Seven-hundred Liverpool community members sat down to Shabbat meals in a tribute to a young cancer victim.

Shabbat Across the Mersey honoured the memory of former Liverpool King David High captain Tilly Rosenblatt who died in 2010, a year after leaving KD. Tilly’s father, Paul Rosenblatt, said she loved Shabbat and was dedicated to bringing her local community together.

There was a 500 turnout for the main gathering at Childwall Hebrew Congregation on Friday night, with another 80 diners at Allerton Hebrew Congregation. More than 50 residents of the Stapely home also took part, as did local students who dined at Chabad.

The event was inspired by the Shabbat Across America programme and Liverpool co-organiser and Allerton Synagogue’s Rabbi Mani Pollack hoped the idea would go national in the UK. “We are encouraging other shuls and communities to join us when we arrange out next event.”

Fellow organiser, Childwall Hebrew Congregation’s Rabbi Mordechai Wollenberg, said it had been “an unbelievable experience. For the first time in years, people were worrying that an event would be oversold and not undersold.”