Hundreds say ‘thank you’ to emergency workers on Christmas Day

More than 600 people have taken part in a Christmas Day initiative begun by a Leeds Orthodox rabbi to thank all the “blue-light” services in the local area – as plans were announced to go national next year.

On Sunday, 600 people gathered at Leeds United Hebrew Congregation, where Rabbi Albert Chait is the senior rabbi, to take part in visiting hospitals, ambulance, fire and police stations, care homes, pharmacies, shelters — and even an Indian restaurant preparing meals for the homeless.

Rabbi Chait founded “A Time to Say Thank You” in 2018 but its activities were suspended because of the pandemic. This Christmas Day was the first occasion since when members of the Jewish community could get together in-person to make the visits.

“Everyone turned up at 9.45am in shul”, Rabbi Chait said, “and were given details of the drop-off site that they were to visit.” He and his team had spent months confirming what was open on Christmas Day and securing sponsorship and donations for the event.

“I called the local hospital and asked if they needed anything for the children and teenage unit,” he said. “They said they were desperate for a Play Station 5 for the teenagers. In the end, we had so much money that we were able to bring two Play Stations and iPads as well as other games equipment. The nurses were almost in tears.”

He told Jewish News: “This sent such an important message from our community, that we don’t just care for each other, we care for everyone. We got terrific social media feedback and a really warm reception wherever we went. Now we hope to extend the scheme to other Jewish communities — Manchester, Glasgow and London. It was a message of togetherness from the Jewish community to the wider community.”

• www.atimetosaythankyou.com