are similar to those for recent years and consistent with our warming climate.
“The increased chance of hotter than average temperatures is not a guarantee of prolonged hot weather or heatwaves, but it does mean that heatwave conditions could be reached at times.
“However, it’s important to bear in mind that an increased chance of hot conditions could also reflect a mix of hot and cool days, warm nights, or less extreme levels of warmth rather than continual heatwave conditions specifically.”
Georgina Pellant -
7th July 2021 
