Wohl: a centre
IT IS a quiet morning in Golders Green. But things are bustling at Jewish Care’s Michael Sobell community centre, part of the £44 million Maurice and Vivienne Wohl campus which has become an indispensable hub for both the charity’s clients and the wider community.
The campus offers activities and facilities for everyone from new-borns to great-grandparents — fitness, arts and crafts, support groups and religious services among them. “The main thrust of what we do here is around reducing isolation and loneliness,” says Jewish Care chief executive Simon Morris.
“When we built this, it was really important to me that this was a centre for the community. The idea is that it is used from eight in the morning to 11 at night.”
The idea has become a reality. In November for example, well over 5,000 people visited the campus to take advantage of its classes and social activities. The day club is finely tailored towards its elderly clientele. For a £24 yearly membership, and a fiver for daily entry, participants have a wide array of activities to keep them busy, stimulated and healthy.
Arts and crafts classes include embroidery, jewellery making and pottery; there is language tuition (French, Hebrew and Yiddish), exercise options (yoga, Zumba and toning), and even a computer club.
Card games, quizzes, films, discussion groups and musical performanc- es fill any slack. At noon, 84-year-old Vicky Minsky is enthusiastically painting glass in the art studio. She travels to the centre every day on the Jewish Care minibus, and takes particular enjoyment in the keep fit and chair-yoga.
“I’ve been coming here for 19 years,” she says. “I have no family left in London because my son is with his family in Manchester. But I’m here meeting people all the time. This is my family.”
Another active day club member is 81-year-old Ruth Frei, who attends the N’Shei chair-based exercise classes every week, run in partnership with the Six Point Foundation, and is also a regular at the lunchtime computer club.
She says: “I’m learning to use the