In March 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic turned our whole world upside down. It also confronted Jewish Care with the greatest challenge in our history.

It seemed that keeping our residents safe and helping the ever-increasing number of members of our community who needed us would be an almost impossible task.

We dealt with the crisis in the same way Jewish Care and the community has always faced adversity. By pulling together and working for the common good. By putting other people’s needs before our own.

I hope you’ll take a moment to read about some of our most moving lockdown stories in the leaflet enclosed. When you do, you’ll understand why, as Chief Executive of Jewish Care, I’m humbled by the way we came together to meet this challenge. How our staff and volunteers kept going is little short of miraculous.

I’m incredibly proud of our whole organisation. But I am still concerned for the future. We know Coronavirus hasn’t gone away, and while it is with us, we absolutely have to make sure we can continue to care for everyone who needs us.

But our ability to do that is threatened by the sheer amount of extra work we had to do to help all the people who needed us during lockdown – and who continue to rely on our support today. I’m talking about the:

• Twelve hundred Meals on Wheels are delivered to members of our community who are now counting on us to provide this vital service every week – often the only hot meal they eat – and the only friendly face they see.
• Hundreds of people who are now calling our helpline every week in need of support. In fact, 40% more enquiries than usual.
• Fourteen hundred clients and their families who are relying on our Social Work teams to help them get through this challenging time.
• Huge amounts of extra investment we continue to make to enable us to keep our members, staff and volunteers safe. We have had to spend over £400,000 on secure vital personal protective equipment alone.

To make things even more challenging, while investing a huge amount to care for people in need, we’ve also had to cancel most of our fundraising events. We need to raise £16 million every year to continue to run our vital services, but owing to the impact of Covid-19, now we need to raise an extra £5 million to ensure Jewish Care can be there for everyone who needs us.

Rosh Hashanah is when we think of renewal and making the world sweet again. There can rarely have been a time when this was more needed. That’s why I hope you’ll be able to give us your support once more today.

I promise that your support will make a huge difference to the lives of people like Violet. She’s 87 and lives alone. She’s been a regular at one of our community centres for years – making lots of friends. Coronavirus stopped all that.

Violet soon began to feel isolated and lonely. But with the support from a telephone befriender who volunteers her time to call and check in on Violet she now feels less alone. She’s now also taking part in a regular discussion group run by the community centre over the phone. As Violet says, “It gives us nachas for the day. It lifts my soul when I speak to everyone and gives me a boost to get through the week.”

Of course, Violet is just one of the people you’ll be helping when you make a donation to support our work this Rosh Hashanah. Thousands of members of the Jewish community across London and the South East and their families will also benefit from your generosity.

Just as our community relies on Jewish Care in its hour of need, so we rely on you, our incredibly generous supporters. So please make a gift today, and please be as generous as you can this Rosh Hashanah.