They’re making an early start for tea
MITZVAH DAY came early for north Londoner Simon Murray, who led what the organisation claims was the first event of its 2015 programme — a tea on Sunday for Jewish Care service users.
Mr Murray 31, has been organising similar events for the charity’s clients but wanted to do something on a grander scale for Mitzvah Day. So he and some friends arranged the tea at Jewish Care’s Golders Green campus for Holocaust Survivors Centre members, residents of the Selig Court independent living scheme and those who attend the Sobell Community Centre.
He said he was inspired by attending a dinner for survivors last year.
“The chairman and CEO of the [leather goods] company I work for, Stephen Spitz, invited me to the charity dinner and I immediately thought, ‘what a worthy cause’. This convinced me that my generation needed to get involved and do more than attend an annual dinner.
“I found out about the Jewish Care Sunday teas and pledged to bring a group of young professionals each month. We help out, have tea and chat. There is an entertainer, so we get up and dance with the residents. I think we enjoy it as much as they do.
“For Mitzvah Day, we wanted to do something special, so we had more people than usual and bought in cakes and biscuits.”
The main day is on November 22 and the initiative has spread to 20 countries.