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17/03/2021
AJR & Project ImpACT, joined in care
The AJR and Project ImpACT joined forces this week to send care packages to over 300 AJR members to help raise their spirits during lockdown. The AJR came up with idea to collaborate with teen volunteering specialists Project ImpACT to benefit their members who are not online and therefore have not been able to join the 300-plus Zoom events held during the past year. Carol Hart MBE, Head of Volunteer and Community Services for AJR said, “We often get messages from our members telling us how much they enjoy and value our online events, but we realise there are many who are not online and are missing out. “I asked Project ImpACT if they could help and they had over 60 young volunteers sign up within minutes!” The two organisations held a joint online event which saw AJR member and Kindertransporter Vera Schaufeld talk to the teens about her...
03/03/2021
AJR’s winning volunteers
Faced with the difficult task of making only one choice in each category, the AJR is delighted to announce its winners in the Jewish Volunteer Network (JVN) Celebration of Volunteering Awards 2020, celebrated last night (Tuesday 2 March, 2021). During a year when the world has been turned upside down and everyone has had to adapt to new ways of living, we at the AJR give thanks to our incredible cohort of volunteers who have risen to the challenge to ensure that AJR members feel included and cared for. Steve Newton Steve Newton is AJR’s Volunteer of the Year. Since the beginning of the pandemic Steve has offered countless hours of technical support to our members as well as running weekly tech classes on subjects such as safe online shopping and avoiding scams. When it became apparent that Zoom was a lifeline, Steve became part...
06/01/2021
Supplemental Hardship Fund payments
January 2021. AJR members who have previously received a payment from the Hardship Fund may now be eligible to apply for supplemental payments from the Claims Conference. Once approved, it is hoped that an initial payment of €1,200 will be made in the first quarter of 2021 with a second award of the same value in 2022. The Claims Conference will be writing directly to Hardship Fund recipients but if for any reason you were not been contacted by 31 December 2020 please email Rosemary Peters rosemary@ajr.positive-dedicated.net or telephone 020 8385 3088 or Melanie Jawett melanie@ajr.positive-dedicated.net or telephone 020 8385 3072. (Please note that the deadline for applications is 31 December 2022 and also that heirs are not eligible to apply). Click here to see the Supplemental Hardship Payment Frequently Asked Questions
31/12/2020
Congratulations to our ‘Honoured’ colleagues
We are delighted to congratulate two colleagues who have been awarded in the Queen’s New Year Honours. Carol Hart Carol Hart, AJR’s Head of Volunteer and Community Services, receives an MBE for services to the Jewish community during the Covid-19 pandemic. Carol has worked for the AJR for 15 years managing a team of coordinators and over 350 volunteers. Since the beginning of lockdown Carol has put in place new services to ensure the well-being of AJR’s members including regular phone-calls, letter writing, socially-distanced garden visits and online support groups for carers. Carol said, “After the shock of hearing about the Honour, my feeling is of immense gratitude that I have the opportunity to work for a superb charity (AJR) which supports inspirational members alongside a team of dedicated staff, volunteers and trustees.” Anthony Spiro Anthony Spiro, AJR Trustee and Joint...
10/11/2020
Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration
A record number of around 500 people joined this year’s Kristallnacht commemoration, held online yesterday for the first time due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Michael Newman, Chief Executive of the AJR and Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg from New North London Synagogue, both descendants of refugees, spoke live during the event. Austrian Ambassador Michael Zimmerman pre-recorded his message at Belsize Square Synagogue, the usual location for this annual event, while Hannah Lessing, General Secretary of the Austrian National Fund, joined from the Stadttempel in the Seitenstettengasse, Vienna. Both shuls have a rich history linked to the Holocaust. The event also featured testimonies from AJR members Robert Shaw, John Izbicki and Kur Marx, the latter two extracted from interviews in the AJR’s Refugee Voices Archive. We were inundated with messages of thanks following the online event. Care coordinators at Sunridge Court in Golders Green wrote, “We had 15 residents attending and...