UJIA raises £2.4 million at dinner marking one year since October 7

Four hundred and twenty five guests helped the UK’s largest Israel charity raise £2.4 million at its annual dinner at a central London hotel on Tuesday evening.

Joined by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Rabbis Josh Levy and Charley Baginsky, Israel’s Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely, were all living former UJIA chairs, including previous chair Louise Jacobs, who spearheaded the organisation’s emergency Israel campaign.

UJIA chief executive Mandie Winston hosted a profound discussion between Rabbi Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Helevi of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

Yossi Klein Halevi said that he believed the Jewish community was “at the end of the post-Holocaust era, where it always felt we were always on an upwards trajectory.”

He added: “Zionism has not yet regained the covenant it made with the Jewish people to provide the Jewish people with a safe home. It will take a generation to recover from this trauma, and the hostages extends that. The hostages are at the heart of the restoration the promise of a safe home.”

Rabbi Donniel Hartman described how before October 7th, “we were at the lowest ebb of our unity as a people. Then we pivoted literally overnight to the peak of unity.” He further challenged guests to “see Israel as an integral part of yourself and your community. Dream of the Israel you want, don’t just support it in a crisis. Israel needs your dreams.”

Also addressing guests was Kibbutz Be’eri resident Natasha Cohen, who thanked UJIA for its ongoing commitment and support in helping rebuild the community shattered on October 7th, when more than 120 people, one tenth of all residents, were murdered. On that Black Shabbat a further 26 residents were taken hostage.

Fauda actress Rona-Lee Shimon described the last year as “a unique moment in Jewish history; we are called now more than ever to unite.” She added that the question she gets asked most is how events of the past year feel to a star of Fauda and that she responds: “no one could imagine and write the horrors of what happened. With Fauda it starts with ‘action’ and ends with ‘cut’, but there has been no ‘cut’.”

In the appeal, a visibly emotional Zvi Noé described his most recent visit to Kibbutz Be’eri and said: “Once you’re truly engaged with UJIA your love and commitment to Israel never leaves you. I have been to Israel seven times in the past 12 months, and the one thing which continuously resonates with me, is that what we do here, in the UK matters. Not only to ourselves but to our family in Israel. Never has this connection felt so close: the achdut (unity) is real. The fates of Israel and the entire Jewish world are inextricably linked, but this cannot be taken for granted: even at times of crisis, the connection must be nurtured, and this is why UJIA exists.”

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