Jewish Care

Underpinning the work of UK agency Jewish Care is one of the main tenets of Judaism – zedakah, most accurately translated as social justice. Not only is it right and essential to care for the poor, the orphan and the widow: those who are in need have a fundamental right to receive this care from their community.

Jewish Care, the largest Jewish welfare agency in the UK, is run by the community for the community. Someone who is a patron – a substantial regular donor – is just as likely to have a friend or relative who uses Jewish Care services as any other member of the community. The same applies to staff and volunteers at all levels of the organization. There is no class or sectarian divide. Anyone who sees himself or herself as Jewish is welcome – as a service user, volunteer or donor: Jewish Care’s strapline is ‘one big family’.

Religion is both core and peripheral to the organization. Being Jewish means different things to different people. Judaism is as much about culture and social interaction as it is about receiving kosher meals or seeing the candles lit on the Sabbath. For some who use Jewish Care’s services, religious observance is integral to their Jewishness. For others it is of little importance. The majority of Jewish Care’s clients are older people. If they did not have to flee pogroms, they certainly will have heard the stories from their parents. Some are Holocaust survivors; others lost relatives and friends in the camps. They need the security and comfort of being in a safe environment where they know they are accepted and welcomed as Jews and where memories and experiences are shared.

A self-sufficient community

In the middle of the nineteenth century when newly arrived Jewish immigrants came flooding into Britain from Eastern Europe fleeing persecution, the small but established Jewish community was thrown into turmoil. They were concerned that if the newcomers became a burden on the state, this could lead to the rekindling of anti-Semitism and disruption of their settled lives. At this date there was no welfare state in the UK, and poverty relief was provided by the Parish Board of Guardians, ie through the reluctant benevolence of better-off local citizens.

The established Jewish Community founded a Jewish Board of Guardians whose main aim was to ensure that co-religionists would not be a charge on the parish. Their approach was innovative: to provide people with the wherewithal to get onto their own feet rather than maintain them as welfare recipients. Training and vocational opportunities were offered together with interest-free loans or tools, the aim being to enable people to become self-sufficient in crafts like tailoring and cabinet-making.

Forming of Jewish Care

As overt anti-Semitism declined after the Second World War, the Jewish community thrived. Despite the birth of the welfare state, many Jewish charities were established.

By the end of the twentieth century, the situation had changed again. Many Jews had become more assimilated into mainstream British society, abandoned synagogue worship and 'married out'. These changes made fundraising more difficult and reduced the number of volunteers coming to follow in their parents’ footsteps. These were some of the influences that encouraged the two largest Jewish charities – the Jewish Welfare Board (as the Jewish Board of Guardians had become) and the Jewish Blind Society – to merge in 1990 and create Jewish Care. In the course of the following decade, eight other charities joined the thriving new organization.

A mini-social services department

The headquarters is based in North London where the majority of the Jewish community resides. 1,500 staff and 2,500 volunteers serve 5,000 service users. Just as the original Board of Guardians mirrored the state system, so Jewish Care today resembles a mini-social services department. It offers professionally trained social work teams; home care, day care and residential care for elderly people; group homes and employment projects for people with mental health problems; and specialist services for people with visual impairments. A Holocaust Survivors’ Centre provides a meeting place and counselling service and an Employment Resource Centre assists job seekers by offering networking, training and IT skills.

The charity faces a number of challenges as it moves into the 21st century. The huge, dedicated volunteer force on which it depends for its Jewish character and vibrancy is ageing. With women now in the workforce (even the Jewish mother), it is harder to replace the older volunteers. In recent months, the first non-Jewish social workers have been appointed and Jewish Care’s inner London day centres and homes, like those in the non-Jewish sector, are staffed mainly by black workers. Jewish Care has become a multicultural employer with an equal opportunities policy.

Into the 21st century

There are significant pressures, some of them legislative, to professionalize the welfare services. While this provides opportunities to raise standards, there is also a risk of alienating some volunteers, who resent undergoing selection procedures, providing references, attending training sessions and abiding by health and safety rules. On the management side, a more businesslike approach is essential for survival. Somehow or other the charity must balance professionalism and efficiency with traditional Jewish values.

The clear-cut problems that confronted Jewish Care’s predecessor organizations in the last two centuries are not so obvious now. The real test will be how it identifies its priorities and states its case for maintaining a specialist Jewish service.

Melvyn Carlowe OBE has just retired after 30 years as the Chief Executive of Jewish Care. He can be contacted at Mcarlowe@Jcare.org
Jenny Weinstein is the Quality Assurance Manager at Jewish Care. She can be contacted at Jweinstein@Jcare.org

For more information about Jewish Care, contact Marketing Director Justine Harris.
Tel +20 8922 2000   
Fax +20 8922 1998
Email Jharris@Jcare.org