World Jewish Relief raises critical funds on fourth anniversary of Ukraine war

He continued: “I can say sadly – but with certainty – that the situation in the world right now is one of the most perilous I have seen in my 20 years at World Jewish Relief. The need for our support has not subsided but has grown exponentially.”

Paul Anticoni OBE, WJR's CEO, appeals to supporters[Missing Credit]

Emma Barnett, who compèred the evening, told the audience of her personal connection with WJR, which helped her grandmother’s family to flee Vienna in the lead up to the Second World War.

Barnett found her grandmother’s documents in WJR’s extensive archives and learnt that she made it to safety just three days before war broke out.

“So when I say I am in great part here this evening because of World Jewish Relief, I mean it,” Barnett said.

After Barnett had shared her story, the guests sat either side of me talked about their own relationships with WJR.

For one, the organisation had helped her grandma to escape Romania before the Second World War – a fact she found out thanks to WJR’s archives. For the other, his mother was helped to settle in the UK when she arrived from Iraq in the ‘70s.

WJR’s chair Maurice Helfgott spoke of the challenging times for Jews in the UK today, and how they must stand resilient in the face of it.

“I am certain that we must use courage,” he said. “Stand up strong, defend ourselves, look after one another at home. Protect our institutions, call out our enemies, and cherish each other. The only force equal to a fundamentalism of hate is a counter-fundamentalism of love.”

Attendees at the event included the Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, and Rabbi Daniel Walker of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, where a terrorist attack on Yom Kippur claimed the lives of Adrian Daulby and Melvin Kravitz and left three others injured.

Sir Ephraim Mirvis and Rabbi Daniel Walker in conversation[Missing Credit]

Barnett mentioned that she grew up attending Heaton Park synagogue; indeed, it is where her grandmother who escaped Nazi-occupied Austria was later married.

Speeches were punctuated by stirring performances from violinist Raphael Papo, the fiddler in Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof, alongside international soloist and chamber musician Ljubica Stojanović.

Barnett drew upon the famous story, saying that the Jewish community in the UK are feeling “the same tensions as felt by the fiddler as he balances precariously on the roof while everything changes around him”.

Esteemed violinist Raphael Papo captivates guests with music from Fiddler on the Roof[Missing Credit]

Last year, WJR supported almost 180,000 people in 19 countries, many of them suffering the fallout of conflict, disaster or climate change.

Recently, in tandem with the Refugee Employment Network, WJR hosted a jobs fair for more than 500 refugees at St. James’s Palace. His Majesty the King, who is a patron of WJR, was present at the event, pictured chatting with attendees.

WJR’s award-winning Specialist Training and Employment Programme, or STEP, has helped over 14,000 Ukrainian refugees in the UK to learn English and search for work, resulting in an employment rate of 65 per cent among recent Ukrainian participants.

Anticoni also mentioned several WJR initiatives in his speech, including mental health provisions for Israelis along the northern border with Lebanon as they look to rebuild their lives, and support for Palestinian women and their newborns in Gaza, through organisations including IsraAID.

“WJR does everything in its power to enable people in changing and often extremely challenging situations to live, and not only to live, but to thrive,” Barnett concluded.