A new Leeds museum where children can go "back in time" to experience life in a shtetl has opened to the public.
The Jewish Heritage Centre for Children in Moortown, Leeds, has been created by Leeds Lubavitch education director Shoshana Angyalfi and her project co-ordinator Ruth Bell. The Heritage Lottery Fund have donated £275,000 for the project.
Mrs Bell said: "We have had around 90 visitors over the weekend, and three schools, a college and a Women's Institute group are booked to come.
"People in the community love it, you can't tear the children away from playing here.
"It has been a chance to use different creative skills, and let my imagination flow. I'm really pleased with how the project has turned out."
The "hands-on" museum will feature arts and crafts, cookery, music and drama workshops to recreate an Eastern European 19th century village, and also demonstrates to visitors how Jewish culture and traditions translate to the modern world - with a kosher kitchen and supermarket.
Each house in the shetl shows a different aspect of Jewish life. The scribe's house shows how a Torah scroll is made and its uses; the village store teaches about mitzvot where good deeds are weighed against bad on a set of scales.
In the family home there is a sewing machine and a Shabbat table - to show that the week is for work and Shabbat is for rest. In each house in the shtetl, a video, shot by award-winning local filmmaker Simon Marcus and featuring costumed child actors, explains the meaning of the items in the house. Children from Brodetsky Jewish Primary school have taken part in the films.
Open to the public on Sundays from noon until 4pm it will also be available for group bookings from Mondays to Thursdays.
It will open as an extension to the existing Chabad Centre on Shadwell Lane and includes a soft play area.
Fiona Spiers, head of the HLF in Yorkshire and the Humber, said: "The reason HLF has supported the venture is the fantastic permanent resource that now exists in the UK for children and people of all ages and backgrounds who want to learn more about the heritage of Judaism."
To get more from community, click here to sign up for our free community newsletter.