The Mayor of Barnet, Cllr Caroline Stock, joined Jewish Care and intergenerational charity, JOY, which stands for Joining Old and Young, to deliver challah to members of Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ Centre. The project is part of an initiative to create new ways of keeping members of its Holocaust Survivors’ Centre connected, virtually, through the pandemic.
Now, more than 130 Holocaust survivors welcome a weekly chat on a Friday with one of the dedicated volunteers who deliver a challah, along with messages and colourful drawings by schoolchildren from local primary schools, wishing them shabbat shalom.
Cllr Caroline Stock, who delivered challahs to Helena Bude and Ruth Frei, said, “I’m so proud to be a part of this wonderful initiative delivering challah and visiting older Holocaust survivors with Jewish Care and the intergenerational charity, Joining Old and Young.”
Helena remarked on how pleased she is with the project, saying, “It’s such a pleasure it is to see the volunteer Natalie, when she delivers challah each week.”
“We’d like to thank The Mayor of Barnet for her support by taking the time to deliver challah with us this week,” says Sarah Jane Burstein at Jewish Care, “And we’d also like to thank JOY, for partnering with us on this great project so that we could reach out to Holocaust survivors in the community, helping them to celebrate Shabbat. We couldn’t do it without our amazing volunteers who brighten their day with a visit and the Shabbat messages from the children that give the members a lift through the week.”
Jenny Kossew, Founder of JOY, agrees, “We’re so delighted that the Mayor was able to deliver challah with us and the be a part of the project. It is about so much more than the challah. It is being able to make face to face contact and have people to talk to once again. This in itself is a means of combatting loneliness and isolation.
“We’d also like to thank City Bridge Trust for giving us the opportunity to run this wonderful Shabbat challah project with Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivor’s Centre. Thanks to Sharon Bakery for baking the challahs as well as the marvellous local schools who are showing older people that they continue to be thought about and cared about, by all in the community.”
“You cannot imagine what a delight it was for me to meet the young volunteer, Alissa, when she brought the challah to our door last Friday with a cheerful smile. It is these little gestures of thoughtfulness and kindness that mean so much in the pandemic and are so appreciated,” says Ruth Barnett, 86.
