Europe’s only kosher farm threatened by site sale

Leaders of the Jewish environmental initiative Sadeh, which runs a farm and kosher guesthouse at Skeet Hill House in Kent, have been taken aback by the decision of the house’s owners, the Jewish Youth Fund, to sell it.

The house and its seven acres of land is registered with Saville’s estate agents with an asking price of £1.5 million.

Talia Chain, chief executive of Sadeh, expressed consternation at the decision of the Jewish Youth Fund, a charity established in 1937 as  healthy respite location for Jewish children from the east end of London. Skeet Hill House, near Orpington, became a popular centre for youth groups who held summer camps there.

Chain said: “Sadeh was given a 10-year lease in March 2018 to run Skeet Hill House on condition that we kept the house in the same condition they had received it, and that we met the JYF’s charitable objectives of providing for Jewish youth.” She said that Sadeh, whose guesthouse was visited and praised by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis in June 2021, had “more than fulfilled our side of this bargain. Sadeh has invested £40,000 per year in major improvements since 2018. We have turned the neglected house and grounds into a successful guesthouse, cross-communal educational centre, and the only Jewish community farm in Europe.”

But Julia Samuel, the Jewish Youth Fund administrator, told Jewish News that although trustees admired the work done by Sadeh, it was felt that Sadeh “did not meet JYF objectives”. For the charity to meet its commitments to serve young Jewish people, she said, it had been decided to put the property up for sale.

She said JYF’s objectives were to provide grants for informal education to young people. She added that the trustees would be “thrilled” if Sadeh bought the site from JYF.

Bids close in mid-June and there have been two separate viewings from people interested in buying the property.

Chain said: “Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Let’s keep this priceless community asset safe for future generations.”