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St John's Wood community offers lifeline to asylum seekers

Members of a Liberal Jewish community have spent the past year offering legal, financial and practical help to hundreds of asylum seekers. Here they explain why.

August 27, 2015 12:10
Volunteers at St John's Wood Liberal Jewish Synagogue

By

Rosa Doherty,

Rosa Doherty

4 min read

It was a Sunday and inside the usually quiet St John's Wood Liberal Jewish Synagogue members were franticly organising clothes and food parcels, ready for the growing number of asylum seeker families queuing outside.

One mother juggled a screaming baby on her hip while struggling to keep hold of a suitcase. Others waited silently with shopping trolleys, their children tugging at their arms.

But their bags were not packed ready for a summer holiday. They were empty, waiting to be filled with clothes, nappies, toiletries and food parcels, all donated and prepared by Rabbi Alexandra Wright and her team of 10 volunteers.

For Rita Adler, giving up her Sunday is a "drop in the ocean" compared to what she could be doing to help the asylum seeker crisis unfolding in the Mediterranean.