Syrian refugee family to be given home inside London synagogue
Source: The Guardian
A Syrian family shelters in a Turkish refugee camp. 20,000 vulnerable refugees are to be resettled in Britain by 2020. Photograph: Dona B /Pacific/ Barcroft Images
A London synagogue is raising funds to convert part of its premises to accommodate a refugee family from Syria.
The South London Liberal Synagogue, in Streatham, is planning to make a two-bedroom flat available to a family being resettled in the borough of Lambeth. It needs to raise £50,000 to refurbish a disused caretaker’s flat in the building, which is a former school.
“This is a very personal issue for a lot of our members,” said Alice Alphandary, the synagogue chair. “There is a sense that we as Jews have benefited from sanctuary in the past. For example, my father was a refugee in the 1950s. Now we want to repay that welcome to a new generation.”