‘We started an online community during Covid, and it’s still flourishing’

Abraham Events had a “live birth” a few years ago at London’s JW3, as a discussion group led by Johnny Sueke. When Covid hit, Johnny transferred to Zoom, with John Blaskey as the presenter.

By April 2023, Johnny’s wife was begging her stressed husband to step back. One by one, volunteers joined the team – Lynne Nathan, Jeremy Hart, Robert Shields, Ivor Nathan, Linda Price and yours truly.

Zoom knows no borders, but surprisingly, we all happened to come from Andy Burnham territory – Manchester!

As one person who was on the Zoom with Graham Gouldman quipped: “There’s life after north London in a shtetl called Manchester.”

We have been empowered by goodwill alone. There are no pots of money available. In order to pay for the only expense – the Zoom – we each put in £25 and invited our “punters” to follow suit according to their means. The response was overwhelming: it was a resounding “Yay!” for Abraham Events to continue. The money has lasted from the time we took over, funding no less than 140 meetings.

We don’t have a formal committee. Each one of us slips naturally into a role befitting our skills and preferences. In all these three years, we have had only two physical group meetings. Where else but in our local Jewish deli, Lulu’s? How do you think half a dozen Jews get together, other than over salt beef sandwiches on rye?

It is difficult to choose the most memorable presentation, but my own choice would be the dialogue (or rather, heated argument) between Baroness Deech and Lord Finkelstein on the desirability of the proposed UK Holocaust Memorial and and Learning Centre in Whitehall. The baroness strongly condemned it; the lord was more: “Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth.”

During these eventful three years, Abraham Events has navigated the Covid pandemic, the shocking October 7 massacre and the emergence of global antisemitism.

Dr Shoshan Haran will discuss her book about being taken hostage in Gaza and her struggle to save her family[Missing Credit]

The climax will be on August 28, when all that we have covered coalesces in the story of Dr Shoshan Haran, who will discuss her book, Mission in Captivity. One Woman’s Struggle to Survive and Save Her Family in Gaza.

On October 7, terrorists murdered Shoshan’s husband, Avshalom Haran, her sister, Lilach Kipnis, and her brother-in-law, Eviatar Kipnis, and abducted her and other close family members, who had come to visit them on Kibbutz Be’eri. Her son-in-law, Tal Shoham, was taken captive separately from his family and freed after 505 days. We hope you will join us to hear first-hand her extraordinary story of survival.

The feedback from our regulars about Abraham Events has been overwhelmingly positive and just shows what can be achieved at a grassroots level – with a simple idea, a lot of commitment, but without a lot of money.

Stuart Winton, who lives with his wife in a Jewish Care home, said the programme “continues to provide stimulation for the mind”.

Carole Jayson described it as “well organised, informative and fun”, and Sharon, one of our regulars who Zooms in from Sweden, said: “I love the variety of speakers and topics and look forward to them every week.”

We were touched to have received the following message from Abraham Events’ original founder, Johnny Sueke, who told us: “This essential community flourishes due to your team’s dedication and professionalism which is strengthening the lives and the fabric of our community.”

Thank you, Johnny – our founder and inspiration.

​Dr Shoshan Haran will be speaking at Abraham Events on August 28 about her book. To join the discussion and other Abraham Events, go to: abrahamevents.org