Our speaker on Wednesday 21st August was Robin Jacobs, who spoke on behalf of Jewish Care. Robin is Service Manager looking after their day care and community centres. Robin had been on a 5-day trip to Kharkov in the Ukraine, and that trip was the subject of his talk. Times are hard in the Ukraine, and Robin was there to work on the project combining the day care and the community centres into a warehouse location. Robin described the Ukraine as the saddest place in the world. Out of a population of 40,000 Jews, 7,000 are receiving assistance from Jewish Care. There are no residential care homes, only asylums for the elderly. Orphanages are used by parents when they can no longer afford to feed and clothe their children. And yet the population is well-educated and every family has a holocaust survivor amongst its ancestors. The retirement age of 55 sounds ideal, but many of the Jewish pensioners have a real struggle to survive. Thank you Robin for an excellent talk that gave us insight into a ‘European’ country that is still in need of khesed (loving kindness).
