Kol Nidre Appeal 5779/2018

Some information on our KNA charities

Muswell Hill Food Bank

Muswell Hill Food Bank helps people in Haringey and Barnet, who are experiencing financial difficulties, to put food on the table. People who come to the food bank receive 3 days of food. The money donated from Muswell Hill Synagogue helps to cover this cost.

Muswell Hill Food Bank is part of the Trussell Trust network of food banks. We help people in Haringey and Barnet who are struggling to put food on the table. We now have 95 agencies in Haringey and Barnet (we started in November ’16 with 15) who hold our vouchers. These are varying care professionals such as health visitors, schools and social workers, who identify people in crisis and issue them with a foodbank voucher. Last year (1st October ’17 to 10th August ’18), 818 food vouchers were redeemed at the food bank. These vouchers can be for a single person, couple or family, so in all, we provided food etc for 1133 adults and 577 children.

When the clients come to the food bank we like them to be greeted with a friendly face, and offered tea, coffee and cake. Also, some people are needed to sort and pack their food parcels. I’m so thankful to all the volunteers from the Synagogue who helped with the running of the food bank last year. It really couldn’t happen without you. Many, many thanks!!

Find out more here

Camp Simcha

At Camp Simcha every child counts, whether they themselves are ill, or if they have a seriously ill sister or brother.
Children often suffer in ways that are very difficult to spot. Often these children find it very difficult to understand or to express their feelings, but skilled therapists, using play, art, music or drama, can enable them to express difficult feelings in a safe environment.

Camp Simcha provides these wonderful therapists to children in the safety of their own home.
Carly was just 8 when her younger brother Max, who was just 18 months at the time, was diagnosed with a serious heart condition that required serious and life threatening treatment. Carly’s Mum & Dad, who were very busy people at the best of times, had to cope with the devastating news, whilst trying to sustain some normality at home. Carly also has a 4 year old sister Milly and her bother Daniel who was struggling to cope at his new high school.

Carly is really mature for her age and whilst her siblings struggled, Mum and Dad were able to rely in the fact that she was doing fine – so nobody spotted that Carly was struggling to come to terms with the changes in her life, that she was just as upset and worried about Max, but it was really difficult for a 8 year old to understand what it all meant. Mostly nobody spotted that Carly got the main part in the school play and when the play took place the same night as Max had to be rushed in to hospital, nobody was there to see her and tell her how proud they were.

That was where Camp Simcha stepped in – alongside many other ways in which they supported the family, one of their amazing Big Sister volunteers did notice that nobody was able to go with Carly to see her in the school play. So she arranged to go with her and to take her out for a Pizza to celebrate her performance.

But most importantly Camp Simcha arranged for Tess to come along for a few weeks to sit with Carly at home. Tess is a qualified art therapist. She got Carly to express her feelings, and helped her to see that these feelings were natural and OK. Tess fed back Carly’s feelings to Mum and dad who were able to reassure her and to show her how proud they were of her and to thank her for….for being her.

Last year Camp Simcha provided 1,200 of these amazing therapeutic sessions to children who needed it. But without any government funding, this is only possible with the support of the community. Your support tonight will help to ensure that Camp Simcha can provide so many more children like Carly with these incredible expressive arts therapists.

Find out more here

CCECH

CCECH Joint School Activity – Learning Traditional Dances

While we experience cycles of violence, counter violence and the struggle for peace in the Middle East, it is ordinary people who must seek ways of really living together, of learning how to co-operate with each other, and reach beyond the negative stereotypes that are constantly reinforced by current events and the images presented in the media. It is crucial that viable relationships are developed between neighbouring Jewish and Arab, Israeli and Palestinian, communities. programmes that bring together Arab and Jewish school-communities (children, parents, grandparents, educators) in an atmosphere of serious learning and fun. Our objectives are to give the participants ongoing opportunities of being together in dynamic, creative settings in which they get to know something of each others’ ways of life, hopes and dreams of the future

We begin with pairs of Jewish and Arab elementary school classes who work together for a period of 2 years. Children research their own cultural environment and folklore, collecting information from their families. Joint Activities, in which the paired Jewish and Arab classes meet, are built around parents and grandparents who come as tradition-bearers. Children, parents and grandparents thus come to the meetings with a sense of confidence and pride, coupled with an eagerness to share, and together they explore both communities’ traditions in, for example, play, food, oral history and music, enjoying the personal experience of each others’ cultures.

No matter what the situation on the ground, especially at times of heightened tension and outbreaks of violence, we find that participants in the programmes, from the children to their parents and teachers, feel committed to each other, with the expectation of being treated with dignity and respect. The atmosphere of their meetings is, in fact, full of warmth, joy at the relief of relating to one another simply as children and parents.

Since 1991, we have worked with thousands of children and their families in paired Arab and Jewish schools. The longer schools work together, the stronger the relationship between communities.

In offering people a way of experiencing each other in personal and positive terms, the tension between neighbouring Arab and Jewish communities can be greatly reduced. Our real hope for the future lies in the quiet persistence of dedicated people who show our children an alternative to violence and disruption.

Find out more here

The United Synagogue Asylum Seeker Project:

This project is based, once a month at Hendon Shul with volunteers coming from all of the US shuls to help cook, sort donated clothing or play with the children. 45 asylum seekers are now coming to the centre each month and the demand is constantly growing, this is just the tip of the iceberg and the centre needs more funds to be able to continue and to be able to expand to other areas across London.

Donate

You can donate online to the Muswell Hill Synagogue Kol Nidre Appeal at www.kolnidre.org.uk (don’t forget to include the pledge code which you can get from the office). Alternatively fill in the pledge card on your seat on Kol Nidre