Last night, over 220 guests gave a standing ovation to 91-year-old Holocaust survivor and educator, Ivor Perl BEM, a member of Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ Centre who lives at Jewish Care’s Selig Court Retirement Living apartments at the Maurice & Vivienne Wohl Campus. Guests enjoyed listening to Ivor, in a warm and honest conversation with Dov Forman, who is responsible for his great-grandma Lily Ebert BEM’s TikTok account, which regularly has millions of views.
The fundraising dinner raised over £150,000 for Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ Centre, the only centre of its kind in the UK which supports 300 Holocaust survivors, refugees and their spouses through social, therapeutic and outreach programmes. For them, the Centre is a vital lifeline, supporting their wellbeing with a social, therapeutic and outreach programme, as well as providing support to survivors who wish to share their legacy and speak about their experiences during the Holocaust. However, the charity receives no government funding and is reliant on the support of the community to keep it running.
Speaking with Dov, Ivor said, “The Centre is even more important to me and fellow survivors as we get older. The memories of the Holocaust never leave you and talking about it brought back many traumatic moments, so what followed was me becoming a member of the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre many years ago where we also have support from the wonderful Shalvata (therapeutic service). I’ve since moved to Jewish Care’s Selig Court Retirement Living to be closer to the Centre. The Centre offers us so much care and support, a place to be together and what we really need right now, which is an abundance of love that we receive from the staff and volunteers there, who I can only describe as angels.”
Linda Bogod, Holocaust Survivors’ Centre Dinner Committee Chair, gave an emotional appeal at the Dinner, which was held at St John’s Wood Synagogue, saying, “My involvement with the Centre is very personal, it is a service that is extremely close to my heart, and I am immensely proud to be here this evening to help raise vital funds for this very special place.”
“Both my mother and my father were born in Germany, my mother in Berlin in 1932, and my father in 1923 in Frankfurt. Whilst my mother’s family managed to leave in the mid-1930s and settled in Israel, my father did not manage to escape until June 1939 when he was 16, just under a year after his father was brutally murdered on Kristallnacht simply for being Jewish. He was one of the 91 Jews killed that night. His family was not able to escape in time and his younger brother and mother were hidden in an attic in Belgium for several years during the war.
“My father who was able to lead a very happy and fulfilled life in the UK, sadly died eight years ago, and after his death, my mother started attending the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre. I am immensely proud to have my mother here with us tonight. The Monday morning Hebrew speaking group she attends at the Centre is the highlight of her week, and the support she and the Holocaust survivors and refugees who are members get from the wonderful volunteers and staff makes a huge difference to their lives.
“The Centre receives no Government funding and costs over £375,000 a year to run, so please can I ask you tonight to give as generously as you can.”
Established over four decades ago for survivors of the Holocaust, the Centre was a safe place, a haven for those who had experienced the worst of humankind.
Today, the Centre continues to be a place where Holocaust survivors, refugees and spouses are understood, can find companionship, come together and be themselves with professional support available if needed, for as long as they need it. The specialist team at the Shalvata Centre, which is part of the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre, offers counselling and social work support for all those members dealing with trauma.
Many of the 300 members, who come to the centre and those who Jewish Care reaches out to through challah deliveries and tea parties, are on their own. The centre remains a second home and a lifeline to be together and enjoy stimulating, engaging and uplifting activities as well as time to socialise and enjoy the Kosher food. From listening to the wonderful speakers who come, attending Yiddish singing, Yiddish discussion, Hebrew discussion, current affairs talks, music, being taken to the theatre or a boat trip or recently to the Old Bailey, celebrating Jewish festivals or marking Holocaust Memorial Day – the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre staff and dedicated volunteers support them to do this together.
Hannah Lewis, who is a member of the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre, thanked guests for all their support and after the Dinner, Jewish Care’s Director of Fundraising & Community Engagement, Adam Overlander-Kaye, said, “I want to thank our speakers for kindly giving us their time, our dedicated Dinner Committee for creating such a special and successful evening and our guests for their generosity in raising over £150,000.
“These vital funds will go a long way to helping us to continue to run the Centre which is a lifeline, supporting over 300 survivors, refugees and their spouses who rely on the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre programmes of social, therapeutic and outreach programmes for their well being and so that they can continue to share their experiences as part of their legacy.”
The evening was kindly hosted by Rachel Riley MBE, who has visited the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre several times this year and she introduced guest speaker, Dame Maureen Lipman DBE, actress, writer and comedian, who also generously donated her time.
Dame Maureen plays Evelyn Plummer in Coronation Street and recently performed in the compelling one-woman show, Rose, in the West End, the harrowing story of a Holocaust survivor born in Ukraine who went from the Warsaw ghetto to the USA.
She said, “We will all need Jewish Care in our lifetime, and times are especially tough at the moment. We are here for the Holocaust survivors’ and we are blessed to have some of them here tonight. The Holocaust Survivors’ Centre is so important and we have to continue to give them our support.”