Community

I juiced for Jews

Making fresh orange juice

The H.I.P.E team created the most fantastic Tu B’Shevat initiative on Monday which they named #ijuiced4jews. The event opened with an inspirational talk about gratitude and giving, in order to focus the students on the ideas of the day.

Afterwards, each girl was supplied with her own squeezer and bottle for a mass orange juicing session. Over 400 students worked hard to squeeze around 2000 oranges into bottles. Each student had an apron, gloves and personalised stickers to complete the look and add to the fun. Every bottle filled by a student was added to the count for her year group.

There was a competition between the year groups as to who could make the most bottles of orange juice, which was won by Year 7.

The freshly squeezed orange juice bottles were then distributed by GIFT to families who would not otherwise have access to fruit for Tu B’Shevat.

There was a fabulous atmosphere in the hall, with the scent of hundreds of oranges heralding the arrival of spring!

Kisharon Jewish history walk raises £1,500

A London history walking tour has raised £1500 for Kisharon.

Participants heard how Jews rose from money lenders to merchant bankers.

Weaving through streets and back alleyways of the City, tour guide Ian Fagelson pointed out tucked away landmarks attesting to the Jewish community’s growing eminence and acceptance in the City over the past 1,000 years.

Tours accommodated over 60 walkers. Funds will support children and adults with autism and a wide range of disabilities.

Ian Tate, Kisharon’s Challenge Events Manager thanked Fagelson who did not charge for his time.

“All donations go to Kisharon,” he said. “Participants told us how much they enjoyed the walk, and luckily the weather was kind. Building on the success of this event we are planning more walking tours in the future.”

Kisharon’s next walking event is the London Bridges Walk on July 3rd.

Kisharon has a full programme of events for the year ahead with runs, cycle rides and other events catering for all levels of fitness. Details: www.kisharon.org.uk

Survey shows positive swing

Work Avenue’s annual survey on employment and business in the Jewish community has found a swing in positivity and prosperity since a survey 12 months ago.

They have also confirmed that home working is here to stay.

Work Avenue CEO David Arden hailed results as a “very encouraging step forward”.

Two thirds of people reported feeling positive or neutral about their work situation compared to last year at 27%. And over a third of people reported their financial position had improved, up from 10% last year.

The outlook for 2022 is strong with 58% of respondents feeling optimistic about their career or business, up from 36%, only 16% were pessimistic, down from 28%.

Arden said, “The results are a very encouraging step forward and reflect the prevailing mood within the jobs market in the country as a whole.”

Work Avenue is continuing to advertise a record-breaking number of job vacancies. But mental health worries are still something the community must tackle.

Despite positive trends, the number of people surveyed saying that job and business issues had negatively affected their mental health in the past 12 months remained at 51%.

All World Avenue employment and business advisors are mental health first aid trained so are well placed to support clients finding a new job, retraining for a new career or setting up a business.

The survey covered changing working patterns for the first time. Of those respondents currently in work, 37% are in an office full time. When asked which they preferred, respondents were split.

Work Avenue said that a very buoyant jobs market for job seekers had seen candidates negotiate hybrid terms mixing office and home work starting a new role.

Chigwell and Hainault community are hired!

Lord Alan Sugar has set members of Chigwell and Hainault United Synagogue a very special Apprentice challenge this weekend. He has challenged members of the community to match the £600,000 donation he and his family have made to the shul as part of a £1.2m project to raise vital funds for Chigwell and Hainault Synagogue.

Lord Sugar, a member of Chigwell and Hainault, and fellow community members have Lord Sugar appeared in a special film released ahead of this weekend’s fundraising challenge. The video sees two teams from the community competing to come up with novel fundraising ideas for the shul in order to match the Sugar family donation.

Lindsay Shure, Chair of Chigwell and Hainault Synagogue, said: “We are delighted to share our very special fundraising video with the community and we’re very grateful to Lord Sugar for taking part and to him and his family for their extremely generous gift. But behind the entertaining film is a serious message: we have a huge amount to raise to transform our community for the coming decades and we need all our members to play their part. We have managed to secure a number of significant donations already and we’re asking the community to be as generous as they can this weekend.”

The film can be watched at: https://youtu. be/cqO-rgK-MsU

JWA services crucial for community

Demand for Jewish Women’s Aid services remained constant throughout 2021.

Core services were provided for Jewish women and girls across Jewish communities despite the national lockdown. The organisation is continuing its mission to generate a more open discussion about abuse and build a culture that is supportive of and safe for women.

Domestic abuse and therapeutic support teams supported 546 women and girls throughout the year.

In September, JWA worked with 175 women, higher than any month. The professional staff team offered a range of services including counselling, children’s therapy, safety planning, risk reduction, emotional support, legal options, benefits and financial advice.

JWA’s Helpline and Web Chat services were utlilised whilst a team of qualified counsellors provided 2,890 counselling sessions to 126 women and girls to help empower them to make decisions.

Therapists delivered 392 one-to-one sessions to 31 children in mainly video sessions with some in-person meetings starting towards the end of 2021.

JWA supported 57 women and girls aged 14-30, many of whom were helped by the Specialist Young Women’s Advocate and specialist counsellor. This is an area of growth for JWA.

The organisations McKenzie Friend programme accompanied 14 women to court for moral and practical support. The domestic abuse support team also helped women secure nine legal orders.

JWA created a Community Toolkit with educational resources freely available on its website. This formed part of JWA’s awareness raising Shabbat across dozens of communities in November.

JWA’s education team provided prevention education sessions to promote healthy relationships and help build a culture of consent.

Facilitators attended Jewish schools in London and Manchester in 132 age-appropriate workshops and assemblies, 521 university students and young professionals benefitted from 15 tailored sessions and JWA delivered 32 talks and training in synagogues and Jewish settings.

Kisharon’s Tuffkid Nursery has removed sugar from nursery meals and snacks to introduce healthy eating habits for children.

The nursery has a firm grounding in healthy lifestyles following Bronze, Silver and Gold awards from the Mayor of London’s Healthy Early Years London programme. The Nursery were the first to win a Gold award earlier this year in Barnet.

The decision to go sugar free was straight forward for Nursery Head Janice Marriott with oral health and childhood obesity at worrying levels.

Janice said, “We wanted to instil healthy eating habits at a young age, with the hope that promoting the change now would help the children make good nutritional choices throughout their lives.”

Parents were invited to get involved with the project, and with food a major part of the nursery’s daily routine, the change was significant. Biscuits and sweets were banned but parents were asked to rethink snacks and lunchtime treats children routinely took in to eat.

Staff reviewed ingredients of traditional recipe’s children enjoyed cooking. Children were encouraged not to bring in flavoured yoghurts or dried fruit, such as raisins which have a high sugar content.

Janice said, “At the beginning it was hard for some parents to accept that foods have hidden sugars. Fruit yoghurts have a high sugar content, but by looking at the ingredients, it became easy to identify. This year we decided to stop parents sending in drinks. Even cartons of pure apple or orange juice have a high concentration of fruit sugar which is detrimental to teeth and overall health. Oral health sessions taught parents about tooth brushing and regular trips to the dentist and these messages were reinforced Work Avenue mental health focus

in the nursery’s weekly newsletter.”

Nursery staff talked to children about eating healthily in snack or break times and taught them to make healthy choices, like fresh fruit, vegetables and crackers.

“Through our promotion of healthy eating in tandem with plenty of physical activity we are helping the children to form the basis of a healthy lifestyle,” Janice noted.

Cooking and baking in the nursery have been transformed. Once there were iced biscuits to celebrate birthdays, now children mark the occasion with fruit or courgette muffins. A small amount of honey is added to challah dough in place of sugar. Children are offered milk or water to drink which they pour themselves.

Janice added, “This is a fun challenge for little ones and they really enjoy taking part. On Fridays, all children take home a bottle of milk and this really encourages good habits”. 13 yr old Ethan Seligmann, from Edgware, is a young man with a purpose, strong values and a kind heart.

After consulting with parents, Ryan & Amanda, he brainstormed a way to add a different dimension to his Bar Mitzvah and took his celebration to the next level.

He selected GIFT through which to do his community charitable project as he was aware of GIFT’s work supporting the community and this was of prime importance to him.

After speaking with Esther Zneimer, GIFT’s Bnei Mitzvah Co-ordinator, Ethan proceeded to enlist the help of his family and friends and collect all sorts of personal care products in the month leading up to his Bar Mitzvah. The response was overwhelming and enabled him to personally pack many hundreds of items into toiletry parcels.

Marshall Hoffman, GIFT’s Warehouse

Tuffkid goes sugar free Ethan’s GIFT of pampering products Sugar free education at Tuffkid Nursery Ethan Seligmann with his incredible toiletry collection for GIFT service users Manager welcomed Ethan to the Hub and his kind words also touched Ethan profoundly, making him realise the impact his gesture would have on the lives of the recipients of the support packages. Ethan’s photo on the GIFT Hub ‘Wall of Fame’ will undoubtedly encourage Ethan’s peers to take on similar projects for their own Bar and Bat Mitzvah for the greater good of the wider Community. Ethan’s mother Amanda remarked to Esther, ‘Marshal, your warehouse manager was so lovely and said some beautiful words to Ethan for all that he had done for the recipients. It really added to the whole experience and made us all feel extra good. Thank you for all your help! PG we will be in touch next year for my daughter’s batmitzvah!’ To sign up for your personalised GIFT Bnei Mitzva project, contact Esther Zneimer at Esther@jgift.org

Work Avenue put the focus on mental health this month with over 50 people attending a wellbeing online event.

The half day conference recognised the difficulties many people have with their mental health at this time of year. It coincided with communal initiatives such as Mental Health Shabbat. And it followed Work Avenue’s recent survey of the Jewish community where 51% of respondents said that job and business had negatively affected their mental health in 2021.

Work Avenue launched Wellbeing@Work last year in response to the challenges of the pandemic.

Emma May, Director of Operations and Employment, said, “We recognise only too well the continuing importance of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace and this annual conference allows us to continue the dialogue.”

The event’s keynote speakers were life coach Elissa Benjamin, Rabbi Elchonon Feldman of the Jewish Counselling Service and Dr Laura David, founder of Smart About Health.

Ahead of International Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, faith leaders gathered at Blackburn Cathedral to light candles & remember all the victims of genocide.

As this week is International Holocaust Memorial Day, Manchester King David Primary School year 6 children have been having lessons on the Holocaust.

18 COMMUNITY TO ADVERTISE CALL 020 3906 8488

27 JANUARY 2022

Jami’s ‘See Me’ campaign raises over £1.2 million

Jami, the Jewish community’s mental health service, ran an online match-funded campaign on 23-24 January 2022 to raise vital funds to expand their services.

Over 36 hours, 250 fundraising teams raised £1.24m for Jami’s mental health services. Over 5000 donations, all of which were matched by generous new grants, demonstrated just how much the community recognises the impact of mental illness and the need to ensure professional support is available.

Laurie Rackind, Jami’s Chief Executive, said, “Since I started working at Jami, the challenge has been to get people to understand why mental health is important. For us to be able to raise in excess of one million pounds entirely from the community is hugely gratifying.

“Mental health problems are on the increase and as a community we need to get better at recognising when people are

Jami’s See Me team struggling, understand what support is available, and for us at Jami to make sure that treatment and support are accessible to all who need us.”

The funds raised will be used to meet the increasing demand for Jami’s existing services - a third increase in people being supported since the start of the pandemic; provide urgently needed early intervention for children through piloting a new service for 11-16 year olds; growing access to mental health support on the high street via Head Room Cafés; and expanding suicide prevention and education.

Receiving no statutory funding, Jami’s work is only possible due to the generosity of the community. The See Me, See Mental Health campaign will ensure that Jami can continue to see, hear and help everyone needing support with their mental health. www.charityextra.com/jami

HMD Yellow Candles

PHOTO: LAWRENCE PURCELL Year 6 Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox primary School boys with the Yellow Candles each with names of Holocaust victims and remembering survivors for Holocaust Memorial Day.

Planetarium in BJPS

PHOTO: LAWRENCE PURCELL The Manchester Mobile Planetarium Wonderdome visited on Tuesday at Broughton Jewish Cassel Fox primary school, Inside, the children will take an educational journey through Space.