JW3 and LJCC take aim at the Jewish Chronicle

The heads of London’s two biggest Jewish cultural centres have issued a rare public condemnation of the Jewish Chronicle, after a story appeared incorrectly reporting that the organisations’ merger was “on the brink of collapse”.

The Chairs of JW3 and LJCC, Michaels Goldstein and Michael Marx, said the “surprising” story was “completely untrue” and branded the paper ill-informed.

In a joint statement, they said: “We would like to make it clear that the suggestions made in this morning’s article on the JC website that the ‘merger talks are on the verge of collapse’ and that the decision had been made to ‘cancel the merger’ are completely untrue.”

They added: “Whoever was the source for the report is clearly ill-informed.

The merger was announced in September this year, a year after Finchley Road’s £50 million JW3 opened its doors.

In contrast LJCC, based at Ivy House in Golders Green, has stood as an independent organisation for 30 years.