The official launch of a young Sephardi cultural centre in north-west London was attended by more than 60 people on Tuesday evening.

Guests, the majority of them donors, received a tour of the Chazak building in Hendon to learn more about the activities offered by the centre, which range from Shabbat dinners to backgammon tournaments and inter-synagogue football matches. They ate meaty canapes and drank Arak, the strongly alcoholic Middle Eastern beverage.

Rabbi Shlomo Farhi, who co-founded Chazak with rabbis Moshe Levy and Yitsy David, traced the centre’s origins to an “idea five years ago” to engage community members less likely to attend synagogue.

“The first time I had a Friday night dinner here, I started crying,” Rabbi Farhi said. “You don’t know what it feels like to be standing inside your own dream.

“If you would have told me five years ago that we would have a space for kids to learn, an organisation that would host a young professionals’ dinner — no one would have believed it. Yet here we are.”

Rabbi Farhi believes the centre could also cater for the influx of French Jews, the majority of whom are of North African descent.