Prayer at Synagogue
Object number
2021.11.6
Donor
M. Lomotey
- Object Information
Ghanaian Jews: Mr Nortei Lomotey praying at synagogue. Hull, 1965.
In this photograph, we see Mr Nortei ready for prayer at a synagogue in Hull. He stands in the aisle of the synagogue, wearing his kippah and tallit. We see the tzitzit of the tallit dangle by his side. The tzitzit are carefully knotted fringes that represent the 613 commandments in Judaism. These fringes dangling at the four corners of the body represents how the commandments surround a Jewish individual.
Mr Nortei is one many Ghanaian Jews. There are many other Jewish communities across the African continent from the Ethiopian Beta Israel Jews to the Igbo Jews of Nigeria.
Faintly at the back of the photograph, we see the burgundy curtain of the Aron Kodesh, decorated with a Star of David. Behind the curtain would be the synagogue’s Torah(s).
- Hear from the donor
What does Judaism mean to you?
I once read Judaism is an attitude to reality, I concur with this summation.
All of my life is centred on this aspect of my identity which is inextricably linked to all the other parts of how I identify; the scientist, the Black man in a white world, the parent, the brother, son, spouse, climate activist, Jew.
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