Students from JFS and Yavneh honoured the memory of Rabbi Lord Sacks by taking part in a month-long programme of learning.

They studied the classical teachings of Ethics of the Fathers as well as some of the sayings of the Emeritus Chief Rabbi, using a specially produced 36-page booklet.

While the two schools could not physically come together to mark the end of their learning for the shloshim —the 30-day period of mourning — they made a short film which was sent to parents.

JFS headteacher Rachel Fink, reflecting on Rabbi Sacks’s emphasis on Jewish education, said what better way was there to honour his memory than for the schools “to unite through the learning of Torah”.

Yavneh’s executive headteacher Spencer Lewis said the project had been “incredibly powerful. The fact that almost 3,000 young people have joined together to study and find modern meanings within ancient texts is exactly what Rabbi Sacks stood for.”

One girl in the video said her favourite teaching from Rabbi Sacks was, “’Jews were commanded to be the people who never forget and they never did’. It pushes me to remember what it means to be Jewish and to push myself to do more to do with the Jewish community.”

JFS is also devoting its Pause for Thought morning reflections next week to sayings from Rabbi Sacks.