Nottingham Liberals and Muslims open a soup kitchen together

Jews and Muslims in Nottingham have united to provide a drop-in kitchen for the some of the city's poorest, most vulnerable people.

Nottingham Liberal Synagogue and not-for-profit Muslim organisation Himmah have launched the Salaam Shalom Kitchen (SaSh) to provide hot meals every Wednesday for the city's needy.

At its launch Rabbi Tanya Sakhnovich of Nottingham Liberals and Himmah co-founder Sajid Mohammed stressed the importance of bringing Muslims and Jews together to demonstrate the communities' shared values of "compassion, dignity and care".

Rabbi Sakhnovich said the initiative "allows Jews and Muslims, often cautious of each other, to work together for a common cause and where we can share our values of compassion, care and understanding with vulnerable, lonely and hungry people of Nottingham.

"By serving food together and offering a hand of friendship to other members of the local community, it gives us a safe place to start building personal relationships of trust and respect for each other."

This initiative, allows Jews and Muslims, often cautious of each other, to work together for a common cause and to share our values

Mr Mohammed said: "In the last 12 months we have seen a rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism. Nottingham for the most part has been quite sheltered but we felt that now is the right moment to give hope and demonstrate our communities' values of compassion, dignity and care to others."

Karen Worth, the lead for social action at Nottingham Liberal Synagogue, said she was "excited and proud to be involved in this great initiative which we hope will be a great success. We have had an amazing response from members of our synagogue, with 30 to 40 people, including children, offering to volunteer at the kitchen over the next few months."

The weekly kitchen is housed at the Bridge Centre in Hyson Green. At its launch members of the Jewish and Muslim communities were joined by guests, including the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Chris Eyre, and the Bishop of Sherwood, the Rt Revd Anthony Porter.