It is not often that a hustings can seriously be described as "the hottest ticket in town", but Monday's event with the four Labour leadership contenders certainly attracted the crowds.

The 270-seat hall at JW3 was filled to capacity, and other rooms had to be made available to accommodate the ticketless who turned up and followed proceedings on a video link.

Labour's leading supporters of Israel, including Ruth Smeeth, Michael Dugher, Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman, were among those packed into the hall.

Journalist Jonathan Freedland, who chaired the event, asked audience members to conduct themselves "politely" and to show "courtesy", referring to a panel discussion earlier this year involving a left-wing MP and Jewish participants that descended into heckling and name-calling.

No one needed to hear the words Question Time and George Galloway to know exactly what he meant.

The expectation had been that Jeremy Corbyn would endure a rough ride for his description of Hamas and Hizbollah as his "friends".

The Islington North MP attempted to assure the room he was a "reasonable fellow" and that those in attendance were "friends too". Judging from the silence that met the remark, not everyone agreed.

Andy Burnham was in crowd-pleasing mode as he announced that his first foreign visit as leader would be to Israel. It will be interesting to see how soon he lands in Tel Aviv should he find himself party leader seven weeks from now.

The event was in part a bridge building exercise after many Jewish voters lost faith with Labour under Ed Miliband's leadership.

At one stage, you could be forgiven for thinking you were watching a couples' therapy session, as candidates did their best to convince they were serious about "repairing the damage" and "listening" with "emotional intelligence."

Undoubtedly the loudest cheer of the night came after 40 minutes of discussion on Israel when Jewish Council for Racial Equality founder Edie Freedman asked: "Can we please change the subject?".

But before anyone had a chance to mention education, faith schools, or shechita, the candidates were whisked away by their aides for the crucial Commons welfare vote.

That posed another question - would the four candidates share a taxi back down the Finchley Road to Westminster?