King Charles is keeping a busy schedule in the lead-up to the holiday break.
On Friday, he visited JW3 for a Chanukah reception and to meet with community members.
JW3, also known as the Jewish Community Centre London, was founded by Dame Vivien Duffield DBE and opened in October 2013. Open to members of any faith, the arts and culture centre also features educational and social programming.
The King visited JW3 on Friday to mark the beginning of Chanukah. Chanukah begins on Sunday, 18 December this year and ends on 26 December.
He started the visit by meeting local schoolchildren packing Chanukah and Christmas gifts for the children of refugees and asylum seekers. The centre regularly provides food packages to community members in need, and The King’s staff brought several bags of food with them to be donated.
While touring the facility, Charles also met with students enrolled in a hair and beauty programme. JW3 runs several different educational and vocational schemes like this programme to help vulnerable, at-risk community members to forge a new path.
His Majesty also met with volunteers baking holiday cookies to be included in the food packages.
The King then attended a pre-Chanukah reception with Holocaust survivors. Community members were told to expect a guest but were not told who the guest of honour would be, and many attending looked thrilled to have the new monarch with them.
After walking through the reception and chatting with many different people, Charles got into the spirit of the day and took part in a hora, a traditional circle dance. Mobiles around the room went up to record the King’s festive dance moves.
The King finished his visit by unveiling a commemorative plaque to mark the occasion.
Charles was notably involved in promoting multi-faith organisations and gatherings throughout his tenure as Prince of Wales. In the past, he has made it known that he would like to be known as “defender of faith” rather than “defender of the faith,” pushing for the monarchy to be more accepting.
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