Our three Kol Nidrei Appeal charities this year are Resource in the UK, Manna in Israel and our own community Kol Nefesh.  Many thanks to Shirley Fenster for delivering this year's appeal. Shirley's letter is reproduced below.

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To make your donation contact our administrator, Elaine White, on admin@kolnefesh.org.uk.

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This year’s Kol Nidre appeal looks to three charities – Resource in the UK, Manna in Israel and our own community Kol Nefesh. Let me tell you about what these charities do, why their work is important, and how your donations will help.

 

 

1.         Resource

 

A UK charity ensuring that no Jewish person who is facing unemployment or wishing to return to work is unsupported, helping them to acquire the necessary skills and confidence to gain employment, self-employment, or voluntary work. 

 

Redundancy or job loss can hit at any stage ; it saps your self-confidence, your self-esteem, and how friends and family see you. People report a loss of status, isolation, and embarrassment; people feel shame, feeling they’ve let themselves, their families, or their community down.

 

All those plans one had, those rising bills to pay…

 

And you still have to look for that next job.

 

Where to start?

 

Resource is there to help members of the Jewish Community and anyone else who turns to them. At Resource you meet regularly with your personal advisor to show you how to start on that path to a new job: to showcase your best self, to help write your CV, navigate new technology, restore your self-belief and resolve; how to network, and conduct mock interviews with you.

 

From schools to university to experienced professionals at any age – and there is ageism out there today. 

 

To attend workshops on every topic from LinkedIn, confidence building, interview technique, networking, age-less job search; where you can meet others in the same situation so you are not alone, and most importantly always a friendly face, someone to talk to and share.

 

Here is some feedback from Rob who had resorted to a food bank after losing his job:

 

“This year has been tough for me and my family on so many levels. A key factor in how I've managed to ride it out, remain actively positive and continue to believe in myself is Resource. I hope you are all reminded often enough and with sufficient conviction of how vital your care and services are. To have a place to go where one can access expertise, external perspectives, coaching and mentoring, fresh skills and deep education and a new network - my goodness, it was so valuable.

 

Maybe the biggest thing for me is that whenever I called Resource I never had to talk to an answerphone; I never came in on spec to be told there was nobody I could talk to; when I asked for Victoria, the CEO - you made time for me so generously. Regardless of which team members happened to be in reception when I came through the door, I was welcomed by people who knew me by name. They seemed pleased to see me and keen to help.

 

Being unemployed for several months is a dangerously dehumanising experience. It makes one feel unimportant and without value. To feel part of a community, to feel supported and listened to; taken seriously and encouraged, was massive for me. I have no doubt that for some of your users it's a life-saver.”

 

Resource has a skeleton staff and is manned by volunteers – it entirely relies on donations and grants. Clients do not pay at all.

 

Antisemitism has hit many in our community in schools and other industries leading to stress and mental health issues so people have felt forced to quit and come to Resource to help them find jobs within the Jewish community.

 

Displaced Israelis have come to England and Resource is helping them with visas and navigating work in the UK.

 

But like many UK Jewish Charities this year has been particularly difficult as everyone is giving rightly to Israel but we need to continue our charities in the UK.

 

As a Trustee of Resource I can tell you that your contribution will be meaningful to this small charity, and will truly make a difference.

 

 

2. Manna – Meir Panim

 

Manna feeds and supports families in Israel who simply cannot afford to buy decent food. In Israel 1 in 4 are below the poverty line, unable to provide food for their families. Manna does not just provide food - it does so with dignity in free restaurants that resemble like normal restaurants; hot food for anyone who is hungry. It helps people get back on their feet giving them the tools and skills to reach economic security. Also bringing food packages to those too old or frail to reach the centres, many of them holocaust survivors.

 

These centres are all over Israel from Dimona in the South, Jerusalem, Or Akiva to Tiberias and Safat in the North, operating out of make-shift kitchens, nearly all managed by volunteers and a skeleton staff .

 

Right now the makeshift kitchen in Or Akiva needs a new oven, to continue to provide food for up to 2000 people a day - 2 meals on Shabbat and fruit and veg on Tuesday. 

 

Manna also provides other basic necessities: clothing, toiletries, second-hand furniture giving people back their economic independence.

 

Costs in Israel have gone up sky-high so more and more need these basic services.

 

Maya is a single mother who was forced to leave her home in Kiryat Shmona on the northern border with her two teenage children after October 7th. They left with the clothes on their back escaping the relentless rocket fire. Maya had no way to support her family and needed a home. Maya was struggling to provide some stability for her children; Manna helped her with furniture from their donated furniture warehouse, catered her son’s Bar Mitzvah and provided ongoing meals to them as she rebuilt her life. Maya was so grateful that she volunteers for Manna, now providing support for others including the many local families of soldiers lost in the conflict.

 

Let’s help Manna to buy that oven and transform the kitchen in Or Akiva , and continue to provide food and basic necessities for so many across Israel, as we see prices rise and more tragedy and poverty during this difficult time of war in Israel.

 

 

3. Kol Nefesh

 

Our own community

 

We have created a small, loving, and supportive community; we are here for each other; and we support each other in times of need. We have a very strong sense of community, of caring and sharing with each other. We have a wonderful Ruach and atmosphere with singing which you won’t find in any other community. We heard it again this Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur – our children all want to come back to be in this special community they grew up in over the Chagim. As Chair of the Masorti movement I visited other wonderful Masorti shuls in the UK and in Europe and in the US, when I lived there, and no service came close to ours in spirit and Ruach. Many of our regular members travel far to be with us passing multiple other shuls on their journey to Kol Nefesh in Edgware.

 

 

We hold a service every Shabbat and Yom Tov, and so many incredible learning opportunities throughout the year, and our inspirational leader and Rabbi flies in to be with us. Our services and community have inspired many young people to become community leaders: several have taken roles in the Noam Mazkirut and in Masorti Judaism; others who grew up in Kol Nefesh are now leading services here and in other communities. Guests come to see our unique services. After our visitors from across Europe joined us for the Shabbat of the Masorti Europe weekend earlier this year we received amazing compliments - one family even joined us, and our Zoom learning events have participants from all over the world.

 

We pay membership dues but dues alone do not cover our costs - we absolutely rely on this Appeal to cover our expenses. And this year even more so as our costs will increase now that we are seeking a new home. Our rent has not increased here but we will have to find additional funds now to pay for our new home that we are actively seeking.

 

We had to make an emergency appeal last year to meet our costs – let us raise the money now this year, so we can continue to meet, run services, support all our members, to share our lives and support each other in times of joy and loss, and to ensure our synagogue continues to be such a special and unique place in years to come.

 

 

Please consider these three very important charities who need our support in these difficult times and give as generously as you can

 

 

Please complete the attached form stating your preferred split between these three charities. If no preference given we will split your donation equally.

 

Thank you so much,

 

Shirley