Year 2 Ennis – Synagogue Visit

Today, we were fortunate enough to visit the Northampton Hebrew Congregation and their synagogue in town. We had a fantastic and exciting trip on the minibus and were greeted by Michelle and Laurie.

Although we knew a lot about Judaism already from our RE lessons, we are now experts! We were able to answer lots of questions about a synagogue and they taught us some new words.

As soon as we arrived, the children started to organise themselves into the correct positioning. This is where the men sit in the middle and the women sit at the side. So – the boys sat themselves in the middle, and the girls at the sides! Michelle and Laurie were very impressed and explained to us that they do things slightly differently in their synagogue but she loved what we knew.

We took a look round the synagogue in 3 teams and counted how many symbols of the Star of David we could find. Group 1 won with Joshua’s contribution of 29! When Laurie counted, she counted 29 too!

We then learnt more about their special place and Fabio was invited up to put on the tallit and the skull cap. He also got to open the ark and show us the Torah! He was so lucky and we were very proud of him.

We know that a group of about 10 Jewish men is called a minyan, and we were shown a yad, the ark and the bema.

After learning more and answering more questions, Michelle was able to show us a very old Torah. She was able to touch this and show us that in Hebrew, Jews read from right to left, not left to right like we do. She showed us the scroll and we knew that it was made out of animal skin and that it had to be sewn together. The person that writes the Torah is called a scribe.

Finally, they showed us a musical instrument made from a ram’s horn called a Shofar. This was used by soldiers! We were able to have a go at playing this. Imaan and Miss Gedney were the only ones able to get a sound out of it!

Can you remember anything else from our visit? What did you learn today? Comment below for a Dojo point! 

Both Michelle and Laurie commented on how Ennis Class’ behaviour was beautiful and we all had a really enjoyable afternoon.

Well done Ennis Class – what a great experience!