Pinner Synagogue serves many purposes for its 1,000 members - not least providing a space where its younger congregants can learn about Jewish life. But this year, it welcomed some unexpected faces: young people who are not Jewish.
Like many other Jewish centres across the UK, the North London shul has recently provided a base for the Board of Deputies' Jewish Living Experience(JLE) - a travelling display designed 30 years ago. In June, the shul played host to 60 pupils from year three at St George's Catholic Primary School in Sudbury Hill.
Una McGivney, a teacher at St George's, took her pupils around the exhibition, where they looked at Jewish artefacts, sat at the Passover table and tasted matzah for the first time.
She said: "Our class is quite engaged in learning about religion because we do two and a half hours of religious education per week, which is double what most state schools do."
She added that while Jewish education already played a part in their study programme, which involves looking at other faiths as well as Catholicism, the pupils had more to learn.
"I didn't know much about being Jewish," said eight-year-old Joel Priggs. "I liked playing with the kippah and hearing why only men wear them."
Faith Corinaratha, aged seven, loved looking around the exhibition. "I learnt that the Torah has five books divided by chapters," she said.
"The boys have to wear a little hat, and if they are more religious they have curly hair and wear darker clothes. That is called being Orthodox.
"I liked tasting the Seder plate and the flat bread. The bread story is cool: they didn't have enough time to escape so it had to come out flat."
Her classmate Ella Davenport, seven, added: "Jews do different things to us. When I'm older I might have Jewish friends - now I will know what they do at home."
Shul warden Stan Conway hosted the exhibition with his wife, Phyllis.
"We wanted them to come along not knowing much, and to go back knowing something," he said.
"On the whole, the Roman Catholic schools are the ones who seem to be the most interested and also know the most. But it depends on the individual teachers and how much they've done before they come here."
Ms Conway added: "It was wonderful that they wanted to know about Judaism. They asked all about Shabbat and why we cannot watch television on a Saturday."
"I explained to them that there are actually a lot of other fun things we can do instead. And their little faces were wonderful. I got a kick out of that."
For Sara Perlmutter, head of education policy at the Board of Deputies, it is just as important to engage with non-Jewish schools as it is their Jewish counterparts.
"People might think the Board just focuses on what happens in Jewish schools, but we don't," she said. "Judaism should feature on every religious education syllabus as it is one of the six world religions, and if it is not being taught, we like to know about it.
"This exhibition is designed to go alongside that and to add that extra real-life experience where children get the chance to see how Jewish life works in practice.
"More than half of Jewish children are in Jewish education, but the rest are in other schools. A large part of our job is to make sure that they and non-Jewish pupils are taught at a basic level."
She added that the exhibition is "crucial for tolerance and understanding" in communities that do not have everyday contact with Jews, or their way of life.
"When I've done assemblies in the past, children ask me if I am Jewish, because I am not the typical stereotype," she said. "I've had a lot of children say: 'But I thought you were all dead'. That tells me that non-Jewish schools are teaching the Holocaust, but children who have little contact with the community don't necessarily understand that Jews are still living.
"It is very important that the tour teaches young people how Judaism is lived in everyday society."
The exhibition constantly travels across the UK, visiting locations for two to six weeks at a time and inviting local schools to take part.
Ms Perlmutter said: "I went to a Catholic school in Devon that hosted the exhibition for two weeks. Every session was booked.
"In Exeter, a Bedouin man who had come to study at the university saw the exhibition outside and was instantly attracted by the Hebrew writing. He came in and said he was so pleased to see us because he was really missing Israel and his friends.
"Then another young man who was part of a pro-Palestinian group came along and asked quite challenging questions.
"I introduced him to the Bedouin man. They had a conversation and it ended up changing his opinion quite radically. For the exhibition to encourage that kind of conversation is really useful."
She added that, while the tour goes some way in educating non-Jews about Jewish life, there are still challenges in promoting the importance of religious education - especially under the current government.
"The infrastructure has been dismantled by a government that doesn't see the importance of it," she said.
"But we see it as crucial for the holistic development of the child. It doesn't just look at practice and belief, but also at morals and values. It helps every other subject on the curriculum.
"Cuts in education mean that fewer people are gaining the skills to teach religious education now, and we will feel that hole in a few years' time.
"We live in a multicultural society; tolerance is more important now than it has ever been before.
"This country needs to fight for religious education because of what is happening around the world - not just so people learn about Jews, but other religions too."
