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		                                    Community Care InterGen meal		                                </span>
		                                		                                
		                                		                            	                            	
		                            <span class="slider_description">Community Care Meal - June Singer and George Blumenthal</span>

Community Care

Everyone who joins our LJS community automatically helps support our Community Care network. From social welfare to entertainment, we offer the following services and activities:
Social work, Singing for the Mind, Keep In Touch, Phone a Member, Restaurant TuesdayOut and About, and Video and Tea.


Social Work 

Our Community Care Co-ordinator, Aviva Shafritz, is ready to help with difficulties experienced, not only by our older members, such as illness and provision of care, but also across the spectrum of life. She also supports family members who are caring for a relative who is physically or mentally frail, and those who have suffered bereavement. She welcomes new volunteers.

Aviva has access to many caring organisations, both local and Jewish, as well as activities that take place at the synagogue. She works closely with the Rabbis and the volunteers who run the Community Care groups at The LJS.

You can contact her at a.shafritz@ljs.org or 020 7286 5181.
 

 

Volunteering with Community Care

Whether you would like to volunteer as infrequently as once or twice a year at our Keep In Touch Tea Party, once a month or even once a week at one of our group activities, or make phone calls or visits to frailer members of the community, we welcome volunteers in all Community Care activities. We all find volunteering in Community Care an enjoyable and rewarding experience. We are supported by Aviva, the Community Care Co-Ordinator, who is happy to discuss what might work best for you. Aviva gives training and support, as do our lead volunteers.  Please do contact her as above.

 For a list of useful and helpful organisations, please click HERE

 


Singing for the Mind

If you have a relative or friend who is living with memory loss or dementia, you may already know about Singing for The Mind, the weekly singing group for people with memory loss. We meet on Thursdays at 2pm in The Montefiore Hall for refreshments and chat, and an hour of music, song and even dancing led by our trained song leader and our band of volunteers.

Sessions are free, although a donation is very welcome. We are most grateful for the support of the Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation and other donors, without which this could not run.
 

To view the prize-winning 12 minute film 'Memory Songs' by Lucy Kaye featuring some participants at the group and at home, please click here.

For more information, view our brochure here or to ask about volunteering, please email sfm@ljs.org 

 


Keep in Touch

To occupy oneself with the needs of the community is as much a religious act as to study Torah.’ (Talmud)

Keeping in touch with the older and often frailer members of the community with a friendly phone call or a visit to them at home is both a valuable service for congregants and genuine pleasure for the KIT volunteers.  The group meets several times a year to discuss issues and undertake training.  Many other members of the LJS community visit on a more informal basis.

The Keep in Touch Tea Party is held twice a year, to which all senior members of the community are invited.  The party is hosted and catered superbly by our volunteers.

We welcome new volunteers.  If you are interested, please contact Aviva Shafritz on a.shafritz@ljs.org or 020 7286 5181.

If you need help with venue access, please click here

 

 

 

 

Phone a Member

Phone a Member (PAM) is a contact scheme where LJS volunteers telephone congregants aged 85 or over who have given their consent. Calls are made three times a year or more, with some people just called before the High Holydays. PAM is organised in close liaison with Keep in Touch (KIT).

If difficulties come to light, the Community Care Co-ordinator is on hand to take the matter over or advise on how to proceed.

We also record ICE (In Case of Emergency) phone numbers so that in the event of concerns arising, or failure by the PAM volunteer to reach a congregant directly, we have permission to check on their well-being.


Restaurant Tuesday

At 12.45pm on the third Tuesday of each month, Restaurant Tuesday provides a warm and welcoming forum for members to meet, chat and enjoy a delicious meal in the Montefiore Hall. Diners are often joined by one or more of the Rabbis and a number of synagogue staff.

If you have never been before, please book your place by telephoning the synagogue on 020 7286 5181. Should transport be a problem, we can arrange a taxi for you and this can be paid from our transport fund.

Please let us know if you have any food allergies or other dietary requirements.

Suggested donation: £7.50

Click here for the 2024 programme. If you need help with venue access, please click here

 

The Out and About Club

The Out & About club is a non-denominational get-together for older disabled people which meets at the LJS from 7pm to 9pm every first and third Tuesday of the month. Members enjoy a variety of musical entertainment from Music Hall to Big Band, and invited speakers have discussed everything from the history of stores in London, to travel talks and more serious talks such as on antisemitism. Our annual outing is a highlight of the year, as is our dinner in December.

The club was founded over 50 years ago by Dame Esther Rantzen and Diana DaCosta, and a book, ‘Fifty Years Out and About’ has been written by Pam Fox.

If you need help with venue access, please click here. For further information or enquiries, please contact the LJS office on 020 7286 5181


Video and Tea 

Video and Tea is usually held on the fourth Wednesday of the month from 1.30pm - 4.30pm and all are welcome with no need to book.

There is step-free accessibility to the LJS so walking frames and wheelchairs are no problem. On arrival, attendees are served soup and following the film, there is a delicious tea including ice-cream.

The cost is only £2.00 per person.

If you need help with venue access, please see below.

Click here for the 2024 programme.
 

Venue accessibility

Are you having problems using public transport? Are you no longer driving? Do you have a disability? At The LJS, we want to make sure that our activities and services are accessible to all our Members and Friends.

If you need help getting to and from the synagogue, or with the cost of transport, please contact Community Care so that we can discuss how to help you. Email communitycare@ljs.org or telephone 020 7286 5181.

Tue, 19 March 2024 9 Adar II 5784