Disabled siblings
I agree with the point made by Andy Kelmanson, interviewed in the article about adults with disabled siblings (JC, April 26).
All too frequently, the needs of other children in the family are at best considered less important and, more commonly, ignored. In many families, the able children are expected to be involved in the caring duties for their siblings. There is a real need for support for those adults who were raised with disabled siblings but, even more so, it is vital that we recognise the need for support for those siblings while they are still children.
Respite facilities for the disabled sibling to give parents the time to focus on their other children, targeted youth clubs and activities for the able children to meet others in similar situations, counselling and other talking therapies should all be freely available and easily accessed by families with a disabled child.
Which agency in the Jewish community is prepared to step up to this challenge?
Ruth Hilton
Brighton
Remembering a hero
The story, RAF veteran, 94, gives Holocaust survivors he helped save a poignant gift at emotional 45 Aid Society dinner (JC online) prompts us to remember, once more, the deeds of the late Sir Nicholas Winton.
“The Boys” — child survivors of the camps who were flown from Prague to begin new lives in Britain 74 years ago, inevitably refer to the man who, in 1938, put a comfortable life aside in order to stretch a caring and decisive hand to several hundred Jewish children trapped in Czechoslovakia.
By then, the Holocaust was a solid reality and the plight of the Jewish people a cry to which few paid attention.
Back then, Sir Nicholas was a young executive at the London Stock Exchange. On the eve of Christmas, 1938, he was about to embark on a holiday trip to Switzerland but a call from his friend, Martin Blake, made him change his plans. Blake was working for a refugee aid committee in Czechoslovakia and asked for assistance. The young Winton did not hesitate. He called off his scheduled vacation and travelled to Prague, answering his friend’s call.
After a long struggle, he managed to save 669 children. Today, their descendants can be counted by the thousands.
Baruch Tenembaum
The Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
New York
Ways Pesach needs to change
Besides the issues raised by letter writers about food prices and quality, I believe the celebration of Passover — at least here in the UK — is diminishing as a religious festival and accelerating as a food festival. Each year, more food items appear to become certified for Passover to the point where it’s impossible to recognise it as a different experience — apart from the matzahs of course!
And you can also celebrate your freedom in a glorious hotel abroad for a tidy sum to remind yourself about the hard times in Egypt.
Some will say “we are entitled to our decisions and our choices and our rights — that’s our freedom”. Yet shouldn’t there be some humility in valuing freedom ? If our ancestors spent 40 years in the desert living off simple fare provided by God, is it too hard for us to remember that, for just eight days by simplifying our own fare?
Lewis Herlitz
Leigh on Sea, Essex
Bravo to Renee Bravo for raising (puns intended), the thorny issue of the cost of Pesach, (Letters, May 3).
The rate of Pi (Pesach inflation), which seems to rise exponentially each year, affects most Jewish families and is something that they cannot just pass over. It impoverishes increasing numbers of Jewish people whatever kosher-for-pesach products they buy. Whether it’s due to, as Ms Bravo says, “strict adherence to unnecessary Jewish law,” or any other factors, perhaps we could have a definitive judgment by a group of rabbis drawn from all branches of Judaism — no computer program required.
I look forward to the JC publishing this information after next Purim — which leaves a year for the said rabbis to debate the issue, which should be long enough.
I hope that, for Pesach next year, whether in Jerusalem or England, cost will be less of an issue than it has been in the past. If all else fails, I suggest that we all just buy what is essential and don’t be slaves to high prices and financial misery.
Stephen Miller
Borehamwood
Happy ever after
I was excited to read Susan Reuben’s reference to story-telling (JC May 3) and in particular to the ghost stories she remembers as the highlight of her friend’s birthday party told by her friend’s mother.
I am said mother, now living in Israel, as I have been for the past 20 years, and at the age of 77 still telling stories — albeit not ghost ones. I give lectures in English on literature of all kinds.
It was a delight to be remembered and my very best wishes to all those forty-something former little children who enjoyed a delicious frisson and I do hope there were no nightmares.
I was never asked to stop the ritual!
Bonita Posen
Gan Hashomron moshav
Israel
Blackburn rovers
A few years ago, I wrote an article about the history of the Jewish community of Blackburn, Lancashire.
There was one source whose existence I discovered but could never locate. This was a BBC talk given by Evelyn Rose in November 1962 on the history of the Blackburn Jewish community “60 years ago” (ie circa 1902). An attempt to locate the broadcast through the BBC did not succeed.
I wonder if anyone could help me track down the broadcast or the information it contained.
As an aside, a lady named Hillary Thomas wrote an excellent and well-researched book about the Blackburn Jewish community.
From recollection, the title is “From Poland to Paradise Lane“.
John Morrissey
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
