High Holyday Appeal 5769 Brian Sass 9 October 2008

For the fourth time I stand before you to tell you about the charities we have selected to receive the substantial funds that we at Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue will, through your generosity, donate to them.  Four of our members appointed by Council sifted through the information sent in by so many worthy causes during the year.

As usual, we will be supporting a UK Jewish, an Israeli, and a secular charity, as well as the 10% of the overall amount going into the Rabbis’ Discretionary Fund. This fund is used for the unscheduled calls on our generosity during the year.

Let me tell you a little about each of these charities.

The Jewish Association for the Mentally Ill, known as JAMI, (www.jamiuk.org) was established in 1989 by parents, relatives and friends of the mentally ill. It is a recovery based organisation that works alongside statutory bodies. They assist people with serious mental illness, their families and all who care for them. They have a Day Centre and over 100 members use the centre as a safe haven. They visit and assist people who are in psychiatric hospitals around Greater London and organise stimulating outings such as swimming, yoga, play reading, discussion groups and many other suitable activities. These are important because the side effects of many of the drugs used in mental health make members increasingly inactive and they need to be stimulated. Last year for the first time, 16 went on a residential holiday to Abingdon which was a great success.

Jami’s Lay Chaplain with his team of volunteers made over 200 visits to hospitals, hostels and to individuals’ homes. They have training and employment initiatives, a befriending scheme and many other activities.

Because of their excellent reputation, Department of Health funding has been secured for certain partnership projects. The volunteers run a Charity Shop in Golders Green to bring in funds besides other fundraising activities.

There is so much good work that Jami, their staff and volunteers do that only people who have experienced mental health problems will know. They deserve our help and are so grateful for it.

Our Israel charity is called Table to Table (www.tabletotable.org.il).

Based in Ra’anana Table to Table has made an innovative idea work.
Israel has a great social problem in that close to a third of its population cannot afford to buy essential food items.  24,000 people eat in soup kitchens and a further 22,000 turn to others to feed them. As in the UK, food prices have escalated in the past year exacerbating the situation.

On the other side of the coin there are large hi-tech industries, office blocks and factories that have corporate cafeterias; there are caterers of weddings and bar mitzvahs; there are army camps and the like, all with good food, a proportion of which is wasted on a daily basis. All have surplus food and many have agreed to donate it.

With some 35 employees and 4000 volunteer staff, Table to Table by arrangement, collects the surplus food each day and takes it back to their warehouse in Ra’anana, packs it and re-distributes between 12000-14000 meals a week to 106 non profit making charitable organisations. It also collects gleanings from the fields and produce from farmers, where fruit is too small or potatoes the wrong shape to be sold to the supermarkets or used for export. This amounts to between 40 – 50 tonnes per week.
Started 5 years ago, Table to Table operates on an annual budget of just over £1 million, most of which is given by anonymous donors. They are looking to extend their operation to the North and South of Israel where the incidence of poverty is even greater.

It is a wonderful concept to utilise food that would be mostly wasted.
Table to Table’s costs are in collecting, storage, packing and distribution. It is estimated that for every £1 spent, £5 of food is saved, not to mention the uncalculated savings in energy. I am sure such operations could be set up in most Western societies where the waste culture is so dreadful. This charity is worthy of our support.

University College London, Cancer Institute (www.ucl.ac.uk)

We are supporting the research of a group of scientists and clinicians led by Prof Daniel Hochhauser. The area of research is digestive cancer which includes the throat, gullet, stomach and bowel. Advances in these areas have not been as great as with other cancers where much headway has been made and survival rates hugely improved. I learned of Daniel Hochhauser’s work when seeking every possible avenue to find a cure for Veronica. She saw him and he conferred with her specialist in Northwood and the treatment was agreed. Sadly the treatment was not successful.

Prof Hochhauser invited me to see him at the Cancer Institute and explained the work that he and his group are doing to find methods of treating and curing this particularly aggressive type of cancer. There is a new class of drug that stops the division of cells and this, combined with the chemicals used in chemotherapy, will stop the spread of the disease and make that which is already there dormant.

They have all the ingredients to do this but do not know in what order these drugs should be given and how the quantity ratios of drugs and chemicals should be administered. Professor Hochhauser said and I quote, ‘with this knowledge we hope to devise better ways of combining these treatments to eradicate the cancer cells’.

The project will be undertaken in the UCL Cancer Institute which is the foremost centre of its kind in Europe and is located in a purpose built, state of the art building opened in 2007.  340 scientists work there and in addition, doctors treating cancer patients, work closely with them. They have particular expertise in all the areas needed for the success of the project. Clinical trials will be designed.

To push the project forward needs time and money. The incredibly dedicated teams that I saw there give their time and expertise for nothing.  Furthermore all overheads are paid by the University, and so the whole of our donation will be used for the research.

NPLS are well known there because we supported the Haematology Department and bought a machine that enhanced the speed of one part of their research by eight times. That machine bears a plate stating that it was donated by NPLS in blessed memory of Frances Sacker.

It is said that this year 300,000 people in this country will contract cancer in one form or another. It is important for research to be carried out speedily in our days and we are able to significantly help with our donation.

You will receive a letter from me in the course of the next few days with a brief synopsis of this appeal. You will also be able to read the appeal in full on the NPLS website.
Please give as generously as you can so that we can increase the number of donations from last year’s 260 out of a possible 740. All donations of any size will be most welcome.

I wish you all a good year.

To download a pledge form click here