Concert celebrates St John’s Wood Liberal Jewish Synagogue centenary on a high note

Published: 20th May, 2011
by JOSH LOEB

MORE than 700 people attended a concert marking the centenary of the St John’s Wood Liberal Jewish Synagogue (LJS) on Sunday.

Cellists Raphael Wallfisch, John Heley, Andrea Hess and Gemma Rosefield performed at the event alongside soprano Ilona Domnich and pianist Simon Lepper. They raised in excess of £12,000 for the synagogue’s centenary appeal and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which was founded in 1999 by Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and his friend the late Palestinian academic Edward Said. 

LJS Rabbi Alexandra Wright said: “The reason we chose to donate to this cause is that it’s a symbol of hope for the future in the Israel-Palestine situation.” 

When it opened in 1911 the LJS was the first synagogue of its kind in the UK. 

Liberal Judaism was founded by German-Jewish philanthropist Israel Jacobson in the early 1800s. There are now more than 40 British synagogues where a “progressive” form of Judaism is practised.