A trust set up in memory of Zohar Dean Collins — the LJY-Netzer youth leader who died in a holiday tragedy last June — has chosen its first beneficiaries.

The Zohar Dean Trust is backing causes that were close to the heart of the award-winning physics student, enabling young people to enjoy enriching experiences.

It will initially support Our Second Home, a youth organisation for refugees; Youth First, a charity running clubs and other services for young people in Lewisham; and In2Science, promoting social mobility within the Stem sector, as well as LJY-Netzer, Liberal Judaism’s youth movement.

The trust has been created by Zohar’s family and friends, including trustees Rosa Slater, Adam Aradi and Martha Slater.

“Zohar was a friend who always felt like family,” Rosa Slater said. “Everyone who met him was impacted by his immense charisma, pure nature and energetic presence. He was a beautiful person who said yes to all of the experiences life had to offer.

“The trust’s primary aim is to ensure that Zohar’s impact does not stop just because he left us before his time.”

Its launch event was an open-mic night featuring original songs and poems and concluding with a raffle run by Zohar’s siblings.

Ms Slater added that “although the world feels dimmer without Zohar, whenever I go to places where we spent time together, the sunlight has an extra shimmer to it.

“It feels like he left magic behind everywhere he went. His energy lives within all of us and I feel so grateful for that.”