US Chesed News
This year, once again US Chesed has been delighted to work together with our many volunteers in delivering honey cakes to members. We at Head Office buy the honey cakes – this year we have used Carmelli’s and the cakes certainly look great. I’m sure they will taste great as well. But it is the local Synagogues who decide who in their community should receive the cakes and the Rosh Hashanah card – usually the more senior members of our communities, people who have been or are unwell, people who have been recently bereaved or people who find it difficult to get out and about. 44 Synagogues participated in this project, with nearly 1400 cakes being delivered. We want to show our members that we do care about them and this gives us an opportunity to have a chat, see how a person is getting on and in some situations to ask if they need support from our community care teams and to tell them what is available.
Rosh Hashanah is a very special time of the year, when many people reflect on what has happened in the past year and think about the forthcoming year. It's a time when many people think about their priorities in life. This can make it a very challenging period, particularly if the previous year has been a difficult one. That’s why it is so important that we at US Chesed and the community care groups show members that they are part of a community that does care about them.
Thank you to all our volunteers who manage to juggle their lives so that spending time with people in need is one of their priorities. If you have not volunteered so far but are thinking about it, please e-mail chesed@theus.org.uk
The photo above is of Frances Yellin who may be the only US member to officially receive two cakes and two cards from Project Chesed delivered by welfare members from two US synagogues. Frances is a member of Palmers Green and also an honorary member of Enfield & Winchmore Hill. Her late husband Sidney was a great supporter of Palmers Green and also did many handy man jobs for both Palmers Green and for Enfield Winchmore Hill, he would never accept any payment. He also walked many times on a Shabbat for over an hour to Enfield, to participate in the Services often reading the Haftorah.
She was delighted to accept the cake I gave to her with the compliments of the US Project Chesed, and our Welfare Committee.
We have since received many messages of thanks for the honey cakes including this one from Mrs Rose Zaideman who said, thank you very, very much, you wonderful people, Shanah Tovah . I got a cake and a card which is absolutely wonderful. I am 97 years old now and I am going to be 98 years old next week so the cake will go toward my birthday celebrations".
Click here for a photogallery.
