On Remembrance Sunday, Jewish Care’s residents, tenants, and members remembered those who fought and lost their lives to protect our freedom today. Jewish Care residents Leslie Bernard and Phyllis Burnley laid wreaths yesterday at The Betty and Asher Loftus Centre and Sandringham respectively as part of the Remembrance Sunday commemorations across the charity. The Shabbaton Choir and Chazzan Jonny Turgel who sang beautifully at the service at Sandringham, kindly supported by the Hebrew Order of David and Jewish Care’s Kun Mor & George Kiss care home resident and veteran, Melvin Goldbert played The Last Post.
Veteran Leslie Bernard, born in Leeds in 1926, lives at Jewish Care’s Wolfson Assisted Living at Sandringham, laid a wreath at Sandringham’s Remembrance Sunday service. In 1944, Leslie joined the Army where he trained as part of the East Yorkshire Regiment in a reinforcement group, due to there being heavy casualties in Normandy and the Falaise campaign. Later that year, Leslie joined the rest of his regiment in Holland as a Bren Gunner after completing his training, here he took part in the liberation of the Holland Campaign and went onwards into Germany. After the war, Leslie completed various postings in Africa. In 1948, he was demobbed and arrived back in the UK, where his family moved from Leeds to Blackpool and changed their surname from Lubovich to Bernard.
Leslie said, “I went to war as Leslie Lubovich from Leeds and came back as Leslie Bernard from Blackpool!”
Leslie was awarded the Legion of Honor, the highest French decoration and the most famous in the world, for his excellent military conduct.
Phyllis Burnley, 98, is a veteran of the Women’s RAF and resident at Jewish Care’s Rosetrees care home. Yesterday, Phyllis laid a wreath at the Remembrance Sunday service at Jewish Care’s Betty and Aher Loftus Centre.
Phyllis said, “I volunteered in the Women’s Royal Air Force and served for three and a half years. I served as a Leading Aircraft Woman and at the end of World War II, when the boys came back from overseas, I went from being a Flight Mechanic to being an administrator in the office until the end of my service, but I was proud to do my bit as a Jewish woman.”
Jewish Care’s Chief Executive, Daniel Carmel-Brown, said, “The members of our community who are ex-servicemen and women, and the number who are able to share their stories with us is decreasing. It is so important that we pay tribute to the courage shown by those who served during the wars and since, so that we can live in freedom today. We continue to be inspired by their stories and honour them and the memory of those who have sadly, over the years, lost their lives.
“We continue to think of all those caught in conflict in Israel, Ukraine and around the world, and hope for peaceful days ahead.”