Lord Alan Sugar, who has supported Jewish Care for more than four decades, spoke about his personal connection with the charity at their annual dinner on Monday night.
Around 1,000 guests from all corners of the Jewish community and beyond gathered in central London, raising £5.6 million between them.
The figure is a record for the event and goes some way towards Jewish Care’s annual costs of around £20 million.
Lord Sugar said that “giving to Jewish Care has always been very simple for me: you can see the difference it makes – it’s just people helping people.”
He continued: “Choosing a care home for a loved one is one of the biggest decisions you have to make. You want to walk in and immediately think: ‘They’ll be safe here. They’re going to be happy here. They’re going to be treated with dignity here.’ I wanted [the Sugar & Ronson Campus] to feel like a home. And the measure of success is seeing quality of life for the people who are going to be living there.”
The Sugar and Ronson families have combined to fund the new development in Redbridge, which houses a 66-bed residential care home and an adjacent community centre. Guests were shown a fly-through video of the impressive new facility.
Lord Sugar spoke with journalist Emily Maitlis, who hosted the dinner alongside criminal barrister and television personality Rob Rinder.
The pair interviewed Jewish Care clients and their relatives throughout the evening, providing guests with firsthand testimony of the benefits of the charity’s work.
Janine Webber BEM, the last remaining survivor of the Lvov Ghetto living in the UK, whose entire immediate family were killed during the Holocaust, spoke about how Jewish Care helped her to tell her story after decades of not being able to share her story.
(Left to right): Rob Rinder, Janine Webber BEM, Emily Maitlis, Jacques Weisser BEM (photo: Justin Grainge)[Missing Credit]
She recounted how her sons organised an interview with the USC Shoah Foundation for her in 1996 – four decades after she arrived in the UK – but that she was so upset that she could not talk about her experiences, and the interviewer recommended that she sought professional help.
That support came from the Shalvata service at Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivor Centre, based in Hendon at the time, and after four years of psychotherapy, she was ready to share her story.
She told guests that story – how she survived the Holocaust by hiding in the Lvov Ghetto, several farms, an attic, a convent, and a tiny underground bunker for nearly a year, which she described as “a hole in the ground”.
Thanks to Jewish Care’s provisions, her harrowing and immensely powerful story has been told to thousands of schoolchildren and impacted countless lives.
Even today she finds solace at the centre, now based in Golders Green – particularly in the company she finds there, of others who survived the Holocaust.
“The centre is vital,” she said. “It gives us somewhere to go and be safe with friends who understand what we’ve been through. Without that support, I wouldn’t be able to tell my story as I do now. It’s part of my home.”
Rinder’s speech later in the evening highlighted the various sectors of Jewish Care’s services, including residential care, retirement living and dementia support.
His father, who has dementia, is being cared for at a Jewish Care home.
“What I remember most in that first call to Jewish Care is how I felt when I put the phone down,” Rinder said. “Relief, not because everything had suddenly become simple – it absolutely hadn't – but because for the first time in a long time, I felt we were no longer carrying this by ourselves.
“They’re giving something back to my family that we desperately needed: not perfect peace, but the peace that comes from knowing that tonight my dad is safe, and that even when we can't be there, someone who cares for him completely is.”
Evelyn Middleditch also commended Jewish Care’s dementia provisions, saying that she “really can't express” how much Jewish Care has helped her husband David, who has dementia and now attends the Sam Beckman Centre and takes part in activities including quizzes, theatre, dancing and singing.
(Left to right): Emily Maitlis with Evelyn Middleditch and Barbara Jaye (photo: Justin Grainge)[Missing Credit]
Indeed, Jewish Care has won various awards recently, including the end-of-life care in dementia award at the UK Dementia Awards and gaining recognition for community services at the NAPA Activity Awards.
Various others spoke of the impact of Jewish Care’s services on them or their family over the course of the evening.
John Featherman shared a candid account of how Jami, the charity’s integrated mental health service, was there for him when he was at his lowest and contemplating suicide.
“Jami and everything it does has the power to change lives,” he said. “It really did save my life – and I hope that, thanks to your support, it will save many more.”
Barbara Jaye, who both volunteers for Jewish Care and accesses their services, described how the charity “welcomed me with open arms” and allowed her to find friendship and purpose.
“Whether it’s singing, table tennis or supporting people with dementia, it just feels good to be part of something that brings people joy,” she said.
And Emma Parker and Ben Roback spoke emotionally about their grandmother, whom they affectionately referred to as “Bubby”, and the exceptional end-of-life care that the charity provided her.
Roback said: “At the care home, she wasn’t just another resident – she was known, respected and loved. She had an amazing life, and thanks to the Jewish Care staff, who spoke to my grandma and my mum about how Bubby wanted the end of her life to be, she also had an amazing end of life.”
Parker reinforced the staff’s deep connection to their clients, sharing how one member of staff came to their grandmother’s levoyah and another to her shiva.
Guests were also treated to a performance from Emma Kingston, who is currently starring as Elphaba in the West End stage version of Wicked, who performed a few classic songs from musicals, including a moving rendition of On My Own from Les Miserables.
Emma Kingston performing (photo: Justin Grainge)[Missing Credit]
Speaking after the dinner, Jewish Care life president Lord Michael Levy and chair Marcus Sperber thanked guests for their phenomenal fundraising efforts.
Lord Levy said that the donations will allow Jewish Care to “continue providing life-changing Jewish care and support to the 12,000 people whose lives we touch each week”.
This was the first annual dinner since Jewish Care announced their five-year plan, entitled Altogether Stronger, earlier this year, which aims to raise £100 million over the next five years.
To get more from community, click here to sign up for our free community newsletter.