‘I don’t feel 50 years older’: Drinking, dancing and reminiscing at the ‘JC Do’s’ revival night

Goldring said that events advertised in the JC were  “where you met people, and you made friends. Long-term friends.”

People having a good time at the revival do in Borehamwood (Image: JC)[Missing Credit]

Tiano added: “ It was much easier then. Now there's no way to meet anyone anymore.”

As Sweet Caroline played, Lynn Shemesh, Sue Bagel and Linda Morris, all in their 60s  were enjoying the event. 

Morris said: “We are here to have a night out for a change, relive our youth and try to have happy times with all what's going on.”

Dancing like the old times at the JC Do's revival night (Image: JC)[Missing Credit]

Shemesh said: “We're going back about 40 to 50 years when we were in our twenties, and we had a wonderful time, and we're looking forward to now just reliving our youth again.

“The events were amazing. We loved all the hotels, and we loved all the places, all the people, and we had the best times ever.”

Bagel said “Everything's changed, except for the fact I don't feel 50 years older.”

Morris added: “Mentally, I'm 20. Physically, I'm 120.”

People dancing at the JC Do's revival night in Borehamwood (Image: JC)[Missing Credit]

Two people with especially fond memories of the old JC dances were couple Barbara, 71, and Steve, 76, from Edgware.

“We met 36 years ago at a JC event,” Barbara recalled.

Steve added: “We just thought we might see some old friends and people that we used to know. So we thought we'd pop in and just see what it was going to be like. We have seen a few old faces.”

One change he’d noticed was the need for Community Security Trust (CST) presence outside the venue.

“More security is needed because the world has changed a lot, and we hope that things are going to calm down soon,” he said.

JC reporter Jamie Shapiro with a very special attendee - his mum, Jackie, who used to attend the old events (Image: JC)[Missing Credit]

“There's also nowhere for Jewish young people to go really. They should try and bring back something for the 25s, maybe the 35-year-olds.  They should try and do something to bring that type of environment back.

“What stayed the same is that we all like to see each other. We like to see people we used to know, and we like to mix with people we used to know. We enjoy each other's company.”

The event was organised by Neville Fox, who set up a ‘JC Do's 70s and 80s’ Facebook page 13 years go. gradually more and more people followed the page, and expressed interest in a revival event. 

“Back in around about 2019, I asked on there if people would be interested in a sort of reunion, and I got a lot of people saying yes. So I started to put something together, and then Covid came along and scuppered it.

“Afterwards, I started looking again at trying to put something together in 2023 and then October 7 happened. And so I realised that it wasn't going to happen, and I thought, one day I'll do it.

“After the last of the hostages was released, I thought maybe now's the time to look at doing it again, to sort of give everyone a little bit of an uplift.

An old fashioned pop corn machine which was free to help yourself to (Image: JC)[Missing Credit]

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, he recalled, Jewish teenagers and young adults would  join committees to raise money for charity. They put on events to raise money and advertised them in the JC. 

“Every weekend there were a handful of ‘JC Do’s’ that would be advertised in the JC, and people would get the paper on a Friday, come home from work, or they would start working, whatever, look at the back pages and decide where they were going to go.

There were also discos put on in hotels. “There was the Clive Hotel in Hampstead, there was the Churchill in the West End, several in the West End, a few in Bayswater, and so you'd have a choice.

“Plus there were some of the clubs, Maccabi, etcetera, all advertised, and people would go to them.”

He’d like to see more events like this organised by and for young Jewish people. ​​​​​​​But he said that one thing hadn’t changed​​​​​​​​​​​​​​, Jewish unity. 

“The Jewish community will come together for charity, to comfort each other if they need to, and to have fun. It's unity. It's the main thing, I think.”