Members of the community have raised over £25,000 to help pay for a new Jewish vegetarian centre in London.

Donors - among them JC readers - pledged the money online in a campaign run by the Jewish Vegetarian Society. The sum will now be doubled by a charitable foundation, which has chosen to remain anonymous.

It took just five weeks to raise the funds needed for the centre, which will be named Teva. The multi-purpose building will open on the JVS's existing site in Golders Green.

Building work will begin within the next month. Lara Smallman, director of the charity which was founded in 1966 and has 500 members, expressed a "heartfelt thank you" to the 79 donors.

She said: "Donations ranged in size from £5 to £9,500, and came from the UK, the US and Israel. The future is looking very bright for Jewish vegetarianism and environmentalism."

The centre will feature pop-up restaurants and host vegetarian celebrations over the festivals. Cookery classes will be run in its purpose-built kitchen.

The centre will also be home to two Jewish human rights charities and the Golders Green Partnership Minyan.