Our third day in Amsterdam began with a bus and tram ride to the Portuguese Synagogue. This is the oldest Synagogue in Europe.  We were given audio guides to listen to information, telling us all about the history of the Synagogue and about the interior. Mrs Yedd then took us on an additional tour of the outskirts, which included the Treasure Chambers, The Winter Synagogue and the Women’s Gallery.  Then we went to The Children’s Museum and Ashkenazi Shul. There were lots of memories of the Holocaust here and it was really interesting.

“I found it really interesting and it was very detailed.”  Hassan

“It was very interesting to see the oldest surviving Synagogue in Europe.” Rachel

Once we left the Synagogue, we went to the Jewish Heritage Museum. This museum had a huge section just for children. Four floors of great activities which allowed us to do arts and crafts, play various instruments such as the shofar, practise our Ivrit writing (which we know Shosh will be delighted to hear), and learn all about kosher kitchens and cooking. We also spent a lot of time in the adult section of the museum which took you through Jewish history and allowed us to see a lot of Jewish artefacts and learn about different people through time that have been Jewish. The museum was massive and we managed to see all of it. It was a really great afternoon.

We were pretty hungry after our busy start to the day, so we wandered along to a nearby park where we had our lunch and enjoyed playing on the swings and having ridiculous gymnastic and hopping competitions, which was very. The teachers were just delighted nobody had a hopping related injury!

To complete our day, we visited the Holocaust Memorial Centre. We visited an exhibition called ‘The demise of Abraham Reiss’ by Jeroene Krabbe. This artist painted nine pieces of art that told the story of his grandfather, who died in the war. These paintings were incredible and told a really important story. We also learned about the 600 children that managed to escape deportation with the help of the Jewish Resistance.

Our whole day has been so informative and has helped us to build a better picture of all the things we have been learning about in school. It has been quite a moving experience today, visiting all of these special Jewish places together as a class.

With one more day left, we’re excited to see what tomorrow brings.