Sir Trevor Chinn put it simply. “As a community, we have a decision to make. Do we accept decline as inevitable, or do we challenge it?”

There seemed no doubt that, on a cold but sunny morning in the grounds of JW3, the new Jewish Community Centre for London, the decision had been taken to take the challenge to the barricades.

We asked you what being Jewish means to you and you answered in your hundreds, with your words, pictures and even your glitter pens.

You told us about your fondness for gefilte fish, your meditations on Torah and your fervent love of Spurs, and over 100 Year Five and Six children, the future of Jewish identity in this country, created artworks, illustrating what being Jewish means to them.

Dame Vivien Duffield claims she is tired. The new Jewish community centre for London, to be known as JW3, is approaching completion and Dame Vivien, honoured for her massive philanthropic efforts, says that this may be her last big project.

However, when she discusses JW3 and the influence she hopes it will have on the community, she seems to lack nothing in energy.

Residents of Nightingale House, the Jewish care home in south London, took advantage of the Tuesday night late opening of their Garden Cafe to create a combined submission to the My Jewish Identity project.

Eighteen residents from as far afield as Singapore, Rangoon, Johannesberg, Newcastle and Glasgow and aged from 85 to 100 shared memories and came up with, in no particular order:

Submissions for our Jewish identity project with JW3, the Jewish Community Centre for London, on what being Jewish means to you have continued to fill up our inbox.

The plan is to bury a time-capsule of people’s 50-word testimonies in the grounds of the new building in Swiss Cottage on March 6.

As part of our drive to encourage younger members of the community to take part in the wider Jewish identity project, we are delighted to be launching an art competition for primary schools.

Pupils should answer the same question: “What does being Jewish mean to you?”

What does being Jewish mean to you?

Today the Jewish Chronicle and JW3, the Jewish Community Centre for London, launch a project with an ambitious aim: to present a snapshot of British Jewry, which will be studied by future generations in a century’s time.

To make that happen, we are asking every Jew in the country to participate.