Two years after the Margate Synagogue building was saved following a successful campaign to revitalise the premises as a community centre for the wider local population, it will be hosting a Winter Festival, running from the end of the month.

The building had ceased to operate as a place of worship in 2017 as a result of the dwindling and ageing Jewish population in the Cliftonville area.

It was subsequently taken over by Cliftonville Cultural Space, led by four women of Jewish heritage, to repurpose it for the area’s current residents while ensuring it retained its “rich Jewish heritage”. An SOS (Save Our Synagogue) campaign generated the funds to preserve the property for this purpose.

After an opening art fair, supporting the Margate Independent Foodbank, the festival’s primary event will be Cliftonville Voices, affording an insight into nearly a century of Jewish life in the area — the synagogue was built in 1929.

Thanks to Oscar-winning graphic designer, film-maker and former Margate resident Arnold Schwartzman, visitors will be taken on an audio-visual journey of the experiences of locals old and new.

Mr Schwartzman’s parents ran the kosher Majestic Hotel in Cliftonville and he was introduced to the project by Miriam Margoyles, who has attended services at Ramsgate-based Thanet and District Reform Synagogue.

Cliftonville Voices has been organised by Katie Blythe, a researcher who has written about the history of Jews in the area.

She has “attempted to source a wide selection of people across all age groups and all demographics. Our youngest participant is a 14-year-old Eritrean who has supplied a written piece about being a refugee in the area.

“Our oldest participant is a man called Heinz Vogel of Czech Jewish heritage. He arrived with his family in 1938 and was housed in Cliftonville in a refugee home.”

Coinciding with Chanukah, the festival’s final element will be Cliftonville Lights, a three-day event that will see lights projected onto the building’s façade, based on images and designs created by local primary schools and community groups.

It culminates on December 21, commemorating the winter solstice, the year’s shortest day and longest night.

Cliftonville Cultural Space director Jan Ryan said this would appeal to those who, for whatever reason, might feel intimidated about entering the building.

“This festival and community centre is our mitzvah, if you like,” she told the JC. “To support people who are less fortunate, to strengthen our local community and to do all we can to improve lives.

“We retain the building’s rich Jewish heritage by trying to touch it as little as possible architecturally.

“Our work so far and in the future will be to ensure it’s safe and comfortable so that we can provide an accessible space for all — especially to marginalised and displaced communities whose experience we as Jews can empathise with.”