AJR ANNUAL TEA PARTY PROVES TO BE A SHOWSTOPPER

The Association of Jewish Refugees welcomed members and their families to a lovely afternoon tea and medley of songs from The Great American ‘Jewish’ Songbook sung by acclaimed singer Robert Habermann. The tea was held at the beautifully refurbished South Hampstead Synagogue, the shul where some of the refugees came to pray in the early years after the AJR was founded in 1941, and which from 11 November will host the organisation’s latest regional group, their 45th, for a monthly meeting for members who live nearby.

 

In his welcome speech, AJR Chairman Andrew Kaufman (MBE) described the stellar event as “the highlight of the AJR calendar” before mentioning that the AJR would not be the organisation it is today without the support of its thriving membership of just under 2,000 members, with two thirds from the first generation.

Andrew Kaufman paid tribute to the outgoing Director of the Wiener Library, Ben Barkow, for his 32 years of service with these words: “With our thanks and deep appreciation for your many years of friendship, cooperation and, above all, dedication to the preservation of the lives and histories of our special community.” He continued to emphasise the importance of both organisations’ close partnership and highlighted the Refugee Voices archive launch which will be held at the Library on 7 November.

Andrew Kaufman also reminded us that there are those in the AJR community who require critical social welfare and volunteer services as well as financial assistance. He mentioned, “This year the AJR will be spending in excess of £7m in direct assistance in Homecare and emergency funds from our own funds and with monies provided from the German and Austrian governments made available thanks to the Claims Conference.”

Looking ahead to the future the Chairman stated that, “We anticipate further developing our Holocaust educational and commemorative grants programme to use our uniquely placed position as the UK’s largest funder of Holocaust education to see how the output of the whole sector can be improved.”

Formalities over, guests enjoyed a wonderful selection of hit songs from many of the iconic American Jewish songwriters.