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Reach out Summer/Autumn 2016 Reach Out Summer/Autumn 2016 Together, we bring hope 2 I find it remarkable to think A quick reminder that we that I joined World Jewish have 35,000 files of those Relief 10 years ago this we assisted. If you know of month. I am privileged to anyone who falls into this have met both many of category please encourage those we help and many them to contact us, as we may of you as supporters. Each have their historical records and every one of you has which we will send free of inspired me to push this charge: www.worldjewishrelief. charity to achieve even more, org/archives. to reduce the vulnerability within our Jewish world Mirjam Bait Talmi, who and demonstrate our core recently received her family’s Jewish values in assisting case file, demonstrates their those beyond our community significance better than I ever where we can. could: “Looking back, I can only think about what a hard Paul Anticoni Inevitably I still feel that the life we Kristallnacht orphans real mountain is ahead of us. had. When you sent me the To fundamentally address report regarding my brother, I Chief Executive chronic poverty within the realised that he had been cared massive but fragile Jewish for by the best of people and communities within the not just be left somewhere to die. former Soviet Union still The report gave me an insight requires a greater scaling into my childhood.” THIS SEPTEMBER, JAMES LIBSON, up of our work. But tens of thousands of people’s When people remind me that OUR CHAIRMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE lives and livelihoods are there remain more Jews in immeasurably better thanks Ukraine than the UK, it never STEPS DOWN AFTER COMPLETING to our work. That wouldn’t be ceases to make me think. The possible without you. difference that we are making HIS TERM OF OFFICE. HE to these people can be seen Colin Lehmann, our former in the tale of Nadezhda HAS BEEN MONUMENTAL IN Treasurer, was an integral (p.6-7), whose apartment was and passionate part of our in such disrepair she had HIS COMMITMENT, ENERGY, organisation, so it was with become totally isolated out huge sadness that we learned of embarrassment; she used THOUGHTFULNESS, INTELLECT of his death earlier this year. to have to wash herself with Our thoughts remain with his warm water heated on her AND DRIVE TO PROMOTE, EXPAND family and friends. stove. Repairing her home and installing a boiler and AND PROFESSIONALISE THIS While my grey hairs might shower transformed her deceive you, World Jewish life. Unbelievably we have ORGANISATION. HE IS A Relief vastly predates my now repaired 1,477 houses tenure. As the organisation in recent years. Changes DELIGHT TO WORK WITH AND that brought tens of like this give people like thousands out of Nazi Nadezhda a reason to live, A CLOSE FRIEND. Germany, both on the thanks to World Jewish Relief Kindertransport and post war and to you. from the displaced camps, we must not forget our roots. Have a lovely summer. I’m delighted to welcome Dan Rosenfield as the incoming Chair of World Jewish Relief. Originally from Manchester, Dan has been a trustee of World Jewish Relief since 2014, building his knowledge and developing a huge passion for our work. I look forward to reading his thoughts which he will share with us through a Q&A in the next Reach Out. 3 My helper is like a daughter to me. She brings me food from the store, she cooks for me, cleans my room and helps me to stay clean. She brings light into my house and heart. A Light unto the Nations: honouring Righteous Gentiles IRYNA’S STORY IS BOTH Righteous Gentiles, or in Odessa, Ukraine. With Righteous Among the numerous health problems REMARKABLE AND DEVASTATING. Nations, are the brave like diabetes and high individuals honoured by blood pressure, her monthly Yad Vashem for risking pension is barely enough to DOING ALL THEY COULD TO HIDE their own lives to save live on. Jewish people during the AND CARE FOR IRYNA’S JEWISH Holocaust. Men and women Many survivors helped by of all ages and faiths; from Righteous Gentiles kept CHILDHOOD FRIEND IN THEIR physicians to peasants, in touch with those who teachers to resistance hid them and they spoke HOME DURING THE WORLD WAR II, fighters, they are united by to us about the shame of their extraordinary acts. knowing that those who HER MOTHER AND BROTHER WERE rescued them were facing For years, these inspirational such hardships. We simply ULTIMATELY CAPTURED BY THE people were given support had to act. through German reparation NAZIS. IN 2001, IN RECOGNITION funds. In 2008, however, We committed to doing hundreds lost access to more to support this OF THEIR HEROIC EFFORTS, these funds and, thus, special group of people, critical health and social across the Former Soviet IRYNA AND HER MOTHER WERE care services. Increasingly Union, providing urgent frail, they were forced to medication, surgeries and AWARDED THE STATUS OF survive on tiny pensions. basic supplies to those These people, who had most in need. Our focus RIGHTEOUS GENTILES, BUT selflessly provided Jews so far has been on the with refuge, warmth and provision of vital help UNTIL WE MET HER, SHE WAS food, now found themselves around the house for people desperate for help. like Iryna, who now has STRUGGLING FOR SURVIVAL.. homecare support 22 hours Today, Iryna is 96 years old. a week. Without this, Iryna She lives alone in one room would become increasingly in a run-down apartment desperate and isolated. 4 One’s heart aches to witness such things. Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg on his visit to Greece “ They’ve been arriving day kindness’, Marie explained. RESCUE TEAMS and night.” I was standing ‘The grandparents of many with Marie from Praksis, islanders were refugees World Jewish Relief’s themselves, fleeing Turkey WATCHED THE partner in Greece, on the across these very waters in island of Lesbos. the 1920s. They remember; COAST DAY AND they bring soup and help The torn plastic sheets the old and the children.’ on the rocks of the beach NIGHT. AT THE FIRST puzzled me. ‘Those were the At Moria, the nearby dinghies’, I was told. ‘That’s camp where those who SIGHTING OF A BOAT, all they’re made of. They’re make it safely over the meant for fifteen people, but sea are registered, buses the smugglers pack in fifty.’ arrive constantly. Only THEY SUMMONED after registration can I found a life-vest on refugees proceed to Athens. VOLUNTEERS AND, the shore, but it was Volunteers are ready fake. Filled with water- with essentials; sleeping absorbent material, it bags, blankets, backpacks, USING FLAGS OR was a death-vest, not a nappies, food. World Jewish life-vest. Someone had Relief plays an essential BONFIRES, DIRECTED sold it to an unsuspecting supportive role. refugee for 20 Euros. Disturbingly, there are Amidst one olive grove THE INCOMING always those eager to profit was the cemetery where from the misery of others. the drowned were buried. REFUGEES TO THE But I was far more struck There we met Mustafa. by those there to help. ‘The When he learned there SAFEST BEACHES. Greek people show deep were dead still in fridges 5 One’s heart aches to witness such things. REFUGEE CRISIS UPDATE Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg on his visit to Greece THANKS TO YOUR 50,000+ GENEROSITY, WE’VE RAISED REFUGEES TRAPPED IN GREECE after thirty days, he took £877,646 AND A STAGGERING responsibility for burying SINCE SEPTEMBER 2015. them with dignity. Small marble slabs marked the 3 MILLION graves. One word appeared IN TURKEY. repeatedly: ‘agnostica - unknown’ – ‘unknown child, aged 3 months’, ‘unknown woman’. Here lay the price 16,000 THE of this flight from war and SANITATION violence, undertaken for KITS a better future for these WE DISTRIBUTE GIVE children. BENEFICIARIES MUCH NEEDED One’s heart aches to witness SO FAR. RELIEF TO PARENTS. such things. More than people are on the move; history, identities, perhaps WE WE OPENED A NEW the very notion of borders. The outcomes are unclear. DISTRIBUTE CENTRE But one cannot be human FOR REFUGEE and fail to help. ITEMS LIKE WHEELCHAIRS VICTIMS OF FOR THE M O S T SEXUAL Rabbi Wittenberg is the VULNERABLE. VIOLENCE. Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism UK. OUR MOBILE OUR MEDICAL UNIT RESCUE IN GREECE HAS HELPED TEAMS ON THE BEACHES OF 5,000 LESBOS. ASSIST THOSE PEOPLE. ARRIVING BY BOAT. 6 Rebuilding homes, transforming lives Oliver Knight, Home Repairs Programme Manager, reflects on his experiences... Before 7 HAVING LIVED AND TRAVELLED IN AFRICA AND ASIA, I HAVE WITNESSED EXTREME POVERTY FIRST-HAND. BEFORE WORKING AT WORLD JEWISH RELIEF, I WAS GUILTY, LIKE MANY, OF THINKING SUCH POVERTY COULDN’T POSSIBLY EXIST SO CLOSE TO HOME. AS I COMPLETE MY FIRST YEAR MANAGING WORLD JEWISH RELIEF’S HOME REPAIRS PROGRAMME IT AMAZES ME HOW WRONG I WAS. I would like to share with heat water in a pan, to then boiler, I have hot water. My you an experience from pour over herself. Her dream life has been transformed.” a home visit I went on was to take a shower in recently. I visited an elderly hot water. With her home With these changes lady in Ukraine called in such disrepair, she was Nadezhda can live Nadezhda Bakanova. Born in ashamed to invite anybody independently and in Odessa, where she still lives to it. Experiencing extreme dignity; she is like a new in a run-down part of the loneliness, with just the woman.
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