Village people answer the call in Cumbria
VILLAGERS IN Hawkshead, Cumbria, took to Mitzvah Day with “surprising and outstanding generosity”, having been inspired by a St Albans Masorti member. Solicitor and keen hiker Abigail Mann has a home in the village, where writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter lived.
Her band of volunteers tidied a local churchyard, planted trees in the grounds of the National Trust property and collected for a foodbank in nearby Ambleside.
In a gesture of solidarity, members of the local church entertained volunteers with a rendition of Hava Nagila.
“I was really quite surprised so many people got behind Mitzvah Day,” said Miss Mann, 46, the daughter of Liberal rabbi Alan Mann.
“The village is very popular with tourists and we organised a foodbank drop-off to get tourists to donate to our food collection — and not just this weekend but throughout the year.
“We had one volunteer who owns a depot and distribution centre who helped us to send off boxes of outdoor gear [to a homeless shelter].”
“I’m not quite the only Jewish person in Hawkshead but this would have been one of the more unique Mitzvah Days, I can guarantee that.”
She told the JC that the area has a significant connection to the Jewish community.
In the summer of 1945, 300 child survivors of the Nazi concentration camps — known as “The Boys” — were taken to nearby Windermere. Their story is the subject of a permanent exhibition at Windermere Library.
Hawkshead is also home to Alice Kramer, who arrived in Cumbria in 1938 as a refugee from Nazi persecution.
“We even had some Jewish tourists here on the day,” Miss Mann added.
“And a Liberal rabbi from Lancaster, Robert Ash, came along in the afternoon.”