Pioneering Jewish environmental education centre Sadeh Farm may be forced to find a new home after the owners of the Kent site, the Jewish Youth Fund, put it up for sale for £1.5 million.

The news was “a shame and a bit of a surprise” to Talia Chain, chief executive of Sadeh, which launched four years ago and opened a kosher guest house for families last year. “It is the only Jewish farm in Europe and the only people doing outdoors Jewish education.”

The seven-acre site, formerly known as Skeet House, was bought as a residential retreat for the Brady Boys’ Club in London’s East End nearly 80 years ago. For many years, it was used by Jewish youth organisations for residential weekends.

Jewish Youth Fund administrator Julia Samuel said the decision to put it on the market followed “a long and painful strategic review”.

The site was “not generating any income for the foundation and is not being used for Jewish youth. We are predominantly pitched at teenagers.”

Skeet had dormitories for up to 70 youngsters, whereas the guest house could sleep 29 people.

Since its conversion into a guest house, it “didn’t meet the charitable objectives of our organisation”, Ms Samuel maintained. She added that the JYF “supports a lot of leadership training for young people and we need the proceeds to spread the net even wider”.

Last year, the fund distributed grants of nearly £75,000.

The Sadeh site includes an orchard, havdalah garden, forest garden, a microbrewery and has a swimming pool and tennis courts.

As well as offering a break in the country for families, Sadeh runs educational programmes for a variety of Jewish groups. The Board of Deputies organised an away day last week and West London Synagogue’s cheder will visit soon.

Opening the guest house last year, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said Sadeh was “a fantastic model we can all learn from. People can come on holidays and enjoy it as much as they would any other holiday, while also learning about the environment and contributing to a charity.”

Ms Chain said it would be sad “to lose a Jewish community asset. This place has so much history. We’ve done a lot of work, not only on the land — the local community know us. We donate to the local food bank as part of our Jewish tithing principles.

She added: “We’ve got a 10-year lease. Our main ask is that we can stay till the end of our lease and we will actively look for a buyer.”

Naomi Verber, who designed and set up the guest house, was “shocked and dismayed that the Jewish Youth Fund is prepared to sell off a unique Jewish heritage site that functions today as a prime example of innovative Jewish youth engagement.” Sadeh had “invested more than £100,000 in creating a working Jewish farm, building the eco-hotel and transforming what was a dilapidated building and run-down site.”

She urged the JYF to “call off the sale and work with Sadeh to find a solution that works for both organisations”.

The Chief Rabbi said this week: “I know Sadeh Farm to be an exceptional facility, creating impactful educational experiences for all, especially young people, helping them to understand the importance of sustainability and care for our environment. This would be a real loss to our community and I sincerely hope that a favourable solution will be found.”