The Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre participated in the annual Glasgow Doors Open Day festival, which ran from 12th to 18th September 2022. This year, in addition to the usual open building event on the Sunday, the SJHC ran a Guided Walk of the Garnethill Refugee Trail, in conjunction with the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, on Friday 16th September. Eighteen people joined the trail to find out about the places in Garnethill that are connected with Jewish refugees who came to Europe around the period of the Second World War. After the walk, the group was invited to come back to the Scottish Holocaust-era Study Centre and to see the Succah display on the refugees who arrived in Scotland in the 1930s and 1940s, and how people from all backgrounds helped those in peril.
Fiona Brodie from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre with group on the Guided Walk of the Garnethill Refugee Trail, outside the former Women’s Hostel on Renfrew Street
On Sunday 18th September, three hundred and twenty-five people visited Garnethill Synagogue throughout the day. Under the direction of Kerry Patterson, manager of the Centre, tours of the Synagogue were given by a team of volunteer guides. The Glasgow Jewish Singers, led by Eddie Binnie, performed twice in the afternoon and were very well received.
On the lower ground level, visitors could speak to staff from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre in the Jacobs Room and see A New Life in Scotland – an exhibition on the Jewish immigrants settling in Scotland, from late 1700s to the present-day communities.
Visitors in the Jacobs Room looking at the display A New Life in Scotland
Guides David and Debra Clapham with a group of visitors
A café run by Garnethill Hebrew Congregation was available in the Function room, where visitors could also see two displays, one on the development of Garnethill Synagogue and the other on the story of the Jewish community in Scotland.
Roberta Wright, Elaine Marks and Sarah Freeman from the congregation, operating the café in the Function Room
The Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre, along with partner organisations the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre and the Garnethill Synagogue Preservation Trust worked with Garnethill Hebrew Congregation to put the day together, with the help of volunteers from all four organisations.
