Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Charedi World

3 AdarI 5760 - February 9, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

HOMEPAGE

 

Sponsored by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

Produced and housed by
Jencom

News
Gateshead Community Wins Award for New Center

by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Gateshead community leaders have welcomed the news of a 490,000 British pounds lottery grant to renovate an historic building in Bensham for a much needed Jewish community center.

The National Lottery Charities Board has awarded the Jewish Community Council of Gateshead the money to renovate the derelict Bewick Road Bingo Hall, a former Edwardian cinema in the heart of a conservation area.

Over the next year the Jewish Community Council will convert the building into a community center for Gateshead's 4,000-5,000 strong Jewish community.

Dozens of groups will use the new center for community education, drama events, indoor games, meetings, lectures and leisure activities, catering for all ages from mother and toddler groups through the elderly.

Other money for the conversion job is coming from the Bensham and Saltwell Single Regeneration Budget, government funding set aside to help improve this disadvantaged area of the town.

Joseph Schleider, of the Jewish Community Council, said: "This is tremendous news for the community, it will provide much needed facilities especially for young people. We are very grateful to the funding bodies providing the money and to Gateshead Council who have worked so closely with us and provided expert guidance and advice."

Councilor Frank Donovan, a local ward member who chairs the Bensham and Saltwell Regeneration Partnership Board, said: "We are delighted to have been able to get such a major grant for a community which does not have its own facilities or the money to build them. It will make a big difference to their lives and community spirit, as well as bringing a derelict building back into use in an area which needs environmental improvements. It preserves a much needed part of our heritage in the Coatsworth Conservation Area."

Gateshead's Jewish community first settled in the town in the 1890s but grew mainly after the Second World War to become one of the major centers of Jewish education in Europe.


All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.