| Year 5 Trip to the Jewish Museum in London |
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A very very interesting day We set off for the museum at 8:45 am and a coach took us from Elstree School to North London. It took us 1 hour and 30 minutes to get there. When we arrived we went into the Education Centre and we learnt interesting facts about the Jewish religion. Torah The Torah is the Jewish bible which is our old testament and every Jew reads this book throughout the year on every Sabbath. The book is read from the back to the front and from right to left. Kippa It is a small hat which Jews wear every time the go to the Synagogue and some people wear it always as a sign of respect to God. Tefilin It is a small leather box with long leather strap which has little passages of the Torah in and can be worn around the arm, the forehead or on top of the head. Sabbath The Sabbath is the Jew’s day of rest which starts on sunset on Friday and ends on sunset on Saturday. On Saturday night they have a special meal which includes Hallah a special bread. They also sniff spice, sip a liitle wine from the same cup (even the children do this). They also have a intertwined candle, called Havdalah, which is lit at the end of the Sabbath. After this we split up into two groups and the first group ,5TCA, went to the museum and the other group stayed in the Education Centre. In the museum we watched a film about the Sabbath and we had to answer some questions about the film after it had finished. Then we got more questions that we had answer by looking for answers in the remainder of the museum. It asked questions like how many charity boxes are in the museum, what charity is named on the kippa and this was great fun! The groups then swapped around and we went back to the Education Centre. We were then split into four teams and my group went to a table where you had to build the ladder of charity and it had to be built by placing the pieces in order and it was very difficult! Next we looked at Kosher food and we had to sort out what was Kosher and was not. At the next table we had to wear a Kippa, a Tefilin and a Tallit a prayer shawl. At the final table we had to try and read from the Torah, a kids version, which explained what the writing meant. We then finished the morning session and had lunch which had to be Kosher. We had a cheese sandwich, salt and vinegar crisps, banana and some apple juice. In the afternoon we then looked at some Holocaust paintings and asked questions about the picture. One picture had a Kinder train which transported Jewish children to the UK before the start of the war. The next painting was of a shop which had been closed because a Jew owned it. The last picture was of some Nazis being nasty to a Jew who was a doctor who had lost his job because he could no longer work because he was a Jew. We then went back up to the museum and did another quiz sheet and after this we got ready to set off back to school. It was a very very interesting day and I now know more about the Jewish religion. By Ajai Gill   |