School gets top level gym
THE IMPRESSIVE new gymnasium at Naima JPS was turned into a banqueting hall as supporters celebrated the inauguration of the latest extension to the independent Sephardi school in Maida Vale and saluted its founder, Rabbi Abraham Levy.
Costing nearly £3 million and erected on top of the Saatchi Synagogue, the new facility has been named after donors Eliahou and Joyce Abraham.
Leading tributes to Rabbi Levy and his wife Estelle, emeritus Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks said Rabbi Levy was a role model of tolerance and inclusivity, combining devotion to Torah with openness to the wisdom of the world. “You know, I know, it is the right way.”
Calling Naima JPS “one of the gems” of British Jewry, he told Rabbi Levy: “You put in so much effort and now you are blessed by the reward.”
Thanking supporters for their generosity, Rabbi Levy said the school had “never owed or borrowed a penny” since its opening in 1983.
He recalled that when its building, formerly the Bayswater Synagogue, was bought, he had received a call from a United Synagogue official complaining at not having seen any mortgage arrangements.
Rabbi Levy told him not to worry because “Iraqis pay cash”.
A week before completion, he collected cheques from two of the principal contributors, David and Sami Shamoon, at one of their places of recreation — a Park Lane casino.
Although Rabbi Levy remains honorary principal, his son Julian now looks after the school’s fundraising and daughter-in-law Sian organised the dinner.