Brighton Mosque and Synagogue

As part of the research for their Religious Studies projects, Year 8 pupils from St Bede’s Prep School recently visited Brighton’s Mosque and Synagogue. It was an opportunity for many of them to experience what it is like inside these places of worship, which, unlike Christian churches are not so frequently accessible to those outside the respective religious communities.

The Imam at the Mosque answered many questions about the beliefs and traditions of Islam, as well as tackling some important misconceptions about the treatment of women.

At the Synagogue the children ate some chollah and donuts to help celebrate the upcoming Hannukah Festival, and looked at a handwritten Torah scroll from 1918 which had survived Nazi persecution in Slovakia. It was a fascinating morning, and the pupils gained lots of information for their project and are able to look back on a unique experience.