Hundreds of people celebrated the inauguration of a Sefer Torah commissioned in memory of communal stalwart Leonie Lewis, who died last year, six weeks after being diagnosed with lymphoma.

The scroll was funded by the Lewis family and paraded in the rain from their Pinner home to the local United Synagogue, where a crowd of 300 awaited its arrival.

Mrs Lewis was an active member of the shul, a pioneer of women’s issues within the United Synagogue and the founding director of the Jewish Volunteering Network.

The Chief Rabbi was among those at her stone-setting on Sunday.

Mrs Lewis’s husband, Howard, said their eldest son, Adam, had been the driving force behind the project. The scroll has been donated to the New Jersey congregation of which Adam is treasurer, “with the proviso that when we have a family simchah, the Sefer Torah is returned to us”.

A Just Giving campaign has raised over £50,000 of a £66,000 target to further the legacy of Mrs Lewis by promoting volunteering in the community through the JVN.

Money is also going to Community ConneX (Harrow Mencap), for which Mrs Lewis used to raise funds outside local supermarkets. She shared the secrets of her collecting success in a book, The Tin Lady, which was published in 2021.