Manchester Jewish Museum presents an inspiring poetry double-bill this May

This May, Manchester Jewish Museum stages a thought-provoking and inspirational poetry double-bill featuring an unmissable live reading and an inclusive writing workshop which explore identity, family and untold Jewish histories around the region, led by a decorated resident poet.

On Thu 22 May, the museum welcomes Ophira Adar for I Seek A Wild Star, a stirring, intimate evening of verse in which she presents a specially commissioned piece based on the rich yet lesser-known stories of Jewish Manchester, transporting audiences from the community’s 18th-century origins to the Second World War and beyond as part of her residency.

Drawing on objects and accounts from the museum’s archive, Ophira explores transcendent and timeless themes of spirituality, migration, identity, longing and belonging, while offering personal insight into her creative process and the intricate historical narratives that thread her work into a cohesive poetic tapestry. The event’s title is taken from the captivating poetry of influential Jewish Manchester writer Louis Golding, whose work Ophira reexamines in a unique dialogue that showcases and celebrates a vital figure in the city’s Jewish cultural legacy.

The event will also feature a Q&A with Ophira after the reading. Book tickets HERE.

On Sun 25 May, Ophira hosts a hands-on morning workshop which unpacks and interrogates both the individual and collective family history of Jewish Manchester.

Suitable for beginner writers and seasoned wordsmiths alike, the workshop presents poetry as a device for personal storytelling, where participants can use verse to imagine, mourn and reconnect with their ancestral journeys, writing poems that merge known chronicles with speculation and unanswered questions, filling the unknown gaps of their histories and confronting the silences and absences that shape personal heritage.

Book tickets HERE.

Find out more about what’s on at Manchester Jewish Museum via the website.