JCC London

Mitzvah Day - what a day!

What a day!

I got up at 6.30, shook some kids and dashed out in new green t shirt to BBC Radio London to be on the Faith programme. A good buzz to start the day. Rushing back in a cab I made a list of items to take – camera, video, umbrella (surely it wouldn’t rain?) and some offspring

First stop Habonim central – our temporary offices -  to meet the team, eat the first pastries and blow balloons

First stop the LJS project – Sainsbury’s at the O2.  I heard later they collected piles of groceries for Doorstep but when we were there, early, they were chasing a boy who had stolen one of the helium balloons, and they got it back!

Then to Adafina in St Johns Wood to see Bnei Akiva doing Mitzvah Day shopping.  Lady Sacks joined us which was a thrill and she dutifully bought some items and put them in the GIFT donations box.

Back in the car to Tesco's on Englands Lane to briefly see South Hampstead United presiding over the clearing of the shelves – all items donated to New Horizons Homeless shelter. 

On to Kentish Town City farm. Yes the rain was now coming down and I confirmed my suspicion that mitzvah day umbrellas should have been bought!  Jonathan Freedland, Julia Neuberger and Dan Patterson all joined this multi faith gathering and dutifully joined in with sweeping and cleaning though they were all a bit wary of the sheep.  A little pizza and on.

LondonUkraineNext to the WJR Packathon in Neasden. What an amazing gathering with hundreds of people packing clothes and other items to send to the Ukraine.We had sent 8 teams of teens from across London to assist with this massive task and everyone was working together to get the job done.

A few more pastries and then on to Ella and Ridley Jacobs House (Jewish Care) to join a sing song. This was a group from many different places, all ages just united by a desire to join the project. We hung bunting and tied up even more balloons and sang and danced with the residents who all dutifully wore their Mitzvah Day badges. I have to say the homes for seniors are always the best projects for me. It is so real, so hands on and such a wonderful feeling. The Jewish Care staff incredible and we all came out utterly uplifted.   Just one pastry.

Next down to the JCC project in Belsize Park.The town hall was throbbing, with collection projects, a Darfur project, knitting hats for newborn babies in developing countries via Save the Children, sorting and packing clothes, toys and stationery, bone marrow screening for Tay Sachs with Jewish Care, workshops by Tzedek and JCore. A big buzz with loads of people.

 
Then to the Mitzvah Day thank you event – with fireworks.  Using food donated to us by the Mitzvah Day shops and Brondesbury Cricket Clubs hall we had a wonderful evening and Zeddy Lawrence from the Jewish News announced the winner of the Community Hero awards  - but it wouldn’t be fair for me to steal their thunder.  Luckily lots of volunteers on hand to clear up.

One more event, the Barnet Mayor's Mitzvah Day concert at Alyth.  

As I sat and watched and listened, I paused for reflection.  We are truly blessed in our community. Where else would you find that level of participatory giving.  What other community could pull off something as positive and inclusive as Mitzvah Day.

Thank you to the hundreds of people who made Mitzvah Day possible and the thousands who donated items and gave up their time. We didn’t change the world today – but we did make our mark!

 

Six days to go...

So it's just six days to go until Mitzvah Day - a day when you give up your time and not your money. It's nearly midnight and I guess it'll be another long night! Tonight I spent the evening with the volunteer team at the Habonim Dror offices. This is where we have our temporary base and they have looked after us for the past few months. We were packing up all the Mitzvah Day goodies (t shirts, bunting, stickers etc) and considering how we will all look in eco friendly green t shirts.

We have thousands of people lined up to take place in Mitzvah Day this Sunday.  Within the past four days we have had several new partners join all wanting to run a mitzvah day – Liverpool King David Primary school, Liverpool Chabad, SWESRS  and Woodside Park United Shul. We have run out of materials and rushed to the printers today for some extra stickers so everyone taking part can have something at least.

We have 26 Mitzvah Day shopping projects due to take place round the country where volunteers ask shoppers to buy extra and that item is taken to the needy. I do hope it isn’t going to rain or all the lovely bunting will be ruined. This project is with GIFT who run great volunteering projects and take food to the hungry.

We are also helping WJR with their fabulous family packathon sending clothes to Eastern Europe. We have eight teams of teens and accompanying adults from across the religious devide all going along to work together. Really exciting and a big buzz.

Another charity I am excited we are supporting is Norwood. They are running projects and seem to have endless great ideas.

Both the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News have been incredibly supportive of Mitzvah Day. I think we have tapped into a nerve. What I don’t really know is whether people are inspired by Mitzvah Day because of the volunteering and the projects, the cross communality, the inter faith possibilities or just because they simply love green t shirts!

Laura Marks

12 days to go

When the JCC asked me if I would like to be involved in their Blog this week I thought they must be mad! With twelve days to go till Mitzvah Day 08 I hardly have time to breath never mind to Blog. Nonetheless it might be very interesting to share what it is like setting up a day of action in the Jewish Community so here I go.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Mitzvah Day is a day (November 16th ) when we all go out and do something hands on for someone else – and, radically, with no fund raising projects allowed.  I first found it when my family lived in Los Angeles andand  where it has now morphed into Big Sunday  and claims up to 50,000 participants.  On my return to the UK in 2003 it seemed the perfect event to bring to the Jews of the UK, which I did with founding partner, the JCC for London.  We debated using a less Jewish name but decided that Mitzvah Day is proudly, determinedly and delightfully Jewish and as such we should shout about it.  Our Judaism is what makes us different and this year we are proud to be sharing this Jewish led event with Christians, Sikhs and Muslims.

It's only one day but it takes a  mountain of preparation. Each partner (organisation running projects) has its own needs. Some, like Nottingham's multi-faith mitzvah are totally mixed faith. Others like the UJIA Mitzvah Day is a move into corporate volunteering. There are school Mitzvah Days such as Immanuel College andyouth movements all round the country are joining in such as RSY, Habonim Dror and Bnei Akiva. Today we were sorting out a fantastic project in Haringey for a park where we will be building bat and bird boxes as part of a conservation project. It really does mean we will see Jews getting their sleeves rolled up and stuck in.

I had a great moment today when I learned that the second last Jewish Care home now has visitors scheduled for Mitzvah Day. Only one more to cover. If you know of anyone in Brighton who wants to get involved….?

Laura Marks

Something to celebrate after all the festivals

As one ends October feeling ‘festivalled out’, it is really satisfying to get on with the rest of life. Not that it really stops over the holidays, what with sermons, family meals, and the beginning of Parliamentary term. What I love when it’s all over is that the message of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur- about resolving to do better and being judged by what we do and not what we say - has to inform the next bit of our lives.

That’s why my GOAT role - ‘government of all the talents’ - is so satisfying. I’m there to promote volunteering in general and within the public services in particular. I review how people who volunteer in our hospitals or prisons are treated. I discover volunteers who will meet and greet you in your neighbourhood police station now as well as in hospitals. And the hospital ‘meeters and greeters’ say they know they are really useful to patients and family and friends, but their REAL use is helping young medical students and housemen find their way round these huge and complicated- and often very badly signposted- edifices. I love what I do, and the fact it feels so Jewish. It isn’t, of course.

The UK comes at or near the top of every survey of how many people in a society volunteer. It’s very British. But it is also very Jewish. And with Mitzvah Day coming up, which celebrates the Jewishness of volunteering and aims to get us all out there helping others, doing something for its own sake, for free, I am all too aware of just how much it is part of our religious tradition, our culture - and, in many cases, our personal upbringing.

I am so convinced that volunteers can bring things paid staff cannot do - like give peer support to people who have breast cancer, say, because they’ve had it- that I would like to create even more ways for people to use their experience to benefit others. That might be intergenerational - older people helping children with reading, or history - because they were there. Or it might cross communities. Jews and Muslims together, for instance.

I’m not too bothered about why people volunteer - it’s usually for a mix of reasons, of which altruism plays a part. But I love the fact that they do. And that most of us have services given to us by volunteers as well as volunteering to help others. We’re often very critical of our society for its selfishness. If you look at how many of us volunteer, and how often, you wouldn’t feel so bad. And that’s really something to celebrate after all the festivals.

Baroness Neuberger