Members of two St Albans synagogues marked Mitzvah Day by working on projects to help others.

Mitzvah Day, which is now a worldwide event bringing thousands of people together, is a Jewish-led day of good deeds where people give their time, and not their money, to help the community.

People from the St Albans Masorti Synagogue (SAMS) spent their time knitting woolly scarves and hats and cooking a meal for homeless people at Centre-33, a shelter in Spicer Street.

They also collected household and baby items for Syrian refugees living in the city and provided them with a family afternoon tea, and baked biscuits & cakes for children at the local Women's Refuge and the elderly at Verulam House.

Members, including Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet, also planted more than 100 trees in the JJBS Woodland Cemetery in Cheshunt.

Nick Grant, from SAMS said: “More than 100 SAMS members and their children got involved. It took a lot of organising, but was hugely worthwhile.”

Members of St Albans United Synagogue also took part in Mitzvah Day. Their chosen mitzvah involved two collections. The first was for food packets, also for Centre 33.

The second collection was of clothing and other goods for the national Separated Child charity; an organisation that offers emotional, social, financial and physical support to children who arrive in this country alone, with no family or possessions.

In Radlett, children at Radlett Reform Synagogue Cheder celebrated Mitzvah Day by making 80 fruit and vegetable salad boxes which will be donated to homelessness charity Sufra.

Children who had been given packets of raisins to eat in October return with full boxes, this time filled with change instead of raisins. They raised more than £220.

Carol Green, Cheder head teacher at Radlett Reform Synagogue, said: “The children along with their teachers, madrichim and parental helpers, all had a fabulous morning yesterday for Mitzvah Day. We loved teaming with and volunteering for Norwood to do some really worthwhile projects and are looking forward to seeing how some of those things are used in the future. It was great to see the enthusiasm from the four year olds right through to the adults.”

Norwood, a Jewish charity, were chosen as the synagogue’s charity of the year in October.