from The Jewish Chronicle:

Boris digs in as JCC starts its £50m building

The Jewish Community Centre for London, the biggest capital project ever undertaken for British Jewry, took a step nearer fulfilment with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by 200 communal leaders and activists last Thursday. [emphasis added]

“I am pinching myself,” said Dame Vivien Duffield, who conceived the idea and has pledged to meet half the £50 million outlay from her family foundation. “I didn’t really realise it was going to happen until I got here this morning.”

A further £18 million has been raised, leaving another £7 million to find to ensure the three-storey centre opens on time in 2013 in Hampstead.

… [Dame Vivien] paid special tribute to Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks for his encouragement, without which, “I might have given up”. In turn, she had promised him the centre would have no religious ceremonies, be kosher and uphold Jewish ethics “to the height”.