The Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre has recently launched a new resource designed for studies of Jewish immigration to Scotland. Since the Centre opened in 2021, the school visit service has been growing, with primary and secondary level pupils visiting in connection with studies about Judaism, the Holocaust and the Jewish community in Scotland. In response to requests from secondary teachers, we have developed a new educational resource on Jewish immigration, which complements the Higher History topic ‘Migration & Empire 1830 – 1939’. This explores population movement and social and economic change in Scotland and abroad between 1830 and 1939. Jews are one of the migrant groups studied, along with the Irish, Lithuanians and Italians.
Students visiting in connection with this course will enjoy a visit that includes a tour of the building followed by the new learning kit. The tour uses the historic building of Garnethill Synagogue as a backdrop for discussing the three phases of Jewish immigrantion to Scotland, and the religious and cultural aspects of Judaism which would be reflected in the community that developed in the Gorbals. The kit includes video oral history testimonies and a wealth of facsimile copies of primary source material, most of which comes from the collections of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre.
The learning kit is called ‘A Life in the Gorbals: The Jewish Immigrant Experience in Scotland’, and looks at the Gorbals area between 1880 and the early 1900s. The kit consists of a set of replica documents and images in themed sections. Pupils work in small groups using a structured question sheet and facilitators introduce each section then allow time for the groups to look at the relevant documents together. Some sections include video clips of interviews with Ida Schuster and Morris Smith. These were made in 1990 as part of the ‘Growing up in Scotland’ film.
We have been gathering feedback from both pupils and teachers about his new session. For pupils, the visit to the Synagogue has been the most impactful, but teachers appreciate the access to primary resources. A teacher who recently visited, commented:
“Expectations met to a very high standard. Warm and friendly welcome! Activities were well thought out and planned. The quality of resources/material used was excellent. The session provided some great contextualisation for students and real life examples to use when completing exam type questions. Thanks for a great visit!”
To book a visit, please contact schools@sjhc.org.uk or you can find out more about this session, and all the visit options, on the schools section of the website: https://sjhc.org.uk/school-visit/. Travel bursaries are available through the Scottish Government’s Heritage Travel Bursary Scheme.
