Social & Cultural Programme Our community is 3000 strong and we aim to provide a social and cultural programme to appeal to the wide tastes of members. Most events are open to members’ wider family and friends, and to our local community, and further afield. Our Grade II Heritage Building We provide a magnificent venue in a Central London location, in which to hold events. The Sanctuary is in the Italian Moorish style, and has wonderful acoustics. The Goldsmid Hall boasts attractive classical architecture with wood panelling and twin staircases. The Samson Family Concourse is an enchantingly smart oval shaped venue. The Stern Hall is unusual in Central London in retaining a proscenium arch stage. The Council Room houses the Bob Shafritz Library but also serves as a room for meetings and a period venue for intimate dinners . The Room of Prayer doubles as a Multi Media Room for film screenings with its state-of-the-art screening technology. Our Musical Tradition This includes religious and secular music, and we have two choirs, and a renowned organ (the lesser twin of the majestic one in the Royal Albert Hall). Over the years this tradition has formed the foundation for occasional concerts by classical soloists (for example, renowned cellist Natalie Clein, pianist Jeffrey Siegel, pianist Margaret Fingerhut), rock bands (such as Oi Va Voi, Simon Cooper’s Friday Night Rock Service), full traditional orchestras (such as the London International Orchestra and ensembles from established world class orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Philharmonia and the Budapest Festival Orchestra), klezmer and traditional music groups (Shir, Los Desterrados, and the Beraka Players), and much more, including the Israeli Arab singer songwriter Mira Awad, the London Gay Big Band, and many others besides. Calendar Events On a regular basis, calendar events such as International Holocaust Memorial Day, Srebrenica Memorial Week (marking the anniversary of the 1995 genocide in Bosnia), and World AIDS Day - among others - are commemorated. We mark these by presenting bespoke concerts, exhibitions, readings, discussions, film screenings and theatrical productions. Since breaking ground with its first full concert in a UK synagogue at WLS in 2013, the London Gay Men’s Chorus has appeared at our World AIDS Day memorial service and concert, raising funds for HIV AIDS charitable causes in the UK and Israel. Meet the Author An occasional cabaret-style series where guest authors are 'in conversation with’ one of our Rabbis or other community leader. They launch their new works, introduce their books, followed by a Q&A. Recent guest authors are Thomas Harding, Anne Sebba, and Simon Schama. Friday Night Communal Dinners This is very popular series of roughly monthly communal dinners with a guest speaker in conversation with a Rabbi or lay leader. Over the years, some of the guest speakers have included Maureen Lipman, Arlene Phillips, Ronald Harwood, Robert Peston, Daniel Finkelstein, Robert Harding to name but a handful. YOUR SUPPORTIf you would like to know more about our Cultural Programme, attend an event, join our group of volunteers, or support the programme in any other way, please get in touch with Jim Fletcher at [email protected]