Pesach 2015/5775 Pesach hag C Sameach In this Issue Flowers in Hatch End The Israeli Kibbutz Blood Sweat and Hummus The story behind the blooms Movement Working with the MDA in Israel An exclusive update report Genocide Memorial Day Celebrating Purim Keeping the memory alive Making Aliya An alternative approach First year in Israel About our members From the editor’s desk HWPS BIRTHDAY WISHES TO: MAZEL TOV TO: BIRTHDAY WISHES TO: Ray Frost, 80 Janet and Alan Solomon on the Robert Benson, 21 Woolf Heymann, 90 occasion of their Golden Wedding Elaine Shoffman, 60 Anniversary David Mushlin, 80 Jordan Grabski, 21 Dear Reader Highlights Estelle Raynaud, 75 Sam Dysch, 21 BIRTHDAY WISHES TO: David Solomon, 70 How time flies. It and life as a career civil servant, are just 24 Ursula Gross Veronica Lansman, 70 was only a year a few of the offerings this month. GET WELL WISHES TO: Genocide Dennis Mitchell ago that the first So as I begin to delete a multitude of Stanley Morris Memorial Day Nina Morris GOOD LUCK IN THEIR NEW Kehila magazines files from my computer and life returns Joy Pearson HOME TO: were coming off the to normal, I need to think about the 30 Phyllis Sanderson Ellen Cook printing press. Over annual task of unpacking the stored The music lives MOSAIC REFORM Deborah and Victor Davis on Jeanette Shindler MAZEL TOV TO: the months we have boxes of Pesach crockery, pans and Richard Sontag Margaret and Michael Abrahams on CONDOLENCES TO refined the contents and presentation cutlery. With my role as an editor ‘on 34 their 50th anniversary of both the monthly and seasonal pause’ till later this year, I am alas, no Flowers in GET WELL WISHES TO: Paul, David and Madeline on the Gloria and Melville Faber on their 65th death of their mother, Rene Bernson Kehilas. With monthly editions now in longer protected from household chores! Hatch End Val Spilfogel anniversary Stephen and Mark on the death of a smart smaller format there is a clear Oh by the way – a reminder to check 37 Dorothy and David Rauch on their 35th their mother, Marie Rowan distinction between the two magazines. out the new Mosaic web site. It is superb Celebrating CONDOLENCES TO: anniversary The monthly edition focuses mainly on and well worth a visit at Purim The family and friends of David Stein Mary and Raymond Sorene on their happenings in the community whereas www.choosemosaic.org – you will not be The family and friends of Passy Gellman 40th anniversary 40 Hilary and Richard Stanton on their 45th this seasonal magazine, now at Pesach disappointed. (See page 9) The Israeli anniversary and Chanukah, commissions stories and Chag Pesach Sameach. Kibbutz HEMS Myra and Greg Wand on their 45th articles from a wide source. Movement MAZEL TOV TO: anniversary This edition has an exclusive feature 42 Jackie and Anthony Alexander on the Rachel and Joe Wayne on their 65th written for Kehila on the kibbutz Blood Sweat occasion of their 25th anniversary anniversary movement in Israel, as well a story again Rosemary and Maurice Hoffman on the and Hummus For children’s birthdays see page 49 from Israel, about a family who recently Robert Pinkus birth of their grandson 44 made Aliya. Interviews with a notable Editor Making Aliya community figure, flowers in Hatch End, [email protected] THE PLAGUES HAVE CHANGED, BUT THE PROBLEMS REMAIN... DISCRIMINATION EXCLUSION FINANCIAL HARDSHIP FAMILY What is Mosaic? BREAKDOWNAND U NNEORMPLOYMWOODENT ADD HASICTION BEEN BULLYING SELF Mosaic is a vibrant new Jewish community which comprises the members of three partner HARM LOSS AND BEREAVEMENT HAVE FINANCIAL HARSHIP PICKING UP THE PIECES FOR synagogues. The three synagogues represent the Masorti, Reform and Liberal strands of ADDICTIONOV BERULLYING 200 SE YLEARSF HARM MENTAL HEALTH Judaism respectively providing Mosaic members with a choice of emphases and ritual across the BEREAVEMENT HARDSHIP FAMILY BREAKDOWN To: FREEPOST, RTJU-RHJK-RRTT, Norwood, Progressive spectrum. Indeed, the providing of choice is a key Mosaic principle which extends Broadway House, 80-82 The Broadway, beyond ritual. Mosaic provides its members with a wide range of social, educational, cultural and The ten plagues that blighted the We can’t eliminate all of society’s Stanmore HA7 4HB recreational activities designed to appeal to diverse interests and age groups. Egyptians before the Jewish people problems, but if we don’t take action I enclose: £25 £50 £100 £250 were set free have now been replaced now, our problems will get worse. There is an excellent religion school for younger members with innovative opportunities to Other amount £ by new ‘plagues’. extend Jewish learning beyond bar/bat mitzvah. Help make a difference to 7,000 lives Name: Norwood’s social work teams are by giving Norwood a gift this Pesach. Most important, we look out as well as in and offer exciting opportunities to get involved with supporting children and their families, Address: influential social action and inter-faith programmes, whether locally, nationally or internationally. and adults with learning disabilities to Chag Sameach and thank City: Postcode: Mosaic is living proof of what can be achieved with goodwill, mutual respect and a willingness overcome everything from family Email: to work together. breakdown to discrimination. you for your support Norwood would like to keep in touch with you in the future. However, please let us know if you would prefer for us not to. I do not wish to receive information about Norwood by: post email I do not want an acknowledgment Find out more at www.choosemosaic.org or contact Donate online by phone or send a cheque Membership Officer Lindsey Cohen on 020 8420 7498 www. norwood.org.uk/appeal 020 8420 6970 with the attached form Patron Her Majesty The Queen Registered Charity No. 1059050 MCEU 2 3 be changed by strength of will, strategic reasoning and positive ‘people-skills’. Members of our small HWPS A Rabbi’s Word care group give Paul support. But we also realise that we need to challenge Paul’s current approach to caring as he needs to develop some boundaries so that he will many times over the years. Nina How could not drown. Easier said than done. was born in Greece in 1925; her Recently, I involved Paul in a family was prosperous and well- it be that a multifaith conference concerning educated. I once asked Nina if her dementia where he was able to ancestors had fled to Greece as a very successful share his story and to raise his result of the Spanish Inquisition. businessman finds concerns about institutional lack ‘No!’, she replied emphatically, ‘We of care and struggling to engage came to Greece because of the himself in a position effectively with NHS and local Roman conquest of Palestine.’ Nina authority bureaucrats. regarded the Spanish-Jewish exiles where he feels life is We have also shared with Paul Joy Katz, Nina Morris and son Paul light Shabbat candles on Nina’s as mere ‘Johnny-come-latelies’. a few joyous times, too. At the 90th birthday During the Second World War, not worth living? In a end of February, Paul prepared Nina and much of her family survived because they were hidden word, ‘dementia’ up in the mountains with the help Members of our small HWPS care group give Paul support. of partisans. There were some very own mental decline and eventually © Portrait by Italiaander – www.italiaander.co.uk close calls and Nina felt herself to a diagnosis of Alzheimers. Paul But we also realise that we need to challenge Paul’s current be extremely lucky to have come then cared for Sandra as long as have been an entrepreneurial out of the war alive. I so admire the he possibly could at home but her approach to caring as he needs to develop some boundaries so businessman… And have courage of Nina and her family as illness included severe paranoia that that he will not drown ‘Ibeen able to solve logically all well as those who helped them. made it impossible for Paul to cope. manner of problems and achieve the At the end of the war, Nina was He then found what he thought impossible when I have been told I charmed by an English-Jewish was a good care home and visited will never do it. soldier and came to this country as every day and supplemented the a small party to celebrate Nina’s Paul Morris, the son of long- his bride. Son Paul was then born care provided in many ways. But all 90th birthday. Despite her illness, HWPS care group members Vivianne Lakra, Joy Katz and Maria Landau time HWPS member Nina Morris, but, sadly, Nina’s marriage didn’t was not as it seemed in the home she enjoyed every moment. She help Nina Morris celebrate her 90th birthday wrote recently this sentence in a last. Determined and skilled, Nina and Paul had to resettle Sandra in appreciated receiving the gifts of summary of his life. But Paul’s life then got a good job with British a new home. Due to her paranoia, clothing and the loving attention of story evolved in a way that he never Airways and stayed on for decades. Sandra lashes out at Paul virtually her son and members of our care could have imagined: ‘I now find Dear family members either every day when he visits and Paul, group as well as her carers and myself unable to cope with life in remained in Greece or went to live as a loyal and caring husband, is fellow residents where she lives.