To help meet the shortfall on its £5 million rebuilding project, Edgware's Beit Shvidler Primary School attracted 435 supporters to a fundraising dinner in London's West End on Monday night. They heard London mayor Boris Johnson thank the school's leadership for improving education in the capital and cite the recent protest in the grounds of St Paul's cathedral:

"The St Paul's demonstrators call for a more ethical form of capitalism. Beit Shvidler is ethical capitalism incarnated in this fabulous new school - a true example of private money funding a public enterprise to benefit children in London for generations to come."

Another speaker was Israel's Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, Yuli Edelstein, who observed: "Our greatest challenge is to keep the younger generations aware of the centrality of Israel in Jewish life."

When visiting Beit Shvidler - formerly Edgware Jewish Primary - earlier in the day, he had been impressed by pupils who "understand the centrality of Israel and who are devoted to the state of Israel and to Am Yisrael, the people of Israel".