Outpouring of British Jewish support for Afghan refugees
● Three thousand bags of essential items donated in ‘astounding’ response to synagogue appeal ● WJR launches crisis fund
BRITISH JEWS are rallying to support displaced Afghans who have fled to the UK in the wake of the Taliban takeover, showing that the community “identifies with the plight of refugees”.
Bushey United Synagogue was swamped with donations of essential items after an aid drive gathered pace at the weekend.
Other initiatives have been started by communities in London and Manchester. World Jewish Relief (WJR) and the Jewish Council for Racial Equality have launched emergency appeals.
The Bushey community is supporting around three dozen Afghan families being accommodated locally. Last Thursday, the congregation sent a message to members on a private Facebook group asking for toiletries and other supplies. “By Saturday night and Sunday, it had gone viral,” said the shul’s Rabbi Elchonon Feldman. “Somehow this campaign has really just hit a nerve.”
Such was the response that by mid-morning on Sunday the collection was stopped, having reached 3,000 large parcels, far surpassing immediate need.
“You literally couldn’t get to the car park,” Rabbi Feldman said. “It was astounding.” Bushey congregant Laurence Brass, who instigated the appeal, added that traffic was slowed for three miles from Stanmore to Bushey as people tried to drop off their bags of donations.
The former asylum judge said that “in all my experience over many years working with the Board of Deputies and other organisations, I’ve never seen anything like it”.
Rabbi Feldman said he believed that Jews “identified with the concept of having to flee from persecution with just the clothes on their back”.
The rabbi has met some of the beneficiaries, describing them as “real heroes. My wife and I sat down with them. They offered us Afghan tea and shared some chocolate. We spoke about what’s happening in Afghanistan with their families and their experiences working for the Armed Forces.”
The synagogue wanted to establish an “ongoing relationship with these Afghani locals”, he added, and it was working with groups including relief charity Goods for Good to share surplus donations.
One refugee, “Ahmad”, expressed gratitude for the support, saying donors had been “very kind”.
He told the JC: “They’re really good people. They really helped us.” Ahmad fled to the UK with his wife and children three weeks ago, having previously worked as a Nato interpreter in Helmand province for two years. He had “a good business in Afghanistan but left everything behind,” he said. “Now we’re going to start a new life in the UK. I hope we’re going to make a good future here.”
Backing the WJR appeal, Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl said: “As we watch the awful scenes coming out of Afghanistan, many British Jews are understandably asking what we can all do to help. I applaud WJR for stepping up.”