Blue-sky thinking aids Leeds revival

Now, buoyed by the opening of a Jewish secondary school after 20 years of planning, the community is beginning to believe a corner has been turned. Leeds' lay leaders believe they may have created a blueprint for the future of medium-to-large-sized Jewish communities not just in Britain, but potentially worldwide.

Jewish pupils used to go to school in Manchester. We have broken that mind-set

This has been achieved largely thanks to an outbreak of common sense, joined-up thinking and willingness from all to pull in the same direction.

The community now finds itself re-grouped around two central hubs - the Marjorie and Arnold Ziff Community Centre (MAZCC) on Moortown's Stonegate Road and the new educational campus in the smart Primley Park area of Alwoodley.

It is there that the Brodetsky Primary School has been joined by the new secondary, Leeds Jewish Free School (LJFS) and the relocated Zone youth club.

Together the trio create a fresh, modern facility, providing educational and social opportunities for the city's Jewish youth, from toddlers to teenagers.

Having moved from its run-down premises, the Zone now boasts provisions that would be the envy of any kids club.

A DJ booth and a professional recording studio take their place alongside the staple of Jewish youth clubs - table tennis. In the canteen, grandparents and teenagers mix in the summer sunshine as a team of volunteers serve cut-price kosher treats from the kitchen.

Waiting for his potato salad lunch is Stanley Cundle, a veteran of decades of communal leadership. He is well-placed to assess recent changes.

"We always had an infrastructure but it had fragmented. It's taken a while to bring everything together. The campus has given it all a buzz," he explains.

Education is the driving force behind the revival. Families wanting to give their teenagers a Jewish secondary education were previously forced to bus them to Manchester. The creation of LJFS has been a game-changer, Mr Cundle believes.

"Any Jewish child could come to live in Leeds and be set for life now. We always said the high school would be the saviour. The place is vibrant. People have been gobsmacked by what we have done here."

As a city, Leeds has often been in the shadows of its cross-Pennine neighbour Manchester. Unfairly so, say residents. Upmarket family homes in Alwoodley sell at an average of £400,000. Rolling Yorkshire hills are a short drive away. The thriving city centre is largely free from clogged traffic. It is an attractive package and communal leaders hope it will appeal to Jewish families thinking of moving to Britain from around the world.

Susie Gordon, the Representative Council's development executive, has already helped convince people from Israel, Spain, Argentina and the United States to relocate.

Mrs Gordon uses social media to pave the way for new arrivals from abroad. She says: "One single mother living in Israel with her three kids was terrified of the idea of moving to England. She started engaging with our Facebook page - we have 900 people engaging online. She has now made a friend with another Israeli woman living in Leeds and is planning to move here."

The arrival of new chief executives at Leeds Jewish Housing Association (LJHA), Leeds Jewish Welfare Board (LJWB) and Donisthorpe, the city's Jewish care home, has also contributed to the upturn, helping to develop stronger relationships between the key groups.

LJWB boss Liz Bradbury said she had witnessed a "sea change" in the past six months. Sitting with Lee Bloomfield, her LJHA counterpart, in the gardens at one of the housing association's newest developments, she explains: "If you don't adapt you will die. The three new chief executives are working very closely together to take radical decisions and to map out the future."

Reeva Gordon is a resident at Skyte House, one of LJHA's sheltered complexes attached to the attractive MAZCC. She had lived alone in a Sunderland bungalow for a decade after her husband's death. But four years ago she moved to west Yorkshire, and was rewarded with a new lease of life.

"I've got my own flat with my own furniture. From the minute I got here I was happy," the 87-year-old says. "We live independently but there's always the back-up of the wardens. I go shopping. I have my own car. We have a shul here. I don't think people understand there's a place as wonderful as this."

Round the corner in Shadwell Lane, Andrew Thornton is settling in to life as chief executive at Donisthorpe, where 180 residents live under one roof, making it one of the country's largest residential care homes.

"I've come here from outside the Jewish community and what I have seen in terms of the family environment, the participation, is incredible. We have got to make sure it stays this way," he says.

Mr Thornton is overseeing a strengthening of links with other Jewish organisations - particularly on practical, money-saving issues such as joint food procurement. "There had been a silo mentality across the groups," he says. "But we are starting to look at collaborative work. I don't see a need for anyone to be competitive about their own organisations."

The same ethos is espoused by Jeremy Dunford, executive headmaster of both Brodetsky Primary and LJFS.

Standing in one of the secondary school's new classrooms, he says: "People thought this would never happen. Then they thought parents wouldn't send their kids here. Now we have to convince them it's here forever. The only way to sustain the community is through the high school.

"Before we opened, pupils were splitting between Jewish schools in Manchester and two secondary schools in Leeds. Now none are going to Manchester. We've broken that mind-set."

The school's facilities are outstanding - craft workshops stand ready for their first use, a dance studio is fitted out to professional standards, and food technology laboratories are filled with the latest equipment. The goal is one day to fill these facilities with 300 pupils.

"The challenge now is to build up the rest of the infrastructure - kosher restaurants, shops, supermarkets, and a baker," Mr Dunford says.

For Simon Jackson, president of Leeds Jewish Representative Council, the size of the community is its greatest asset. Big enough to warrant investment in facilities, it is still compact enough to avoid the geographical and social fractiousness of Manchester - where the community is split between the north and south of the city - or London.

"The whole community comes together on virtually every issue," he says.

"We have a recipe for success based on excellent lay leaders and talented professionals. There are waves of people who will be leaders in the next 10 years. But if one or two significant figures in Anglo-Jewry moved here, it would really kick-start it."

Next on the project list will be efforts to help the city's three Orthodox synagogues work more closely together.

"We are forever reassessing," Mr Jackson says.

"We can't stand still now. There's a buzz around Leeds - it's an exciting time."